Program Committee

The CCL, which is part of @ChicagoDPD, recommends buildings, structures, sites & districts for legal protection as official city landmarks. Its 9 members are appointed by @chicagosmayor & approved by City Council. It’s currently chaired by landscape architect Ernest C. Wong.

Richard Tolliver says 15 submissions have been received. He asks presenters for each submission to keep their presentations to under 4 minutes, and notes that no decisions about landmarking will be made today.

The first property suggested for landmarking is Altgeld School Building C. The presenter is Cheryl Johnson of People for Community Recovery, who notes that she lives in Altgeld Gardens. https://www.thecha.org/residents/public-housing/find-public-housing/altgeld-gardens-and-phillip-murray-homes https://t.co/lLTnR27GS7

Now presenting on another site at Altgeld, the “Up Top” store, that advocates hope to be landmarked.

It was recently named to @Pres_Chicago‘s 2022 Most Endangered list. https://news.wttw.com/2022/03/09/preservation-chicago-s-most-endangered-list-makes-case-historic-value-midcentury-modern https://t.co/uhSdYFQ5x6

Next up, Tom Drebenstedt, a Galewood resident, is presenting on Mars Candy, which is moving out. Neighbors are exploring how to save part of this complex. https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-mars-wrigley-closing-chicago-chocolate-plant-20220126-7xoqzf7ffnfkpfantzfculkfxe-story.html

Next, Robin Boyd-Clark, a South Shore resident and business owner, presents on a building at 71st St & Paxton. Her business is located in this building, 2150 E 71st St, which is the 109-year-old former Hamilton Theater Building. https://t.co/m4rxGw0bDS

Boyd-Clark notes that this building is significant to Chicago’s Black history, as the home to President Obama’s old campaign office when he ran for state senate

Next up is Leila Wills of the Historical Preservation Society of the IL Chapter of the Black Panther Party, presenting on 1320 S Kedvale Ave, the chapter’s organizing base on the west side https://t.co/p9xs4JrrDi

Julia Nash and Mark Skillicorn now present 2449 Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park, which became best known as the location of Wax Trax Records from 1978-1993.

(It was previously a funeral home, and Depression-era gangster John Dillinger’s body was taken there after he was shot) https://t.co/J8YuaY8bUZ

Next is the Greater Tabernacle Cathedral, 11300 S Martin Luther King Dr, presented by Louise Dawkins. It was first built in 1890 as the Holy Rosary Church in George Pullman’s model industrial community of Pullman

Another Obama connection: President Obama had an office in the church’s lower level in 1985 when he was working as a community organizer

“Our church will continue in every way possible to be a cornerstone in the community,” Dawkins concludes.

Another church is the next item: St. Michael the Archangel South Shore Church at 8237 S. South Shore Drive. The presenter is a fourth-generation parishioner. “We have hundreds of signatures from the community who want to see the landmarking of the interior and exterior,” she says

Now, Ward Miller of @Pres_Chicago presents on the Century and Consumers Buildings (202 & 210 S State St in the Loop). These were also included on the group’s Most Endangered list this year.

They risk federally-funded demolition, Miller says, but the buildings can be re-imagined and repurposed

Miller also presents on Epworth United Methodist Church, 5253 N Kenmore Ave in Edgewater. It was completed in 1890. He says it’s threatened by a proposal that would replace portions of it with a residential development. https://t.co/HTwJYBDpMt

Another member of Preservation Chicago, Max Chavez, presents on the Helstein House in Hyde Park, which was designed by Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1951. “It’s really a very singular and special home” & is one of the few remaining Goldberg single family homes in the country https://t.co/5ts21ZkOmT

Chavez says landmarking the home could protect it from “future unsympathetic alterations” and encourages the CCL to move quickly as the building is already so old and unprotected.

Chavez presents now on Astor Tower & Maxim’s de Paris at 1300 N Astor Street, also by Bertrand Goldberg https://t.co/gvrLFdl5Uk

Next up is St. Martin de Tours Church in Englewood. Max Chavez presents again. He says it was built over the course of a single year, finished in 1895, in an eclectic gothic revival style.

He says the church is now vacant and neglected, landing it a spot on Preservation Chicago’s most endangered list this year. “We’d love to see the city move to landmark St Martin de Tours as well as many, many other church structures across Chicago,” he says. https://t.co/cJy5JO4M6m

Alicia Frizzle of Englewood says she’s spoken to many community members who want to see the church restored and revitalized and “thriving as it once was in the past.”

Onto another church: Greater Union Baptist Church. The suggesters are Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago and the church’s pastor, Dr. McCray. https://t.co/TeOR2AAxrv

The final suggestion is the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls. Mary Lu Seidel from Preservation Chicago presents. The building was named for the first African-American author of a published book of poetry.

The building has suffered from deferred maintenance and water infiltration https://t.co/q6gKmvTLTw

Read more about the Phyllis Wheatley Women’s Clubs: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/phyllis-wheatley-womens-clubs-1895/

Richard Tolliver of the CCL thanks all participants and adjourns the meeting.
Check out the CCL website for more info https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/landmarks_commission.html

and check out http://documenters.org for full notes on this & other public meetings! #ChiDocumenters