Landmarks Illinois grants support preservation projects in six Illinois communities

Landmarks Illinois has awarded a total of $17,000 in matching grants to support historic preservation efforts in six Illinois communities. Projects in Chicago, Jacksonville, Lockport, St. Charles and Wood Dale were awarded grants through the organization’s Preservation Heritage Fund. And, a preservation effort in Pike County at the former New Philadelphia site was awarded a grant through the Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois.

The grants range between $1,700 and $4,300 each and are awarded on a matching basis, requiring the recipient to raise funds equal or greater to the Landmarks Illinois grant amount. Landmarks Illinois grants are used to spark ongoing community support and fundraising efforts for the preservation of important local landmarks and architecturally, historically and/or culturally significant sites.

Preservation Heritage Fund Grants

The Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Program provides funding to organizations in Illinois leading historic preservation projects at significant structures that are under threat of demolition, require stabilization and/or reuse or structural evaluation or those that need to be evaluated for landmark eligibility. Grant applications are accepted four times a year, and the next application deadline is July 15.

June 2021 Preservation Heritage Fund Grant Recipients:

• Blackwell-Israel Samuel A.M.E. Zion Church, Chicago: $4,300 for the congregation to make necessary repairs at the northeast entrance of the building in Bronzeville, which is the only known church in Chicago designed by nationally recognized architects Edbrooke and Burnham who were responsible for designing the Government Building at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
• Morgan County Historical Society, Jacksonville: $2,500 for window restoration at the Old Post Office in Jacksonville, a 1920s-era structure that served as the community’s main post office for nearly 50 years and is being restored to house the Jacksonville Area Museum.
• City of Lockport, Lockport: a $1,700 to help pay for a two-day training session for the city’s Heritage and Architecture Commission.
• Wood Dale Historical Society, Wood Dale: $2,500 for roof repairs to the Rosenwinkel Barn, one of the last remaining wooden peg barns in DuPage County and the oldest structure in the county.
• Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, St. Charles: $2,500 for a condition assessment of the William Beith House, one of the few surviving examples of limestone houses from the 1840-1850s in the Fox Valley that has not been significantly altered and today serves as the headquarters of the Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.

Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois Grant
Landmarks Illinois’ Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois provides monetary assistance to planning activities and education efforts focused on preservation. Applications for Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund grants are accepted twice a year, and the next application deadline is October 15, 2021.

June 2021 Barbara C. and Thomas E. Donnelley II Preservation Fund for Illinois Grant recipient:

• New Philadelphia Association, Pike County: $3,500 matching grant for the association to enhance the augmented virtual reality program at the National Register-listed New Philadelphia historic site. The site honors the first town platted and registered by a black man before the Civil War (1836), Frank McWorter, who sold lots of the town to earn money to purchase children and grandchildren still enslaved in Kentucky.

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