Thorntons May Replace 1851 'Historic' Joliet Home

JOLIET, IL — One of this city's last remaining mid-19th century two-story limestone homes, known as the George Washington Casseday Mansion, may be torn down so developers can build a new Thorntons gas station at the corner of Collins and Jackson Streets. The limestone house was built in 1851 on the city's east side.

A 1925 article in The Joliet Sunday Herald-News mentioned how the house was once known as the "social center" of the area. But those days are long gone.

Plans before the city of Joliet's zoning board of appeals call for a 4,400-square-foot convenience store, two dozen parking stalls and 20 fuel pumps. The redeveloped property encompasses five parcels of land totaling 1.36 acres, city documents state. The 1851 limestone home, now a three-unit apartment, is one of the parcels. The Collins Street property is located near a Gulf gas station, a Church's Chicken and a bakery.

On Wednesday afternoon, Joliet Patch visited the controversial property. A large billboard advises motorists that the lot with the Casseday Mansion is the subject of a public hearing set to take place at 2 p.m. today, August 16, inside the Joliet City Hall council chambers. The developer has asked the city to approve a series of zoning variances "to allow construction of a future automobile fueling station located at 408 Collins St.," the sign reads.

City documents indicate the developer is BSTP Midwest LLC. An online review of local government records in other Illinois communities, including a recent project in suburban Warrenville, reflects that BSTP Midwest is affiliated with Thorntons gas station development projects.

Typically, votes taken by a zoning board or planning commission are advisory. City councils make the final decision, although oftentimes, elected officials tend to go along with the recommendations from their respective planning commissions and zoning boards.

The 1851 limestone structure, though deemed a rare example of local architecture, is not listed on any National Register of Historic Places, Joliet Patch was told on Wednesday.

And yet, a 1925 newspaper article from the Joliet Herald-News included a subhead that proclaimed, "Historic Stone Mansion Once Dominated Northeast Side."

"It seems a melancholy shadow of a house, now, the once-proud Casseday mansion that sat in the center of its big domain, covering more than half a square at Jackson and Collins Streets, almost hidden among trees and mildly dominating its own little world," wrote the late Adele Fay Williams back in 1925.

"It was an aristocrat among the mansions of the period and was one of the show places, though a most unobtrusive one."

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor