The Lockport-based Will County Historical Society has agreed to take ownership of a historic Joliet mansion and move it to a new site to avoid demolition. Officials with the group said they hope eventually to open a museum of African American history there.
Historians believe the Casseday Mansion, located on the east side of Joliet at Jackson and Collins streets, was built in 1851, according to Sandy Vasko, director of the historical society.
It is considered the oldest building in Joliet and one of the oldest inhabitable structures in Will County.
It was built by George Casseday, who was among the many early property prospectors in the area who believed land would increase in value with the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Vasko said. Casseday’s gamble paid off, she said, after he sold a large part of his land to the state for the building of the Old Joliet Prison.
Last fall, developers started the process of buying the site of the Casseday Mansion with the intention of building a Thornton’s gas station there.
The developers later agreed to pay to move the mansion and transfer ownership of the structure to the historical society.
Vasko said a resident was willing to take ownership of the house, but he didn’t have the nonprofit tax status the society does, so Thornton’s wouldn’t benefit from any tax deduction if they gave it to him.
And Vasko said the attorney for Thornton’s is also the attorney for the historical society, so a line of communication between the two entities had already been established.
It had all seemed like a done deal between Thornton’s and the historical society until the issue of a liquor license came up at the Joliet City Council.
“What we had thought was in the bag certainly was not,” Vasko said.
Thornton’s had wanted to have video gambling on the site, so it had also applied for liquor license.
“It was not an issue of whether we were going to preserve (the building),” Vasko said. “It was an issue of a liquor license.”
The city does not typically approve liquor licenses for gas stations, according to its local ordinance.
“That is Joliet politics,” Vasko said. “We try to stay as apolitical as we can.”
After some debate, the liquor license for Thornton’s was approved by a 5-to-3 Joliet City Council vote on Jan. 7, so plans are now underway to move the Casseday Mansion.
“That was good news, indeed,” Vasko said.
Vasko said the city is providing a lot for the structure about two blocks away on land that also was once owned by George Casseday.
Thornton’s is providing about $300,000 for the move, and Vasko said about $220,000 of that will be needed for the actual moving.
She said rather than having the building on a flatbed truck as was once done with historic buildings, engineers will move it using a platform with omni-directional wheels controlled by remote.
Before that, Vasko said all the openings, such as the windows and doors, will have to be braced so they won’t twist during the move.
She said the remaining money will be used to install and connect plumbing and electrical wiring in the building.
Vasko said Joliet is waiving building permit fees.
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She expects the mansion will be moved around the third week of March.
Vasko said the society also is planning to renovate the interior of the building, which in recent years had been subdivided into apartment.
She said plans are to open a museum in the building dedicated to the African American experience in the area.
“I’m guessing it might be open the Fourth of July in a limited way,” Vasko said.
She said a lot will depend on how much renovation work can be completed by volunteers after the building is moved.
The Casseday Mansion will be the third site operated by the historical society.
The others are its office and museum in Lockport, which was once the office of the Illinois and Michigan Canal commissioners, and its Heritage Village, also in Lockport, which includes historical buildings originally from Mokena and Homer Glen.
Vasko said the society’s office and museum was built in 1837 and is the oldest building still standing in Will County.
She said it will be a burden to manage a third site but the society is happy to take it on.
“When you take away the political part of it everybody was really working together to get a good thing done,” Vasko said.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.