Grace Hall is No More

Yesterday, the historic Grace Hall in Woodstock, Illinois, was torn down according to the April 30th Northwest Herald. There had been a valiant attempt to save it by local preservationists, but to no avail.

I've seen it on several occasions and it was a striking Prairie-style brick structure that had at one time housed students at the Todd School for Boys. Probably the best-known resident was one Orson Welles, but also, Robert R. Wilson, architect of the Fermi National Laboratory was a student.

It was demolished by the Christian Life Services in order to build a duplex for seniors.

The cost of transforming Grace Hall would have been $150-160,000 more than building a whole new building.

This destruction is too bad, especially in light of Woodstock's constant efforts to keep their village of yesteryear theme and that wonderful downtown square where the movie "Groundhog Day" was filmed.

Here's hoping the replacement structure is in keeping with Grace Hall.

A Sad Day. --RoadDog