| |
While Landmarks Illinois is based in Chicago, as a statewide advocacy organization
Landmarks Illinois is
committed to visiting and giving assistance to communities throughout the state.
News From the Road 2006
Elkhart
The Route 66 town of Elkhart, Illinois (Logan County) is the home of the 1915
Gillette Memorial Bridge, included in Landmarks Illinois’ 2005
Ten Most
Endangered Historic Places in Illinois list. The bridge is connected to an
equally historic Victorian-era cemetery, where Illinois’ 14th, 16th and 20th
Governor Richard Oglesby is buried, and which features an impressive Gothic
Revival limestone chapel.
The Elkhart Historical Society and the Logan County
Tourism Bureau have worked together to find funding to renovate the distinctive
bridge so that it may become a destination in Elkhart. Landmarks Illinois has
given a $5,000 heritage grant toward this effort. For more information, contact
info@tourlogancounty.com.
Carbondale
Hosted by Landmarks Illinois regional advisor and local preservation architect
Gail White in Carbondale, Landmarks Illinois staff members, Suzanne Germann and
Lisa DiChiera, met with local residents involved in the effort to renovate the
Fuller Home Dome, included in Landmarks Illinois’ 2004
Ten Most Endangered
Historic Places in Illinois list. That same year, Landmarks Illinois provided a
$5,000 Heritage grant to the non-profit organization that now owns the dome and
is fundraising to undertake the effort of renovation and opening the dome to the
public. Landmarks Illinois’ grant went toward the completion of a historic
structure’s report for the dome. For more information, visit:
www.buckysdome.org.
Along with Buckminster Fuller’s own dome home, there are several other cool
mid-century homes in Carbondale, including two passive-solar designed houses,
and just south of Carbondale, a home by noted modernist architect Bruce Goff,
which now functions as a bed and breakfast.
www.brucegoff-castle-bandb.com.
Landmarks Illinois staff also visited the Tuscan Lodge, built in 1894, and
included in Landmarks Illinois’ 2005
Ten Most Endangered
Historic Places in Illinois list.
In 2007, Landmarks Illinois awarded a $5,000
Heritage Grant toward the
building’s roof repair and structural analysis work.
Thebes
With Southern Illinois University’s professor of architecture Bob Swenson, Lisa
and Suzanne visited the Thebes Courthouse, built in 1848 of hand-hewn stone,
located in Thebes, Illinois overlooking the Mississippi River (Alexander
County). Thebes had a population of 478 people in the 2000 census.
Students in
the Preservation Summer 2006 program in the Architecture School of SIU made
substantial progress on a Historic Structure’s Report (HSR) for the courthouse.
For more information on SIU’s program, contact rswenson@siu.edu. The
courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is
owned by the city. It is open to the public by appointment.
Cobden
Cobden, Illinois, with a population of a little over 1000, is in a valley
nestled within the Shawnee National Forest. Buildings on the main street date
from the mid-late nineteenth century. The 1892 DuBois Building, received a
Landmarks Illinois Heritage Grant
to update its heating and cooling system.
|
|
Gillette Memorial Bridge, Elkart
limestone chapel and cemetery, Ekhart
stained glass window
Main Street, Elkhart
l. to r. local resident with Lisa DiChiera &
Gail White at the Fuller Home Dome
Passive solar house, Carbondale
Tuscan Lodge, Carbondale
Thebes Courthouse
DuBois Building, Cobden
|
|
