History Made: Oldest brick home still standing

It's no wonder you will find the Hunt House – also known as the Dunham-Hunt Museum – on the National Register of Historic Places – it's recognized as the oldest brick building in St Charles. Built in 1841, the home is the oldest building featured in the Kane County Chronicle's three-day series looking at area buildings on the national register.

The Hunt House, located at 304 Cedar St., was built by Bela T. Hunt, one of the first settlers of St. Charles, which was then known as Charleston. According to the St. Charles Public Library, Hunt heard of a plan to build a new dam and mill on the river and quickly purchased and erected other buildings in the area, including a sawmill and a general store.

Bricks for his home came from the brickyard of John Penny on the southwest corner of what is now Main Street and Fifth Avenue, according to the St. Charles history publication "Reflections of St. Charles."

Historical documents also make mention that the Hunt House is the earliest example of Greek Revival architecture in St. Charles, as most other buildings at the time were log cabins.

"It's definitely an important piece of St. Charles history," said Natalie Gacek, the museum director for the St. Charles Heritage Center. "Some of the first people that arrived in the area at that time had an interest in being farmers and making the community a farming community. It really was Bela Hunt and the other gentleman in his business partnership that were interested in developing the town outside of farming."

Those partners, Read Ferson and Ira Minard, along with Hunt, together constructed one of the first frame buildings in Charleston in 1836, the same year the trio also completed the dam. Then, a few years later, Hunt built his famous home.

A second floor was added to the west side of the structure at some point between 1855 and 1920 – historical documents to not give an exact year for the construction. It is assumed that this addition was made in the 1870s when Frank Hunt and his family lived in the house with the Bela Hunt family, according to the Hunt House's application to be placed on the national register. Frank Hunt is the son of Bela and Harriet Hunt. Together, both Frank and Bela Hunt and their respective families lived in the home. Frank Hunt later went on to serve as the fourth, eighth and 10th mayor of St. Charles from 1881-1885; 1889-1905; and 1907-1911, respectively.

Photographs included with the original application to be placed on the register show that, through the years, a porch was added and later enclosed at Hunt House. Once Jane Dunham purchased the building in 1980, she removed the porch as part of a restoration. Dunham was a descendent of early St. Charles settlers, including her great-grandfather, Solomon, according to a St. Charles Chronicle article dated May 7, 1980.

Solomon Dunham came from New York in the early 1800s with his friend Mark W. Fletcher and settled in Wayne. In 1837, Solomon Dunham built a farmhouse on the southeast corner of Dunham and Army Trail roads.

Jane Dunham purchased the home from Effie Hunt, the granddaughter of Bela Hunt. The home stayed in the Hunt family until Jane Dunham’s purchase in 1980.

Once the porch was removed, Dunham realized that the doorway to the porch from the home was originally a window – it has since been restored that way. Dunham wanted to purchase the home and turn it into a museum, which she did.

“I wanted to make it a showplace,” Dunham told the St. Charles Historical Society in 1980 during a discussion about her vision for the building.

At the time, the second floor remained a residence while the first floor was the museum. The original flooring, trim, windows and doors have all been preserved. After Dunham’s death in 1995, the museum closed, only to be reopened and operated by the St. Charles Heritage Center in 1998.

"When it was operated as a museum by our organization, we had things set up like they would have been set up in history," said Gacek. "It was definitely an educational experience for the school children that came through."

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Even before his son became the city's mayor, Bela Hunt was instrumental in moving St. Charles forward. He purchased a lot of more than 200 acres to expand the settlement – much more than the 25 acres the settlement had at the time. In 1841, the same year the home was finished, Hunt was elected the first treasurer of Kane County. The Hunt House also is recognized as a city of St. Charles landmark.

“It is a significant landmark downtown,” said Russell Colby, planning division manager and staff liaison to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. “Although there are no specific requirements with what can and cannot be done to the building, any planned exterior changes have to be reviewed by the commission.”

The building, now owned by the city, was up for sale last year but was taken down before the winter. It is planned to be put back on the market at some point this year, pending approval from the St. Charles City Council, said Peter Suhr, division manager for public services in St. Charles.

“We’re doing our due diligence in keeping up the property,” Suhr said. “Since we’ve owned the building, we’ve done some minor construction projects. But for the majority of the time, we’ve done some maintenance things – mowing the lawn, keeping the weeds down and minimal painting, if needed.”

Many of the artifacts inside the museum when it closed to the public in the summer of 2010 became property of the Heritage Center. City officials told the Kane County Chronicle last year that the building needs about $300,000 in repairs to make it suitable for living.

“It’s a very old structure – it’s been associated with important families in the history of St. Charles,” Colby said. “As a piece of our history, it has a lot of value.”