Renovation of Central School in Mount Prospect almost done

A 14-year project to save and restore Central School is in its final stages as the Mount Prospect Historical Society rushes to have the 120-year-old building, which has played a central role in the town's history, ready for the 100th anniversary of the village's incorporation on Feb. 3.

The construction portion of the restoration effort is expected to be completed in October, Mount Prospect Historical Society Board President Frank Corry said, leaving about three months to get the building tidied up and sufficiently furnished to host the Centennial Commission's re-enactment of the original vote to incorporate, where it occurred precisely 100 years earlier.

"It's exciting to realize that this important, long-running effort is now nearing completion," Corry said in a news release. "It's a tribute to the community's generosity and appreciation of its history that so many people and organizations over the years have supported the 'Save Central School' campaign and worked so hard to make it happen.

"It's also a tribute to their patience, since we could move only as quickly as we had the funding to proceed."

The project turned out to be a sizable undertaking for the society, beginning with a year- long effort to raise funds to move the school in 2008 from Thayer and Wille streets to its new site at 103 S. Maple St., next door to the Dietrich Friedrichs house on the museum campus.

"We moved the building about a half mile - itself a big deal - set it on a new, full-basement foundation, removed decades of mismatched and deteriorating 'improvements,' repaired/replaced most of the back wall, re-roofed the building, added structural reinforcement to the floor, constructed an interior utility stairway, and installed new electrical, HVAC, security, fire alarm and sprinkler systems," he said in the release.

CCDS of Niles is completing the interior finishes, while Wilkin Insulation Co. of Mount Prospect is donating all of the insulation work, both labor and materials.

"It's probably good we didn't completely understand at the start how involved and challenging this project would become," Corry said. "If we did, we might have convinced ourselves not to start it, and that would have been an irreversible mistake."

Since the "Save Central School" campaign began in earnest in 2002, the community has donated nearly $415,000 for the restoration, of which $40,000 remains. With additional outlays of about $100,000 expected before the project wraps up, the society is seeking $60,000 more in donations.

If there's a shortfall, the society hopes it's small enough to cover temporarily from operating reserves.

"We're not keen to do that, of course, but if that's what it'll take for the schoolhouse to be ready for the re-enactment, we'll do it and hope people understand why we're still trying to raise funds after the construction has been completed," Corry said in the news release.

"But if we weren't optimists, we wouldn't even be doing this."

The society plans to open the schoolhouse for school field trips and public gatherings beginning next spring after the grand unveiling Feb. 3 for the Centennial re-enactment.

For more information about the restoration and the effort to raise funds, contact the society at (847) 392-9006.