Let’s See How Far We’ve Come. You know with all the success that we have had over the past few weeks it has started us talking about the road that has lead us here. Here is our story of the James J Eldred House. After the Great Flood of 1993 the Lower Illinois River Valley was left nearly destroyed.  To help aid the flood recovery we (IVCHA) brought in consultants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois with various community leaders to hold a flood recovery meeting.  Named Great Expectations by IVCHA President Judie Hyde, the meeting was held for two days at Hopson’s Bluffdale. The meeting fruited many ideas most importantly was the idea to have the Eldred-Hillview Road designated as some kind of scenic drive, with a visitor welcome/information/interpretation center. First was selected the Peterson Store Building in East Hardin after months of work the building was lost in the federal flood buy out. The building was demolished. The lot has been vacant ever since. In 1995 the James J Eldred House was donated to us by the Levis Family of Alton. At the time we acquired the building it was over grown with vines.  The porches had all failed and collapsed. The rooms of the once grand house were all filled with abandoned farm equipment and chemical barrels. Many windows were broken and a large section of the roof was missing.  We were awarded a $50,000 matching grant from IDECO to stabilize the house.   Several clean up days were scheduled at the house and on any given weekend people from across Illinois and Missouri could be found there working from the early morning to late in the evening. This is still a tradition that we still carry out with our clean up days in the spring of each year. After the clean up and stabilization was complete in 1995 we hosted an open house at the James J Eldred Site.  At the same time we conducted a lime stone house tour with visitors able to drive up to and see 6 of the 9 limestone houses still standing. Also in 1995 trenching in the valley turned up a Native American Burial Site on the James J Eldred House Property.  We brought in members of the Kakapo Nation of Oklahoma to properly return him to his resting spot.   In 1999 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In late 1999 IVCHA was awarded just over $500,000 from the Illinois Department of Transportation to finish the Eldred House Restoration.  The Village of Eldred becomes the project sponsor. In 2000 the Federal Government designates a section of Route 100 and the Great River Road as Illinois first National Scenic Byway, the Meeting of the Great Rivers National Scenic Byway.  The Byway ran from Hartford, Illinois to the Eldred House across the River at Kampsville back across at Hardin and back up Route 100.   In 2003 after concerns by local farmers both Jersey and Greene County Designate the Scenic Byway. Along with loosing the scenic byway Eldred pulls out as sponsor of the Enhancement Funds after they were unable to meet the demands of the position.   In 2004 Landmarks Illinois, a state wide historic preservation advocacy group, listed the Eldred House as one of the 10 most endangered historic buildings in Illinois.   After the death of Janet Simpson the Simpson Trust Heirs informed IVCHA that Janet did not have the ability to donate IVCHA the barn.  The barn had been slated for use as the visitor center freeing up the Eldred House for other uses. In the fall of 2005 while on a car ride Judie Hyde and Seth McGee drive past the house to see the property after not being involved with IVCHA for many years.   Upon entering the property they found the grass had not been mowed the entire season and the two cedar trees in the front yard had fallen.   On their way back to their homes in Springfield they stopped in the Killion Communications Office and met with Liz Killion who was on the Roodhouse City Council.  Explaining the situation of not having a sponsor for the project and briefly the responsibilities of the position Liz thought it was something the Roodhouse City Council would consider.   In November of 2006 IVCHA solicited the help of Steve Ponder of Ponder Solutions to help facilitate the Roodhouse IVCHA Sponsorship Agreement.  Steve had been with IDOT in 1999 when IVCHA was originally issued the grant.   In March 2008 after months of maneuvering all the red tape the Roodhouse IVCHA Agreement is executed. IVCHA gives Roodhouse $8,000 to begin the engineering phase of the project. The $8,000 match was made possible by a grant from Landmarks Illinois. Roodhouse hires the Engineers and Architects for the project.         In April of 2008 Mark McDonald of WSEC TV PBS for Springfield films a half hour show on the Eldred House in its current condition.

Links: Landmarks Illinois | Greene County Economic Development Group | Western Illinois Tourism | Greene County Illinois | Illinois Tourism