Home, Sweet Home

20 Elmhurst St., a 1905 house called “Stonehurst” by its builder. Retired farmer Franklin E. Cox built Stonehurst and its sister house, “Elmhurst,” in the shingle style — characterized by steep, double-pitched roofs, stone foundations and lack of “gingerbread” ornamentation seen in other Victorian-era styles. (Photo by Dani Schweigert)

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When Scott and Lisa Puma began dating, they would often visit friends who lived in the older part of Crystal Lake, near Crystal Lake Avenue and Elmhurst Avenue.

Two shingle-style homes, built side by side at the corner, caught Lisa’s eye.

“We would drive past, and I’d say, ‘Now that’s a cool house,’” she says.

In particular, Lisa was taken with the arches that grace the front porch of 20 Elmhurst St., a 1905 house called “Stonehurst” by its builder.

Since 1998, Scott and Lisa have called it home.

The couple have renovated the house into an up-to-date family home that honors its heritage and reflects the time in which it was built. In 2005, the year of the home’s 100th birthday, it was included in the Crystal Lake Historic Preservation Commission’s Heritage Tour house walk.

“The Puma’s house and its neighbor to the south are ‘twin’ houses and both are in a quite prominent location. Thousands of people pass by those houses every day and admire their unique beauty and wonder about their history,” says Diana Kenney, president of the Crystal Lake Historical Society and executive director of Downtown Crystal Lake / Main Street.

Retired farmer Franklin E. Cox built Stonehurst and its sister house, “Elmhurst,” in the shingle style — characterized by steep, double-pitched roofs, stone foundations and lack of “gingerbread” ornamentation seen in other Victorian-era styles. Shingle style was most popular about 1880 through the early 1900s and was used widely in seaside resort communities in New England, but is less common in the Midwest.

The builder was stepping out from the kinds of homes typically seen in Crystal Lake, which was more farmhouses and Victorians, Lisa says.

“I always liked how the original owner actually named the houses ‘Elmhurst’ and ‘Stonehurst,’” Kenney says. “Who names houses anymore?”

Some of the home’s most distinctive features are its stone foundation and first-floor walls. The original black mortar can still be seen on the front porch, though it has faded on other parts of the house. Lisa compares the stones to cloud shapes.

“You can look at the stones and see different shapes and pictures,” she says, adding that her children, Hannah and Joshua, have found a mouse, a rhinoceros face and various flowers.

“There are numerous fieldstone foundations in Crystal Lake, but these two houses really showcase that feature,” Kenney says.

The Pumas have carried the look into their landscape design, using Wisconsin fieldstones in a backyard retaining wall.

Inside, the oak trim and maple floors are all original, as are the double-hung windows. The couple replaced a 1930s Spanish revival fireplace with a wooden mantle more reflective of the shingle style. A tin ceiling with an egg and dart motif graces the dining room, where the family eats most of its meals.

Scott installed the ceiling during three weekends and says the job was not an easy one. Plywood had to be attached to the existing ceiling to attach the tin, and the fact that the room was not perfectly square made aligning the ceiling’s pressed pattern difficult.

“It was like tiling a floor upside down,” he says.

Off the dining room, a butler’s pantry has been transformed into a powder room with a pedestal sink and octagonal floor tiles. The kitchen has been modernized, but it blends with the vintage feel found in the rest of the house.

“We wanted our renovations to honor the house,” Lisa says.

The house was built to accommodate servants and includes a second staircase that leads from the kitchen to the attic, where they slept.

“When we renovated the kitchen, we considered losing the old stairs so we would have more room,” Lisa says. “But the two stairways are integral to the house, so we decided to keep it.”

A backstairs landing between the first and second floors has been transformed into a reading nook. An original window from the house has been repurposed as a mirror hung above the stairs, and twin stained glass windows were installed above the landing. Lisa made the stained glass windows herself, to match a larger one in the living room.

One of the Lisa’s favorite spots is a breezy back sun porch, where the family spends a lot of time in the summer. Cozy little places like the backstairs landing, the porches and an octagonal window seat in the living room are what make the house special, she says.

“This is a house where you can really feel its soul,” she says.