463-465 ST. CHARLES STREET

Front-facing two-story Victorian-style blue-gray house with twin porches, central bay window and front steps under a clear blue sky.

Victorian-style two-story blue-gray house with front porch and walkway, lawn and large trees under a clear blue sky.

Gable end of a blue-painted house with fish-scale shingles and two white-trimmed windows against a clear blue sky.

Victorian-style house front with large bay window, blue trim, porch column numbered "463" and low shrubs.

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

In 1892, retired farmer William R. Fuller purchased Lot 3 and the north 10 feet of Lot 4 of Bowen’s addition to Elgin from Julia Bowen for $1400. Here, according to the December 1892 building report, he built a house and barn at a cost of $3500. The 1895 aerial map of Elgin shows the house and barn; these were the only buildings south of Regent Street on the east side of St. Charles.

The residence is now located within Elgin’s third historic district, the Elgin National Watch Factory Historic District, designated in 1997. This area of town surrounds the location of the Elgin Watch factory and consists mostly of workers’ cottages and vernacular houses, but includes high style Second Empire, Italianate, Victorian, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes. Elgin’s 1903 Fire Barn #5 Museum is located in this district.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The home was built in the Spindlework sub-type of the Queen Anne style. Characteristics of this style include the decorative patterned shingles at the gable ends, the cutaway bays found at the cross gable and the ornate, turned columns, and spindle-like frieze. This home was once covered in aluminum siding, with much of its architectural features gone. The home was beautifully restored in 2016 by Habitat for Humanity to what you see today.

Sources: Audio: TextAloud

463-465 St. Charles Street (Copy)

463-465 ST. CHARLES STREET