The Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois provides monetary assistance to preserve or protect significant structures and sites in Illinois. Eligible beneficiaries include significant structures or sites in Illinois that are under threat of demolition, in imminent deterioration, in need of stabilization, in need of structural or re-use evaluation, or need to be evaluated for landmark eligibility. Landmarks Illinois manages the fund, which was established in 2013. Click here to see all past recipients of the Donnelley Fund.
2024 Donnelley Fund Grant Recipients
Announced December 2024

Alt Space Chicago, Chicago
Grant amount: $2,500
Alt Space Chicago, an artist-led nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing communities through art, culture and sustainable practices, has acquired the 100-year-old former Austin Bank Building in the city’s Austin neighborhood. It is working to restore and adaptively reuse the building to create an arts hub called “HOMECOMING Space.”
The grant from Landmarks Illinois will help Alt Space host a series of “HOMECOMING Design Sessions” where residents, artists and local leaders can contribute ideas for reimagining the interior and exterior spaces of the bank building. These sessions will include interactive workshops, visioning exercises and design feedback events, all facilitated by an experienced community planner and a preservation architect. The grant will help create a collective vision for the HOMECOMING Space that prioritizes both preservation and community relevance.

Shawnee Hills Arts Council, Anna
Grant amount: $2,500
Constructed in 1894, Anna’s Original City Hall Building is today home to the Shawnee Hill Arts Council’s office and studios, where it holds art and music classes and kids’ summer camps. The building is part of the council’s three-building campus, which also includes the 1900s Fire Station and 1920s Western Auto Store. The Arts Council purchased the former city hall building in 2008 and has since continuously worked to restore it to meet modern needs while retaining its historic character in downtown Anna.
The grant from Landmarks Illinois will help the Arts Council conduct a structural engineering study on the building to properly address structural issues to the front wall. The front facade has deteriorated due to water damage and is separating from the rest of the building. The engineering study will provide guidance on how to fix the movement of this front exterior wall.
Learn moreAnnounced June 2024

Promontory Point Conservancy, Chicago
Grant amount: $2,000
For more than two decades, the Promontory Point Conservancy has worked to preserve Promontory Point, a unique manmade park with Prairie-style landscaping and a limestone revetment on the shores of Lake Michigan. The group released an engineering report this spring that showed the revetment can be restored and retained, supporting Landmarks Illinois’ longstanding stance on the park included on our 2004 Most Endangered list. The grant from Landmarks Illinois will help the conservancy hire a historic treatments consultant to assist coastal engineers with Secretary of Interior standards in its design planning and creation of a Cultural Landscape Report/Historic Structures Report and to assist the conservancy in the upcoming federal Section 106 Review process for the park.
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