2023 Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Recipients

Stinson Memorial Public Library District, Anna

Grant amount: $2,500

Stinson Memorial Public Library was designed in 1913 by Walter Burley Griffin, who at one time worked for Frank Lloyd Wright, and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin, and built using local limestone. More than a century later, the Prairie School-style structure continues to serve as an anchor in Anna’s downtown. The Stinson Memorial Public Library District will use the grant from Landmarks Illinois to repair the exterior limestone. Specifically, the library district will clean the limestone and hire a masonry specialist to fix problems with exposed rebar, chipped concrete and loose stones.

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Heritage Preservation Foundation, Beardstown

Grant amount: $1,650

Constructed in 1872 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Beardstown Grand Opera House serves as a focal point for cultural diversity for the community. The second-floor stage and auditorium are used for theatrical productions and the first floor has three main street storefronts. The Heritage Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to own and restore the Opera House, will use its grant to update the existing fire alarm system. A previous Preservation Heritage Fund grant from Landmarks Illinois in 2019 for $4,400 helped the foundation install a new HVAC system.

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RBF Dome NFP, Carbondale

Grant amount: $2,500

The R. Buckminster Fuller Dome Non for Profit (RBF Dome NFP) was formed in 2002 to restore and maintain the Bucky Fuller Dome Home in Carbondale. The unique geodesic home was built for and by Bucky Fuller in 1960. Decades later, it sat in failing condition and, in 2004, it was included on Landmarks Illinois’ Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois. A $5,000 grant from Landmarks Illinois aided RBF Dome NFP’s efforts to complete a Historic Structures Report and Preservation Plan for the property, helping to launch the overall restoration effort that has led to the home becoming a local landmark, being listed on the National Register of Historic Places and being awarded a Save America’s Treasures Grant.

Today, the Dome Home is almost completely restored, internally and externally, and continues to serve as a main tourist attraction in the Southern Illinois city. RBF Dome NFP will use this latest grant from Landmarks Illinois to make necessary repairs to the site, including repairs to the dome’s skylights and installing a secure, accessible gate to allow safe and easy access to the property.

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National Museum of Gospel Music, Chicago

Grant amount: $5,000

Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago (originally Kehilath Anshe Ma’ariv Synagogue) suffered a catastrophic fire in 2006 leaving it extensively damaged. A significant portion of the Louis Sullivan ornamentation and a few other masonry elements were saved. In addition to the building serving as an example of Adler and Sullivan’s ecclesiastical work, its preservation is historically significant as the home of Pilgrim Baptist Church, one of the nation’s most important African-American congregations and the birthplace of gospel music.

Pilgrim Baptist as the owner and the National Museum of Gospel Music as the future tenant have raised roughly $2.7 million toward the $3.5 million needed for the restoration of the structure’s exterior. Landmarks Illinois’ grant will be used to conduct an environmental study of the site, which is required for future federal funding.

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Share your Soles, Chicago

Grant amount: $5,000

Share Your Soles is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that brings shoes and resources to children in need around the world. Several years ago, Mona Purdy, Executive Director of Save Your Soles, acquired the Pullman Stables building at the Pullman National Park on Chicago’s Far South Side to house the nonprofit’s headquarters. Extensive repair to the building has already taken place. The nonprofit will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant to repair and replace the building’s distinctive wood shingles in the gables.

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Save The Tabernacle Inc., Freeport

Grant amount: $5,000

The Oakdale Tabernacle, owned by the Freeport Park District, was scheduled to be demolished in 2018 and was listed on Landmarks Illinois’ Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois. A group of preservationists created the Save the Tabernacle advocacy organization to preserve the structure used in the late 19th and early 20th century as a community gathering space where sermons or educational lectures were presented. Since beginning to lease the property from the park district in 2021, the group has made ongoing repairs to the tabernacle, including most recently installing a new roof. A previous Preservation Heritage Fund grant helped pay for phase 1 restoration work. The recent grant will be used to repair the wood siding and facade boards that have warped with age as well as repair or replace 22 of the tabernacle’s windows.

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Golconda Main Street, Golconda

Grant amount: $3,000

The John B. Young Opera House in Golconda, built in 1887, is located in the National Register-designed Golconda Historic District. Main Street Golconda recently purchased, at a tax sale, the building that has been vacant since 2017 and has suffered from deferred maintenance. The Main Street organization will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant to conduct a structural assessment of the building’s condition to aid in an overall preservation plan for it.

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Little Egypt Arts Association, Marion

Grant amount: $2,500

Little Egypt Arts Association (LEAA) is a nonprofit art organization dedicated to teaching, showing and promoting the arts. The Powell family gifted the organization the historic Powell building on Marion’s town square in 1997 to serve as its headquarters. The historic building long housed a men’s clothing and accessories store. LEAA has rehabilitated and maintained the property over the past two decades through grants, donations and fundraisers. It will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant to install an ADA-accessible bathroom in the building.

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Friends of Sears Sunken Garden, Chicago

Grant Amount: $3,500

In 1907, Sears, Roebuck, and Co. opened in the heart of North Lawndale west of downtown Chicago. The property included the catalog facility, the original 14-story “Sears Tower,” a coal-fired power plant, a dedicated rail line for shipping and a “sunken garden,” which provided a peaceful green space for company employees. The garden, its Classical-inspired pergola and the remaining Sears buildings are designated Chicago Landmarks.

While the garden has been well-preserved overall, its pergola has fallen into disrepair. Immediate stabilization of the pergola is needed to avoid further water and environmental damage. Landmarks Illinois grant funds will be used to replace the pergola’s roof tiles and reinforce or replace its rotted structural elements.

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Greater St. Paul AME Church, Chicago

Grant amount: $4,000

Greater Saint Paul A.M.E. Church is housed in the John Hus Memorial building in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. Erected in 1915 to originally serve as a community center to help Chicago’s Czech immigrants, the building is arguably the most historically significant building in the National Register-listed K-Town Historic District in the North Lawndale neighborhood.

Greater Saint Paul A.M.E. Church will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding to make masonry repairs to the chimney on the east side of the building and on the west elevation.

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Kansas Presbyterian Church, Kansas

Grant amount: $4,000

Built in 1909 by a Presbyterian congregation established in 1858, Kansas Presbyterian Church is an anchor in the small East Central Illinois community of 670 people. The two-story, Classically-designed brick building has original stained glass windows. A pipe organ, acquired by a Carnegie grant & installed in 1914, remains intact. The building is is currently in need masonry repairs, which Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will help pay for.

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City of Kewanee

grant amount: $3,500

The Woodland Palace was originally built as a home by Fred Francis, a multi-disciplinarian nature lover who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1878. Francis began building the palace in 1889 and spent the next 37 years on the home. He left it to the City of Kewanee when he passed away in 1926. Today it operates as a cultural history museum showcasing Francis’ inventions and interior furnishings and is included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will be used to make priority repairs to the structure, including to the building’s roof, solarium and foundation.

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Millstadt Union Fire Department, Millstadt

Grant amount: $3,500

Founded in 1871, the Millstadt Fire Department is one of the oldest volunteer fire departments in Illinois. Built in 1912, the fire house was used by the fire department until 1979, and it became the headquarters for the Millstadt Ambulance from 1981-2020.

Today, the building is in need of masonry repairs, which Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding will help pay for.

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City of Red Bud

grant amount: $3,500

Red Bud’s City Hall was constructed in 1894 and has been used ever since. The building’s clock tower, which is Red Bud’s city logo, rings on the hour. Its structural integrity is at risk, however, and is beginning to separate from the building. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will be used to help stabilize the iconic tower.

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First Baptist Congregational Church, Chicago

Grant amount: $5,000

First Baptist Congregational Church is an iconic structure of the Near West Side of Chicago, with its 200-foot-tall tower jetting up from the Gothic Revival-style, rusticated limestone building designed by the prolific architect Gurdon P. Randall. Constructed between 1869 and 1871, the now more than 150-year-old, National Register-listed church is faced with multiple maintenance needs, including repairing ice and water damage, tuckpointing, broken stained glass, leaking gutters and limestone deterioration. The congregation will use Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds toward its biggest need at the moment: making roof repairs.

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Project XV Museum, El Paso

Grant amount: $5,000

Project XV is working to restore the Legacy Building in El Paso, Illinois, to create the state’s first voting rights museum. The historic building once housed a barber shop owned by David Strother, who became the first Black man to cast a ballot in Illinois following the passage of the 15th Amendment. Landmarks Illinois’ Preservation Heritage Fund grant will help the nonprofit make necessary electrical repairs and replace windows on the building. Once complete, the Project XV Museum will tell the story of Strother as well as those who had to fight for the right to vote throughout U.S. history, such as women, Indigenous Americans, Asian Americans and many more.

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Gibson City Restoration Association, Gibson City

Grant amount: $5,000

The Gibson City Restoration Association (GCRA) is currently working to restore and reuse the historic Burwell Building to help spark local economic development in Gibson’s City commercial corridor. The building was named for Gibson City’s first banker, MT Burwell has had many uses over its history. The Loy Dime Store once called this downtown building home as did the local Opera House. Landmarks Illinois is helping GCRA find pro bono services to complete an updated conditions assessment on the building, which will help create a restoration plan. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding will be used to help fund priority repairs identified in the conditions assessment.

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Western Illinois Museum, Macomb

Grant amount: $3,000

The Western Illinois Museum has transformed the former Macomb Motors building, located one block south of the city’s historic Courthouse Square, into a thriving museum that houses thousands of artifacts representing the history of the region. Over the last two decades, the museum has worked to restore the building, ensuring its architectural details like the unique exterior brickwork, large display windows and wooden bow trusses are retained. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funding will be used toward re-tuckpointing the brick work of the building to stabilize the west and north façades.

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Knapp Chesnut Becker Historical Society, Middletown

Grant amount: $5,000

The Knapp Chesnut Becker Historical Society, Inc., established in 1991, operates out of a 1840 Federal-style building that is believed to be one of the oldest brick buildings in Logan County. The building has been renovated, and it opened to the public in June 2002. However, since that time, some deterioration of the structure has occurred. Landmarks Illinois’ grant funds will be used to help complete masonry and roof repairs to the historic building.

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