Where Smittys Masonry Restoration works

Hoopeston sits where Route 1 and Route 9 cross, in the flat farm country at the top of Vermilion County. The Indiana line is a few miles east. Danville, the county seat, is down Route 1 to the south, and Iroquois County starts just north of town.

It is an old railroad and canning town, and a lot of its houses are old enough to sit on stone or soft brick foundations and to have brick chimneys that have been through a great many winters. That is exactly the kind of masonry Brian works on.

Hoopeston is the biggest town for a good distance in any direction, and the villages around it are mostly small farm towns along the state routes and the old rail lines. To the south on Route 1 is Rossville, and past it Danville. West on Route 9 are Rankin and, farther on, Paxton in Ford County. North on Route 1 are Milford and Watseka in Iroquois County, with Cissna Park off to the northwest. Southwest are Potomac and Oakwood toward the Middle Fork and Kickapoo.

Brian is based in Hoopeston. If you live in one of these towns or out in the country between them, call or text and ask if he can come out. The town pages on this site cover what the masonry and the ground are like in each one.

From Watseka to Danville, this whole stretch of Illinois has a lot in common. The land is flat and the soil is heavy and holds water, so foundations sit in wet ground every spring. The winters freeze and thaw over and over, so water that gets into brick and mortar does damage. And a lot of the towns grew up in the same era, so their older houses were built the same way, on stone or brick foundations with lime mortar.

That is why the work looks similar from town to town: foundations that need repair or replacement, brick and chimneys that need tuckpointing, and old masonry that needs to be kept dry.

• Older houses on stone and brick foundations
• Heavy, wet prairie soil around the foundations
• Freeze and thaw damage on brick and chimneys
• Brick downtowns in the bigger towns

Most of the towns near Hoopeston are in Vermilion County, which runs from Hoopeston down past Danville along the Indiana line. North of Hoopeston, Iroquois County takes over, with Watseka as its county seat. Paxton, to the west, is the seat of Ford County. The county pages on this site go into each one.

A lot of the houses around here are not in any town at all. They are farmhouses on the section roads, with old foundations, old chimneys and, often, an addition or two built on over the years. Those houses tend to have the oldest masonry around, and they are often the ones that need foundation work most. If you are out in the country near Hoopeston, call and ask.

Each town page on this site is about that town: where it sits, what its older houses are like, what the ground does around it, and a few places in it you would recognize. Read the one for your town, then ask Brian about your house.

If your town is not on the list, that does not mean the answer is no. Hoopeston is surrounded by small places like East Lynn, Wellington, Alvin and Bismarck, and a lot of country in between. Ask.

Text Brian a photo of the work and your town or road. Or call (217) 549-2230. You can also email familymansmith75@gmail.com. Brian will tell you if he can get to you and what he sees in the photos.