ROCKFORD — The Coronado Performing Arts Center, Tinker Swiss Cottage and the Elijah Herrick House are each listed on the local, state and national registers of historic places, but only one of them is for sale.

The circa 1840s Herrick cobblestone house at 2127 Broadway is on the market with an asking price of $146,900.

The modest but well-manicured two-story farmhouse has long been regarded as the oldest in the city, a title perpetuated over the years mainly by this newspaper after an 1842 home, one of several built and occupied by Daniel Shaw Haight, was razed in 1967.

However, local preservationist Gary Carlson of Gary Carlson Motors, a co-owner of the Herrick House, said there are a few older houses still standing in the city.

But within the city’s limits, the Broadway dwelling is unique.

“When you think of it, this was the original maintenance-free construction,” Carlson said of the cobblestone exterior. “This is the predecessor to aluminum and vinyl siding. There’s no maintenance to it at all other than painting the (wood) trim.”

Historic character
About four years after Rockford’s founding fathers Germanicus Kent, Thatcher Blake and Lewis Lemon settled here in the mid-1830s, Elijah L. Herrick Sr. came to Rockford by way of Massachusetts. It wasn’t until the 1840s that Herrick built his Greek Revival-style country home on farmland between what is now Broadway and Harrison Avenue.

The house rests on a limestone foundation. According to Rockford Register Star archives, the cobblestones were hauled by ox cart from the Rock River up a lane that is now Broadway. A reporter wrote in 1968 that Herrick placed the cobblestones side by side — 150 across the front, 80 deep. The concrete he placed around them had cracked in only one place over the years. The Herrick family lived in the home for 40 years.

Walls nearly a foot thick divide the house and its original pinewood floors into eight rooms, four on each floor.

After the Herricks, the home changed hands several times including ownership by the Logli family, local grocers who owned the neighboring Pacemaker store, now the home of the Blackhawk Athletic Club. The Logli family had planned to tear down the house to make room for more parking. Instead, they rented the house before donating it in 1980 to Restoration Education, a now defunct local historic preservation advocacy group.

The agency used the house for office and meeting space. Kurt and Sarah Bell and Carlson bought the house more than 20 years ago after submitting the winning bid.

“The restrictions that Restoration Education put on the house were we could do what ever we wanted to it so long as it stayed on all three registers,” Carlson said. “Most people think once a house is put on a register you can’t alter it. That’s not true. You just have to do it sympathetically so that the historic character of the building remains.”

Aged well
The trio took advantage of historic preservation tax credits, which returned 20 percent of their investment in credits.

Cosmetic changes included a redoing the tuck-pointing and power washing and landscaping. While the home has not changed much over the years, it has been modernized with the addition of plumbing, electricity, telephone, central air conditioning and cable.

The house is just under 2,000 square feet and is listed as commercial property, Carlson said the home can be converted to residential by adding a bath or shower to one of its two half bathrooms.

Linda Merlo, 57, an 18-year resident of the neighborhood, said she favors older homes, particularly the cobblestone house.

“I would buy it if I had the money,” she said. “The walls are more solid. The woodwork is more solid. They’re just better than the new ones, I think.”

Joanne Fredrickson, a resident of the neighborhood for 44 years, has seen the neighborhood change around the house. She appreciates how the Herrick House has still maintained its character.

“It looks nice,” she said. “No one has bothered it.”

Carlson declined to say how much money was invested in the house over the years, but “it really is in very good shape. It has stood the test of time. … It’s been cared for. That’s why it is standing so straight and true.”

Staff writer Chris Green can be reached at cgreen@rrstar.com or 815-987-1241.