Forest preserve candidates discuss what to do with McKee House in Glen Ellyn
Built during the Great Depression, the McKee House has sat dormant for years in the Churchill Woods Forest Preserve.
Back in 2017, DuPage County forest preserve officials agreed to let the village of Glen Ellyn lease a fleet maintenance complex at Churchill Woods. Under the terms, preservationists were also given a deadline to raise funds to spare the stone-clad McKee House from demolition.
The current forest preserve board has approved another revised agreement that extends the fundraising deadline — again.
“It is a lovely building on the outside, but if you do go up to it, you will see that it is not in any condition that could be used today for anything,” said forest preserve candidate Susan Smentek, who’s squaring off against fellow Democrat Quinn Fulmer in the March 17 primary election.
They and candidates in another primary race were asked about the future of the McKee House during a Daily Herald editorial board interview.
“The fundraising hasn't been the best,” incumbent Tina Tyson-Dunne said. But she added that the district has been “a good partner in this.”
Officials previously revised the agreement in 2023 to allow for fundraising and planning for a Native American cultural and environmental center in the McKee House along St. Charles Road.
“As somebody who grew up as part of the Native American community, having a Native American cultural center — very important to me. But we need to make sure this is done right,” said Tyson-Dunne, who faces intraparty challengers, Dana Moreau and Jacalynn “Jax” West.
Under the latest changes, the agreement requires $1 million to be raised by January 2027. If that doesn’t happen, the McKee House would be demolished, and the property would be returned to its natural state. It also adds the McKee Preservation Group as a permitted sublease or licensee.
“I believe we have the momentum and the interest and the support that we need, finally, after 20 years, to save this building, to make it a great center to bring people from all different interests and areas of DuPage County together,” former Glen Ellyn Park District commissioner Chris Wilson told the forest preserve board last month.
Workers from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the house, according to a cultural resource evaluation report. Initially used by namesake Robert McKee, the forest preserve district's first superintendent, the structure later became a guardhouse.
“With the historical value of the house, if there were any way to restore it, make it usable again, and make that usable to the people of the forest preserve district, I would say that would be a fantastic idea,” said Fulmer, who is running against Smentek to become the Democratic nominee for the board’s District 1 seat.
Moreau, a former Lombard trustee vying for the party nod for the District 2 seat, said her “heart leans towards preservation.”
“It is a gorgeous house. It is not a huge property. I know when we talk about other areas like Mayslake, those are ginormous mansions,” she said, referring to the district-owned Mayslake Hall, a home built for Francis Stuyvesant Peabody.
Tyson-Dunne said the McKee House is one of those buildings that “our previous board didn't take care of” and that it’s going to take a lot of money “just to get that building safe and up to ADA compliance.”
“If this comes to fruition, this will be another great example of a lease agreement to where we can preserve these buildings that the community loves and has a personal connection with, but that it's not a burden to our taxpayers,” she said.
Her other challenger, West, did not participate in the Daily Herald session or a League of Women Voters forum.