Efforts can assure the past's future in Champaign County
By Karen Kummer

   Does the past have a future in our county?
   Looking at the recent past, one would tend to say no, especially with the demolition of Urbana's antebellum Ater-Jaques House, the razing of the Champaign County Forest Preserve's Levi Wood House and the impending leveling of the sheriff's residence.
   Over the last 40 years, hundreds of buildings have been lost to fire, urban renewal, redevelopment schemes with acres of parking, campus green space and apartments.
   But ever so gradually a preservation awareness has taken root and is growing.
   The efforts of university urban planning students to survey historic buildings, the founding of the Champaign County Historical Museum, and the saving and rehabilitation of the Greek Revival Cottage were all early indications of our community's need to connect with its past.
   Slowly the preservation momentum has grown with structures saved: Lorado Taft House, Forbes House, Orpheum Theater, Urbana High School, Hazen Bridge.
   Neighborhoods have coalesced to keep their historic trees, brick streets and sidewalks, and streetlights; they have successfully fought for down-zoning, and some have even reclaimed their blocks as family neighborhoods one old house at a time.
   This grass-roots preservation movement finally achieved political status with the recent appointment of historic preservation commissions in both Champaign and Urbana.
   Historic preservation is public policy, at least when it's convenient. And that is a serious problem that the community and the commissions will have to deal with in the future: the questions of designating a building that is significant to the community as a whole and the challenge of protecting a district that is important to the community's character and vitality over owners' objections.
   Without a firm commitment on the part of our elected officials that the history and character of our community is important and needs to be preserved and protected, historic preservation will continue to be disregarded in exchange for quick economic profit or political expediency.
   So what is historic preservation's future in the next century?
   As our cities and towns become homogenized with commercial shopping strips, megamalls and vinyl-clad "McMansion" subdivisions, people will continue to seek out that which is unique and interesting.
   Locally, Champaign and Urbana's downtowns will grow even more important as venues for small personalized shops, unique restaurants, and entertainment. Neighborhoods with mature landscaping, houses with porches for sitting and visiting, and homes with personality and history will become even more important and desirable.
   As people reach ever farther around the world on the Internet, a sense of place and of community will become critical in an ever-changing and fast-paced world.
   Issues for the future will probably mirror those of the past.
   Individual buildings and structures will still need saving. Some of the saving will be done by organized groups like the Preservation and Conservation Association with the help of the community at large, but more will be done by individuals as they seek to rehabilitate their own homes and neighborhoods.
   An owner's effort to preserve his/her house is part of a continuum from the past to the future. This continuum should be available to, and beneficial to, a society whose future requirements are unknown.
   In addition, the focus will shift to the larger issues of quality of life and community identity.
   Historic context will be recognized as a significant aspect with districts or entire ensembles of historic buildings and their attendant outbuildings, landscape and streetscapes becoming increasingly important.
   Champaign and Urbana's neighborhoods are centered around parks and schools, so these neighborhoods will become notable highlights of our community. Preservation is the business of saving special places and the quality of life they support.
   Urban sprawl, already recognized as a significant national problem, will continue to be the main focus of land-use policy as we try locally to control it and save our valuable farmland.
   Sprawl devours historic landscapes and drains vital community resources away from established neighborhoods to subdivisions and "farmettes" increasingly farther away from our town centers and services.
   The way we shape our community has an impact on how we feel, on how we interact with our neighbors, and how we live. Sprawl touches us all, and we pay for it with a loss of open space and farmland, with higher taxes for extended services, and with a loss of our quality of life.
   Closely related to sprawl is the issue of the continued loss of our historic rural landscape.
   Changes in farming practices have made many historic farm structures obsolete, and, as a result, historic grain elevators, barns, corn cribs, windmills and outbuildings are being demolished. Transportation policies have straightened and widened rural roads and replaced historic bridges.
   Economics may be the driving force, but our rural landscape is irreplaceable. Protecting this landscape that we all enjoy will become increasingly important and hopefully will bring our urban and rural constituencies together.
   The next century will also see a focus on cultural diversity with local sites associated with minorities and women becoming important.
   Preservation helps us to remember the marvelous diversity found within our community and our heritage as a nation of immigrants. In the future we will continue to broaden our preservation vision to include the full range of historic resources that help us define Champaign-Urbana and our county as the unique and special place that it is.
   Current building practices are development-led and dollar-dictated. Modern buildings are not built to last, but are planned to deteriorate along their depreciation schedule.
   And design excellence seems also to be an idea from the past. While we have recently built monumental buildings, we have constructed no landmark architecture in the past two or three decades. This is unfortunate since buildings are the tangible expressions of the dreams and lives of people; our buildings are an entryway into our community's collective memory.
   By building memorable structures and preserving the buildings where this memory resides, we become part of a continuum where past and future are inseparable parts.
   It is my hope that in the next century we will be judged not only by the monuments we build, but by those we have preserved.

   Karen Kummer has been executive director of the Preservation and Conservation Association of Champaign County since 1982. Originally from St. Louis, she moved to Champaign in 1981, the year PACA was formed, and took her post with the volunteer organization the next year. She is an architectural historian.

Possible future landmarks in Champaign-Urbana

   Editor's note: The News-Gazette asked Karen Kummer for her list of the buildings that will be most worth saving in the next 100 years.
   Here's her list, compiled with the help of other local preservationists.

Residential
   Greencroft subdivision, Champaign. Great post-World War II subdivision with 1950s and 1960s ranch and split-level houses.
   Solon House, 503 S. State St., C. A designated Champaign landmark, it is the house that most people identify as a true local landmark and will continue to be important and need to be protected.
   Erlanger House, 303 W. Indiana St., U. Jack Baker designed. One of the best modern houses in C-U.
   Levin House, 1109 W. University Ave., C. Designed by George Keck, nationally renowned modern architect. Again one of the best modern houses in C-U.
   University Avenue/West Side Park, potential historic district, Champaign.
   "State" streets neighborhood (streets, named for states, just west of Lincoln Avenue near UI campus), potential historic district, Urbana.
   Main Street, potential historic district, Urbana.
   Clark Park neighborhood, Champaign, as potential historic district.
   Carle Park neighborhood, Urbana, as potential historic district.

Governmental
   Champaign County Courthouse. Symbol of the county and significant building in its own right.
   Champaign City Building. Fine art deco building, symbol for Champaign.

Educational/religious
   Hillel Foundation, 503 E. John St., C. Great early 1950s building, one of the few significant buildings we have from that era.
   Wesley Foundation Church, 1203 W. Green St., U. Another wonderful 1950s design that is awe inspiring.
   Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church, 102 N. State St., C. Designed by national firm of Ralph Adams Cram. Exquisite English design.
   University of Illinois buildings: Kenney Gym, Armory, Main Library, Stock Pavilion.
   UI Quadrangle and its attendant buildings. Great space, identifies the university. Lined with buildings from all eras and many different styles, but together they make an outstanding space.

Recreation/entertainment

   Assembly Hall. One of the first mixed-use buildings of its type, designed by UI graduate Max Abramovitz.
   Memorial Stadium. World War I memorial.
   Virginia Theatre. Great 1920s atmospheric theater, community gathering place, designed by renowned theater architect C. Howard Crane.
   Krannert Center. Innovative design, by Max Abramovitz.

Vernacular architecture
   Lustron Houses. Great metal post-WWII houses of which we have seven or eight in the community, including in the 1100 block of Clark Street and the 300 block of Elmwood Drive, both in Champaign, and the 500 block of South Lincoln Avenue in Urbana.
   Gothic Revival farmhouse on Illinois 130 and Washington Street, U, increasingly threatened with sprawl development. It is a unique style of which C-U has very few examples. Great building.
   Rural landscape and farm buildings as a whole. As sprawl and modern farming practices continue, we are losing farmsteads at an increasing rate. A good example to preserve is the Grace Barn complex that was the Shadeland Dairy, south of the Leverett interchange on U.S. 45, on the east side of the road.
   Round Barns at UI. The barns and the landscape they overlook are threatened with university sprawl and change of use.

Commercial
   Lincoln Square. First enclosed mall in Illinois, situated in downtown and not on outskirts of town. Still a viable retail establishment after 40 years.
   Both downtowns as historic districts, including a number of specific buildings: Atkinson Monument, Sholem Building and Kuhn's Department Store in Champaign; Knowlton-Bennett Building in Urbana.

Modern roadside/automobile culture
   Some of the old gas stations such as the Champaign Plaza Travel building on South Neil Street in Champaign and Kirby Firestone on Main Street in Urbana.
   The former automobile agencies on South Neil Street in Champaign (now housing Rogards, Champaign Surplus and Shelby Motors).

   The News-Gazette welcomes comments from readers on the issues raised in this article. Please send your comments to: Editor, The News-Gazette, 15 Main St., P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677. Send comments by e-mail to news@news-gazette.com.