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player ready...Living in Plainfield’s historic downtown, Kelley Cammack and Brendan Heffernan would often walk by the old, gigantic, lonely, decrepit house in the 15300 block of South Joliet Road.
The Chittenden-Owens House had sat dormant for years, a shadow of its past 19th-century glory.
Cammack and Heffernan, who work for Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202, were intrigued each time they saw it.
“Kelley and I had gotten out of the car before, crept around the house and saw it was vacant,” said Heffernan, 35, a Plainfield Academy custodian.
They decided to buy the piece of Plainfield’s history and renovate it, Heffernan recalled, eventually purchasing it in July 2013.
“We put in a full-price offer on the very first day” it was listed, he said.
They aren’t alone in their affection for the roughly 3,800-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bath home built in the mid-1880s.
Now, they have put the revamped house up for sale.
Heffernan said they were originally going to move into the house for a few years, renting out Heffernan’s current house nearby, but that ended up not being worth the hassle.
“The house is huge for just the two of us and our two dogs,” he said. “We try to spend as much time as we can there.”
The Chittenden-Owens House was declared a local landmark in 2008, according to a historical account of the property by Michael Lambert of the Plainfield Historical Society.
It was in the midst of being restored when the economic downturn struck, stalling that process in 2008, according to Lambert.
Heffernan said they began working on the home last fall and soon realized they had their work cut out for them.
The previous owner had removed much of the house’s stucco, exposing the original clapboard siding in the process, he said.
That siding hadn’t been protected when the past renovation effort halted, Heffernan said.
“There was 135-year-old wood left to the elements for about five years,” said Cammack, 26, a teacher at Heritage Grove Middle School.
The wraparound porch was just frames, among other issues, Heffernan said.
“The stairs had fallen apart, and were completely on a 45-degree angle,” he said. “It was kind of rough just getting into the house.”
The former owner had put in a boiler system, Heffernan said, but when the home was lost to foreclosure, the bank didn’t winterize the house, resulting in a multitude of burst pipes.
“Every time you try to fix one thing and turn on the boiler, you’ve got water pouring out of the ceilings and the wall,” he said.
The couple, aided by a friend, raced to square away the boiler and exterior before winter arrived last year, then spent the long winter months inside, taking care of walls, floors and bathrooms.
Cammack said they had renovated houses before but that this turned into a “labor of love” project.
As a result, the house now boasts modern amenities with a decidedly 19th-century aesthetic, they said, featuring original windows that were re-glazed, among other touches.
“We wanted to keep everything as close to 1880s as possible,” Cammack said.
“A lot of people walk into the house and ask if it’s the original kitchen,” Heffernan said. “That’s exactly what we were going for.”
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The stately Victorian house was originally built in the mid-1880s by the Chittendens, a prominent Plainfield family, according to Lambert.
The familial patriarch, George Chittenden, passed away in 1893, prompting his widow and their two sons to head out west to be with other family.
The house sat shuttered until it was sold to Emily and William Weston, Colorado-based engineers, in 1895 for $8,500.
It was sold to John C. Owens four months later for just $2,600, Lambert said.
The Owenses undertook numerous remodeling projects, including the construction of a small medical office at the home’s rear and an expansive veranda to replace the original, smaller front porch, according to Lambert.
The house changed hands throughout the 20th century. It was divided up into smaller units at one point and was used as a place of business.
It was in a state of deterioration when it was purchased, and renovation began in 1998, according to Lambert, but six years later, the owners moved away and sold the partially renovated house.
Another renovation attempt commenced in 2004, but ultimately was abandoned as well, Lambert said.
Heffernan said they would not have been able to undertake the renovations if it were not for the efforts of those who came before them.
“I don’t know if we could have taken the project on and seen it through the whole way before the old owner had started the renovations,” he said.
Cammack said a love for the grand old house is apparent among other Plainfield residents as well.
“Everyone knows it,” she said. “And everyone we talk to says, ‘That’s my dream house.'”