Editor’s note: This is one in a series of six profiles of homes on the Cancer Association of Champaign County’s annual fund-raiser tour. One home is being featured each day in the Urbana Daily Citizen during the week leading up to the tour.
James and Mary Collier’s 1800s-era home on Church Street once faced a different direction.
The home is one of those featured in this year’s Cancer Association of Champaign County Candlelight Tour of Homes.
The Collier home at 400 E. Church St. first faced Wallace Street, Mary Collier said. She said she can tell the house was reconfigured as the front room looks as if it had a wall separating the dining and living rooms. That spot also has original flooring different from other parts in the home.
The Colliers have improved the home since they moved in 26 years ago. Collier said they added a family room, a laundry room and a bathroom downstairs. The fireplace has a mantel that goes all the way around it, as it is all open now. The Colliers painted all the cabinets and replaced the roof, windows, siding and the front porch. A garage was added in 1949, and the family room in 1970.
The Colliers wanted to be a part of the tour this year to help the cancer association. Mary Collier said her husband is a cancer survivor, so it is important to help others with the disease.
The Candlelight Tour of Homes will be 3-8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3.
