http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/sc/09-01-05-671405.html Preserving the past Historians seek to save 1879 Bierman house from demolition BY PATRICK CORCORAN STAFF WRITER Treasure hunters formed a line outside the old Bierman house on Barrington Road early Friday. Rooting awkwardly through the home amongst family belongings, professional collectors mingled with local residents and curio-seekers during this estate sale of one of the oldest families in the area. Hand-crafted trucks and a cowboy-themed pinball precursor and the stately walnut kitchen table were the first items to go. Others, like a googly-eyed fox stoll and audiotapes from holiday parties, required a trip into the basement or extrication from deep drawers. Stories like this usually end sadly. Empty, old farmhouses are almost always torn down and hauled away in pieces. But in this case, both the memories and the house may last. Pioneers Like the distinctive Quonset hut next to it, the Bierman house at 1745 N. Barrington Road is sturdy and squat -- more functional than exquisite. Built in 1879, it was originally a one-room church schoolhouse. It ended up in Hoffman Estates after the Illinois Highway Deparment decided in 1947 to expand Schaumburg Road. To complete the project, the state needed a slice of the church's property, over which part of the schoolhouse extended. In 1949, after the house was moved to its current location, Harvey and Ester and their two children, Jon and Judith Bierman-Bartelt, moved in. The family stayed there for 54 years, many of which were spent surrounded by friends and family who lived on or near the historic Bierman-Steinmeyer farmstead. The area was one of the first to be developed by pioneers. Village Historical Sites Commission member Marilyn Lind believes one structure on the property dates to the 1830s. Unlike his parents who were farmers, Harvey Bierman was a blacksmith and welder who operated an Bierman Implements Co., part Allis-Chalmers dealership and part repair shop for tractors and other farm equipment. Jon Bierman, who worked alongside his father and later ran a John Deere dealership and a lawn and garden business at the site, said growing up close to family was typical of the times. "Our first house was across the street and our second one was right where the hospital is now. My parents were both from farm families ... things were so much different then. My father grew up within eyesight of here -- on a farm that was right near the tollway and Barrington Road. My mother was born within eyesight of where she raised us. Not many people can say that," he said. As the community grew and changed, the Bierman property did too. Harvey Bierman died in 1981 after 44 years of marriage to Ester, who moved out of the house in 2002 and died in December 2004 at age 93. Jon Bierman, 64, who lives in Elgin, closed the Barrington road shop in the 1990s. Now, the entire farmstead property is all but sold. A large portion of the original farmstead -- 26 acres -- went to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in 1999. The hospital now has a contract on the property's remaining 1.8 acres, which includes the house, the Quonset hut and a sliver of land behind the two buildings. The tools and machines stored in the Quonset hut will be sold at auction Sept. 30. The buildings on the site will probably be knocked down soon after, Bierman said. "As soon as the end of the estate sale and after we sell the shop equipment, it will be demolished right quick. I'm not sure of their plans, but they might do the barn and everything else all at once," he said. House moving While the estate sale last week marked the end of a family and farming tradition that began 150 years earlier, it also marked the beginning of a movement to save the Bierman home and German schoolhouse by relocating it, possibly to the nearby Sunderlage Farmhouse property. Though it's backed by a growing group of village officials -- including Trustee Ray Kincaid, Police and Fire Commissioner Bob Seibert, Village Clerk Virginia Hayter, Village Historian Pat Barch and Lind and Bierman -- to date, there are no plans to finance the project. There's the rub. "Money is going to be the biggest issue and we don't know yet where we're going to get it," she said. "A project like this could be very expensive and it could take a long, long time." Barch said. Barch said grants and fund-raisers are two possible sources for financing the project. So why is it worth saving? Lind said the Bierman house is one of a few examples of Hoffman Estates' heritage. "That little house, it is a part of local history. It was a church schoolhouse and later a home that was an important part of the community for a long time," Lind said. "A town like Arlington Heights or Park Ridge, they have a lot of old homes. What do we have here in Hoffman Estates? Not too much as far as that goes." Seibert, who spent 25 years in the construction field before becoming a plumbers' union official, took a long look at the home's foundation and thinks the house can be moved. He said he's seen bigger buildings, including a tavern in Buffalo Grove, moved with relative ease. "Where it was once a problem to move something like that 300 feet, now houses can be moved 300 miles or more. When they moved the Buffalo House (on Buffalo Grove Road), I asked one of the guys, 'Aren't you going to take some of those bottles off the bar?' They told me they didn't need to and then they moved it without even knocking one over," Seibert said. "Once you disconnect the utilities, you won't have a problem here." The Buffalo House, which was built in 1899, is now a Lou Malnati's. Tentative plans call for restoring the Bierman house to its original state, Barch said. "My wish is that it would be converted back into the old German schoolhouse. How much money and time that would take, I don't know," Barch said. "I think the first order of business is to save the house and we can figure out how to renovate it." Bierman said saving the house would please his parents greatly. "I would love too see that happen and I know my mother would just be very thrilled to know that someone wanted to do that -- that someone cared about the house," he said. "But whether they decide to knock it down or keep it -- I don't have a vote any more."