Living in a historic village in Illinois for the last 20-plus years, I've come to know and love the unique history of my town and its neighboring environs. That's why I was thrilled to find a Gray's Watercolors original print at the local church rummage sale for $7.00.

It wasn't until I got the vintage print home that I learned the truly interesting back story on Gray's Watercolors in general and The Durant-Peterson House in particular.

This post contains affiliate links. A purchase of any one of these items helps to support this blog and its creative efforts at no cost to you. To read more, please see my disclosure page.  

 

Let's begin with The Durant-Peteerson House in Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve, St. Charles, IL. It sits eight miles (only 17 minutes) away from my home, and I've never even heard of it or been there before!

I happily researched the property. 

 

Illinois' Little House on the Prairie

The following is taken from the Durant-Peterson House Museum website:

In 1837, Bryant Durant moved from Massachusetts to northern Illinois and constructed this prairie farmhouse just prior to his marriage to Jerusha Shurtleff in 1843. The Durants had six children, all of whom were born and raised in the little brick house. 

In the 1880s Godfrey and Christina Peterson purchased the property and added a modern Victorian kitchen on to the west of the house. The Petersons also had six children.

The Durant-Peterson House was rescued in the early 1970s after decades of neglect. Visionary members of the Thornapple Questers, a local historic preservation group, recognized the homestead’s value as a vital part of our shared history and, with the help of Restorations of Kane County (known today as Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley), completed an authentic restoration in the mid-70s.

Today, the Durant-Peterson House is recognized as Kane County’s own “Little House on the Prairie.” The Museum can be enjoyed in all seasons with special hands-on-history programs throughout the year designed to highlight a prairie family’s routines of work and play. A visit to the house offers a unique historical experience. Costumed docents bring the past to life interpreting the prairie pioneer experience in this Nationally Registered historic site.

   

Here's the original watercolor print of the Durant Peterson House in Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve St. Charles that I got at the rummage sale for $7.00.   

The print still has the original Gray's Watercolor backing on it.

 

Gray's Watercolors Origins:

Founded in 1965 as the College Watercolor Group by Paul McConaughy, the business evolved into Gray's Watercolors. Artists used production-line assembly techniques by hand-coloring lithographed pen-and-ink base drawings of various college campuses and landmarks.

Multiple staff artists signed their work with the pseudonym "Gray," inspired by the watercolor hue Davy's Gray. In that vein, my print is signed "Davis Gray." The company continued creating watercolors through the 1980's. Therefore, we know my Durant House print can't be younger than approximately 41 years old (if circa 1985) and even older if created before that.  

A vintage Gray's Watercolors hand-painted print of the Durant-Peterson House in Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve is generally valued between $25 and $55 on the secondary collector market. (Remember I paid $7.00!) Because these prints were produced using assembly-line hand-coloring techniques (either hand-painted overlays or pochoir stenciling over a printed lithograph base), they are classified as open or high-volume limited-edition decor prints rather than rare fine art.

More than one million prints were sold across Gray's Watercolors catalog. I wonder what other interesting prints of landmarks and campuses can be attributed to their work?

 

 

HOW TO FRAME A VINTAGE MATTED PRINT