You'll have more chances to tour landmark Schweikher House in Schaumburg
Public availability will increase about tenfold for the Schweikher House - the only national landmark in Schaumburg.
Schweikher House is the onetime residence of its namesake architect, and it later was occupied by a nuclear physicist who worked on the atomic bomb and his wife, the creator of an iconic piece of modern art.
Todd Wenger, executive director of the nonprofit Schweikher House Preservation Trust, which operates the property, is among those excited about gradually increasing hours for public tours and other events. The house was named by the American Institute of Architects as one of the Top 200 significant architectural sites in Illinois in 2018.
"It's great," Wenger said Friday. "We feel like we've been on the precipice of breaking loose."
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Meacham Road house was built in 1938 by Modernist architect Robert Paul Schweikher, who also had his studio there. The house includes an iconic brick fireplace, passive solar room, a Japanese soaking tub, raked gravel courtyard and gardens designed by noted Midwestern landscape architect Franz Lipp.
After Schweikher moved to Yale University in 1953, the 4,800-square-foot house was rented and later purchased by physicist Alexander Langsdorf Jr., who assisted in the atomic bomb's development and later worked at Argonne National Laboratory, and his professional artist wife, Martyl.
The Langsdorfs came to regret the use of the atomic bomb, and Martyl created the image of the Doomsday Clock for the cover of the June 1947 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Schaumburg bought the house in 1999 when the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago threatened to condemn it for an expansion of the John E. Egan Water Reclamation Plant. The couple rented the property after the water reclamation district acquired it through eminent domain in 1988 "and remained excellent caretakers of the house and its preservation," according to a village document.
Schaumburg allowed the widowed Martyl Langsdorf to live there until she died at age 96 in 2013.
House tours that began after her death have been limited, but that's about to change through an agreement approved by the village board and the Schweikher House Preservation Trust.
Under the revised operating agreement, the public availability will increase from 48 to 472 hours during the next three years.
Volunteer docents have started providing one-hour tours for $25 per person at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. every Friday. Wenger said the house already attracts architecture buffs, historians and visitors interested in Martyl Langsdorf's work, but a music series and other events now are possible with the added hours.
"We see a host of different public-type of events that would appeal to a wider range of folks," Wenger said.
Under the amended agreement with Schaumburg, the trust has permission to move its offices for part-time workers and volunteers from inside the Schweikher House to a separate model shop on the roughly 2-acre site. Plans call for the structure to be renovated and include a small gift shop and meeting areas where patrons and others could gather before tours or events.
Guided tours lasting about 50 minutes will be offered through a reserved time slot from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12. The registration at schweikherhouse.org/events requires the $20 fee to be paid in advance.