TOWANDA - Diane Sullivan is looking forward to drinking her morning cup of coffee on the second-floor balcony of the home she and her husband recently purchased in rural Towanda. | Photo gallery | Video

The balcony is right off the room they've chosen for their master bedroom. It's not the largest bedroom in the three-story house, but it has that all-important access to the balcony.

"I work from home and I want to sit with my coffee, laptop and cell phone on the balcony," said Sullivan, a Twin City Realtor.

But that won't be happening anytime soon.

The house Diane and Bud Sullivan purchased in March is Duncan Manor, the Italianate farmhouse built in 1875 for William R. Duncan as a symbol of his success in the livestock business.

It's the stately looking house off Towanda Barnes Road near the Lamplighter subdivision and the one that's visible to travelers on nearby Interstate 55.

It's also the house that was named to the state's Ten Most endangered Historic Places in 2007 because of its deteriorating condition.

While it is 133 years old, age hasn't been the biggest enemy of the house. A string of tenants ignored maintenance and covered up key architectural details, then it was left vacant for some time.

Vandals also have broken in numerous times - three times just since the Sullivans bought it. Damage from the May 17 break-in was more extensive than ever before.

A hammer was used on many of the hand-turned walnut spindles that carry the handrail up the three stories of the winding staircase.

"They beat the newel post (the post at the bottom of the railing) so hard with a hammer that it pulled the staircase out of the wall," said Diane Sullivan.

Before the damage, Sullivan said there was "not a single squeak of any kind that can be noticed when climbing" the staircase. That no longer can be said.

"I'm surprised it (the vandalism) was so malicious and violent," she said.

Vandals also used a hammer to knock a cherub off the front of the dining room fireplace - one of six fireplaces in the house. So much force was used, the fireplace actually moved away from the wall.

"We found the hammer head, broken off," said Bud Sullivan. "That's probably the only reason they stopped."

The fireplace originally had two cherubs on it. One was missing when the Sullivans purchased the house so Diane searched the Internet to see if she could replace it.

"I found one in Australia and had it shipped to me," she said. Now she has that one but not the other.

The vandalism occurred just hours after the arrival of all the antique window "wavy" glass that was needed for the 65 windows in the house. The original windows had been destroyed through the years.

The Sullivans found some replacement glass at the Old House Society and salvaged other panes from the former Chenoa grade school before it was razed. They worked three months restoring or building new window sashes and planned to cut the replacement glass and finish the project the following Tuesday.

Instead, they were cleaning up glass shards. Vandals shattered all the glass with a hammer.

"It's sad after three months work," said Bud Sullivan.

Finding more replacement glass may be a challenge, he said, because the windows in the house are so big. He hopes they can at least find enough to do the first-floor windows.

The vandals also damaged doors, antique door knobs and some of the laths in the attic and painted graffiti throughout many of the rooms.

Despite all the damage, the Sullivans are determined to restore the old house and make it their home.

It's been their dream for eight years.

"I tried to buy it eight years ago when it was in far, far better shape," said Diane Sullivan. "I always drove by and called it my house. I had a terrible fear that someone would come by and ruin it. It ate at me."

But owner Daniel J. Greer, a Springfield attorney, was not ready to sell at that time. Greer and Helen Cox were among those listed on McLean County documents showing ownership of the property in 2007.

Cox and her father, D.W. Kraft, had purchased the house from James H. Scott. Scott had purchased it from Duncan heirs. Duncan died in 1876 but one of his daughters and her husband continued to live in the house and carry on the livestock business for some time.

It wasn't until after the home was placed on the state's Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in 2007 that Diane Sullivan had the chance to buy the house. Sullivan was then on the board of the Old House Society. Now she serves as its president.

The Sullivans bought it for just under $200,000.

"I had a connection to it," said Diane Sullivan. "I had to have it."

She believes Greer felt that connection and knew the couple not only would take care of it - but could financially.

Diane Sullivan estimates it would take over $1 million for the average person to restore the house. Bud Sullivan is a general contractor so he can do much of the work himself.

They plan to restore the old plank floors throughout the house and are in the process of trying to repair the soffit brackets that run under the eaves of the roof. They also want to rebuild the front and side porches in the first phase of restoration.

Diane Sullivan said kitchen cupboards will be a challenge because the room has seven doorways and two windows.

"We have a lot of old kitchen 'furniture,' so we'll use those pieces now," she said. The couple also has 144 square feet of marble from the old Bloomington library to use for countertops.

They plan to turn the former first-floor master bedroom into an office. Their son, the only one of five children still at home, likely will turn the attic into a bedroom, and one of the original hired-hand's bedrooms on the third floor will be converted into a family room.

The old trunk room will become a bath; one of the former maid's quarters, a guest room.

"It will take every bit of five years of work, really 10 years," said Diane Sullivan. "In 10 years, there still will be things to do."

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Tour the manor

What: A tour of Duncan Manor (there also will be a variety of vendors and restoration experts available).

Directions: From Bloomington, take Towanda Barnes Road north (the lane to the mansion is on the west side of the road near the Lamplighter subdivision).

Cost: $10 for adults; children 12 and under free. Proceeds will go to the Old House Society, Towanda Area Historical Society and Duncan Manor Restoration Fund.

More info: www.duncanmanor.org or (309) 808-1300.