North County Houses
Almon Parke House | 1884 – Located on Route 23 between Sycamore and Genoa, north of Lloyd Road. Parke was a Captain in the Civil War, and a brick and stone mason. His son Henry H, Parke was born in a small farm house here in 1876, and was the founder of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau.
Ephraim Hall House | Early 1870s. This farm has been in the Hall family continuously since 1836. The brick house took the place of Hall’s original log cabin. The cabin was the last one of its kind, standing just south of the house until town down in 1929.
Pacific House Hotel | 1843. Genoa’s oldest building, having replaced Founding settler Thomas Madison’s log cabin of 1835, at Main and Washington Streets. Also known as the Schoenmaker House from 1904-1966, where the Genoa Republican newspaper was published. A DeKalb County Historical Society marker is on the property.
James Y. Stuart House | 1876. Located on the south edge of Kingston on Five Points Road/South Main Street. James and his brother Lyman founded Kingston in 1876.
James and Mary Greenhow House | 1850. Located on South and Sixth Streets in Kirkland. Commonly known as the “Big Brick.” Its front gable contains a cornerstone with their initials and the date July 26, 1850.
Orput Grove Place | 1854. Originally the home of J. G. Gibson on Schafer Road, just passed West Clare Road. A stone plaque on the front of the house has the 1854 date on it.
Central County Houses
Elisha Foster House | 1854 – Located on South Annie Glidden Road at Ashley Drive. The main two-story brick section is different from how it always has looked in only having a concrete block front porch. The frame wings are later additions. Owned by the Faivre family from 1922 – 1974.
Henry Rose Farm | 1870 — On Waterman Road, three-quarters of a mile south of Lee Road. Once open porches on the south side of the house have been enclosed. Henry Rose gave Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac Ellwood the idea for barbed wire in the Spring of 1873.
Samuel Miller House |1850 and 1870 – Located at Sycamore and Miller Streets in Hinckley. One of two homes in town with a rooftop cupola. The fact that his 1837 tax bill was only 62 and ½ cents has been preserved in old histories of DeKalb County. He owned 270 acres of land.
Henry Roth House | Late 1850s or Early 1860s – On Somonauk Road at McGirr Road, in rural Pierce Township, north of Hinckley. The farm it is on, but not the house, was once owned by Jacob Haish of barbed wire fame (1852-1856_. Roth family members owned the house and farm until losing them during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
George Kinyon House | 1846/1900/and later – Somonauk Road south of Bethany Road in Cortland Township. The two-story gabled north section is the original house of 1846. Its historic front doorway can still be seen inside. Marilla Churchill Kinyon died here of cholera on March 26, 1849, at age 16.
James Elliott House and Farm | Old State Road, east of Sycamore. The farm was settled in October of 1835 and has never left the family. The original log cabin is still part of the home, which has been greatly enlarged and modernized. Traces of the cabin remain in the structure.
South County Houses
Henry M. Boardman House | Built circa 1860s, located on Shabbona Road between Sleepy Hollow and Chicago Roads. This is a variation of Italianate architecture in dark brown brick. A pair of arched wooden front doors with stained crystal glass panels with the letter ‘B’ in them remain intact on the enclosed porch.
Mathew Nisbet House | Located on Suydam Road in Paw Paw Township, not far from the town of Rollo. Its architecture is similar to that of Gurler House in DeKalb. The stone for building the house was hauled by Ox car from Ottawa. A stone lintel over the front door is marked “M.N. 1863.” It took 15 years to complete.
Hermon Suydam House | Built circa 185-s or 1860s, located on Leland Road south of Suydam Road. The house probably faced Leland Road originally, before th addition facing the farm field became the front. The Suydams were a very religious family and this house once contained a private chapel, of which no pictures were ever taken.
Franklin Dale General Store | 1853. This was the first building in Somonauk, constructed two years before the villate was platted. It is located at Dale and Sycamore Streets. It was also known as “The House of Seven Fables,” “The Beehive,” and “Honeymoon Flats.” The :Baptist Young Men’s Academy” was once on the second floor.
George VonKleinsmid House | 1875. Located on Center Street, west of Green Street, in Sandwich. The keystone over the front door has ‘1875’ carved on it. This 20 room mansion was the first home in Sandwich to contain indoor plumbing.
William Fraser House | 1856 – On West Sandwich Road, two-thirds of a mile north of Pratt Road. The house and farm have never left the Fraser family in nearly 170 years. Except for the enclosed front porch, the structure is the same as it has always been.