Sugar Grove Township in Kane County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

P. Y. Bliss House

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2023

1. P. Y. Bliss House Marker

Inscription.
The 1838 Greek Revival Peleg Young Bliss House is an example of post and beam construction, which utilizes large wooden timbers joined together with wooden pegs. While this construction technique was commonly used in homes, churches, barns and covered bridges in the nineteenth century, few examples survive today. This building housed the first mercantile business in Sugar Grove Township and was later a residence and Methodist meeting house.

When the P Y. Bliss House was slated for demolition to accommodate a new housing subdivision in the 1990s, the historically — and architecturally — significant building was relocated to Main Street by the Sugar Grove Historical Society to serve as a museum. The relocation and rehabilitation project was the result of a public-private partnership between the Society and the Sugar Grove Township Board, with additional support from the Kane County Historic Preservation Commission and The Custom Source, a division of St. Paul Financial Development Corporation. In 2000, the project received third place in the Illinois Governor's Hometown Awards Program.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture • Industry & Commerce • Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical year for this entry is 1838.

Location. 41° 45.43′ N, 88° 26.636′ W. Marker is in Sugar Grove, Illinois, in Kane County. It is in Sugar Grove Township. It is on South Main Street just south of 1st Street, on the right when traveling south. The marker is located directly in front of the subject house. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 259 South Main Street, Sugar Grove IL 60554, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Greater Chicago.

It is also in the American Midwest.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the

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Great Lakes,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture

and also the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 5 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: First Settler (approx. ¼ mile away); Harvey Sterkel Field (approx. 3.2 miles away); Tom Healy Field (approx. 3.3 miles away); Quarry Reclamation and Site History (approx. 3.4 miles away); Watch Us Grow (approx. 3½ miles away); Samuel Bedrosian, PhD (approx. 4½ miles away); Remember Oklahoma City (approx. 4.9 miles away); Glacial Boulder from Mendota College (approx. 5 miles away).

Also see . . .
1. Bliss House Museum. Sugar Grove Historical Museum website entry:
Excerpt:

If walls could talk, think of the stories the walls of the Bliss House could tell! The white frame structure with the brick filled walls stands on its new foundation south of the tracks on Main Street in Sugar Grove, filled with records and memoirs of over on hundred and seventy years. The move to Main Street in 1997 was the second
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2023

2. P. Y. Bliss House Marker
(looking west from South Main Street • Bliss House in background)
move for the structure from its original site at the corner of Bliss Road and Merrill Road.

(Submitted on October 31, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

2. Peleg Young Bliss. Sugar Grove Historical Society website entry:
Excerpt:

In 1837, P.Y. Bliss settled in Sugar Grove. On the 22d day of November, 1838, a man popularly known as "Boss" Read erected for P. Y. Bliss a frame house. In the Spring of 1839, the Methodists held their quarterly meeting in one of its rooms. On the 1st of June, 1839, Mr. Bliss filled the new building with such goods as are demanded by the country trade and opened the first mercantile establishment in the township. Its trade extended over a territory reaching from Dundee to Yorkville, and from the borders of Kane County on the east to Johnson's and Shabbona Groves, DeKalb County, on the west. No other store in Kane County ever drew such a wide range of custom, and, according to Mr. Bliss, the annual sales exceeded those of any other in the county by thousands of dollars.

(Submitted on October 31, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

P. Y. Bliss House (<i>southeast elevation</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2023

3. P. Y. Bliss House (southeast elevation)

(carriage step in foreground)

Peleg Young Bliss image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Larry Gertner, 1852

4. Peleg Young Bliss

“1871 Sketch: Residence of P.Y. Bliss” image. Click for full size.

via Sugar Grove Historical Society, 1871

5. “1871 Sketch: Residence of P.Y. Bliss”

P. Y. Bliss House (<i>south elevation</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2023

6. P. Y. Bliss House (south elevation)

P. Y. Bliss House (<i>east/front elevation</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 12, 2023

7. P. Y. Bliss House (east/front elevation)

Credits. This page was last revised on June 29, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 31, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 349 times since then and 32 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 31, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 4, 5. submitted on March 3, 2024, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. 6, 7. submitted on October 31, 2023, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.