Lake Ellyn Boathouse restoration taking shape
A Glen Ellyn landmark is shedding many of its modern finishes in a restoration project that the park district hopes will earn the historic building a special status.
The Lake Ellyn Boathouse now has a cedar shingle roof. Gone are the metal doors, soon to be replaced with wooden ones. And most of the new windows have been installed on the one-story building overlooking Lake Ellyn.
The estimated $2.9 million project is aimed at restoring the boathouse to a "close replica" of its original design and landing the charming structure a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
"The accreditation I think further validates our efforts to be respectful to what it was in 1937," Executive Director Dave Harris said.
Two firms are compiling an application to get the boathouse on the list on behalf of the park district: Farr Associates, the project's architects, and Ramsey Historic Consultants, Inc.
A state national register coordinator has informally determined that the building is likely eligible for the listing, but also has recommended including Lake Ellyn park in the nomination, park district officials say. The board of commissioners agreed to do just that Tuesday.
"The park is historic on its own, and so I think it just makes the application that much more significant," Harris said.
Since the restoration began in September, most of the plumbing, electrical and heating improvements have been completed. Crews also are putting in a sprinkler system to protect the boathouse from fire, and a concrete wall around the building's three sides to shield it from any flooding. A stand-alone bathroom will be built near the park's playground.
The park district still expects the project will be done by late June, before Fourth of July fireworks launch over Lake Ellyn.
"I'm so impressed with keeping to the schedule, and it is the one question that I get asked about more than anything else when I run into people in town: 'Are they really going to get it done?'" Commissioner Kathy Cornell told park district staff. "And I'm always very pleased to be able to say, 'yes.'"
The boathouse was designed in 1935, built two years later and funded in part by the Works Progress Administration, a hallmark of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs.
The first major change to the building came in 1959, when the kitchen was relocated and expanded. A second addition sometime between 1960 and 1973 expanded a mechanical area and covered up the original limestone fireplace, architects wrote in a 2013 master plan that's now guiding the project.
Then in 1990, many of the boathouse's historical features were replaced.
It remains a warming shelter for ice skaters and a popular image on village postcards.