The monthly Landmarks Illinois News Roundup keeps you in the loop on the latest preservation news stories from the month as well as Landmarks Illinois’ main advocacy efforts, projects and announcements. You can also receive these monthly news roundups directly in your inbox by signing up for our newsletters at the bottom of the page.
March 2025 Preservation News Roundup
Landmarks Illinois participates in AIA’s Prairie Grassroots lobby day in Springfield
Serving in their capacity as members of the AIA IL Legislative Committee, Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski and Landmarks Illinois Board Member Gary Anderson attended AIA’s Illinois’ Prairie Grassroots Advocacy Day in Springfield on March 18. Gary and Quinn presented information on SB0240, which would increase the Illinois Historic Preservation Tax Credit annual cap from $25 million to $75 million, and HB1919/SB1309, which would add Sterling and Alton in the River Edge Redevelopment Zone Program. Over 40 attendees met with state legislators at the State Capitol to discuss these bills and other priority legislation for AIA IL.
Learn moreAdditional advocacy news from around the state
Chicago
Work to preserve Wright’s Walser House continues
Austin
On March 7, Landmarks Illinois Advocacy Manager Kendra Parzen joined Austin Coming Together (ACT) at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed JJ Walser House in Chicago for a walkthrough with a city building inspector. The inspection preceded a Cook County Circuit Court hearing on March 11 for the threatened building. At the hearing, the bank holding the reverse mortgage on the home agreed to make urgent repairs to correct building code violations identified by the inspector. Since owner Anne Teague passed away in 2019, the architecturally significant home in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood has been stuck in legal limbo due to the reverse mortgage.
For the past year, Landmarks Illinois has been working behind the scenes with partners at ACT, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and Preservation Chicago to secure the building and ensure its preservation. These partners were also at the building court hearing. A follow-up hearing to review progress is scheduled for April 1.
Read more
State looks to reactivate Hotel Florence in Pullman
PULLMAN
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is looking for a developer-led team to enter into a public-private partnership for the development, restoration and operation of the Historic Hotel Florence and Hotel Florence Annex located within the Pullman State Historic Site. Request for Solicitations are expected to be released on IDNR’s website soon. Responses are anticipated to be due this summer.
Hotel Florence was built in 1881 as a 50-room hotel. The Annex was constructed in 1914. Both are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and sit within the Pullman Historic District on Chicago’s far south side. According to IDNR’s website, the project aims to reactivate the site through its preservation and reuse, creating a lively public place that can generate economic activity for the community.
Learn more
Pro bono conditions assessment of Chicago’s Coppin AME Church
WASHINGTON PARK
Landmarks Illinois arranged a pro bono condition assessment by Bulley & Andrews Masonry Restoration for Coppin AME Church that took place on March 14. Founded in 1919, Coppin AME purchased the building at 5633 S. Michigan Ave. in the Washington Park neighborhood in 1928 and built the adjacent community center in 1966. Today, Coppin AME serves the community through its food pantry, youth programming and other charitable work. The conditions assessment will help Coppin AME leadership prioritize repairs to the building and pursue funding for those repairs.
SUBURBS
Harley Clarke will become event venue and hotel
EVANSTON
The Evanston City Council approved a 40-year lease on March 11 with Celedon Construction Corporation, which plans a $29 million project to restore and reuse the Harley Clarke Mansion as an events venue and hotel. The vote on the lease agreement, which includes maintaining public use of some communal areas on the property, comes months after the City Council formerly selected Celedon’s proposal for the historic lakeside property last October.
Celedon’s project specifically calls for creating a wedding and event venue at Harley Clarke, along with a boutique hotel with up to 15 rooms and an ice cream shop, speakeasy and restaurant, according to Evanston Roundtable. The project will take advantage of state and federal historic preservation tax credits.
Landmarks Illinois has been advocating alongside local residents for nearly a decade to save and repurpose this iconic building. We included it on our Most Endangered list in 2016 and have worked closely with city officials to help guide the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. We see this recent development as a positive step toward sustainably reactivating a long-underutilized historic resource.
READ MORE
City's first school building is structurally sound, LI condition assessment shows
CRYSTAL LAKE
At the request of the Crystal Lake Historic Preservation Commission, Landmarks Illinois helped facilitate a recent pro bono condition assessment at the Tarpley House, also called the Crystal Lake Academy Building and former Gates House. The building, constructed in the late 1800s, served as Crystal Lake’s first school. Located on the property of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 210 McHenry Ave., it is today owned by the church, which last year applied for a demolition permit with the city for the building.
Landmarks Illinois Board Member Gary Anderson, of Studio GWA, conducted the building assessment in February. This month, it was reported that Anderson found the church to be structurally sound and could be renovated for a new use. The church, however, questions if an adaptive reuse is financially feasible. If listed in the National Register, a rehabilitation could take advantage of federal historic preservation tax credits. Other possible preservation options include finding a new owner and moving the building off church property.
Landmarks Illinois issues statement regarding the Trump Administration’s dismantling of federal preservation programs
On March 20, Landmarks Illinois issued a statement penned by President & CEO Bonnie McDonald in response to the federal government’s ongoing regressive, harmful and unconscionable acts impacting preservation in Illinois and across the nation.
“The intentional gutting of federal agencies and dismantling of preservation-friendly policies and regulations are putting people and their special places at risk,” McDonald states. “We have already seen the widespread and negative impacts across our state in both the rural and urban areas we serve. Statewide and local preservation leadership is critical at this time to continue saving and reinvesting in our collective history.”
Read the statementUPDATES
Since releasing our statement on March 20, the federal government has taken multiple actions relating to the preservation of our built environment and shared history.
On March 26, the General Services Administration released an updated list of buildings that it will put up for sale. This list identifies eight federal buildings across the nation, including one in Illinois: the William O. Lipinski Federal Building, constructed in 1923, at 844 N. Rush St. in Chicago. This does not come as a surprise, however. The government announced back in 2023 that it would pursue selling the 15-story, National Register-listed building in an effort to consolidate its office footprint.
What is newsworthy is how the March 26 list differs from one the federal government issued just weeks earlier. That list, released March 4, identified 443 GSA-owned properties it would unload from its real estate portfolio. This longer list was removed in less than 24 hours. However, it did include other Illinois buildings like the John C. Kluczynski and U.S. Post Office Buildings in downtown Chicago, both designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and listed in the National Register. The GSA said its newer, shorter list is due to public reaction. “Due to the overwhelming response that we received after publishing the first list, we are refining our process,” it said on its website.
Another update came from an explicitly exclusionary executive order from the White House on March 27, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” that aims to erase previous efforts to create a more inclusive and honest narrative of our nation’s history. Included in it is a call for reinstalling some public monuments and memorials that have been removed due to their insensitivity to certain cultures and false portrayals of factual events. Another part of the order moves to cut federal funding at Smithsonian museum exhibits that “divide Americans based on race.” Such a step could put exhibits like one Landmarks Illinois helped make possible—the Ebony Test Kitchen at the National Museum of African American History and Culture—at risk. The actions laid out in this outrageous order go against Landmarks Illinois’ Guiding Principles, and we strongly oppose its attempt to suppress our nation’s diversity and uplift discriminatory, hurtful practices.
With changes like this occurring rapidly under the Trump Administration, Landmarks Illinois will continue to provide updates to our members and supporters to identify how our work, and yours, is being impacted.
Stay connected! Do you have thoughts or concerns about how recent federal actions will affect your community and preservation work? Let us know.
Email our advocacy team!Important Dates
APRIL 1
2025 preservation award nominations open tomorrow!
Nominations for the 2025 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards open tomorrow, April 1. The annual awards program recognizes exceptional efforts in preserving, restoring and revitalizing historic places in Illinois. Nominations will be due June 1. Check our website and social media channels beginning tomorrow for more info!
Visit our awards webpage
APRIL 1
Grant applications due!
Grant applications for Landmarks Illinois’ Preservation Heritage Fund and the Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois are due tomorrow, April 1. These grant programs provide financial assistance to preserve or protect significant structures and sites in Illinois. Visit our website to learn more about qualifying projects for each grant fund and to submit an application. The next application deadline is October 1 for the next round of funding.
Grant information
APRIL 7-9
2025 American Historic Trades Summit
The second bi-annual national trades summit comes to Chicago next week! Landmarks Illinois is proud to serve as the local partner or the upcoming conference Hosted by The Campaign for Historic Trades. The national convening will have informational sessions and networking opportunities that explore the past, present and future of historic trades training in America. It will be held at Hire 360, honored at our 2024 Preservation Forward event, in Chicago’s South Loop.
Learn more & register
Top social media posts of the month
Among our popular posts this month was a call to help the historic and unique Greenstone Church in Pullman. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the church with unexpected utility bills. See the post on Facebook here.
Other popular posts:
Interested in providing pro bono services to help save Illinois' historic places?
Landmarks Illinois and people across the state rely on the generosity of our knowledgeable and experienced preservation professionals to help save places. Through pro bono services, Landmarks Illinois can help move preservation projects forward. If you and/or your company are interested in donating pro bono services, please fill out our form below. This will allow us to match you with pro bono service opportunities that best match your skills and availability.
((Klein & Hoffman conducting an assessment at the McAuley school in West Chicago.)
Pro bono expression of interestAdditional Landmarks Illinois news...
- Landmarks Illinois Vice Chair Ron Clewer wrote an op-ed in the Rockford Register Star in support of the Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit, which proposes to use unspent federal funds to support affordable housing development. “Without the Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit, we are leaving money on the table for housing production and filling gaps with other essential locally controlled funds that could be used elsewhere to spur additional economic development,” Clewer writes in the piece published March 28. Landmarks Illinois also supports the tax credit since it would incentivize reusing existing buildings for low-income housing. Read Clewer’s full piece here.
- This month, McHenry School District rejected the two bids it received for purchasing the historic Landmark School building in McHenry after it closes later this year. The school, which opened in 1894, was locally landmarked last year, which protects it from demolition. Landmarks Illinois offered a letter of support for the designation. The school district announced via a legal ad printed February 3 that it would sell the building and would accept bids until February 28. With no bids selected, the school board would need to pass another resolution to restart the bidding process, the Northwest Herald reported.
- Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski was in Quincy March 12 for the “Preserving History, Closing Financial Gaps: A Historic Tax Credit Workshop” hosted by Illinois Main Street and the District. Rockford-based architectural firm Studio GWA was on hand to discuss how Historic Preservation Tax Credits work and how to use them for historic preservation projects.
- Adamowski also attended the American Planning Association’s 2025 National Planning Conference March 31 – April 1 in Denver.
- Landmarks Illinois President and CEO Bonnie McDonald was in Montréal March 26-29 to for the 2025 National Council on Public History (NCPH) Annual Meeting, its yearly conference convening public historians, including preservationists. McDonald is a member of the NCPH’s Labor Task Force, a group created to address labor issues in the public history field. Bonnie presented at the conference about employers supporting labor equity based on her work on “The Relevancy Guidebook.” The meeting theme, “Solidarity | Solidarité” was prescient in the face of federal cuts to public history programs, including the imperative Institute of Museum and Library Services and National Park Services workers.
- A reminder the National Park Service is inviting local governments to submit nominations for American World War II Heritage Cities. As a way to recognize the historic importance of the United States’ involvement in World War II and the contributions of local communities to the home front effort, the Secretary of the Interior may designate up to one city (jurisdiction) from each state and territory as an American World War II Heritage City. Nominations are due April 30. Learn more here.
Download the full March 2025 Preservation News Roundup
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