DuPage museum joins Wrigley on list of state's endangered places
Wheaton's Dupage County Historical Museum building, formerly Adams Memorial Library, joins on a preservation group's 2008 list of the most endangered historic places in Illinois -- making the normally top-ten list a list of 11.
Other sites on this year's list, released today by Landmarks Illinois, include a Route 66 eatery in central Illinois, the University of Illinois' Assembly Hall and the Chicago Daily News Building.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, the building was built in 1891. It was designed by Charles Sumner Frost in a Richardsonian Romanesque style with a rough stone exterior with arches for windows and doors.
The building was privately funded by successful businessman, John Quincy Adams (a distant relative of the Adams presidents), the register said. It was built in memory of his wife who had died in 1874.
The building was used as a library until 1965 when a new library was built about a block to the east.
The addition of Wrigley Field came amid concern from Cubs fans in recent weeks that moves are afoot to allow alterations to the beloved landmark -- the nation's second oldest baseball stadium after Boston's Fenway Park.
Billionaire Sam Zell, the new owner of Tribune Co., which owns the Cubs, has expressed interest in selling Wrigley Field to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, a state-city agency that already owns U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox.
The agency, in turn, wants laws that restrict changes to Wrigley Field loosened, something Landmarks Illinois president David Bahlman said could lead to revenue-driven alterations -- like the construction of sky boxes.
"The Cubs have not exactly been a winning team over the last 100 years, but that ball park has a following and cachet that I attribute to the actual place," Bahlman said. "Once you have state-of-the-art sky boxes, you are going to severely change the character and the constituency of the ball park."
A second building on this year's list also has links to Zell.
The Chicago Daily News Building, which the real estate mogul owns, was built in 1929 and is considered an Art Deco masterpiece. One of its distinguishing features is a public plaza that hugs the Chicago River. Illinois Landmarks said Zell has discussed building a new tower at the site -- radically altering the entire complex.
U of I's 16,000-seat Assembly Hall, where Fighting Illini basketball teams play, made the 2008 list as the school considers whether to replace the auditorium or make major renovations to accommodate luxury suites and elevators.
The four-decade-old hall was designed by alumnus Max Abramovitz, whose firm also designed the United Nations building in New York. Poet Carl Sandburg spoke at Assembly Hall's dedication in 1963, and the arena has featured performers by everyone from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones.
The Route 66 site on this year's list is the 79-year-old Mill, which had been a take out sandwich shop but is now vacant. Despite years of deterioration, it's still considered a prime example of early American roadside architecture.
Since the first Landmarks Illinois list was drawn up in 1995, 143 sites have been identified as endangered; 38 have been saved, 28 demolished or substantially altered, and 77 remain threatened.
The 11 sites named by preservation group Landmarks Illinois as the state's most endangered historic places in 2008:
Adams Memorial Library, Wheaton
Assembly Hall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Burlingame House, Eden
Chicago Daily News Building, Chicago
Germania Club and Theatre, Chicago
Gunners