Gurler Heritage Association Welcomes You to the Gurler House
205 Pine Street, DeKalb, Illinois 60115 USA
|
August 24, 1998 The Challenge in Saving Gurler House Twenty Years Ago
Helen began to think about how the house could be saved. She called the bank that had advertised the auction to try to stop the auction only to learn that once an auction has been advertised it must take place. Then her only hope was that someone would buy it for a single family home. But that didn't happen. On September 22, 1977 the parcel of land consisting of 5 lots, including the Gurler House and the small house on the corner of North Second and Fisk Streets, sold at auction to Adolph Miller and Roger Petschke of Miller Real Estate Co. for $120,000. Mr. Miller and Mr. Petschke apparently wanted to use the entire parcel to build an apartment house. Helen was dismayed. But by early November they had decided to resell for $135,000. It was rumored that the sewer system could not handle the size building they wanted to build. Helen's hopes rekindled. She wrote a letter to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle asking "can't we get ourselves together to buy this property for the community and use it in a viable way?" Two people responded: Christine Davy, a librarian at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and Phil Newton, a graduate student in adult education at NIU. By December 12, 1977 a group of about eight people met and, calling themselves the DeKalb Landmarks Committee, agreed that their strategy would be to try to get the City of DeKalb to buy the property. Each member put in $5 to promote the cause. At this point, the City of DeKalb, which had decided to form its own Landmarks Commission, asked the group to change is name. Under its new name, Gurler Heritage Association, the group decided it should have signatures on petitions to present to the City Council. John Countryman contributed the first of many services in checking the wording of the petition. He had known Bea Gurler who had lived in the house for many years and had visited the house as a boy growing up in DeKalb. The members of the Gurler Heritage Association (GHA) quickly gathered 811 signatures on the petition. Meanwhile, during a visit to City Hall on another matter, Jim Merritt, Helen's husband, learned by chance that federal Community Development Block Grant funds, for which the City of DeKalb was eligible, could be used in 1978 for historic preservation. This was only a short time after the national bicentennial celebration and public interest in America's past was high. The Congress had made a provision to help preserve the past brick by brick and stone by stone. Mayor Judy King called a general meeting on January 24, 1978 so that those groups eligible and qualified for Community Development Block Grant Funds could present their cases. Mayor King had told Helen she had one minute to make the case. Shortly before the appointed meeting time David Osborne and Roger Legal, two young members of the GHA who worked together at Public Access Television (Cable channel 8), discovered a videotape in the station archives. It was a tape of an interview for Public Access Television featuring Bea Gurler talking with Sue Bowen about the destruction of the Haish mansion which she had witnessed from her porch. Helen had not viewed the tape. Should she make a strong, succinct statement in the minute the group would have or should she let the enthusiastic young men show their tape? She knew it would take help from many people such as these young men to save the house, so she decided to ask permission to show the tape. Bea Gurler was about 89 years old when she made the tape. An authoritative and feisty woman, she riveted the attention of everyone in the room with her presence as she spoke: "The wreckers came. That house was mercilessly knocked down with a bit ball. There was a tremendous dust. They hit that house with that ball time after time." When she finished, silence reigned. Bea Gurler had spoken for the group. The proposals presented at the January 24 meeting were taken to the City Council on January 31. Gurler enthusiasts filled the Council chamber. Aldermen Allyn Davenport, Sue Barressi, and Michael McDermott each tried to propose a loan arrangement to facilitate purchase of the property. Two of these became motions, but each failed on tie votes. Then the Mayor had to take a brief leave, apparently in response to someone beckoning to her from the rear of the Council chambers. She left Alderman Dan CeKay presiding. Mike McDermott then moved that the Council give $55,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to the Gurler Heritage Association for purchase of Gurler House. Sue Barresi seconded. The motion passed 4-3, with one absentee. The GHA had not intended to buy the house. The group was working to get the City of DeKalb to buy it. But the City Council served the ball into the Gurler Heritage Association's court by promising to underwrite $55,000 of the purchase price. Members of the Association suddenly found themselves with $55,000 but needed to raise an additional $80,000. Furthermore, the sellers declared that the decision whether or not to buy had to be made by March 1, 1978. This gave the group one short month to raise the money. The Mayor requested that the GHA not do anything until she talked with Adolph Miller about extending the date. Mr. Miller did extend the date until April 1, but by the time that was accomplished it was March. By March 8, 1978 the GHA had officers and fundraising co- chairmen, Dimitri Liakos and Steve Bigolin. Another member of the group, Don Peterson (public relations director at NIU) helped them orchestrate a press conference on the steps of Gurler House. It snowed. Newsmen came from Rockford as well as DeKalb and Sycamore; from TV stations as well as newspapers. As the newsmen were packing up their equipment to leave, John Lloyd quietly slipped an envelope into Helen's hand. It held an immensely welcome check for $1000. Kishwaukee Community College also stepped in at that point with the generous offer of the services of college's public relations man Vance Barrie. Money came in many contributions, but the sum was well short of the needed $80,000. At this point Jim and Helen Merritt agreed to buy the two back lots, which included the small house on the corner of North Second and Fisk streets. This purchase left the remainder of the parcel--the three lots on which Gurler House sits--intact and reduced the amount the GHA needed to raise to $40,000. In the evening on March 30, 1978, a meeting of the GHA was held at the home of Francis and Marjory Stroup to decide whether the group could go through with the agreement to purchase on April 1. Fourteen members were present. They had raised $23,000 in three weeks, but they would have to borrow the rest if they were to buy the house. They were apprehensive but decided to go for it. Mr. Miller agreed to wait for the Community Development Block Grant funds from the City providing the GHA paid 9 1/2% interest on the money until he had it in hand. So the GHA borrowed $20,000 to cover the $17,000 it had not yet raised as well as insurance and interest on the money promised by the city. At this point problems struck like a virus. At the April 10, 1978 City Council meeting, a resolution was moved and seconded that the allocation of $55,000 for Gurler House should be rescinded. The argument was that the money was needed for pot hole repairs from which everyone would benefit. The Mayor maintained that the City Council had made a moral commitment to the Gurler House project when the application was considered and approved at the previous meeting. The motion failed. Then the Mayor called a meeting with the Gurler group in which she indicated strongly that she felt it could not raise the remaining money. She had brought someone to the meeting who would like to buy the house. Helen Merritt responded that the private buyer's option should be considered carefully if the GHA could not raise the money. A lively series of letter in the newspapers for and against the investment of government money in the project ensued. The pros and cons were evenly balanced. Furthermore, members of the City Council had the legitimate concern that the GHA would tire of the project in a few years and sell the house. What then would happen to the public money? Motions were launched at City Council meetings throughout the summer proposing various interest rates that the GHA should pay if it sold the house. It was finally resolved at the August 14 meeting. Alderman Michael McDermott proposed a lien on the property for 20 years with the provision that if the house was sold in that period all back taxes would be paid as well as any outstanding bank loans, and the City would claim its money without interest. During this time of uncertainty about the Council's concerns, several generous donations, especially two from the Roberts family, soon took care of most of the needed $17,000. The GHA also held an auction and numerous bake sales. By the time the Community Development Block Fund money arrived and was transferred (October 2, 1978) the loan was paid off and the GHA was debt free. The agreement between the City of DeKalb and the GHA took the form of a promissory note for twenty years until October 2, 1998. Twenty busy years have passed during which the GHA has maintained and enhanced Gurler House and successfully operated the facility as a community center. On September 20, 1998, a large group including former mayor Judy King, Mayor Bessie Chronopoulos, and members of the City Council of 1978 and that of the present celebrated the twentieth birthday of the GHA with remembrances, music and a prairie supper. On October 2, 1998, as it looked forward to the life of the house in the next twenty years, the Gurler Heritage Association proudly accepted a letter of release from the City of DeKalb. |
Helen Merritt, a DeKalb resident since 1948, had grieved as
one fine old DeKalb home after another was torn down to make way
for apartment buildings and parking lots. In September 1977 she
heard that the Gurler house at 205 Pine Street was to be sold at
auction. People were still talking about the Haish mansion at Third
and Pine that was demolished a few years before to make space for
a parking lot. The Bradt house at first and Augusta had more
recently gone down to make way for apartments. And now, Helen
thought that Gurler House and the fine old stand of maples around
it would go as well. This was not a big fancy place but a small
white clapboard Greek Revival house like dozens of others built in
this area in the mid nineteenth century. But this one was
especially lovely on a triple lot surrounded by a stand of sugar
maples.