BELMONT CRAGIN — Preservationists and an alderman are trying to stop the demolition of one of Chicago's oldest homes on the Northwest Side.
A demolition permit was issued by the city Oct. 2 for house at 4618 W. Armitage Ave, a grey-sided farmhouse built in 1858 by Dutch pioneer James Van Natta.
"I am doing everything I can to stop this," said Ald. Ray Suarez (31st). "This is history. We have to do everything we can to preserve a lot of the history of Chicago."
The city has a process in place to protect buildings deemed historically significant. The Chicago Historic Resources Survey was started in 1983 to analyze the historical importance of more than 17,000 buildings built before 1940. Inclusion on the list puts a hold on demolition for 90 days while city leaders discuss alternatives.
The problem? The Van Natta home isn't on it. A brick building in Chinatown designed by famed architect Daniel Burnham, also not on the survey, was recently demolished.
The Van Natta home is listed, however, in John Drury's 1941 book "Old Chicago Houses."
"That this small frame house is a survivor of the day when the area around it was open, windy country, and cabbage patches were on all sides, is evidenced by its architecture," Drury wrote.
The home's former green spaces have been paved over, and it now serves as a construction yard for Keane Management. When reached by phone, Keane Management co-owner Grace Keane declined to comment for this story.
A local preservation group has taken up the cause of saving the James Van Natta home.
"Even though it's very modest, it does represent early Chicago," said Ward Miller, director of Preservation Chicago. "There's not too many of these early 1850s buildings that still remain. Each one of these helps to tell a story of a community, and now a neighborhood."
The home was one of the first in Jefferson Township, which was incorporated into Chicago in 1889.
Gabriel Michael, a photographer for website Chicago Patterns, photographed the home and wrote about its history in April.
He was shocked to see the address pop up several months later in the city's demolition permits.
"I'm definitely nervous" it will be demolished, Michael said. "Right now is crunch time."
Suarez said he talked to the city's Department of Buildings to put a hold on the demolition permit. The Department did not respond to a request for comment.
In 1940 Drury noted that the house was painted green and a photograph shows the property surrounded by grass.
Miller and Michael agree the home is unassuming.
"It's not very pretty to look at," Michael said. "Deep down, I'm kind of worried that it will eventually get demolished because it's not pretty enough or not noteworthy enough to some people."
But if the house can't stay at 4618 W. Armitage Ave. it may have another place to go.
Luis Salas owns L&M Welding Corporation, at 4619 W. Armitage Ave., the building across the street from the Van Natta home. He also owns a vacant lot two doors down from the house.
If someone else foots the bill for moving it, Salas will offer it a home on his vacant lot, he said.
"I love that little house," Salas said. "But it's too expensive just to have it there for luxury. It takes a lot of money move something like that and put it in place together again."
Fittingly, in 1940, Drury ended his entry on the James Van Natta home:
"How much longer this old farmhouse will stand, no one can tell."
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