Matthew Mosur regularly drove by a vacant, 113-year-old Algonquin home that caught his eye. In June, he bought the house and took on the challenge of renovating it.

“I saw an opportunity that I knew I couldn’t pass up,” said Mosur, who grew up in Lake in the Hills and now lives in a farmhouse he renovated in East Dundee.

The two-story historic house, once white and now green, is located along Center Street in Algonquin’s Old Town neighborhood, east of Route 31 and steps from the village’s business district. It had stood vacant for about nine years.

The former owners bought the home with plans to renovate it for a family member to live in. They gutted it down to the studs, but plans changed, Mosur said. When Mosur inquired about the house, he learned that the owners were about to put it on the market.

“It was about a month after I left my full-time construction job and turned to real estate full time when I made the decision I wanted to buy it,” Mosur said.

Stewart Logan, who has lived across the street in a historic home with a similar floor plan for 16 years, said Mosur’s home has “a storied past.” Logan said about 25 years ago, it was used as a grow house for marijuana and was the scene of a police stakeout.

Logan has seen the home change owners over the years, and it eventually went into foreclosure. It is among dozens of historic homes in what is referred to as the Old Town area of Algonquin.

The only detail Mosur cannot change in the 1,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom house are the windows. Village code does not allow the placement of the windows to be moved. While it was challenging to design the floor plan, the windows let in a lot of natural light, Mosur said.

Mosur learned that the house – built in 1912, according to Algonquin records – was at one time zoned commercial. Part of the building was used as a hair salon while a family lived in a separate area, Mosur said.

Minimal work was done on the exterior of the house, which included painting it green and making repairs to the wood frame and deck as needed. The goal of the renovation was to keep it historic while updating the inside with modern conveniences, Mosur said.

Mosur and his team have “done a great job inside and out” in preserving the historic character of the home while adding modern upgrades, Logan said.

He said people in the neighborhood respect the heritage of the area and the historic homes they live in. Although the homes need attention every 30 years or so, people do a nice job preserving their character.

Logan bought his home, built in 1909, for its character, “rock-solid” construction, original wood trim, a basement that doesn’t leak and because “it reminded us of our grandparents’ home.”

According to information from the Algonquin Historic Commission, the home that Mosur renovated was built by its original owner, Joseph Steffler.

The neighborhood is within walking distance to the downtown area, where more than $33 million has been invested in recent years into ongoing streetscape and utility improvements. The village has worked to create a “more pedestrian-friendly environment ideal for community gatherings, festivals and outdoor dining,” according to village documents.

Logan said the recent improvements complement the area, including restaurants and the newly renovated Towne Park that debuted this summer. The $5.7 million makeover includes a band shell, inclusive playground, picnic shelter and restrooms, as well as a restored mineral springs site, according to the village.

Of the house across the street soon to be occupied, Logan said, “It will be nice to finally have some new neighbors.”