Gilberts Station's 1852 Rail Stop and Its Older Homes
Gilberts began in the spring of 1836, when E.R. Starks and Elijah Rich filed early claims in what became Rutland Township, and took its name once Albro Gilberts arrived in 1839 and established a farm at what is now the center of the village. A post office opened around 1852 near the new Chicago & Northwestern Railroad station -- known as Gilberts Station -- which turned the settlement into a shipping point for milk collected from local farms bound for Chicago, though the village itself wasn't platted until 1855 and didn't incorporate until 1890.
The 35 Years Between Platting and Incorporation
The gap between Gilberts Station's 1852 rail-driven growth and its 1890 incorporation means the village's oldest houses were built under none of the codified window standards that came later, so double-hung wood sash in period-original openings is common in Gilberts's older section near the historic rail stop. A window-replacement plan for one of these houses should account for that older opening sizing rather than assume the same dimensions used in Gilberts's more recently built sections.