DANVILLE — On July 20, 1967, William Render Sr. and his late wife Judy started living their American dream.

After fifteen years of living in a housing project, the Renders were moving into their first home – a cozy single-story house located on the corner of east Williams and north Collett streets in Danville.

Next door lived Mr. Timm, a wealthy local that “owned a whole lot of stuff” in the area, according to Render.

In the early 1970s, Timm’s former property would earn the distinction of “the neighborhood house,” as the Renders’ five children would join other locals in flocking to the home for after-school activities and socializing.

Now the home that served as a hub of neighborhood activity more than 35 years ago will be awarded to the winner of an essay contest held by current owners Deborah Yacoubian and her fiancé Rafael Marrero.

The best 500-word essay on any topic, coupled with a $100 entrance fee, will score the contest’s winner the house at 621 N. Collet St. – a structure that it turns out has a long-standing tradition in the neighborhood.

When Yacoubian and Marrero moved to Danville from Miami Beach, Fla., and purchased the home in 2006, they knew they had a fixer-upper on their hands.

“The house had been in disrepair for many years,” Yacoubian said. “The previous landlord really didn’t do anything to keep up the house. So we had some money we had basically gotten from the sale of a previous home, and we set out to do the work ourselves as much as we could.”

Nearly $50,000 in repairs later, the home had a new garage, kitchen and windows. What happened during the renovations surprised Yacoubian most.

“We didn’t realize it when we purchased the house, but as we started doing the work on the house, we started having local neighbors coming by and seeing what we were doing,” Yacoubian said. “There was a real intense curiosity about the home, and we just didn’t understand why.”

After 41 years of living next door, Render has seen the house, which he remembers being “beautiful inside,” change hands two or three times.

But it was the years immediately following Timm’s passing that stand out in Render’s mind.

Timm willed the property to a Catholic church in the area, and shortly afterward the house was transformed. A group of nuns moved into the home and opened its doors to the neighborhood.

“For a while they called it ‘the neighborhood house.’ They had nuns there, they had projects in the evening when the kids got out of school, and they had (a) basketball court,” Render said.

“The thing where they made the mistake was supervision, and those nuns had to hear those kids cursing and stuff like that. That didn’t last long, but the projects they had on the inside were good. My daughter was little then and she’d go there and learn this and learn that.”

Supervision did become a problem at the home, and at one point the owners approached Render about becoming a supervisor of sorts for the various visitors that would frequent the property – a job he quickly turned down.

“I told them ‘I’ve got a job raising my own kids.'”

In its prime, the property was alive with local children and their parents, but “it wasn’t the neighborhood house very long,” according to Render.

Neighborhood use of the house faded and a number of owners have bought and sold the property since.

Now having returned to Florida, Yacoubian and Marrero are hoping they have found the most realistic and profitable way to sell it once again, at a time when the nation’s housing market is hitting rock bottom.

“I did some research on the Internet and tried to figure out ways we could unconventionally sell it,” Yacoubian said.

“I came across people out there that were doing raffles for people to win their house. In Illinois you can only do a raffle if you’re not for profit. So I continued my search and I found people that had actually held essay contests.”

She found an Indiana family, as well as a couple in New Mexico, that had experienced relative success with the contest, so she and Marrero moved forward with the contest.

So far there has not been much response – the two have not received any entries so far, but do have local judges lined up to examine the entries which can be on a topic of the author’s choosing.

“It doesn’t have to be on anything specific,” Yacoubian said. “It can be a story, it can be their story, it could be whatever. We’re just looking for whatever is going to wow the judges. It’s really up to the judges.”

Even if an entry fails to win the house itself, Yacoubian added a series of consolation prizes to sweeten the deal and stir up more interest.

First runner-up will receive $1500, second $1000 and third $500.

The pair’s ownership of the home appears to be coming to a close two years after they unknowingly purchased the neighborhood landmark.

But no matter who ends up winning the house, Yacoubian knows she and her fiancee have left the former neighborhood landmark better than when they found it.

“(The neighbors) were really happy to see someone doing something about it,” Yacoubian said. “Not only that, but I think it gave some people incentive to pretty up their front yards, too. It was an interesting and great experience.”