Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley

11/25/2024

DEMOLITION of Batavia "Tin Shop" at 106 N. River Street to be considered TONIGHT.

Historic Preservation Commission
100 N. Island Ave., Batavia
5 PM

This city-owned property was built in the 1890s and is one of the last remaining buildings in the Batavia Historic District with original wood siding.

The city wishes to sell the land for redevelopment and is requesting permission to move or demolish the structure.

11/25/2024

2012: New HVAC System Installed at Fabyan Villa Museum & Japanese Garden

Before 2012, the 1907 Frank Lloyd-Wright redesigned Fabyan Villa Museum did not have air conditioning which made visiting the second floor very uncomfortable for visitors in the summer and was very hard on our artifacts.

Years of hard work with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County, HVAC experts, and grant writing that secured 70% of the funding brought about this monumental achievement!

In September 2012, J&R Herra, Inc. began installing a geoexhange system to provide high-efficiency heat and air for the 1907 historic building. "[T]hese systems move or transfer heat from the earth rather than outdoor air. Since earth temperature remains relatively constant throughout the year, geo-exchange systems operate very efficiently. Additionally," we reported in our newsletter, "there is no outdoor unit, so visible modern equipment and weather-related maintenance are eliminated."

Many were surprised to learn that this equipment pictured was for HVAC equipment since geothermal is still a relatively new technology.

Now our visitors, volunteers, and artifacts enjoy a consistent, climate-controlled, energy-efficient environment in the Villa.

SOURCES: "Install Climate Control System in a Historic House Museum," Advocate (Spring 2012), 3; "Fabyan Villa and Garden 2012 Season: New & Improved!" Advocate (Fall 2012), 4.

11/22/2024

1904 Heinz Cut Glass Factory Before (March 2023) and After (Nov. 2024). Now Open!

Even the ugliest eyesore can be profitably rehabilitated and reused.

Located at 13th Ave. and Indiana in St. Charles, IL.

Great work Midwest Custom Homes.



Landmarks Illinois

11/21/2024

See the Giving Trees at the Geneva History Museum and donate to your favorite (ours😜).

While you're there, check out the Darlene Larson exhibit about the Fabyan Estate open for only one more month!

11/20/2024

Saturday, December 7 or Sunday, December 8, 2024, 3-7 PM at the 1843 Durant-Peterson House and 1872 Sholes School Museums.

11/18/2024

Crystal Lake Historical Society is trying to save a 170-year-old building owned by a local church, a similar situation to the 1844 Judge Barry House in St. Charles.

The community is working toward a solution that rehabilitates the historic building and benefits the church in both cases. Hopefully, both outcomes will be successful!

Crystal Lake residents are pushing to get landmark protection for a building that served as the city’s first school in the late 1800s, but restoration costs could cost nearly seven figures.

11/17/2024

2003: Prairie Children program at the Durant-Peterson House Museum wins award.

"In February of 1996, a charming letter from a fourth-grade girl who had recently visited the Durant-Peterson House Museum inspired us to begin the volunteer program for youngsters which evolved into the Prairie Children corps [now Junior Docent program]. Seven years later, that nine-year-old is a junior at St. Charles East High School--and still a committed volunteer at our historic site... Linda Saxer, director of the Durant-Peterson House Museum deserves all the credit for starting this program, training youngsters to serve as competent guides, and offering them such perks as candlelight hearth dinners every November.

An extra perk for us: these children are much better than our adult docents at steering visitors to the Donation box!

We feel extra proud about [this award from the Illinois Association of Museums] because we are up against the 'big boys' in the Museum world when these awards are handed out. It's nice to know that when it comes to excellence, we are every bit the equal of the Field Museum and the Chicago Historical Society."

If you are interested in volunteering with this award-winning program, please visit our website at https://www.ppfv.org/durant-volunteers.

SOURCE: "Younger Generation Earns Kudos Too," Advocate (Winter/Spring 2003): 2.

11/14/2024

Learn how to make holiday decorations from items in nature and other odds and ends around the house, just like the pioneers did!

LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve, 37W700 Dean Street, St. Charles

Suggested donation $3/adults and $1/child 18 and under.

🎅🏻❄️️🎄⛄️️

11/12/2024

What's in the vault at the Geneva Courthouse?!

Our members got a behind-the-scenes tour of the 1892 Geneva Courthouse with Geneva History Museum last month but didn't get to see in the vault... until now!

11/11/2024

Visit the House and Sholes School for demonstrations on hand-made decorations you can do yourself.

LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve, 37W700 Dean Street, St. Charles

Suggested donation $3/adults and $1/child 18 and under.

🎅🏻❄️️🎄⛄️️

11/11/2024

2017: Campana Building Adaptive Reuse Plan Defeated

Campana was a cosmetics manufacturer started in Batavia, IL in 1927 by Ernest Oswalt. In 1937, the company built a new factory, an impressive mid-century modern glass block building, at 901 N. Batavia Ave. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, but by the 2010s was mostly vacant and in need of significant rehabilitation.

Evergreen Real Estate Group proposed a rehabilitation plan to the City of Batavia to transform the factory into about 80 apartments. To assist with the financing, the developer sought Federal and State Historic Tax Credits and, by designating about 64 of the apartments as "affordable," low-income housing tax credits from Housing and Urban Development.

The "affordable housing" turned some of the public against the project.

Preservation Partners worked with the League of Women Voters and the Fox River Valley Initiative to champion the project to the public and Batavia's City Council. After extensive reviews, the city council was posed to narrowly vote in favor of the project until owners adjacent to Campana, but in Geneva, lodged a legal protest against the project citing state zoning ordinances that required the Batavia City Council to approve the project with a supermajority. The Batavia City Council could not reach the necessary threshold and the project was denied.

Losing this creative adaptive reuse solution has resulted in a beautiful and significant mid-century modern building remaining largely vacant and rarely maintained for about a decade.

SOURCES: Batavia Historical Society, “Working at Campana,” The Batavia Historian 39, no. 2 (April 1998): 1-4, 9, https://bataviahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Historian-Vol-39.pdf; "Plans for Apartments in Campana Building Move Forward," Patch.com, September 7, 2017, https://patch.com/illinois/batavia/plans-apartments-campana-building-move-forward; "Adaptive Re-Use Proposed for Batavia Landmark," Advocate (Spring 2017): 5; "The Campana Building - A Landmark in Limbo," Advocate (Fall 2017): 1-2; Liz Safanda, "Preserving the Tri-Cities: A Fifty Year History of Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley," interviewed by Al Watts, September 13, 2023, 1:17:29-1:22:52.

11/07/2024

Congratulations to Forest Preserve District of Kane County (and all Kane County residents) for approving the referendum to increase its budget by about $5M per year! We are excited to continue collaborating with the District on its historic sites in the Fabyan and LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserves.

Kane County voters overwhelmingly approved the Forest Preserve District's $5.7 million referendum request for land acquisition and preserve improvement late Tuesday, according to unofficial, incomplete results.

11/05/2024

APPROVED.

The historic district block at First Street, Ford Street, N. River Lane, and Stevens Street will be demolished and replaced with a 5-story 114-unit apartment complex facing the Fox River and 12 2-story townhomes facing First Street (see rendering). One 1850s home on First Street will be moved to the corner of Ford and First to be the leasing office for the project.

The City Council voted 7-2 in favor of the project because the developer made changes to the facade materials to match nearby buildings more closely, and the city will benefit from housing diversity.

The Planning and Zoning Commission and Historic Preservation Commission unanimously opposed the proposal because the mass and scale of the buildings were far greater than any other structures in the historic district. This concern does not appear to have been adequately addressed by the developer.

11/05/2024

Vote today on the referendum on the Forest Preserve District of Kane County.

As a 50+ year collaborator, we have a unique perspective on the District, especially at two of their most popular preserves: Fabyan and LeRoy Oakes.

https://www.ppfv.org/blog/2024/11/1/forest-preserve-district-of-kane-county-2024-referendum

What might the District do with additional tax revenue if the November 5 referendum passes?

11/04/2024

TONIGHT!

7 buildings in Geneva's Historic District could be approved for demolition by the City of Geneva, Municipality.

The meeting is at 7pm at 109 James Street. Please consider attending.

More details can be found at https://www.geneva.il.us/1539/302-River-PUD.


Landmarks Illinois

11/04/2024

2013: Driehaus Award for Preservation Advocacy for Pure Oil Station in Geneva

Led by Geneva residents Colin and Glorianne Campbell (pictured on either side of former PPFV executive director Liz Safanda), Preservation Partners assisted in saving and repurposing the Pure Oil Station in 2012. A Dreihaus Award for Preservation Advocacy was awarded for those efforts in 2013.

The Pure Oil Station at 502 W. State Street in Geneva was built by prolific Geneva builder August Wilson in 1937. By the time a demolition permit was considered in 2012, the former gas station was one of the few remaining of the Tudor-Revival style.

The developer wanted to raze the structure to build a new bank but was denied a demolition permit by the City of Geneva because it was considered a contributing building to Geneva's Historic District that could be rehabilitated. Through cooperation between the developer and preservationists, a plan was developed to turn the former Pure Oil station into a drive-through for the bank (now Geneva Bank & Trust). Creativity also included the signage which remained in the same style as the original Pure Oil sign.

Landmark Illinois remarked that the resolution proved that historic preservation is "a key revitalization strategy for business, government and community purposes." While many complained that preservation hinders development, an editorial in the Geneva Republican admitted, "This shows how gridlock can sometimes lead to better results."

SOURCES: "Say it in Unison: This Place Really Matters!" Advocate (Fall 2013): 1; "Plan for New Bank Clashes with History, Business Owner, Geneva Republican, March 1, 2012; "Pure Oil Building Will Be Saved as Bank is Constructed," Geneva Republican, September 13, 2012; "Pure Oil Building Earns Accolades," Geneva Republican, November 7, 2013.

10/27/2024

1978: Nancy Polivka Becomes President of Preservation Partners

As a Founding Mother and its longest-serving president, Nancy Polivka was a significant figure in the establishment and success of Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.

She led committees such as Publicity, Furnishings, Tour Guides, and Education for the Durant-Peterson House before being elected as President in 1978. Polivka’s turn as president was from 1978 to 1981 and from 1983 through 1984 for a total of six years.

In August of 1979, Polivka summarized the purpose of Preservation Partners writing, "We are preserving our past, to be an educational tool for our citizens in the present, and so it will not be lost to our grandchildren in the future... [T]his organization can and will grow into a large, vital and effective instrument in the preservation and restoration of our local heritage."

Also in 1979, Polivka teamed up with Karen Kelly-Beith to co-chair the Beith House Preservation Committee which saved and restored the 1850 limestone home on the Fox River in St. Charles. Near the end of her presidency, Polivka led the board in considering the hiring of part-time staff which the board approved in 1985.

In her final message as president, Polivka reflected that "it has been my primary concern, out of my home, to keep RESTORATIONS OF KANE COUNTY a viable, responsible, and competent organization. I sincerely believe that this has been achieved, but only through the pouring out of cooperative effort by hundreds of wonderful people who believe in the importance of preserving our heritage for our and future generations."

SOURCES: "A Thought or Two from Your President," Restoration Advocate 1, no. 2 (August 1979): 1; "The Beith House, Restoration Advocate 1, no. 3 (October 1979):2; "Letter From Our Outgoing President," Restoration Advocate 6, no. 6 (April 1985): 4.

10/20/2024

1977: Direct Descendant Visits Durant House and Sholes School

Constance (Mikiska) Heacox, great-granddaughter of Jeusha and Bryant Durant, visited the Durant-Peterson House on October 16, 1977. During her visit, Connie donated three quilts that were made by Durant women and an 1896 Congregational Ladies Cook Book (pictured) featuring recipes by Jerusha and her daughters Abba and Emma who lived in the Durant-Peterson House. For a detailed account of Connie's visit from a volunteer who hosted her and from Connie herself, visit www.ppfv.org/blog/2024/10/20/1977-descendant-visits-durant-peterson-house.