Never mind the crystal chandelier, the fine porcelain doorknobs and the mahogany staircase. Make no mention of its historical significance as the former home of one of DeKalb's most influential families.

By any standard of household upkeep, the Ellwood house is a mess.

Not the Ellwood House Museum, the mansion on North First Street in DeKalb stands as a symbol of the Gilded Age glory attained by the city's barbed wire barons.

This is its predecessor, an 1860 early-Greek Revival home that Isaac Ellwood and his family called home before he hooked up with Joseph Glidden and became enormously wealthy.

The house, at 315 N. Third St. in DeKalb, is listed on the DeKalb Landmark Register as the Original Isaac Ellwood/Faust-Thrun House, in honor of its 19th-century occupant and also Olive Faust-Thrun, the last person to live in the house.

Despite its historical significance, however, its current owner is looking for a new physical home for the house, which will likely be torn down if it cannot be relocated.

The condition of the house reflects its status as a building in flux. Tattered wallpaper still hangs to some walls, while others lack even plaster. Boards piled in one room – the framing of second-floor doors and windows sanded, stripped and labeled – appear at first to be a sign of its destruction, but are a sign of its possible preservation.

"It's all ready for someone to come in and put it together again," Jim Hovis said.

Historical home

Jim and Catherine Hovis bought the house at an auction in November 1997, after Olive Faust-Thrun died. The Hovises were interested in historic home preservation, and had already saved the house next door to the first Ellwood house. That home had been built by Isaac's brother, Hiram Ellwood, a grocer and one-time county treasurer who encouraged his brother to settle in DeKalb. The Hovises at one time lived in Hiram's old home.

According to the book "Landmarks of the Barb City" by Stephen J. Bigolin, Isaac Ellwood purchased property in the 300 block of North Third Street in 1859, and the family lived there until 1879. During that time, Ellwood had purchased part of Joseph Glidden's barbed wire patent and acquired vast wealth. The family sold the house Feb. 19, 1879, and moved temporarily to a farm until their mansion at 509 N. First St. was completed in November 1879.

The Hovises purchased the Third Street house with help from several other families interested in its preservation. The investors loaned the couple $52,000 of the $153,000 they needed to win the auction, and were paid back over time, so that the Hovises maintained sole ownership.

At the time, they had big plans for restoring the house. Catherine Hovis, who has a master's degree in creative writing, envisioned it being available for writers to visit DeKalb and practice their craft. The couple even had plans drawn up that would highlight the historic elements of the house, while adding to the home and incorporating modern elements, just as they did with their own home next door.

Jim Hovis said the couple has put about $200,000 of work into the house since they purchased it, mainly in structural repairs that helped save the house.

One of Jim Hovis's favorite parts of the house is a bit of wire embedded in a basement wall, which is likely where Isaac Ellwood had a shop and experimented with barbed wire. The embedded wires are twisted around a nail, apparently done to hold a root cellar door jamb in place.

"This pre-dates barbed wire," Hovis said. "My claim is it's the first barbed wire in the United States."

Looking for a taker

Despite their intentions, the couple's business and other interests kept them from giving the house the restoration they had initially planned. More recently, they moved from their three-story house next door to the Ellwood house on Third Street into a ranch house in DeKalb, and now they plan to settle in what Jim Hovis calls his dream house, 60 acres of hardwood forest high on the bluffs of the Rock River near Oregon.

So the couple sold the property, and it was purchased by an unknown owner who is interested in the land, but not the house. According to county records, the property was purchased Jan. 28, for $200,000, by Castle Bank Trustee 2222.

Attorney Keith Foster represents the trust that owns the property, and while he declined to say who the owner is, or what is planned for the property, he did say Hovis is being given an opportunity to remove the house.

"I don't think the plan is to fix the house up," Foster said. "The hope is that Jim can find a taker."

Hovis said his fondest wish is that the house could be relocated on the grounds of the Ellwood House Museum, but officials there say that will not happen – not only because of financial reasons, but also aesthetics.

"Based on what our mission is, we're focused on the Ellwood House mansion and the life they lived after moving to that house," said Brian Reis, executive director of the Ellwood House Museum. "It just wouldn't be a good fit. It ruins the authenticity of the place that you're interpreting.

"At the same time," Reis said, "I hate to see any historic property in peril."

Hovis said he has been given until Aug. 1 to remove the house. He is hopeful someone might want to disassemble it and move sections at a time.

He is willing to sell for the low price of $1.

"If we wouldn't have bought it (in 1997), it would already have been bulldozed," Hovis said. "You get all the elements for a historically significant 1860 house, and the plans to modernize it."