2023 Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Recipients

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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