Five Mile House Foundation

summer alternate Sundays 1-4:00 beginning May 30. In 1998, group of local individuals including John Dively, Dan Thornburgh, Calvin Smith and Larry Bates formed a group to do restoration work on Charleston's Old Town Cemetery. After completing that project, they then decided to move on to saving and preserving the the Five Mile House southeast of town. A committee was formed and other members recruited. There actually was quite a bit of local interest in the preservation effort, particularly from descendents of the Rennels family who owned and lived in the house at various times in the past (see Chronology of Owner and Genealogy Sections). Grants were secured from a local foundation and from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and local fund raising appeals were made. Enough funds were secured to purchase the Five Mile House, the adjacent 1958 Eaton house and about an acre of land as well as going forward with the restoration effort. A dedication of the restored Five Mile House was held in August of 2004. Since that time, the Foundation has worked on completing additional restoration, acquiring historic furnishings for the house, starting a 4th grade school program, summer open houses and making repairs and upgrades to the 1958 Eaton house which is being rented to supplement Foundation income. In 2008, a capital improvement project was initiated to construct a parking lot, sidewalk and handicap accessible ramp, interpretive signs and other visitor amenities. A modern restroom building was completed in 2012. A giant undertaking proceeded in 2019: deconstructing the 1880 commodore Perry barn 3 miles east of the Five Mile House, Then reconstructing it on the Five Mile House site. The Trillium Dell company persevered through a long muddy
spring erecting the timbers.Throughout the ensuing months, we
* added roofing and pine board siding,
* added a tin roof,
*Constructed a beautiful brick floor from handmade bricks,
*Laid a brick patio comprised of commemorative bricks from 5 Mile House supporters,
*constructed a Blacksmith forge base and slowly build up the bricks and the chimney for the forge,
* ran sidewalks from the house to the barn,
*Graded and seeded the majority of the large yard
* electrified the barn,
* created a lovely butterfly garden on the corner of the lot
*Refurbished the front room of the house as it might have looked in the 1850s. Future plans Include a 1 acre parking lot on adjacent land donated by the Shrader family. Plans are to stain the barn a barn red color. We would also like to solve the problem of the plaster peeling in the front room due to water retention in the old porous bricks hand-made in the 1830s from clay from the banks of the Embarass River. There is ongoing discussion about renting out the barn as an event venue To help defray operational expenses.