Workshops for owners of old & historic homes
The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation, a local partner of the National Trust is presenting a series of workshops for owners of old and historic homes.
Regardless of whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or contract for professional services this is precisely the kind of information you need as an old house homeowner to get the best outcome for your project.
I don’t see that preregistration is required. Mark your calendar today. We plan to be there. Hopefully we’ll see you there as well.
Historic District House Walk | Elgin IL
No. Sorry… This is not a historic district walking tour of Beloit. Though in time we’d love to host one.
This is though, to my mind the single best run and enjoyable historic district house walk I’ve attended. And we’ve attended quite a few as it’s something we particularly enjoy doing.
The Elgin Historic District House Walk
Sat/Sun Sept. 10-11
Among the great things about this house walk is that it’s not all about grand mansions. You’ll see that the homes open and available to tour are more mainstream, middle-class homes. They illustrate what is do-able with regular folks homes who don’t live in mansions. You may get a glimpse into what potential your own home may have. This is the 30th annual house walk. And Elgin has worked out how to put on a show. You will have a wonderful time.
I mention this as Ana and I will be attending Sunday the 11th. We don’t generally make personal appeals on the website here but we’ll be going and would love to have you join us. The more the merrier. Yes?
As we used to live in that area we’ve a few friends down there and would welcome the opportunity to make some introductions. It’s good to have like-minded friends & acquaintances who can share what worked for them… what did not. While it’s a larger city and there are differences between our communities we do share many community & neighborhood dynamics and characteristics.
At any rate, The Gifford Park Association is the long standing neighborhood organization that has made dramatic changes to their community with regard to their historic districts and surrounding “vintage” neighborhoods. They’re worth knowing about.
We’d love some company joining us to attend the house walk. Let us know.
Rick-n-Ana
rickmcgrath2.0@gmail.com
847-431-0710
Society for Learning Unlimited (SLU)
2011 SPRING KICKOFF AND PROGRAM
Join Max and Donna Daniels for
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
at
First Congregational Church
801 Bushnell St.
(between Park Ave. and Church St.)
Beloit, Wisconsin
Max and Donna have an extensive background incommunity theatre and have portrayed Abraham andMary Todd Lincoln professionally since 1988. They are past Vice-presidents of the National Associationof Lincoln Presenters and were named by the Association as the first recipients of its award for “Best Abraham and Mary Lincoln Team” in 1994.
For more information please visit the “New and Improved” SLU Website at www.sluinc.org
If you’re looking for the SLU
(society for learning unlimited) website
Please go to: http://www.sluinc.org/
Beloit Heritage Days – This Weekend!
You likely already know that Beloit Heritage Days is this weekend. It’s a very popular and well attended community event. Many local organizations participate and it’s a great time.
- Visit Beloit hosts a copy of the “Passport” that you can print out and take with you.
- The Beloit Daily News Page has a run down of the events and descriptions.
I wanted to let folks know about a late addition to the weekend’s line up
- Who: Fred Harmon, historic home owner from Janesville
- What: How-to on the renovation/restoration of historic, double-hung wood windows and dealing with lead paint.
- When: Sunday, Sept. 11. 2:00 p.m.
- (conveniently sandwiched between the two other presentations. 1:00 by Ron Peterson and the 3:00 by Jenn Davel)
- Where: The historic Lathrop-Munn cobblestone house at 524 Bluff St.
- Why: Well, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there on what’s possible and cost effective.
A home owner like ourselves Fred shares many of the same concerns around safety, efficiency and return on investment most of us do. He has restored the windows on his current 1895 Victorian home in Janesville and prior to that when he lived in Ohio he’d done the same with his 1873 home there. He’s also served on the Janesville Landmarks Commission for six years.
So, I’d invite you to come out to hear all three presentations Sunday at the Lathrup-Munn cobble stone house.
- Ron Peterson (1:00) is a limestone mason who has a passion for and worked exclusively on pre-civil war, Greek Revival homes since 1984. He’s been working on his current project, the historically significant, limestone, Talcott House on N. Blackhawk Blvd. in Rockton IL for the last three years. Ron has a unique knowledge and understanding about these historic homes, their significance, history, care and restoration. He’s a passionate and fascinating speaker.
- Jenn Davel (3:00) the Senior Preservation Architect at the Wisconsin Historical Society. She’ll be presenting the how-to on taking advantage of the WI Historic Preservation tax credit program. She’ll be presenting before/after examples of the range of projects undertaken by other home owners across the state to illustrate what is possible and available to you.
Finally, while there are many fine events I can’t help but put in a plug for Marge’s tour of the College Park Historic District on Sat. 1:00. 
Hope to see you out.
Rick
Paint Color Selection & Application for Old Houses
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When: Monday March 22nd, 7:00 PM
Where: Bushel & Peck’s (328 State Street, Beloit)
Presentation by: Charles Rydberg
President of Beloit based Murmac Paint Company(310 Park Ave. Beloit)
Charles was instrumental in designing the Beloit “College Park Historic Colors” brochure. This publication guided the pallet of colors used on all the historic homes owned by the college. Charles also helped author the Janesville Historic Preservation Ordinance and also served as Chair for their first Historic Preservation Commission.
Perhaps like “white noise” in the background that goes unnoticed the same can be said for the pallet of colors within many neighborhoods. You’ve likely experienced this, I know I have. You’re driving through a neighborhood and all of a sudden you see a house that just pops. Sometimes the colors are dramatic but not 
always. Sometimes they’re subtle but somehow the home is striking. At least for me it’s usually not even fully clear why. The colors just seem to harmonize and “Click” together.
Driving around old neighborhoods there are fewer and fewer of the big old houses clad in all white. Even the old-timers recall them as always being white and thought white was the authentic non-color of old houses or perhaps just a low maintenance option. In fact these previously colorful homes were changed to all white as a style trend made popular following the Chicago’s Columbian Exposition “White City” in 1893.
Further, the proliferation of artificial siding has made monochrome still more old houses that originally sported varied siding textures, banding, colors, shades and shadows. Have you ever driven by one of those big ol’ aluminum or vinyl sided “Victorians” and wondered what was underneath? This mystery and discovery is part of the fascination surrounding “Great Unveilings” that have become more and more popular in some vintage neighborhoods.
Even if you have a brick home do you know how to harmonize with the shade of brick and roof color? Simply selecting colors that seem to go together from the swatches or booklets at the paint store may add up to a lot of time and money spent on results that just don’t seem to work like you’d hoped. Or worse once it’s up and done… you “settle”. Eh, it’s ok.
For all the time, effort and investment spent wouldn’t you rather have one of those houses that when you’re done the colors Popped?
Mark your calendar. Hope you can join us!
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WI State Historic Preservation Conference – Oct 15 & 16
The fine folks at the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Offices hosted an information gathering session yesterday at the amazing, historic Mitchell Mansion on Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Ave.) and now operating as The Wisconsin Club. To be inside this… amazing building was a treat just by itself. (Google for images)
The purpose was for information gathering in advance of this year’s Wisconsin Historic Preservation Conference. Invited were representatives from local historic preservation organizations throughout the state to get their input on an array of subjects to better plan the event.
In attendance were folks from:
- Various Milwaukee Neighborhood based Historic Preservation groups.
- Preservation Racine Inc.
- Madison Trust for Historic Preservation
- Historic Preservation Foundation of Eau Claire
- La Crosse Heritage Preservation
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation – Wisconsin Office
- Wright in Wisconsin
- And of course ourselves, The Beloit Neighborhood Preservation Assn.
(Pardon, I don’t recall all organizations represented, names or URLs – please comment below to correct.)
Among the topics discussed was, to paraphrase… what have you been doing locally that has been working well for your own local historic preservation efforts? It was a great opportunity to learn from others and share some great ideas.
Fan the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office
As in years past the conference travels to various locations throughout the state. This years conference will be held Friday/Saturday October 15th & 16th at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. A wonderful location for the event. The conference is growing in support and popularity each year to the extent that it is increasingly challenging to find communities/facilities large enough to accommodate the growing numbers. A good problem to have I suppose.
As the event is still in planning stages detail will be announced at a later date. Information will be provided on the Wisconsin SHPO website, www.WisconsinHistory.org as well as their Facebook fan page.
What to do…
- Mark Your Calendar for October 15th & 16th.
- Get on the email list for further information.
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It couldn’t be more convenient. We’ve been given a great rate at Grand Geneva and it’s close enough you could just commute back-n-forth if you really need to. Think about it. It would be great to have Beloit well represented including.
- Participation from city staff
- Participation from the city council
- Individuals (plural) from the Landmarks Commission
- Several resident households from in and around Beloit’s three historic districts
- Visit Beloit, Beloit 2020, Downtown Merchants
Investment in and the preservation of Beloit’s distinctive historic character is good for business, property values, tourism and the community as a whole. The more we diminish this, the more Beloit becomes generic and like anyplace else.
To get the email updates on this event when they become available contact Daina Penkiunas
National Register Coordinator
608-264-6501
daina(dot)penkiunas(at)wisconsinhistory(dot)org
Next NPA Gathering: Mon. Dec. 7th.
- - Guest: Acting Police Chief, Norm Jacobs
- - Date: Monday Dec. 7th
- - Time: 6:00 PM
- - Location: Bushel & Peck’s (328 State Street, downtown Beloit)
About this time last year a detective from the Beloit Police Department joined us for one of our regular meetings. It turned out to be a very informative, supportive and helpful exchange. We received a lot of very positive and appreciative comments from those who attended for having hosted that exchange. Well its been a year now and we thought it would be good to get together again.
We’re very pleased that acting police chief Norm Jacobs volunteered to meet with us personally. Given tight scheduling we’ve only got him for about fifteen minutes though so get there early. Additionally, we’ll be meeting a bit earlier then usual in order to accomodate. So note the earlier 6:00 time. He’s scheduled to join us ~6:15.
We appreciate and support the hard work the Beloit Police Dept. provides for us and the challenges they face. Please join us for some direct communication with Chief Jacobs.
Pumpkins for the Park – A big hit!
Wow! The level of creativity shown in the carved pumpkins just keeps getting better each year.
We’ve some very creative folks in the community who would seem to have discovered their creative outlet through pumpkin carving. The volunteer pumpkin carvers really got into it. I don’t think the video really does justice to how cool many of them were. Guess you just had to be there.
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The creativity seems to have been appreciated as there were hardly any pumpkins left by the end of the evening. A near sell out!
We were fortunate to have great weather and enjoyed a great turn out. Lots of neighbors and friends showed and it was a great chance to hang out and catch up with folks.
The neighbors on Church Street initiated this great event and again outdid themselves. It would not have happened though without the generous help of close friends, relatives and those too slow to duck. I’m reluctant to name names though as I know I’ll forget someone. It’s a great neighborhood though of close and caring neighbors and friends willing to share their time and effort. We raised some money for the park but it’s also just a fun group of folks to hang out with. Thanks to everyone to volunteered.
Also, thank you to our generous sponsors.
Bushel & Peck’s – It’s a great place that keeps getting better and better. Stop by some time for us.
Harris Ace Hardware – Couldn’t be more convenient and the folks there really go out of their way to help you.
Doodles – They’ve got great creativity based programs for the kids. A wonderful opportunity for our community’s kids.
3rd Annual Pumpkins For The Park
Carved Pumpkin Sale
A Benefit For The Historic Horace White Park!
Saturday Oct 24th. 5:30 pm at the park
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Now in it’s 3rd year the neighbors on Church Street have been hosting this popular event to support Horace White Park.
- - Sale begins at 5:30
- - All pumpkins are $5 and reserved on a first-come, first-served basis
- – Pumpkins to remain on display until 7:00 pm at which time you can take your pumpkin home.
The best pumpkins go fast so don’t be late.
(If you’d like to keep the cool little electric light inside… $6/pumpkin w/ light)
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Sponsored by: Bushel & Peck’s Local Market
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Photos curtesy of Old Onliner.
Last Year:
Next NPA Gathering Mon. 9/28 – Historic Beloit Photo Essay
Rob Baller’s Historic Beloit Photo Essay
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Come out and join us for our next Beloit NPA gathering. We think you’ll enjoy it.
If you’ve not seen Rob Baller’s amazing slide presentation of historic Beloit you’ve really missed something. It’s a little difficult to describe. You just have to witness it.
What he’s done is gathered numerous historic Beloit photos. He then researched determine from what exact location the various photos were taken from and then took contemporary photos from the same vantage point. Through various computer aided graphics techniques he’s been able to morph the old photo into the contemporary one. Its really amazing to watch the transformation.
Beyond being thoroughly entertaining it’s both informative and educational as to how our city has evolved over time and what some of the influences were for these changes. It’s sure to evoke a lot of conversation.
- - Date: Monday Sept. 28th
- - Time: 7:00 p.m.
- - Location: Vision Beloit Center – Conference Room (500 Public Ave.)
