Historic Preservation Group Highlights Achievements
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It has been 40 years since the creation of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and a preservation group has compiled a list of what it feels are the 40 most important moments affecting historic restoration during that time.
It's called the "40 over 40" list, compiled by Landmarks Illinois. Executive Director Jim Peters says it lists projects from Carbondale to Chicago.
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The list also includes tax credit implementations and agency formations.
Peters says it is important to maintain historic structures because it offers a glimpse into the founding of the communities.
"These are really the buildings built by the founders of the communities, built by the architects of the communities, built by the people themselves," he said. "Without those buildings, the towns become much lesser places."
The list includes courthouses, opera houses, business districts and even a Collinsville water tower shaped like a ketchup bottle.
Among the Chicago area highlights on the list are:
• 1971: The Landmarks Preservation Council, created in an unsuccessful attempt to save Louis Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange Building. The group expanded statewide in 1979, and was renamed Landmarks Illinois in 2006.
• 1972: The defeat of a proposal to replace the 1897 Classical-style main Chicago Public Library with a new building. The building became the Chicago Cultural Center in 1977.
• 1973: The Marquette Building at Dearborn and Adams streets, built in 1895 and saved from demolition after the Landmarks Preservation Council prepared a financial reuse study.
• 1977: The Clarke House at 1827 S. Indiana Ave., which dates from 1836 and was moved over the Green Line 'L' tracks to the Prairie Avenue Historic District.
• 1977: The federal tax credit granted for the state's first historic rehabilitation project at 2218 N. Fremont St. in Lincoln Park. Also in 1977, the Donohue Building in Printers' Row became the city's first loft conversion.
• 1979: Central Square in Lockport, where a school dating from 1896 was saved from demolition thanks to local government agencies.
• 1981: The C.B. & Q. Railroad Roundhouse, a rare limestone structure built between 1856 and 1864, the demolition of which was stopped by the City of Aurora.
• 1985: The Chicago Theatre at 175 N. State St., dating from 1921, for which private demolition plans were stopped when the city bought the iconic theater.
• 1990: Holy Family Church at 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd., adjacent to St. Ignatius College Prep. The church, built between 1857 and 1866, was saved from demolition when the Holy Family Preservation Society raised $1 million.
• 1998: Black Metropolis and Bronzeville, where nine surviving structures from one of the country's premier African-American commercial districts won landmark status.
• 1998: Fort Sheridan outside Highland Park, where more than 100 protective easements were given to the Landmarks Preservation Council to during the decommissioning of the 1887 military base.
• 1998: Wagner Farm in Glenview, an early 20th century farmstead that was rescued from redevelopment, and is now a park district-owned educational facility.
• 1999: The Reliance Building, a pioneering office skyscraper at 32 N. State St. built between 1890 and 1985 that reopened as the Hotel Burnham after many years of vacancy.
• 2000: The Historic Bungalow Initiative, founded to promote preservation and appreciation for this style of housing from the early 20th century through grants, education and the establishment of historic districts.
• 2002: The Historic Michigan Boulevard District, a street wall of buildings facing Grant Park between Randolph Street and Roosevelt Road, which received landmark protection.
• 2002: The restoration of the historic Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool and Humboldt Park Boathouse by the Chicago Park District.
• 2002: Dempster Street Station in Skokie, the terminal of the CTA Yellow Line. The 1915 Prairie-style structure was moved from the path of a planned transportation center.
• 2007: Tree Studios and Medinah Temple (bounded by State Street and Wabash Avenue, and Ontario and Ohio streets), a former artists' residence and auditorium, respectively, that were set to be torn down for a high-rise and shopping mall. Instead, they reopened, with Medinah Temple reopening as a Bloomingdale's housewares store in 2003.
• 2008: The River Forest Women's Club, a 1913 Prairie-style building that won an award for its restoration as a single-family home.
