At this time of year, everybody looking to make a quick buck is offering “haunted” this or that, be it trails, mazes or, especially, houses. But when it comes to separating fact from fiction, only one place I know in the county comes with a pedigree.

George Stickney, a New York native and the first white settler in Nunda Township, was the first township supervisor, a road commissioner and director of Holcombville School – another endangered building also in Bull Valley. He married the daughter of another prominent pioneer, Sylvia (spelled Silvea in old records) Beckley, in 1839. The Stickneys received the title to the property in 1840 and built a cabin before constructing the 10-room house at 1904 Cherry Valley Road.

Its signature rounded corners mirror Sylvia’s interest in spiritualism and her penchant for hosting séances. Perhaps the loss of seven of 10 children fueled her interest in communicating with the dead and – legend has it – that was made easier without 90-degree angles. Corners supposedly not only trap ghosts – they can attract the wrong kind of spirits.

In a similar vein, the village of Bull Valley is concerned about attracting the wrong crowd to the building that now houses its village hall and police department.

“People want to stay overnight there, kind of like a bed and breakfast. They want to film TV shows, and they are willing to pay,” Stickney House Foundation President Nicole Horn said. “But there are meetings there on weekends when some want to do tours of the haunted house, and that is not conducive to how village officials want to run their operations. I get it.

“But in West Dundee earlier this year, they filmed another movie. It would be great if we could do something like that. I think Emily Berendt, the village president, really gets it. She is working hard to get the village offices transitioned into the barn.”

Upgrading the 1938 barn to accommodate village operations and an upstairs rental space will cost a projected $2 million, Horn said. Toward that end, fundraising is continuing on the foundation’s Facebook page and via contributions to the Stickney House Foundation, sent to 1904 Cherry Valley Road, Bull Valley, IL 60098. A GoFundMe campaign also is in the offing.

Horn, owner of NH Regal Designs in Algonquin, said she began working on the project nearly 30 years ago – when the village received the Stickney House as part of a 700-acre annexation. But despite housing village offices and the police department, renovations to the 160-year-old structure come from private donations and not taxpayers.

Many of the repairs completed early on revolved around shoring things up – from pouring new foundation walls to repairing a leaky roof to tuckpointing to upgrading interior plumbing and electrical services. The basement’s dirt floor was replaced with cement, all 15 windows were replaced with similar or original materials and debris is being removed from the second floor.

“We’ve just been cleaning it out and doing some light demolition,” Horn said. “Some of the petition walls are not original, there is some structural stabilization [that is needed] and some of the plaster is down, anyway. We need to blow in insulation and do lighting. Our biggest focus is in the ballroom to get it so it looks closer to the original.”

Converting the upstairs apartments back into a ballroom will cost an estimated $125,000 to $200,000. The foundation then hopes to rent out that space and the upstairs of the adjacent 3,000-square-foot barn along Cherry Valley Road. Horn hopes the unique 1856 Victorian Italianate house can be used as a museum and community center.

The Stickney House and two acres were deeded to the village in 1986. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The Stickney House Foundation was established in 1991.

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Join the McHenry County Historical Society at 7 p.m. Wednesday for “The Victorian Art of Death” at the museum, 6422 Main St. in Union. Learn about the history behind many of the funerary rituals we continue to observe today. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5 for society members, $10 for nonmembers.

• Kurt Begalka is administrator of the McHenry County Historical Society & Museum in Union. He may be reached at kurt@mchenrycountyhistory.org.