Chicago Vocational High School led Landmarks Illinois’ annual list of the state’s 10 most endangered historic places, released Thursday. South Shore Cultural Center’s outdoor theater and a rare Frank Lloyd Wright house on the city’s West Side also made the statewide list of culturally and architecturally significant sites facing threats that include deferred maintenance, neglect and vacancy. The list, which launched in 1995, “aims to enhance advocacy efforts and build support for the eventual preservation of each property,” according to Landmarks Illinois.
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The main building is the largest non-skyscraper example of art deco design in Chicago, according to Landmarks Illinois, and the complex has long been a landmark not only for the community but for motorists on the Chicago Skyway. Though the campus was built to serve 6,000 students — and once offered as many as 30 training programs — fewer than 900 students are currently enrolled. Entire wings of the complex aren’t in use and have been slated for demolition. Landmarks Illinois recommends investment in deferred maintenance and the revitalization of vocational programs that could address the shortage of workers in the construction trades. The Walser House is one of only a handful of Frank Lloyd Wright structures still standing in Chicago, and it also made
Preservation Chicago’s list of the city’s most endangered sites. The home’s most recent owner died in 2019, and the house has been vacant ever since, with mounting maintenance needs. While the South Shore Cultural Center is otherwise thriving, the outdoor theater has been deteriorating for years and is currently unusable, with no lighting or sound system and cracked pavement. The Chicago Park District has yet to secure or allocate funding to undertake a restoration of the theater. At 12 stories, the Spivey Building is the only skyscraper in East St. Louis and was once home to the East St. Louis Journal. Today the building is “effectively a shell, with no roof and a gutted interior,” according to Landmarks Illinois, and faces demolition. The organization recommends full rehabilitation and reuse as affordable housing. Built by a congregation of formerly enslaved people and their descendants, “the church is an enduring, tangible reminder of local 19th-century African American history,” according to Landmarks Illinois. The building has been vacant since the church closed in 2012 and requires significant repairs after more than a decade of deterioration. Oak Brook was once the polo capital of the United States. The barn’s former owner, Jerry Fordon, used the barn to house his polo ponies. The Oak Brook Park District now owns the property and has slated it for demolition, an action that has been delayed due to public opposition. William A. McConnell was the first non-native settler of present-day Richmond, Illinois, and built a succession of homes on the farmstead property, as well as a granary and barns. The McHenry County Conservation District now owns the farmstead — a home built in 1868 and several outbuildings — and Landmarks Illinois is calling on the district to invest in necessary repairs to a number of the structures. The former home of William D. Barry, a prominent citizen and Kane County judge, is part of St. Charles’ Downtown Central Historic District. Baker Memorial United Methodist Church owns the vacant house, which the church plans to demolish to create a parking lot. As part of a marketing ploy, the owner of Meramec Caverns in Missouri painted hundreds of barns along Route 66 and other roadways with ads for the tourist attraction. A handful of these murals are left in Illinois, and some of the barns are in dire need of repair. The historic opera house has a prominent location on Watseka’s Main Street. The city bought the vacant building in 2023, but the extent of deferred maintenance and cost of repairs has hindered restoration efforts. Officials have discussed possible demolition or sale. In addition to its traditional 10 most endangered list, Landmarks Illinois announced “watch sites” for 2025. The organization said it will monitor potential threats to federally owned historic buildings managed by the General Services Administration. These include the Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago, which lacks any local landmark designation that would protect it from demolition or redevelopment.
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