April 2026 Preservation News Roundup

Landmarks Illinois joins Main Street partners in Tulsa

From April 13-15, Landmarks Illinois Chief Operating Officer Frank Butterfield and Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski attended this year’s annual Main Street Conference, Main Street Now 2026, in Tulsa. Frank and Quinn joined our partner Illinois Main Street communities to learn about innovative revitalization strategies, share resources and see the power of Route 66 on Main Street. The conference supports the Community and Economic Development priority of our Transformational Plan.

Learn more about Main Street below.

(Pictured: Illinois attendees at the Opening Plenary at the Main Street conference.)

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Landmarks Illinois awards preservation grant to Blackwell-Israel Samuel AME Zion Church on Chicago’s South Side

Landmarks Illinois has awarded $9,500 through the Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side to Blackwell-Israel Samuel A.M.E. Zion Church. The grant funds will help stabilize the front façade of the architecturally and culturally significant church, a designated Chicago Landmark, in the city’s Grand Boulevard neighborhood.

Looking for funding for your preservation project?

The Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side provides planning and capital matching grants to support organizations and people working to preserve the history, culture and architecture of Chicago’s South Side. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side range from $500 – $10,000 each, depending on need. The grant program is open to both nonprofits and for-profit entities. Grants are awarded on a 3:1 matching basis. Applications for the next round of funding through the grant program are due July 1. Visit our website to learn more.

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Catch us at the Chicago Preservation Expo!

MAY 18

4-7 P.M.

CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER

For the third year in a row, Landmarks Illinois will be at the Chicago Preservation Expo. The free event provides access to Chicago city staff, community and nonprofit organizations, professional service providers and trades experts working in historic preservation in Chicago. See you there!

(Pictured: Landmarks Illinois Reinvestment Director Suzanne Germann and Easements and Advocacy Associate Amber Delgado at the 2025 Expo.)

Get tickets

Now accepting nominations for the 2026 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards

Landmarks Illinois is accepting nominations for our annual awards program, which recognizes exceptional efforts in preserving, restoring and revitalizing historic places in Illinois.

Nominations are due June 1, 2026, and can be submitted online.

Nominations submitted for a 2026 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award must be for projects or people located within Illinois. Projects must also have been completed within the last five years. Awards will be given in the following general categories: Advocacy, Leadership, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Stewardship and Environmental Sustainability.

Vist our website to learn more about eligibility and how to apply!

Submit a nomination!

Landmarks Illinois attends Route 66 Centennial Kickoff event at Old Joliet Prison

Members of the Landmarks Illinois staff attended Illinois’ Route 66 Centennial Kickoff event at the Old Joliet Prison on April 30. The event, hosted by the Joliet Area Historical Museum, welcomed the Joliet Slammers on the grounds of the former historic prison for an exhibition baseball game against the Gate Way Grizzlies. The game revived a more than century-old tradition of playing baseball on the prison grounds: In 1913, former prison Warden Edmund Allen launched a baseball team for the inmates of the prison as a reform measure to provide recreation. Outside teams would visit and play against the prison’s team.

The April 30 sold-out event welcomed about 5,500 people, including Joliet Slammers co-owner Bill Murray, Chair of the Road Ahead Partnership Bill Thomas, Illinois Route Scenic Byway Executive Director Casey Claypool, and other dignitaries. Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski, who also serves as Chair of the Joliet Area Historical Museum, addressed the crowd before the game.

Want to learn more about the Route 66 Centennial?

Check out Landmarks Illinois’ interview in April on RFD Radio. Adamowski is joined by Casey Claypool of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway to talk about how Illinois is marking this major milestone for the Mother Road.

(Pictured lower left: Landmarks Illinois Chief Operating Officer Frank Butterfield, Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski, Director of Reinvestment Suzanne Germann and Director of Development Nicole Rakers attended the game. Main photo: Adamowski addresses the crowd.)

Roger Brown Home & Studio recommended for landmark designation

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks (CCL) gave final landmark recommendation for the former Roger Brown Home & Studio in Lincoln Park at its April 2 meeting. The property, located at 1926 N. Halsted St. and constructed in 1888, once belonged to artist Roger Brown, a leader in the Chicago Imagist movement and member of the LGBTQ+ community. Brown lived there from 1974 to 1995 and donated the property and its contents to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. In September 2025, SAIC put the property up for sale and marketed it as a potential teardown. That prompted Landmarks Illinois to encourage the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to consider designating the property as a Chicago Landmark, thereby preventing demolition. The Chicago City Council will now consider the landmark designation recommendation.

Also at this month’s CCL meeting

The Bryn Mawr Avenue Historic District received preliminary landmark designation this month, as well. Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth has led efforts at the city level to landmark the district, located along Bryn Mawr Avenue between Broadway and Sheridan Road. The district is already listed in the National Register of Historic Places and features early 20th-century architecture.

The prominent Art Deco-style Chicago Daily News Building also received primary landmark status, with the CCL voting to recommend its designation. The CCL also gave preliminary approval to award Cook County Class L tax status on the property at 2 N. Riverside Plaza, which Blue Star Properties and Wocott Group plan to revitalize.

Landmarks Illinois has supported both of these landmark designations.

Development at Oak Park's Boulevard Arcade Building halted

A controversial proposal to build a 10-story addition to provide luxury housing on the historic Boulevard Arcade Building in Oak Park will not proceed at this time. Oak Park’s Wednesday Journal reported the developers behind the project withdrew their application for a necessary zoning change from the village.

Since the project was introduced last year, Landmarks Illinois has opposed the project. It proposed constructing 24 luxury apartments at the current two-story local landmark. The design conflicts with the building’s historic integrity and is wholly out of sync with Oak Park’s architectural review guidelines. The development was denied four times by the Oak Park Historic Preservation Commission, too. Yet last fall, the Oak Park Village Board made the rare and misguided decision to go against its own preservation commission and approve the project.

According to the Wednesday Journal, the developers plan to reassess their proposal with the intent of potentially resubmitting a revised plan.

Read more

Transformational Plan Spotlight

Landmarks Illinois’ Bonnie McDonald participates in The Peace Department’s residency on restorative development

Preserving cultural anchors can be a tool for restorative development. That was the guiding principle for an intensive residency that Landmarks Illinois President & CEO Bonnie McDonald participated in from April 7-10 in Greenwich, Conn. The residency brought together a collaborative community of systems-level thinkers in architecture, culture, data analysis, finance, philanthropy, planning and preservation to design a model for equitable, cultural, preservation-focused, community-led and community-benefitting development. The residency was co-hosted by The Peace Department, a foundation created by philanthropist James Sternlicht, at their Connecticut retreat, Foundation House.

The restorative development concept was the brainchild of Anasa Troutman, CEO & Founder of The Big We, a Memphis-based nonprofit organization. The Big We owns Clayborn Temple, a nationally significant Civil Rights site in Memphis destroyed by arson in 2025. The restoration of Clayborn Temple will serve as a systems demonstration for restorative development in Memphis around storytelling, community agency, health and resilience as core concepts. McDonald was invited to participate because of Landmarks Illinois systems-level thought leadership around preservation as a solution, as evidenced in its new Transformational Plan, which aligns with the restorative development concept, as well as her work, The Relevancy Guidebook. The restorative development model is still in conceptual form, but its design is still underway.

(Pictured, clockwise from top L: Illya Azaroff, FAIA, AIA Board President; Aisha Benson, President & CEO, Nonprofit Finance Fund; Monica Davis, Academic Director of Preservation, Pratt Institute; Ryan Silber, Director of Municipal Investment Fund, ICLEI; Courtney Knapp, Planning Dept. Chair & Professor, Pratt Institute; Bonnie McDonald, President & CEO, Landmarks Illinois; Kristi Spessard Azaroff, Realtor, Brown Harris Stevens.)

Community Desk "Wealth Our Way"

APRIL 10

Landmarks Illinois Director of Reinvestment Suzanne Germann spent the day with the Community Desk visiting sites on Chicago’s South and West Sides that have been supported by their Wealth Our Way (W.O.W.) Capital Program. This collaborative initiative is designed to support communities in launching wealth-building models leveraging shared ownership models to start businesses and raise capital to acquire and control key real estate assets.

(Pictured: Members of the Bennett Place Community Investment Vehicle, the team redeveloping a mixed-use property on the 71st corridor in South Shore.)

Project XV Museum Gala

APRIL 18

Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn attended Project XV Museum’s Annual Gala, which raised over $45,000. Project XV is located in a c.1872 building in El Paso, Illinois. The museum is a grassroots preservation and education initiative focused on the history of voting rights. Landmarks Illinois has supported the museum’s efforts through Preservation Heritage Fund grants.

(Pictured: Adamowski with Project XV Museum founder Tabitha Nowark)

National Preservation Partners Network Spring Retreat

APRIL 20-22

Landmarks Illinois had two speakers featured in Philadelphia at the National Preservation Partners Network (NPPN) Spring Retreat. Skyline Council Chair Emily Sajdak presented about her Nordic Churches and Appalachian Churches Programs as Director of Rural Initiatives for Partners for Sacred Places. Bonnie McDonald, who chaired the NPPN board from 2018-2021, spoke on a panel about current challenges in the preservation field from a statewide perspective. She highlighted the differing priorities at the rural, suburban and urban level, loss of federal funding and how fear about the future shapes policy and practice. McDonald was joined on the panel by Adrian Scott Fine, President & CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, highlighting local challenges, and Shaw Sprague, Vice President for Government Relations at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, covering challenges at the federal level.

(Pictured: Emily Sajdak presenting alongside Bob Jaeger, President of Partners for Sacred Places.)

"Green History: Retrofitting Historic Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Historic Preservation"

APRIL 23

Landmarks Illinois Advocacy Manager Kendra Parzen attended a Green History event at the Oak Park River Forest Museum. Presenters of the program, “Green History: Retrofitting Historic Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Historic Preservation,”were local architects Tom Bassett-Dilley, Mark Nussbaum and William Scholtens. Nussbaum’s presentation included a discussion of the geothermal system at Unity Temple, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed church that Landmarks Illinois has a preservation easement on.

Preserve Chattanooga

APRIL 30

Bonnie McDonald presented the keynote speech at Preserve Chattanooga’s inaugural “Perspectives” lecture series. Local preservation nonprofit Preserve Chattanooga will launch its new community Preservation Plan at the event, a tool for Chattanooga’s community to come together, reflect, and think boldly about how preservation can continue to shape a vibrant and thriving city. McDonald was asked to speak about Landmarks Illinois’ thought leadership on how preservation can evolve to better serve people and communities in the years ahead, as detailed in her The Relevancy Guidebook.

(Photo credit John Shearer, the Chattanoogan)

Geneva's Alexander Brothers Blacksmith Shop wrapped in plastic by owner

According to local reports, the historic Alexander Brothers Blacksmith Shop in Geneva, an 1840s-era limestone structure, has been entirely wrapped in white plastic. The Daily Herald reported on this development at the 2023 Most Endangered site and shares a photo. Geneva Community Development Director David DeGroot said it was unclear why the property owner, Shodeen Development, had taken this unconventional step, but he assumed it was an effort to address city code violations. The problem, however, is that the plastic wrap does not allow for the inspection or the maintenance of the building or the owner’s adherence to city code.

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Work begins at historic garden on Chicago's West Side

Restoration of the pergola at the historic Sears Sunken Garden began this month. The garden is located at the former Sears, Roebuck, and Co. campus, which opened in 1907 in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. The garden features a Classical-inspired pergola with Doric columns, temple pavilions and red-clay tile roof.

Local advocacy group, Friends of Sears Sunken Garden, announced that work began on April 17 following five years of community input and planning. Landmarks Illinois awarded the group a grant through the Preservation Heritage Fund program in 2023 to support the pergola restoration. Arda Architecture is leading the project. When complete, the pergola will feature new lighting, restored columns, a repaired roof, replaced wooden beams and fresh paint, according to the Friends. The pergola work is expected to be complete by mid-July, and will be followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“We are honored to finally break ground on this historic project,” said Reshorna Fitzpatrick, Board Chair of the Friends of Sears Sunken Garden and Executive Pastor of Stone Temple Baptist Church, in a statement. “This moment reflects the power of community—neighbors, partners, and leaders coming together with a shared vision. The Sears Sunken Garden will become a beautiful, welcoming space that serves residents and visitors for generations to come.”

"New Paths to Preservation: The Late Modern Dilemma"

MAY 14

Landmarks Illinois Advocacy Manager Kendra Parzen is participating in a panel discussion hosted by Chicago Architecture Center. In honor of Preservation Month, hear from a panel of experts on existing tools and new approaches for renewing buildings to support housing needs and responsible growth.

Learn more & register

Route 66 Centennial Event in Brooklyn, Illinois

JUNE 26

The village of Brooklyn, Illinois, will dedicate and install Historic Route 66 signs to mark its reconnection with the “Mother Road” at a community event this summer. The installation of these signs will be a long-overdue acknowledgment of Brooklyn’s contribution to the rich and untold history of the highway.

Further details will be released in the months ahead. Interested in attending? RSVP to Leslie Hardin, the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Village of Brooklyn: lhardin@brooklynil.org.

2026 Congreso

AUGUST 19-21

Landmarks Illinois is proudly serving as the local partner for Latinos in Heritage Conservation’s upcoming summit in Chicago. Congreso Leadership Summit is a national gathering bringing Latinx leaders, preservation practitioners, artists, scholars and community organizers together. Congreso will take place at the historic Palmer House, centering conversations on heritage, place and leadership under the theme Estamos Aquí (We Are Here). The summit convenes national and Chicago-based voices to examine how Latinx communities shape, protect and sustain cultural landscapes across the United States.

Learn more & register

Top social media posts of the month

Word of Chicago’s Daily News Building receiving preliminary landmark designation garnered the most attention across our three social media pages. Check out the posts:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Tribute: Anne-Marie St. Germaine

Landmarks Illinois mourns the loss of former board member Anne-Marie St. Germaine who passed away in April. St. Germaine (pictured above, second from left) was a Chicago-based strategic communications advisor who brought her expertise to Landmarks Illinois as a board member from 2009-2015. She led Landmarks Illinois’ rebranding initiative in 2014, developing its 2015 communications strategy and helping hire Kaitlyn McAvoy, now Director of Communications, in 2016. St. Germaine continued to support Kaitlyn as a Communications Committee member, graciously providing valued mentorship.

Read more about Anne-Marie