Stuart's a Railroad Town. The Houses Still Show It.

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad put Stuart on the map in the 1870s, and the town's still shaped by that era — the restored historic depot, the Seth Thomas clock tower on the old Masonic Temple, Hotel Stuart, and a downtown core with enough history that Bonnie and Clyde robbed the First National Bank here in 1934. Most of Stuart's housing dates from that early-to-mid-century railroad-town period: small, compartmentalized rooms, usually one bathroom, built for a different-sized household than most people want today.

That's the actual remodeling opportunity in Stuart — not tearing down and starting over, but reworking houses that were built efficiently for 1920s living into something that works for how people actually live now.

• Opening up small, compartmentalized floor plans in early-to-mid-century homes without losing what makes the house solid
• Bathroom additions and updates — a real need in a town where one-bath houses are still common
• General contracting for the historic downtown core and the homes around it

A hundred years of railroad-town houses means we've got a good sense of what's usually behind Stuart's walls.