Huntley's Woodstock Street

Few remaining examples of streets containing old paving bricks survive in McHenry County. Woodstock and North streets in Huntley are two such vintage roadways. Woodstock Street, lined with mature trees and grand old houses, was the main thoroughfare through Huntley. In the days when farmers brought their milk by horse and wagon to town for processing, the steep hill in the street made paving necessary.

Brick paving was basically a fad of the times. Brick paved streets were “prized for their modernity, ease of traffic movement and cleanliness” but not every town embraced this method of street paving during the later half of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. The fact that Huntley did makes this feature rare in the county.

Stowell-Deicke Farmstead, Huntley

One of the earliest farmsteads in the area, the original Stowell property in Huntley was owned by several prominent area figures through the years. Edwin Deicke, a highly regarded contributor to Huntley’s growth, owned a group of farms that made up 1000 acres on the west side of the village. This farmstead would eventually become part of a five-farm collective known as “Sun Valley Farms”.

Both barn and house were constructed of hand-hewn posts and beams with angled braces mortised and tenoned with wooden pegs. Other outbuildings predate 1880 and have survived on the site, including the silo, a stone-lined well, a stone smokehouse, a chicken coop, and the original grain/corn crib built with square nails.

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