565 PARK STREET
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE
In June of 1884, Grant A. Goodrich, a bookkeeper and later a dentist, was married to Kittie (Katherine) Truesdell. Upon their marriage, Kittie’s father and mother, William and Jane, gifted the newlyweds land to build a house upon. Shortly after Grant finished dental school in 1888, the Goodrich family built the home now know as 565 Park Street.
Active in Elgin’s civil society, Grant Goodrich was a member of the Northern Illinois Dental Association, the Monitor Lodge, and the Royal Arcanum. Born in 1861 in Clinton, Iowa, Grant’s father was a sewing machine dealer and later a North Carolina farmer.
Kittie was born in Elgin in 1864 and was the daughter of a local dentist, Dr. William H. Truesdell and Jane (nee Burritt).
It is unknown how long the Goodrich family lived in the home on Park Street.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
This Queen Anne style home located at 565 Park Street is considered a significant structure to the local significance of the neighborhood and is a contributing structure to the Elgin Historic District, the National Register of Historic Places district it sits within. With minor alterations over the years, the property offers a unique style to Park Street.
Exhibiting an irregular floor plan, this is one and a half stories tall and includes a turret intersecting with the hipped roof at the northwest corner of the home. Other significant features of the Queen Anne style seen here include the decorative wall pattern shingles, ornamental detailing under the gables, and the finial atop the conical roof of the turret with decorative brackets below the roof-line.
TIMELINE OF PREVIOUS OWNERS
Sources: 1989 Heritage Plaque Application; Audio: TextAloud