PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATIONVolume 20

Heritage Grants Awarded

PACA awarded its seventh rourid of an-

nual Heritage Grants as part of HistoricPreservation Week. Grants, totalling$3,495, were awarded to a school, achurch, and a neighborhood associationto assist in preservation-related projects.

l£al School,312 West Oregon Street, Ur-bana, is undergoing a massive rehab-ilitation over the next year. Budget con-straints had eliminated saving the historicArt Deco tile fountain located in the 1935

kindergarten room. PACA's grant of$2000 will be matched by donations fromparents and alumni. The wonderful, andvel}' heavy, historic fountain wasremoved in June by PACA volunteers ArtZangerl, Tom Kamm, Glenn Berman,Rich Cahill, Dan Leasure, and Craig Huffand is being stored until its reinstallationin a hallway of the new addition.

The Channing-Murray Foundation, 1209West Oregon, Urbana, is listed on the Na-tional Register of Historic Places. How-ever, the building has suffered with un-even settlement over the years, andPACA's grant of $510 will employ a struc-tural engineer to examine the building'sfoundation and, hopefully, supply recom-mendations that will correct the settle-

ment and help level the upper floors.The Sesquicentennial NeighborhoodAs-

sociationhas worked hard over manyyears to revitalize their neighborhood.Many people have been involved in thiseffort, and none more so than QueenSmith. A memorial garden has been estab-lished in her honor by the association onland leased from the City of Champaign.The garden has been fenced and land-scaping plans will be implemented byvolunteers this summer. PACA's grant of$985 will purchase and install two signsat the garden: an entry sign to the QueenSmith Memorial Garden and an informa-

tional plaque explaining the garden andits ties to Ms. Smith.

The Heritage Grant Program is madepossible through revenues from the Ar-chitectural Salvage Warehouse. Historic

May-June, 2000

Decorative Fountain in l£al School's 1935

kindergarten room. A PACA Heritage GrantprOvided funds for its salvage and reassemblyin the hallway of the school's new addition.

building materials are rescued fromdemolition by an active volunteer salvagecrew throughout the year. The volunteersalso staff the warehouse, providing PACAwith the largest portion of our operatingbudget. Much of the architecturalmaterials are donated by individuals,businesses, and other organizationsthroughout the community. Overall, thesalvage operation prevents the uniquehistoric building materials from becom-ing landfill, and provides numeroushome owners and businesses with the op-portunity to reuse these valuablematerials.

Number 3

ArchiTreasures Winners

Eighteen intrepid sleuths correctly iden-tified the details in this year's buildingcontest, co-sponsored by PACA and The .

News-Gazette. Although we try to makethe contest hard, we need to either findreally obscure details (like door hinges)or else concede that we have some greatdetectives in town! Congratulations tothis year's winners who were chosen by arandom drawing of the correct entries.

. First Place: Nathanial and Ed Perry,Urbana

. Second Place: Janet Coleman,Champaign.Third Place:CharlesB.Dragoo,St. Joseph

Ideas for contest themes or details are al-

ways welcome. Call PACA with your sug-gestions. .

Urbana Designates Landmarks

In February, the Urbana City Council, onthe recommendation of the Urbana His-

toric Preservation Commission, desig-nated its first landmark properties. Thenominations were prepared by UI stu-dents in the fall UP 327 Preservation Plan-

ning Workshop. PACA is proud to be anowner of one of the new landmarks, theNathan C. Ricker House, and the otherfour properties are owned by Carolynand Norman Baxley, well-known localpreservationists. The five new landmarksare:· Tieman's Block/Masonic Temple

115 W.Main Street

· The Lindley House312 W. Green Street· The Gothic Revival Cottage108 N. Webber Street· Busey's Hall/The Princess Theater120-124 W. Main Street

· The Ricker House612 W. Green Street.

Three New National RegisterListings

ThreeUrbana sites were recently listed onthe National.Register of Historic Places.The nominations were prepared by VIgraduate students in the UP 327 Preserva-tion Planning Workshop class. The newNational Register properties are:

Elm.Street Court, now known,as BuenaVista Court, prepared by Amanda Keat-ing and listed on June 23, 2000.

Nathan C. RickerHouse, 612 West GreenStreet, prepared by Jamie Oapper ~dlisted on July 5, 2000.

A multiple property nomination of the

University of Illinois buildings desigtled byCharlesA. Platt.Underthismultiple .

property nomination, the Library BUI7dingwill shortly be listed. The nominationswere prepared by Karen A. Sullivan andKenneth M. Itle.

Preservation Conference

The 20th Annual Statewide PreservationConference will be held on September 13-16 in the City of Lake Forest. This annualevent provides individuals from through-out Illinois anopj:>ortunitY to share ideason historic preservation issues with ex-perts in preservation, architectural his-tory, urban planning, and land conserva-tion. CO-sponsors of the conference arethe Landmarks Preservation Council ofIllinois, the illinois Historic PreservationAgency, and the Lake Forest Preservi'ltionFoundation. The feature speaker at thegala dinner will be Philippe de Montebel-10,director of the Metropolitan Museu~of Art in New York. The dinner will beheld at the historic Onwentsia Oub,designed by Harne Lindeberg. Recep-tions will be held at the Two Gables, theLaurance Armour estate designed by Lin-deberg and David Adler, and at ElawaFarm, the A. Watson Armour Gentle-man's Farm designed by Adler andAlfred Hopkins.

Further infurmation about conferencesessions will be published in the nextnewsletter. To receive a conferencebrochure with registration forms and in-formation, contact LPCIat 312.922.1742.

Ourw~bsite is slowlyevolving as is our traveling

exhibit, watch the news-letter for' updates.

pacacc.org

Tiernan's Block, 115 West Main Street,

Urbana. Photo by Tony Bamert.

Focus On: Tieman's Block!

Masonic Temple

The 100'block of West Main is one of thefirst commercial blocks in Urbana.Originally, most structures were woodframe, untiLthe Busey family constructeda new brick building for their bank in1870. Busey's Hall (120-124 W. Main) wasthe first brick block constrUcted in

downtown Urbana. These large buildingswere known as blocks and were name<,iafter the person who funded the construc-tion. The use of brick as a constructionmaterial quickly increased in downtownUrbana after a fire in 1871 destroyedmost of the downtoWn area. This fire wascompared to the Chicago fire of the sameyear for the amount of devastation to thecommunity. Busey's Block survived thisgreat fire because of its brick construc-tion, and from then on brick has beenused as the main construction material inthe downtown area. Frank Tiernan fol-lowed this trend when he built his blockin 1871, after the fire. It was a three-storystructure, atU5 West Main Street, withhis grocery store on the first floor, lawyerand dentists' offices on the second floor,and a large hall on the third floor.Tiernan's Hall, on the third floor, was apopular opera house, as was Busey's Hallacross the street. Opera houses were verypopular in the late 18OOs,featuring liveperformances and vaudeville acts. BothTiernan's Hall and Busey's Hall werevery important social spots in thedowntown, which consisted mostly ofgroceries and drugstores. There was alarge increase in commercial business

around the time these buildings were con-structed, beca use the J.B.W., or the In-dianapolis, Bloomington, and Western

. Railroad, was built through -ChampaignCountY in 1869. Main Street was linedwith retailers, such as the Knowlton-Bennett Drugstore, the Palace Confec-tionery, Dickenson's Grocery, and HanesMeat Market. With the entrance of the

J.BW. Railroad, goods could be shippedeasier and faster..

In 1887, TIernan's Hall closed, and thebuilding was sold to the Masons in 1889.Masonic Lodge No. 157, Ancient Free and.Accepted Masons, occupied this buildingfor many years, and did many renova-tions. There was a fire in 1893 that burneddown the St. Nicholas Hotel on the east

side of the Masonic Temple, gutting thelodge area. The lodge area had been at-tached to the hotel, open through large ar-ches. The interior was refurbished andthe roof replaced within a year. In 1914,the Masons funded a full renovation of ,

the building, complete with a new inte-rior and facade. The interior was redonein blue and gold, and all new fu11\i.turewas purchiised; The facade was then of aClassical Revival design with a Beaux-Arts parapet. In the early 1950s, they dis-covered that the parapet was not struc-turally sound. The Oassical Revivalfacade that we see now was completed in1953 by architects Royer and Davis as analteration to the 1914 facade. The.Beaux- .Arts parapet was replaced with a classi-cally detailed parapet.

Although the second floor has alwaysremained office space, the.first floor ofthe Masonic Temple has changed alongwith the downtown. Its original use as agrocery and drugstore remained formany years, although owned by variouspeople, such as Arnsbaryand Sawin, andMcAllister's. It was converted to the Ur-bana Department Store in 1935, and J,c.Penney took over in 1940. Lorry's SportShop occupied the first floor storefrontfrom 1966 until 1982. Since then it has '

housed many types of restaurants, suchas a pizza pador and the current Frenchrestaurant. It has followed the trends ofthe downtown area from groceries andopera houses to cafes and law offices.

The Masons occupied the upper floorsuntil another fire occurred in the 1960s. Itdid damage to the exterior walls, and theMasons finally sold the building in 1977.The upper floors were renovated, makingroom for more offices and a third floorapartment. The City of Urbana Com-munity Development Department officeswere located there for much of the 19905.

It was again sold in 1995, and is undergo-ing rehabilitation to restore the hall andoffice spaces.

---

The Urbana Masonic Lodge No. 157, ofAncient Free and Accepted Masons is theoldest lodge in Champaign County.. TheMasonic Lodge was established inPhiladelphia in 1754, where the GrandLodge remains today. A charter from theGrand Lodge established the UrbanaMasonic Lodge No. 157 in 1854. Theirmeetings were originally held in the firstpermanent courthouse in ChampaignCounty. They later moved to Gere Hall,which was on the north side of Main

Street, near Broadway. This hall wasdestroyed by the fire in 1871, as weremany of the downtown buildings. Theythen held their meetings in the Odd Fel-lows Hall, which was located at Race andMain streets where Busy Bank is now,until they moved into TIernan's Block in1889. They occupied that building, alongwith other social orders such as the

Knights Templar and the Hope Chapter104 of the Order of Eastern Star, until1979. They then moved to Champaign toshare facilities with the Champaign chap-ter of the Masons.

The Masons were a fraternal order,with many well-known members, such asJudge Ater, and c.R. Griggs. There weremembers from all professions, includingblacksmiths, miUers, merchants, andlawyers. The order hosted many socialgatherings, such as dinners and lectures,as well as helped with events such asblood drives.

Local architect, Joseph W. Royer,designed the Classical Revival terra-cottafacade of the Masonic Temple in 1914 andthe redesigned parapet in 1953.J.W.Royer was a very prominent architect inChampaign County in the late 1890s

through the-early and mid-1900s, andwas a resident of Urbana his entire life.He was born in Urbana in 1873, and at-tended Urbana High School. Aftergraduation, he studied at the Universityof illinois under Nathan Ricker, as an ar-chitectural engineer, graduating 1895. Heworked as a city engineer for Urbanafrom 1898 until 1906, when he started hisown architectural firm. He designedmany of Urbana's most prominent build-ings, as well as designing buildings inmany other cities throughout nlinois.While he was working for the city, hedesigned the County Courthouse andSheriff's Residence. He also designed theUrbana Free Library, Urbana HighSchool, and the Urbana Lincoln Hotel(now Jumer's). The office of his architec-tural firm was located in the Flat Iron

Building, which he designed in 1904. Hisoffice moved to the Masonic TempleBuilding after the Flat Iron Buildingburned in 1948. Several of his designs areon the National Register of HistoricPlaces: the Alpha Rho Chi fraternityhouse in Champaign, the former Chi Psihouse in Champaign, and the FranklinCounty Sheriff's House and Jail in Ben-ton, Illinois. Alpha Rho Chi is one of sixfraternity houses that he is known tohave designed in Champaign County.Most of his buildings were designed intraditional architectural styles, such as hisArts and Crafts/French Eclectic designfor Alpha Rho Chi, his Oassical Revivalstyle for the Franklin County Sheriff'sHouse, and his Romanesque RevivalChampaign County Courthouse. He alsotypically used different colors and tex-tures of brick in most of his designs, seen

also in the previously mentioned build-ings. Although his works are mainly oflocal significance, their extent is notlimited to Champaign County. Hedesigned many courthouses throughoutthe State of nlinois, and his firm Royerand Davis, specialized in large highschools such as he built in Urbana. He

stayed active in his profession until hedied in 1954 at age 81, although most ofhis well-known buildings were built be-tween 1895 and 1940. His death cameonly three months after his wife's, whowas a local poet and interior designer.

Thisarticlewastakenfrom the Landmarksn.ominationpreparedby UI student ShaunaJ.

. Haas. The building was approvedforlandmark status in February, 2000.

New Officers Elected

At the May Board of Director's meetingnew PACA officers were elected. Each of-

ficer will serve a one-year term. Electedwere: President, Dan Leasure; Vice-Presi-dent, Trevor Jones; Secretary, KathyReeves; and Treasurer, Jeff Gordon.Board meetings are held the second Wed-nesdayevening of the month and areopen to our members. Call for the timeand place.

New Post Office Box Number

Due to the relocation of the Station A Post

Office, PACA had to relinquish its boxnumber. Our new adcire!!s is: P.O. Box2575. The salvage warehouse does notreceive mail. so all correspondenceshould be sent to the P.O. Box. Thanks.

Membership Application P.A.C.A.MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY: o NEW

o RENEWAL

o Adult. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15.00

o Student (1/2 time or more) . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .$10.00o Senior Citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00o Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20.00

o Corporate. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$75.00

NAME

ADDmONAL CONTRIBUTION

/

ADDRESS

email address: .Phone:

Make checks payable to: PACA, Box2575,Station A, Champaign, Illinois 61825

Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Farmer City Salvage

A special thanks to the Blue Ridge SchoolDistrict for allowing PACA to salvagefrom the Farmer City High School beforeit was demolished in June. Thanks alsoto Mike Richards for making all the arran-gements and Cotters Glass and PianoPeople for donating the use of their largetrucks. More on this massive salvageendeavor in the next newsletter.

Taste of Champaign VolunteersKathy ReevesTony BarnertTrevor JonesKim WurlDan Wurl

Ray LytleKaren Kummer

Ricker House VolunteersColleen Brodie

Nancy CoombsDan Zanger!David Gamer

Mark ReplogleArt Zangerl

Craig WakefieldLisa ZangerlRich CahillKathe Brinkman

Save the Date

Old House Fair

September 9-10, 2000David Davis Mansion

Historic Site1000 E. Monroe

Bloomington

PACA NewsleUer

P.O. Box 2575, Station A, Champaign, IL 61825Dan Leasure, Plaident

Trevor Jones, Vice-Plaident

Kathy Reeves, Secretary

Jeffrey Gordon, Treasurer

Karen Lang Kummer, Exec:.Director

Salvage ~I.P.'sBob SwisherRich eahiliMike MillerDarrel FosteDan Leasure

David SpeersRobert NemethSara NemethMike Richards

Jim Miner

Kathy ReevesTony BamertLawrence Mate

Gail TaylorAI Friederick

Salvage DonationsCity of Champaign -John SchneiderValerie Cravens

Robin BoyntonJohn Schumacher

Rhett WisegarverLeal School, Urbana

University of illinoisBlue Ridge School District -Farmer CityBarbara Jones

Jill WagnerThe Pavilion

Jacqueline GergenTom Gillespie & Associates

Remember to check your mailing label foryour membership renewal date. The dateshown indicates when you last renewed; .membership runs for one Jli'llrfrom that date

359-PACA: Telephone & Answering Servicewebsite: pacacc.org

Printed on recycled paper

New & Renewing Memberships

Charter Members (1981-i983)Susan AppelJoan & John. Severns

Over Ten Year Members

Kathy & Steve RoemmelNina Rubel

Janine & Roger PrillamanDr. & Mrs. Robert SuttonSharen R. SladeBroce Creamer

Five to Ten Year MembersBertBarickmanJames RussellVaky

One to Four Year Members

Wendy & Ron TurnerAnn LowrySteven D. Brown

Marya RyanEllen ForanAndrew & Carol Timms

Smith/Burgett Architects, Corporate Memb.Dan Leasure .

Lois WacholtzDeborah DownesAnn Lucia Chan

Jim Foster

Grace TsaySolberg/Seyler Family

New MembersCarol & John LeasureRuss KallisSara GoreckiLoretta M. Skowron

Ron JonesEarl JonesClaire & Brian DealBrian & Lara Richmond

Judy A. SkreinerKathy Nicholas

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