Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side Grant Recipients

Bronzeville Trail Task Force, Bronzeville

Grant amount: $2,500

The Bronzeville Trail Task Force is working to create the Bronzeville Trail by converting the abandoned Kenwood branch CTA train tracks into two miles of parkway for walking, biking and jogging. The effort is in its fourth year of development and is working to fundraise and spread awareness of the trail. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will help pay for promotional materials and community engagement tools.

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Englewood Real Estate Development Corp., Englewood

Grant amount: $2,500

The Englewood Schlitz Tied House at 958 W. 69th St. is a two-story, Queen Anne-style building constructed in 1898. In 2011, it was designated a Chicago Landmark. It is one of the last remaining 57 original taverns or “tied houses” built by the Milwaukee-based Schlitz brewery in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries just before Prohibition. The building’s current owner, local activist and leader Jennipher Adkins, hopes to restore the tied house to reuse it as a community gathering space. Landmarks Illinois’ grant will help pay for roof repairs to the building.

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Jackson Park Watch, Jackson Park

Grant amount: $2,000

The Clarence Darrow Bridge in Jackson Park serves as an important pathway to connect the west and east sides of the park just south of the Museum of Science and Industry Columbia Basin lagoon. Parts of the bridge predate the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, with the original bridge designed in 1880 by Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root. Frederick Law Olmsted retained the structure in his redesign of Jackson Park in 1895. In 1957, this new bridge was re-named the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge, dedicated to the legendary Chicago attorney, Clarence Darrow. The bridge has long been closed to foot traffic, however, and is in need of restoration. Landmarks Illinois’ grant will help determine a preservation plan for the historic structure that park advocates say would help seniors and others with limited mobility issues navigate Jackson Park more easily.

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Monumental Baptist Church, Bronzeville

Grant amount: $2,500

Monumental Baptist Church was formally organized September 23, 1919, at 3029 S. Cottage Grove Ave. on the South Side. In 1934, the congregation purchased its current home at 729 E. Oakwood Blvd. in Bronzeville. The Romanesque Revival-style church was designed by Patton, Fisher & Miller and constructed in 1899. In 2022, the building was designated a Chicago Landmark. It is said to be one of the best surviving examples of a “central lantern church” in Chicago. In its history, Monumental has been one of the largest and most active African American congregations in the city.

Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding will help the congregation pay to make necessary repairs to the church’s roof. Landmarks Illinois is also continuing to support the congregation in its efforts to seek funding through the City of Chicago’s Adopt-a-Landmark program to help with future restoration work.

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Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Bronzeville

Grant amount: $2,500

Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church is located within Chicago’s Grand Boulevard community in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Built in 1912 and designed by famed Chicago architect Alfred Alschuler, the Neo-Classical revival-style church became a Chicago Landmark in 2020. It has, however, suffered damage caused from water infiltration. The church’s masonry, limestone façade and stained-glass windows and frames are deteriorating and in need of repair. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will help the congregation set up necessary scaffolding to prepare for needed repair work. Landmarks Illinois is also continuing to support the congregation in its efforts to seek funding through the City of Chicago’s Adopt-a-Landmark program to help with continued repairs.

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Canaan Baptist Church, Englewood

Grant amount: $2,500

Canaan Baptist Church of Christ at 6657-6659 S. Harvard Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood was designed by Solon S. Beman and constructed in 1905. The Classical Revival-style church retains a high degree of historic integrity and was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2006.

Landmarks Illinois has worked with the congregation for the past several years in its efforts to maintain and preserve the church. The recent grant funds will be used to restore the historic oak front doors, which are situated under the church’s deep portico. Landmarks Illinois is also continuing to support the congregation in its efforts to seek funding through the City of Chicago’s Adopt-a-Landmark program to help repair seating in the sanctuary.

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Pullman Tech Workshop, Pullman

GRANT AMOUNT $2,500

Pullman Tech Workshop (PTW), a nonprofit providing historic trades training to people living in and around Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, has been awarded a $2,500 matching grant to help with rehabilitation efforts at the former Schlitz Brewery Stable Building.

Built in 1906, the two-story, brick building was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Frommann & Jebsen and is today a Chicago Landmark. PTW is currently renting the building with the intention to own it through an upcoming donation. Landmarks Illinois grant funds will specifically go toward the cleanup and renovation of two spaces in the building: a former office and storage space to be used as the Material Library and a former testing lab for the brewery to be used as the Preservation Technology Lab.

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Inequity for Sale, Englewood

GRANT AMOUNT $2,000

Social justice artist and National Public Housing Museum’s 2021 Artist-as-Instigator Tonika Lewis Johnson created the “Inequity for Sale” project, a virtual and physical exploration of homes sold on land sale contracts (LSC) in Chicago’s Greater Englewood neighborhood, demonstrating how legalized theft in the past directly contributed to the present inequity in black communities. The project includes 10-15 life-sized land markers for LSC homes, a website documenting the stories of this period of plunder, and a walking tour via the Vamonde app that connects this history with present-day conditions in Greater Englewood. Johnson, who was also named a 2022 Landmarks Illinois Influencer, will use the grant funds to purchase one of the land markers to be installed in front of a LSC property.

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Hyde Park Union Church, Hyde Park

GRANT AMOUNT $3,000

Hyde Park Union Church (formerly Hyde Park Baptist Church) is a significant, 1906 work by noted architect James Gamble Rogers (1867- 1947), who is known nationwide for his designs of university structures. He also designed the stately Gothic Revival-style Emmons Blaine Hall for the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago (1896-1903) nearby on 59th Street.

The congregation of this church, founded in 1874, was closely associated with several founders of the University of Chicago (including the first three presidents, William Rainey Harper, Harry Pratt Judson, and Ernest DeWitt Burton, and many faculty members). Construction was funded largely by John D. Rockefeller and the American Baptist Education Society. Histories of the church note it as a center of liberal Protestantism. The church’s proximity to the campus has insured generations of theological students’ involvement in preaching and ministry.

The parish hall and sanctuary, constructed in 1926, are in critical need of restoration due to the advanced deterioration of the fifth-level tower room. The congregation will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds to hire an architect to conduct a conditions assessment to prioritize their needs. This study will enable them to apply for additional funds to complete the necessary work.

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Pullman Civic Organization, Pullman

Grant amount: $2,500

The Pullman Civic Organization began documenting residential façades in the Pullman Historic District in 2007 as part of a larger historic survey started by its volunteer-led Beman Committee. The survey first focused on the southern portion of the district. Now, the organization would like to focus on the northern portion to complete its catalogue of residential façade drawings for the entire Pullman Historic District.

The northern part of the district represents a multitude of dwelling units of varying size and type. All were designed by architect Solon S. Beman and built in the 1880s, as part of the original town of Pullman. Series of row houses boast architectural features in vogue at the time, while also reflecting Beman’s own eclecticism and mixing of styles to create a unique community that was in keeping with George Pullman’s vision for the “world’s most perfect town.”

Landmarks Illinois grant funds will be used to hire a local architect to create elevation drawings of residential units in the northern part of the district.

All drawings will be added to a public, searchable database of Pullman Historic District façade styles. This database continues to act as a standing resource to property owners, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks for use in building permits and contractors wishing to perform any rehabilitation, stabilization, etc., work on the façades of the applicable buildings.

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St. Basil Visitation

Englewood
Grant amount: $2,500

Awarded August 2021

St. Basil Visitation, formerly known as Visitation and built in 1899, has been at the heart of the historical richness and cultural diversity of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood for over a century. Located on Garfield Boulevard, the green tower and spire of the Gothic-style church serve as a beacon for the South Side residents and visitors.

In 1925, 1,575 students were enrolled in the church’s grammar school, making it the second-largest, English-speaking parish in the City of Chicago. In 1932, the New World noted that the parish “is one of the largest and most important in the Archdiocese.” The church was a bustling religious center for Irish immigrants for the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the century, it diversified and celebrated the richness of the Black and Puerto Rican communities.

The church’s congregation has been awarded $2,500 through the Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr, Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side to aid in the restoration of 80 original stained glass windows. The interior of the church was completely restored in the early 2000s, but the art glass windows were not part of that project. The window restoration project was more recently identified as a priority thanks to a 2016 building evaluation conducted by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

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LYTE Collective

Greater Grand Crossing
Grant amount: $2,500

Awarded June 2021

LYTE Collective is a nonprofit organization serving Chicago youth impacted by poverty and homelessness. LYTE Collective is working to restore the 1926 Ingleside-Whitfield United Methodist Church to serve as a community center for the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. The future space, called the LYTE Lounge, will provide holistic support services, house a health clinic, art and music studios, gymnasium, performance stage, teaching kitchen, computer lab and more than 200 units of secure storage. Youth who visit the future LYTE Lounge will be connected to both immediate and long-term housing and will have access to food, shower and laundry facilities, personal care supplies, legal services and mental health support.

LYTE Collective is currently raising funding to repair the vacant former church, which it purchased in 2017. Renovations underway include updating plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems. LYTE Collective will use Landmarks Illinois grant funding through the Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side to help pay for those updates.

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Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp.

Auburn Gresham
Grant amount: $2,500

Awarded June 2021

The Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp. (GAGDC) is a community development organization serving low-to-moderate income communities. It is restoring a historic, four-story, masonry building at 79th and Halsted Streets to transform it into a multi-use site including office and retail space and a federally qualified health center. The historic property was deemed eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is therefore required to retain certain original features. GAGDC will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding toward retaining and reusing an original interior staircase that is required to remain due to the building’s historic significance.

The restoration effort is part of GAGDC, Urban Growers Collective and Green ERA’s “Always Growing Auburn Gresham” project, which was awarded the $10 million Chicago Prize in August 2020 from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation. The larger project will create a “healthy lifestyle hub” that includes the multi-use site at 79th and Halsted as well as an urban farming campus at 83rd and Halsted. The development project is expected to create a neighborhood anchor and bring jobs, food, healthcare and much-needed investment to the Auburn Gresham community.

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Greenstone United Methodist Church

Pullman
Grant amount: $2,500

Awarded January 2021

The Greenstone Church, located on the southeast corner of St. Lawrence Avenue and 112th Street, was built in 1882 as a church to serve all the denominations of the company town of Pullman. It was sold to the Methodist Church in 1906 and today serves as Greenstone United Methodist Church. The church is a City of Chicago Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark.

Designed by Solon Beman, the Greenstone Church in Pullman features a unique façade of green, serpentine stone quarried in Pennsylvania. The building, however, including its main tower is in need of extensive repair. The structure of the tower is compromised and crumbling. The congregation will use Landmarks Illinois grant funds for Phase 1 restoration work.

Landmarks Illinois enlisted the help of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., to conduct a pro bono engineering report on the church in 2016. The findings in this report recommend a priority approach to repair the exterior masonry with the first priority of recladding the tower with alternate material and salvage units to be used in other areas of the building.

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Muddy Waters Original Jam Out (MOJO) Museum

Kenwood neighborhood
Grant Amount: $2,500

Awarded September 2020

The Muddy Waters Original Jam Out (MOJO) Museum, a nonprofit working to preserve blues legend Muddy Waters’ former home in North Kenwood and convert it into a museum and cultural center. The MOJO Museum will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds to help make critical repairs to Muddy Water’s former home as part of the first phase of the four-phase restoration and redevelopment plan for the 131-year-old structure. Phase 1 work includes repairing the roof of the home, replacing and repairing windows, conducting masonry repairs to the exterior of the home and completing interior repairs due to water damage.

Muddy Waters House, located at 4339 S. Lake Park Ave. and built in 1889. McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, purchased the brick two flat in 1954 and lived in it until the 1970s. The building is part of the North Kenwood Multiple Resource District, a Chicago Landmark District designated in 1993 due to its architectural significance. The home is also eligible for individual Chicago Landmark designation, and a nomination is underway.

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