The Charles H. Hibbard House, in the McHenry County city of

Marengo, Illinois Marengo is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States on the Kishwaukee River. It lies approximately 60 miles west northwest of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 7,568. Geography Marengo is located at . The north edge o ...

, has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since 1979. The home, also known as the Cupola House, stood unoccupied on Grant Highway as of January 2007. In recent years the home had been classified by the

Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois – also known as Landmarks Illinois – is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. A ...

(LPCI) as one of the state's threatened landmarks. In 2003 the property was listed on LPCI's "top ten most endangered" list. Some time after its 2003 the home underwent some renovation and no longer appears dilapidated on its exterior, as it did in a 2003 photo featured by the LPCI. In 2003 the house was listed as a

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

by the city of Marengo.Existing Landmarks in Marengo, Illinois
, (

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

), Marengo Historical Preservation Commission, City of Marengo.

Architecture

The home is a distinctive example of

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

architecture. The home's namesake as

Cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

House comes from the

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al cupola on its roof which provides ventilation and it is thought served as a lookout tower during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. the first floor has two back

bedroom A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds (ranging from a crib for ...

s believed to have been servant's quarters at one time. Upstairs, on the second floor, there are six bedrooms, a long hallway, a back staircase and

bathroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically i ...

.Cupola House
, All about Marengo, City of Marengo, Official site.

History

The Hibbard House has a fairly illustrious history, as houses go. Construction began in 1846 at the behest of Charles Hibbard, in 1847 the home was complete and the Hibbard's moved in. The home was constructed as an exact

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

of Hibbard's childhood home and contains 14 rooms. Construction cost somewhere around $16,000. The property that the home is on was purchased as a plot from Christopher Sponable. Hibbard came to Marengo by way of

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. He was one of Marengo's first storekeepers and was a known

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

who was renowned for his

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

. During the Civil War it is thought that the home was used as a safe stop for

runaway slaves In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery in the United States, slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, Fugitive Slave ...

. The cupola played a key role in that if it was safe to stop, for food and lodging, a light would be hung in the cupola

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materia ...

. The home also contained a secret, underground room in the yard, it had a hidden entrance near the front porch. Hibbard died in

Lawson, Missouri Lawson is a city in Clay, Clinton, and Ray counties in the U.S. state of Missouri and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The population was 2,541 at the 2020 census. Geography Lawson is located at (39.437848, -94.207973). According to ...

in 1872 and by 1874 the home was owned by Joseph Dietz who ran a machine shop in Marengo around 1877. Dietz married Caroline Sponable, the

first white child The birth of the first white child is a concept that marks the establishment of a European colony in the New World, especially in the historiography of the United States. Americas Canada Snorri Thorfinnsson, born around 1010 in the Viking settle ...

to be born in Seneca Township. Dietz owned the home until 1894 when records show that A.H. (C.H or H.L.) Hale bought the home and held it until 1950. A local

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, Jane Stanford, purchased the home in 1950 and owned it until 1955. Stanford was well known as an educator and community leader. Mr. and Mrs. Francis (Mary) Muzzy owned the home from 1956 to 1980. Jane Stanford's niece, Mary Stanford Muzzy (daughter of Charles Stanford, Jane's brother) and her husband purchased the home from her aunt's estate. Mary S. Muzzy Neal has owned the home since 1980. Mary Susan Neal lives in California and created a life there since before 1972 when she was admitted the state bar of California as an attorney.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibbard, Charles H., House National Register of Historic Places in McHenry County, Illinois Houses in McHenry County, Illinois Houses completed in 1846 Houses on the Underground Railroad Underground Railroad in Illinois Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Italianate architecture in Illinois