A Grand Lady in Chicago
From bank-owned to town treasure, this home has a story to tell.
As you walk through the streets of Elgin, Illinois, a quaint city north of Chicago, the walls of older homes whisper their stories. This charming, 3000-square-foot, c. 1873 beauty, owned by Krissy Palermo, surely has one of the most colorful of tales to tell.
Krissy, along with her two children, moved from California to Chicago in July of 2009; she spent 20 minutes touring the house, made an offer and was under a contract for purchase three days later. The home was bank-owned and had fallen into disrepair over the four years it was empty, even succumbing to drug dealers and shady interactions. The house also had served as a multi-unit dwelling during its 175year history, and Krissy discovered many secrets, including a big hole running from the roof to the basement that the bank had covered with rugs. Undaunted, she continued to lovingly work on the home, finding $150,000 worth of drugs hidden in the moldings along the way, which the police department seized.
Over the past 12 years, Krissy’s many restoration projects have included the back porch, the south side porch and courtyard, even fashioning the gate herself from California redwood. The front porch handrails were re-created to match the south side porch by Scott Savel of All Around Home Improvements.
Krissy was raised in New Orleans and has a love of the ironwork so popular there. She wanted to provide the home with some security and permanence without it being “fenced off ” or unfriendly. She also added a brick walking path and designed all the landscaping herself, beginning with the existing 85-year-old spireas.
“Selecting exterior paint colors was a challenge, and yet I knew I wanted the house to look like an Italian wedding cake” says Krissy.
Since she could not decide, she ingeniously painted all the choices on a front exterior wall, placed a large sign for everyone to vote on as they walked by and went with the winning choices.
In September of 2020, a drunk driver ran a stop sign and drove through her yard destroying those 85-year-old spireas, along with the entire north side of landscaping. So Krissy got busy creating again, as her home is now a true focal point in Elgin. Krissy has hosted garden walks, Christmas house tours and wedding photo sessions. She wants to keep this treasure of a home going for another 175 years.