April 2024 Preservation News Roundup

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.

Preservation partners conduct pro bono assessment on endangered bridge

Landmarks Illinois helped facilitate a pro bono condition assessment of the Richmond Bridge, included on our 2023 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois. Wiss, Janney and Elstner Associates, Inc. visited Richmond on April 17 to conduct the assessment, which will help determine a preservation plan for the city-owned landmark.

Built in the mid-1800s, the Richmond Bridge is the last of two wooden bridges constructed in Richmond’s early settlement years. It is integral to Richmond’s identity and remains a part of the town’s logo. However, a lack of maintenance has threatened the bridge’s future. It was closed to vehicular traffic in the early 1990s due to poor conditions. Today, it is closed to pedestrian traffic as it has fallen further into disrepair.

We thank our partners at WJE for providing the pro bono condition assessment. Stay tuned for more developments on this and other former Most Endangered sites.

2024 Most Endangered announcement next week!

Landmarks Illinois will announce the 2024 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois at a live, virtual press conference next Tuesday, May 7. Bonnie McDonald, Landmarks Illinois President & CEO, will discuss this year’s most threatened historic and/or culturally significant sites across the state. Members of the public and press are welcome to attend and will have the opportunity to ask Landmarks Illinois staff questions.

WHEN

Tuesday, May 7
12 p.m.

WHERE

Virtual Webinar

REGISTRATION

Free to attend.
Registration required.
Guests will receive a custom Zoom link to join the webinar.

ABOUT THE ‘MOST ENDANGERED’ PROGRAM

The annual Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois brings attention to historically and culturally significant places in Illinois threatened by deterioration, lack of maintenance, insufficient funds or inappropriate development. The advocacy program, which began in 1995, helps bolster local advocacy efforts and builds support for the endangered sites’ eventual preservation. Learn more about the program.

(Pictured: The Alexander Brothers Blacksmith Shop in Geneva, a 2023 Most Endangered site.)

Former Most Endangered site continues to preserve history in Southern Illinois

On April 23, the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition unveiled its newest informational sign at Sand Bank School, a 120-year-old schoolhouse that sits along the historic trail. The Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail in Southern Illinois was created in the 1700s and is considered the first road developed by white settlers in Illinois that linked French colonial villages in the state.

According to the coalition, the new sign tells the story of one of Illinois’ first settlements at James Piggot’s Fort and of Sand Bank School from when school was taught in a log cabin by Levi Piggot in the 1800s until it closed in 1952.

In 2000, Landmarks Illinois included the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail on its Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois. Years later, the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition formed to preserve the historic trail, and in 2013, the effort earned the group a Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award.

Learn more about the trail at the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition’s website below.

(Picture provided by Dennis Patton, Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition)

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Dedication ceremony celebrates Old Millstadt Water Tower restoration

Built in 1931 and included on Landmarks Illinois’ 2014 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois, the water tower is one of only a few of the “tin man” style towers remaining in the state. Restoration of the local landmark has been a decade in the making and led by Friends of the Old Millstadt Water Tower. Butterfield worked closely with the group for years when he served as Director of Landmarks Illinois’ Springfield Office. A Preservation Heritage Fund Grant from Landmarks Illinois in 2021 also helped support preservation of the tower. The restoration work was completed last year.

Pictured above is Frank Butterfield with Betty Keller Timmer, President of Friends of the Old Millstadt Water Tower, and Judy DeMoisy of Collinsville, in front of the Old Millstadt Water Tower. DeMoisy was involved in the 2012 preservation-award winning effort to save the famous World’s Largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville.

Click below to learn more about the local preservation effort.

Learn more

Grants support preservation efforts in Alto Pass & Carbondale

Landmarks Illinois, in partnership with Banterra Bank, awarded funding to two preservation efforts in Southern Illinois through the Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program.

The matching grants were awarded to Rendleman Orchards, Inc., in Alto Pass and Artspace 304 in Carbondale. Representatives from Landmarks Illinois and Banterra Bank presented the grant recipients with their grant checks the week of April 8. Pictured above (left to right) is Jennifer Spence Director of Marketing for Banterra Bank; Carolyn Deane Deane, Program Director for Artspace 304; Gail White, Partner and Principal of White & Borgognoni Architects, architect for the Artspace 304’s grant project and former Landmarks Illinois Board Member; and Suzanne Germann, Director of Reinvestment for Banterra Bank.

Visit our website to learn more about the grant recipients and our two-year Preserve Southern Illinois Grant Program.

Learn more

Now taking nominations for the 2024 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards

Landmarks Illinois has issued a call for nominations for the 2024 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards. The annual awards recognize exceptional efforts in preserving, restoring and revitalizing historic places in Illinois.

Nominations are due June 1, 2024.

Visit our website to learn more about the program and how to submit a nomination.

(Pictured: Resource Bank’s Shabbona Branch at the former Quilhot Schoolhouse, a 2023 award recipient.)

Learn More

Soldier Field threatened with demolition

The Chicago Bears plan to demolish Solder Field to build a new stadium south of its existing location along the lake.

Bonnie McDonald, Landmarks Illinois President & CEO, attended a news conference on April 24 held by the Chicago Bears to unveil the NFL team’s $4.7 billion plans for the new stadium. The plan calls for tearing down most of Soldier Field except for the colonnades.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported, “The Bears took great pains to make those columns a focal point for the 14 acres of new park land, playing fields and other recreational space that would be located south of the new stadium.” However, as Landmarks Illinois previously stated, any plan that would demolish Solider Field except for the Colonnades would “undoubtedly fall short of properly preserving and honoring the stadium originally built as a monument for U.S. servicemen and women.”

Read our full statement, released March 13, below. Landmarks Illinois has not responded to the full proposal released last week. However, our stance on Soldier Field remains the same: The century-old, iconic landmark should be preserved.

New study shows Promontory Point's historic limestone revetment can be saved

Promontory Point Conservancy held a press conference April 4 in Hyde Park to announce the findings of a new condition assessment of the limestone revetment at Promontory Point. The study showed the historic limestone wall is structurally sound, provides critical shoreline protection, and with sensitive rehabilitation, can be preserved.

These findings support Landmarks Illinois’ two-decade-long stance that the original limestone can and should be preserved. Landmarks Illinois first called attention to the Point on our 2004 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois. At the time, a plan had emerged to replace the limestone with a steel and concrete revetment. That threat continues today.

The historic limestone wall – the last remaining of its kind along Chicago’s shoreline – is also one of the many reasons the park was designated a Chicago Landmark last year. This stepped limestone is a unique solution to the problem of erosion and forms the transitional link between the natural power of Lake Michigan and the built environment of the city. It has protected the park for 85 years. The loss of this final piece of revetment would complete the erasure of this resource, taking with it evidence of engineering history and the history of the City of Chicago, Landmarks Illinois Advocacy Manager Kendra Parzen said at the press conference.

Read the Promontory Point Conservancy’s condition assessment report below.

Read the report

Landmarks Illinois visits Taylorville

Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski visited Taylorville this month to meet with members of Heartland Development Partners, Inc., local elected officials and other local advocates to offer support on the city’s downtown revitalization and preservation goals. Adamowski gave a presentation about financial incentives available for the redevelopment of historic properties and how Taylorville leaders can leverage community assets to aid revitalization efforts.

Landmarks Illinois Spring Appeal - Donate Today!

Preservation is so much more than saving an old building. It is a celebration of our past and an investment in our future. Landmarks Illinois provides the critical resources people need to restore and reuse places of value.

With your help, we can empower more people to revitalize Illinois’ historic places.

(Pictured: Share Your Soles at the Pullman Stables in Chicago, a 2024 Preservation Heritage Fund grant recipient.)

Donate

Join LI President & CEO Bonnie McDonald at CAC on Thursday!

Kick off Preservation Month at the Chicago Architecture Center with a special free presentation this Thursday by Landmarks Illinois President & CEO Bonnie McDonald. This program will explore the future of preservation with her new book, “The Relevancy Guidebook,” unveiled in November 2023.

WHEN

May 2, 2024
6 p.m.