The Great Unveiling is a project borrowed from Rock Island, IL.  It is where neighbors take the substitute siding off of a home in the spirit of an old fashioned barn raising.  There have been twenty nine unveilings in the past 25 years.  Most were administered by the Gifford Park Association, with a few  done by NENA and ABODE.  Three were done by individuals.   
 
This year we did the home at 128 College.
   
  Here is the home after the siding has been removed from the front.  
 
It is unbelievable that the siding installers covered two windows in the front and one on the side.  They took a well lit staircase and turned it into a very dark space.  Luckily the original fan light window was left in the attic and it will go back.   They always took an ax to anything that stuck out to make it flat for the siding.  That is how the applique on the porch got lost.   
 
Paul Bednar is the Chair of our Historic District Committee.  Here he is shown presenting the $1000 reward  check from the Gifford Park Association to the homeowner, Tim Ramsayer.
 
Kudos goes out to the volunteers that removed the siding: Paul Bednar, Dan and Pat Miller, Julie Schmitt, Mary Ryan, Matt Martin, Christen Sundquist, Rebecca Hunter, Chuck Behrens, Tim Ramsayer and John Crowe.   
 
A special thanks goes out to Gloria Casas for writing the nice article for the Courier.  She spent a lot of time there interviewing people.     
 
 Click here to read her article.  
 
Chuck Behrens is shown below removing siding up on the porch roof.  He and his wife Audrey were the founding fathers of the Gifford Park Association in 1979.  If it were not for them we would not have the GPA, the Housewalk or the Great Unveiling.  He is 83 years old and still volunteers.
Chuck, we appreciate you!!!!   
  
 This is the most well known unveiling in Elgin.  The Corn building on Douglas. WOW!
 
 
 
 
 A huge thanks goes out to Bruce Corn for taking the initiative to do the project and to the City of Elgin for a large facade improvement grant to help make it possible.   

It was rumored that 319 DuPage was an old cobblestone house.  We approached the owner to see if we could test a spot to see if it was and cobblestones were there!!!!  It was our first and most spectacular unveiling.  They had resided it once with stucco and once with aluminum.  Here is how it looked in 1981.

Here it is today.  The building had been truncated to build the apartment building next door.
 

Here is the motley crew that took the siding off.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gifford Park Association
  |  gazette@gpaelgin.org | gpaelgin.org
 
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