Dixon’s Preston-Schilling Funeral Home will nearly double its space when it moves to the former daycare building off Franklin Grove Road in Dixon.

The move, expected by the end of February or early March, is a significant expansion for the funeral home, which has operated at 213 Crawford Ave. in Dixon since the 1930s.

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Jesse Partington speaks about the expansion of Preston-Schilling Funeral Home on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (Alex T. Paschal)

The new building at 1033 Franklin Grove Road is about 10,000 square feet, almost double the current 5,200 square feet, and will be the only funeral home in the Sauk Valley area to feature a dedicated reception area for luncheons, Preston-Schilling owner and licensed funeral director Jesse P. Partington told Shaw Local.

Partington said he’d been in the market for a new building for the last four to five years and, coincidentally, while scrolling Facebook in April 2025, saw that the former Bright Beginnings daycare building was up for sale.

“The day that I went and looked at it, my brother was a contractor, and I asked him to come by and take a look at it with me,” he said. “And basically, he said he looked through it all, throughout the whole building, and he says, ‘if you don’t buy it, I will.’ So I put an offer in. Next thing you know, we were signing paperwork.”

Now, after months of renovations “there’s just a few little details that we need to put together, and then we’ll start moving furniture from this location,” Partington said.

When the building was a daycare, it had six large classrooms. During renovations, Partington said, they took all the walls out and designed a new layout.

Everything will be on one level, unlike its current location, and there will be a larger chapel that leads directly to the new reception area, Partington said.

“With the cremation rate that is on the rise. A lot of families don’t necessarily use a cemetery any longer, or go to a cemetery any longer, so they’ll be able to just have everything in one location,” Partington said.

The decision to relocate came down to accessibility and capacity.

“Unfortunately...you have such a big visitation where you could have a line out the door down the sidewalk,” Partington said. “Our chapel over there is going to be maybe three and a half times bigger than this one. We’ll have a lot more room in the new location to accommodate the public.”

The current building, located in a residential area, is listed for sale. Partington said it could work as a family home, a rental property, or as a multi-use business space with offices upstairs and a large basement below.

“It is a beautiful building. It’s got good bones in it,” Partington said, but noted that it is large “and it’s going to take the right person to want to do something with it.

Partington has worked at Preston-Schilling since 1998, ever since he graduated from mortuary school. He and his wife purchased the business from the Schilling family in October 2016. Partington also serves as Lee County coroner, a position he’s held since 2008.

For information, call 815-288-4469.