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Sterling North Society celebrates 20 years

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Photo by Gazette file photo

Sterling North’s boyhood home in Edgerton is the centerpiece of the Sterling North Society. The group bought the home in 1992 and spent countless hours renovating the house.

EDGERTON — When the Sterling North Society decided to buy and renovate the famous author's childhood home, everyone told the members they were crazy.

Looking back, they're not sure everyone was wrong.

"All of us agreed pretty much that if we had known the magnitude of the task in 1992, we wouldn't have done it," said Walt Diedrick, head tour guide and the society's self-described "pessimist."

Edgerton residents young and old are grateful that society members didn't know.

North wrote about his experience raising a raccoon in the house at 409 W. Rollin St., Edgerton, in the children's book "Rascal."

Two decades later, the North home has become an homage to the city's favorite son. Children troop through the Victorian dwelling every year, marveling at the place where Rascal dipped his sugar cube in milk and tried to climb the Christmas tree. Exhibits show how North's books and his mischievous pet have become worldwide phenomena.

It's more than the society could have imagined when it formed in 1989, members said. A few early members gathered to reminisce with a Janesville Gazette reporter before the society's 20th anniversary celebration Aug. 2.

North wasn't even that popular in some Edgerton circles when the society formed, members said. Apparently, some people recognized themselves in North's "fictional" books and didn't like what they saw.

Residents discouraged the society from buying the home. An absentee landlord had let the building, then a duplex, fall into disrepair.

But the society raised the money to buy it anyway, paying $65,000 in 1992, members said. It also set a goal to raise $125,000 for renovations.

The money came from all over. The society held bake sales, rummage sales and a "$10 pledge drive." Businesses set canisters all over town. One school donated $12.95, the proceeds of a bake sale.

A few larger grants and donations helped, too.

After the society bought the house, Maud Williams, a Williams Bay "Rascal" fan, offered to assume the mortgage without charging any interest. Sadly, she died before she could see the renovated house.

Five volunteers—Diedrick, Ron Brewster, George Stanek, John Fahlgren and Al Brown—did the bulk of the renovations, putting in an estimated 12,500 hours of labor in five years. They and professionals replaced the staircase, stripped the wood, removed asbestos and redid the floors, among other things.

Meanwhile, the acquisitions committee furnished the house. It wouldn't accept anything made after 1918, when "Rascal" takes place.

"We didn't take anything until we found what was right," said Liz Diedrick, Walt's wife. "There was no hurry to just get it done."

The society celebrated the home's grand opening in 1997.

Today, the society stays busy. It raises money every year for the home's care, in part by putting on the annual "Hometown Talent Show." Board member Dave Kotwitz is in charge of maintenance, including painting one side of the house each year. Volunteers lead tours for hundreds of schoolchildren and adults, introducing a whole new generation to the author.

In 2006, the 100th anniversary of North's birth, the society helped get the annual Sterling North Book & Film Festival off the ground. Last summer, it hosted a group of Japanese tourists celebrating the 30th anniversary of the wildly popular "Rascal" anime.

More than 200 people from all over the world—including Japan and Germany—belong to the society. Only a third of the members are from Wisconsin, Stephenson said.

Through it all, the early members of the society have retained their love for North and Rascal and done their best to pass that love on.

"The coolest part for me is that you can read the book and come into the house and see where the book actually took place," Kotwitz said. "You can visualize the raccoon in the house and doing all this stuff. Not too many books are written where you can come in and do that, relive it just by walking around the house."