Christopher Walkup, Woodstock

The site dates back to 1835 as part of the original “Virginia Settlement”, the land grant that allowed Christopher Walkup to purchase 1,000 acres under the U.S. Government’s Homestead Act.

Christopher's son William built the square Italianate-style house shortly after his father's death in 1869. The building, occasionally referred to as the William Walkup house, has been carefully and accurately restored to much of its original appearance and grandeur. Many of the original architectural details remain intact, including the massive double front doors and main staircase. This fine oldhouse was illustrated in the McHenry County 1872 Plat Book.

The property's varied past includes time as the area's earliest post office, as a stagecoach stop on the Lake Geneva run, and as both a temperance inn and a Presbyterian Church.