It was an adventure to pack up everything in Idaho in 1998 and move on the spur of the moment to Illinois. But what did we know about Illinois? We never had much chance to vacation in the East, and now we could travel from the center of the country to the East, the South and wherever. Really neat. Robin's ancestors had populated rural Schuyler County so we could do some family history research too. After finding a very nice bungalow in Washington, Illinois, near Morton where I worked, we got it settled and took some weekend trips down to Rushville, the county seat of Schuyler County. It seemed kind of far, though--90 miles away--so we stayed overnight in the closest real motel which meant doubling back about thirty miles. Day trips seemed to be a little better, but left only a few hours to dig through the genealogical library or hoof it through the countryside checking out cemeteries or possible family farm sites.

We subscribed to the county daily paper, the Times, of course, and enjoyed sorting through the pages, recognizing familiar names. We had learned these names just recently since we completely transcribed the local histories from the late ninteenth century while Robin was building up the rootsweb sites for both Schuyler and neighboring McDonough counties.

After several months and several trips to Rushville, I spotted an ad in the Times for a handsome building on the east end of the south side of the square. The courthouse was opposite it on the southwest cattycorner of the square and it had nine second floor stately windows facing the courthouse on that side. The narrow side, facing the square, had two similar windows with another on the angle wall at the corner. It was like the Venetian Doge's palace on St. Mark's square, except on the ground floor were the offices of the Chamber of Commerce and a Subway sandwich shop.

We discovered that the rent from the downstair portion was just about equal to the mortgage and insurance on the whole building, so the upstairs apartment was essentially free rent. We had no idea that the uninsulated building was surprisingly expensive to heat and cool, but it seemed like a great place to keep as a second residence. We could visit Rushville any time and stay at our own place!

After a while, it looked like a good idea to actually move to Rushville full time and I would stay near work during the week and spend weekends in Rushville. How bad could it be? Well, it was pretty bad. After two months, the weekend commute turned into a daily commute and, aside from spending three hours a day in the drive, life was much better. The drive was made in the LeSharo motor home a few times, and a couple of trips in a borrowed 1972 Eldorado.

Down the block, the 120 year old Rushville Hardware posted a notice that it was going out of business. I could see the building becoming more faceless offices and the square already had too little retail space and was losing its character and life. We decided on taking on the project of restoring the building and figured it would come to us what to do with it as we worked. What fun it would be!

Rushville Townhouse
Restoration of the Rushville Hardware Building
Open House for South Side Antiques and Decor
Restoration Second Phase - South Side Home and Kitchen Emporium
Rushville Hardware History

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