All forest buildings well worth saving

All forest buildings well worth saving

I’m replying to the March 5 article by Robert Sanchez regarding historic homes on DuPage County Forest Preserve property. It’s important to clarify the point in the headline that these aren’t just old houses, but irreplaceable, historic, architectural artifacts that absolutely should be preserved.

All of us, regardless of who we are or what group we happen to be affiliated with have an obligation to preserve the architectural history of DuPage County. It’s just as important as protecting and saving woodlands and wildflower preserves.

In case people haven’t noticed, we’ve shamefully trashed hundreds of important historic and architecturally significant homes in recent years, with the rash of teardowns only adding fuel to the fire. Thanks to the wrecking ball, our history is being obliterated at an alarming rate. People travel to Europe and the British Isles and come back here and rave about the wonderfully preserved early buildings and villages, then don’t think anything about tearing down their own historic buildings here at home.

As a long-standing supporter and participant in historic preservation, it seems that nobody outside the circle of preservation gets it. What could be more obvious than understanding that the preservation of a historic or architecturally significant building will not contribute to a landfill, and they all have the potential to serve a higher purpose through adaptive reuse.

Every one of the buildings pictured in the Daily Herald survey has incredible merit and a way must be found to save them and put them back into use to benefit the public. I ask the forest preserve district to address this by holding some informal brainstorming sessions with a group of qualified preservationists to discuss ways the buildings could be put to use.

Lee Marks

Chairman, Glen Ellyn

Historic Preservation

Commission