St. Charles's 1834 "Charleston" Core and Its Window Stock
St. Charles was founded in March 1834 by Evan Shelby and William Franklin on the east bank of the Fox River -- the site is now Baker Memorial Park -- and was first named Charleston before being renamed St. Charles in 1839 once settlers learned a downstate Illinois town already used that name. The town's economy grew up around water-powered lumber, gristmill, and wool-carding mills at a dam on the Fox River, and by the early twentieth century the Roaring Twenties brought the Arcada Theatre and Hotel Baker as the town became a Chicago-area leisure destination.
From Mill-Powered Growth to the Arcada Theatre Era
Houses built close to that original 1834–1839 riverfront core, and the homes that went up during the Arcada Theatre-era building boom of the 1920s, both predate the standardized window sizing that became common in mid-century construction, so their original openings were typically framed to fit a double-hung wood sash rather than a manufactured unit. A window replacement scoped for one of these older St. Charles houses should start with measuring the actual opening rather than assuming a stock size will fit.