450-454 STELLA STREET
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE
450-454 Stella Street, known as the F. M. Wills Flats, was built in 1888 by notable Elgin builder, Henry Jensen for Frank M. and Emma S. Wills. Frank was born in 1857 in Illinois as was Emma but in 1867. Many of the Wills Family worked at the Elgin National Watch Company and as an investment, they built this building of which, the Wills family occupied two of the three flats. Frank and Emma, along with their children Earl L., Lineta G. and Marguerite E. and Emma's mother, Fredericke Stenglein, lived in one of the flats until 1920 when they sold the home and moved to South Elgin. Frank passed away in 1926 with Emma following shortly thereafter in 1932. Both are buried in the South Elgin Cemetery.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
450-454 Stella Street is an excellent example of the Queen Anne style with Eastlake details. A few of the most significant architectural features to this building include its intricate brickwork, bay windows, cornice with projecting pedimented gables over the entrances, its stained glass in almost every window and its elaborate front porches. Eastlake details can be found at the porches with its heavy, carved, cantilevered porch roofs with stick and ball frieze and decorative porch handrails. The elaborate front double-doors have 22 colored glass panels that frame a clear, beveled single pane of glass and four raised panels beneath are also significant to this building.
TIMELINE OF PREVIOUS OWNERS
Sources: 1986 Heritage Plaque Application; Audio: TextAloud