LOCAL ADAPTIVE REUSE.

I've heard of Habitat for Humanity building new houses for people.  Moving existing houses is also part of their repertoire.

A 100-year-old farmhouse has been relocated from DeKalb to Sycamore and will serve as a new home for a 29-year-old single mom.

“I had my son when I was 17,” said Heaven Allen. “I came to college with no money. I didn’t know where I was going to live. I really kind of stayed in my car a lot.”

Allen worked hard, earning a degree from Northern Illinois University.

Habitat for Humanity partnered with the DeKalb County History Center, which had been fighting to save the farmhouse. It had initially been part of the Engh Family Farm, where it housed hired men.

“This was the house where people were helping with livestock or during planting season or harvest season that they would live. And it’s been on the property since the early 1900s. So we reached out to Habitat for Humanity and wanted to see if they were up for working with us to move the house and instead of tearing it down,” said DeKalb County History Center’s executive director, Michelle Donahoe.

I'm not sure what was on the lot the house has been moved to, just east of Seventh on Pleasant.  The long-lamented Finnish Steam Bath was further east, wasn't it?

The house was on the historical center's property, serving as office space until more modern offices were built.

DeKalb County History Center Executive Director Michelle Donahoe said it means the world to be able to finally relocate the historic Hired Man’s House.

“The History Center has been out here since 2008 and that [house] was our office and archives,” Donahoe said. “Then, when we were able to expand and become a county museum and opened our new facility in 2019. It was just sitting there empty. Now, we’re planning a campus expansion and it just didn’t fit. The original plan was to demolish the space. It was so hard. There’s got to be a better plan. And then, I met Kim at Habitat for Humanity.”

It might take almost as long to renovate the house as it would take for Habitat to build one, even with a healthy Jimmy Carter swinging a hammer.

“Midway through the initial process of learning, they said, ‘Hey, we have this home ready to go for you. If you’re interested, we can move it from one place to another.’ And I said, Let’s do it!” Allen remembers.

The house was located on North Main Street in Sycamore, but Allen lives in DeKalb.

After months of planning, the home was lifted up and shuttled slowly between the two towns this week, and carefully positioned atop its new foundation, on Pleasant Street.

“It’s overwhelming. I did shed a tear a little bit because it has been such a long process, but the ultimate goal is that this house, now, has been relocated and we know that Heaven is going to have a beautiful home to raise her family with and create new traditions,” said Kim McGiver, of Habitat for Humanity.

Allen said, “Being able to kind of grow my own here with my son, I think it’s just the next chapter of my life. Having a home here now, that’s part of DeKalb’s history, being able to live in it, I think it really kind of cements me into the community.”

Habitat for Humanity will also handle the home’s interior restoration, so Allen and her son will be able to move in as soon as April.

By the looks of the photograph, there's a fair amount of work to be done outside first.  I hope the family has adequate winter quarters while the work goes on.