A 160-year-old house and barn in McHenry County is in danger of falling apart if efforts to restore and preserve the structure fail.
The William H. Coventry House and Barn in Harvard, included this year on Landmarks Illinois’ list of the state’s most endangered historical places, is currently on the market along with a massive 1.5-million-square-foot factory formerly owned by Motorola. The properties sit on several hundred acres of land.
The historic home and barn, located on Route 14 near the city’s northern border, were restored in 1998 by Motorola as a place to house visiting company executives. But Motorola sold the buildings in 2003, and the site subsequently changed hands several times until it was purchased in 2008 by Optima International, a Miami-based real-estate investment company, according to reports.
More Top Picks Best White Noise Machines For Adhd Focus
The entire site is currently listed for sale by Jones Lang LaSalle at $35 million.
An Optima executive told the Tribune in 2008 that it planned to turn the area into an office park.
But David Nelson, city administrator for Harvard, said nothing has happened to either the factory or the historic property. Both have been left vacant and, as a result, are starting to show their age, Nelson said.
Leading the charge to restore Coventry House is the McHenry County Historical Society and Museum, with assistance from the city and Harvard Economic Development Corp.
The home and barn received a historical designation from the society in the late 1980s, said Kurt Begalka, the society’s administrator. But in the last several years he said he’s watched the structure “deteriorate and deteriorate.”
The Economic Development Corp. reached out to Optima asking if they would donate the home and barn in addition to an acre or two of land to either the city or an organization willing to restore and preserve the property, according to both Nelson and Begalka.
But so far, they say, they’ve received no response from Optima.
Optima executives did not return a request for comment.
The property taxes for the site also were not paid last year, Nelson said. If Optima continues not to pay taxes on the property, the site eventually will be taken away from the company, he said.
When asked if the city could purchase the Coventry property, Nelson said there wasn’t any money available to do that.
“Ideally, in order to get the (Coventry property) shored up and back to a status where it is in halfway decent shape and you know it’s not going to fall down, there has to be an organization or group that has the expertise to do that,” he said. “The city doesn’t have that expertise.”
Both Nelson and Begalka said they hope the inclusion of the Coventry property on the list of endangered historical sites will raise awareness in the community and spur people to action.
Begalka said contractors interested in doing work on the property have already reached out to the society on social media. But nothing can be done while it remains privately owned, he said.
In an ideal world, the Coventry property could serve as a welcoming center or chamber of commerce, and the factory behind it has the potential to be an economic powerhouse in the city and the entire county, Begalka said.
“I guess the best case scenario is probably, the city and (Harvard Economic Development Corp.) would say this, that the building gets restored and becomes the catalyst for redeveloping that entire parcel,” Begalka said.
“What I’m about is saving this piece of history, and if it means it’s a business, that’s fine,” he said. “What I don’t want to see is it continue to crumble.”
And, Begalka said, the longer the building is left to deteriorate, the harder it will be to restore it.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter.