Harvest House Walk
Visitors took a stroll through the Historic District of Naperville to get a look inside some of the older homes in the area.
The Harvest House Walk is a fundraiser for Ellsworth Elementary School, and they hope to reach their $10,000 goal.
“We haven’t made a final decision yet on what we plan to spend the money for, but one thing we really talked about last year was to build our diverse collection of library books within each classroom,” said Ellsworth Elementary Principal Cheryl DeGan.
Ellsworth’s Home and School got the idea for the Walk from a school in Washington D.C.
“It made sense, like hey we’re here too. We took a chance the first year, we had no idea, we didn’t budget for it, we didn’t know what we would raise. And it was a smash hit, so obviously we kept going,” said Jennifer Imburgia, co-chair of the Harvest House Walk.
The Homes
Now they’ve kept it going for three years.
Six homes were open to the 200 people signed up, including a Queen Anne Free Classic, a Greek Revival, and two Craftsman houses.
Although living in an older home can be quaint, it also has its challenges.
“We have the old air flow system. So there’s some challenges when it’s hot to get the air pumping upstairs and when it’s cold to keep things warmer. But again I think that’s the charm of the home. My husband doesn’t always feel like that’s charming,” said Jeni Hutchison, homeowner of a Craftsman style house.
“When it gets humid sometimes the doors will stick because the wood expands. There are definitely things that are harder to get replaced and fixed because they’re older, so it comes with its challenges,” said Matt Messier, homeowner of a Craftsman style house.
Even with those challenges, homeowners aren’t complaining.
“When we ended up looking at the house we walked in and just fell in love with all of the molding, and the trim and just the character. My favorite thing is all of these windows. So, we just fell in love with it right away,” said JJ Messier.
Two modern homes were also added to this year’s walk – a Modern Farmhouse and what’s known as the Naper vVlla.
Even though they aren’t historic, people were eager to get a look inside.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ reports.
