Chicago Construction News staff writer
Landmarks Illinois has awarded $30,000 in grant funding to eight preservation projects in Chicago, El Paso, Jacksonville, Oak Park, Pittsfield and Richmond.
Preservation Heritage Fund grants are available for significant structures or sites in Illinois that are under threat of demolition, in imminent deterioration, in need of stabilization, in need of structural or reuse evaluation or need to be evaluated for landmark eligibility.
This year’s recipients:
- Theatre Y, Chicago: $5,000 for architectural services for the restoration of the Jackson Storage and Van Company Warehouse, a former storage building located in the South Lawndale community. The building is in the process of landmark designation through the City of Chicago.
- Project XV, El Paso: $4,000 for continued restoration work at the historic Legacy Building, which Project XV Corp. is repurposing to create Illinois’ first voting rights museum.
- Our Saviour Parish & Grade School, Jacksonville: $2,500 to repair the porch on the church’s rectory, which has been deemed structurally unsafe. The Queen Anne-style residence was constructed in 1896 and houses the church’s priests.
- Living Sanctuary of Faith Church of God in Christ, Oak Park: $5,000 for masonry restoration of the historic church, which was built in 1903, is a contributing structure in the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture National Register and Local Landmark Historic District.
- Oak Park & River Forest Day Nursery, Oak Park: $3,500 for restoration of windows at the daycare center housed in a 100-year-old local landmarked building.
- Pike County Historical Society, Pittsfield: $5,000 for a new roof on the Shastid House, one of the oldest houses in Pittsfield (constructed in 1838) that Abraham Lincoln visited and is today a part of the federally designated Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.
- W.A. McDonnell Foundation, Richmond: $3,000 for stabilizing the stone foundation of the village’s oldest surviving building, known as “Old #90,” which the W.A. McDonnell Foundation plans to use as a local historical museum and office space.
Promontory Point Conservancy in Chicago received a $2,000 matching grant to hire a historic treatments consultant to assist in its overall preservation plans for the Chicago Landmark and National Register-listed park in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Visit our website to learn more about the grant recipient.
Landmarks Illinois grants are given on a matching basis, requiring the recipient to raise funds equal or greater to the Landmarks Illinois grant amount. Landmarks Illinois grant funding is used toward preserving historic and significant places in communities throughout the state. Often, these small grants help spark community engagement around the preservation of a place and help boost local fundraising efforts for the preservation project.
Grant applications for the next round of funding through the Preservation Heritage Fund and Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois grant programs are due October 1.
