Schaumburg trustees to officially name new village hall, and possibly its campus

Though Schaumburg’s 52-year-old Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center was demolished last spring, trustees Tuesday will discuss naming the entire campus after the village’s influential second mayor.

A committee of the whole meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. will be followed by a more binding village board meeting at 7 p.m.

The voting agenda for the board meeting proposes naming the new building simply Schaumburg Village Hall and its sprawling grounds the Robert O. Atcher Municipal Campus.

Mayor Tom Dailly said the suggestion can be amended during the meeting, but thought it a reasonable starting point for the discussion.

For the past year, Atcher family members have expressed concern about potentially dropping the name.

“Obviously, it has been 50 years since my father retired as mayor of Schaumburg,” eldest son Robert W. Atcher told the Daily Herald last April. “Despite his success as an entertainer, he considered his greatest accomplishment the founding and development of Schaumburg. I think it would be a mistake to lose the acknowledgment of his connection and contribution to Schaumburg’s roots.”

The family couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, but the possibility of moving the late mayor’s name from the building to the longstanding campus on Schaumburg Court had not been publicly raised before.

“That’s probably the most likely outcome, but it’s still premature,” Dailly added. “The campus has been here. It was there when (Atcher) was there. The new building has nothing to do with Mayor Atcher. If we name the campus after him, that would be appropriate.”

At the same meeting, trustees will decide on a recommendation to rename the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts next door the Al Larson Cultural Center just ahead of its 40th anniversary. The idea is to provide a more up-to-date description of the building’s purpose while continuing to honor the legacy of Schaumburg’s longest-serving mayor.

The arts building already contains the Maggie Atcher Theatre honoring the late Atcher’s wife and the Herb Aigner Gallery remembering Larson’s immediate predecessor.

Though the old village hall opened in 1973, it wasn’t named after Atcher until the end of his life 20 years later. Larson’s name was added to the Prairie Center in 2017, during his final term.