Historic preservation/restoration is fraught with difficulty.
With a background in real estate and building, he set his eye on restoring the Eagle Hotel, located in Wilmington, Ill. As Scales tells the story on the hotel's Web site, the Eagle was constructed circa 1836, the same year in which Wilmington was founded. Originally, the building contained a limestone warehouse in addition to the hotel. Both catered to customers of the sawmills and gristmills located on the Kankakee River, as well as travelers passing through on riverboat or stagecoach lines. Ensuing years saw the Eagle serving the community as a tavern, and, after its charter in 1863, as the original site for the First National Bank of Wilmington. Sometime later, the warehouse and storefront spaces were opened to accommodate larger business concerns, including a restaurant and mercantile store.