Sunderlage Farm Smokehouse at Hoffman Estates

One named farm building, not a regional template

The Sunderlage Farm Smokehouse is a small, fixed brick building on the former Sunderlage farmstead at 1775 Vista Walk in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It is now a listed historic site within an urbanized village. The National Register record identifies it as a Greek Revival building, gives 1860 as its significant year, and places it in a period of significance from 1850 to 1874.

Its construction date remains uncertain. The 1989 National Register nomination estimates that the smokehouse was built around the time of the farmhouse, circa 1856, following the architect’s account. A Schaumburg Township District Library article says it was believed to have been built in the 1840s, and a Village of Hoffman Estates plan reports a finding of 1845. The NPS record's 1860 significant year is not necessarily a construction year. This page keeps those statements attributed rather than choosing one as definitive.

The building is notable because the sources document a particular smokehouse and its architectural features; they do not establish a universal German-American farm design. The nomination calls it a utilitarian secondary structure and records that it remained in good condition without being adapted for another purpose. The district library reports restoration by 1991 and National Register listing in 1990.

Brick, openings and a roof supported from within

The National Register nomination describes a one-story rectangular building of common brick, about 15 feet 10 inches by 12 feet 4 inches. The library's local-history account rounds this to about 12 by 16 feet and identifies the cream-colored material as Cream City brick from the Milwaukee area. Its entrance sits slightly off center in the north wall facing the farmhouse; one window is on each of the east and west walls. The windows have flat brick arch lintels and interior wood shutters. The shutters could be used to regulate ventilation for the smoking fire, while the library's village-historian account also explains the west window as useful when the building served as a summer kitchen.

The nomination places substantial horizontal wood members near the eaves, then a curved brick ceiling, then roof rafters and sheathing. It describes a gable roof; the cedar shingles visible on the restored exterior were applied in 1988 to replace deteriorated shingles of similar style. The brick gable returns and rows of vertical brick headers below the eaves supply restrained Greek Revival detailing. A brick chimney stands at the south end of the roof.

Inside, the survey records a fire pit in the southeast part of the building, a wood-framed brick smoke hood above it, iron pins used for hanging meat, and a chimney damper. The damper was missing when the nomination was prepared. The twentieth-century concrete floor had been removed, revealing the earlier dirt floor and scorch marks near the hearth. These are observations about one surviving building, not a complete specification for recreating it.

Smokehouse and summer kitchen

The National Register nomination interprets the building as a smokehouse for preserving the farm’s meat supply. Its surviving ventilation features include window shutters and a flue damper; it records meat hung above smoldering fires for several days and later stored in the smokehouse. Black soot and whitewash layers on interior walls and ceiling are evidence of repeated use.

The Village Historian’s later account describes a second role: a summer kitchen and work area, with cooking and laundry activities during warm-weather months. She recounts cooking over a fire, using a wash boiler and relying on the window for daylight and ventilation. This is a local historical interpretation, distinct from the nomination's physical record. The farm smokehouse therefore combined food preservation with practical household work at a particular site; the sources do not show that every smokehouse had these same dual functions.

The pages describe a historic building, not a modern operating method. They provide no current fire clearances, structural load rating, engineered foundation or measured airflow design. The nomination’s PDF is not digitized on the NPS record page; this account cites the archived copy of the original registration form and retains its stated uncertainty.

A source-bounded assembly outline

The numbered outline follows relationships recorded by the National Register survey, from enclosure and openings to roof and smoke-control components. It is not an attested historical construction sequence. The source does not supply a foundation design, precise wall thickness, all timber dimensions, a load calculation, construction tolerances or a modern fire-safety plan. The recorded measurements and details should not be treated as plans for new work.