Illinois Most Endangered Sites 2021: The Thompson Center and 'Green Book'

From the May 6, 2022, Chicago Tribune "Endangered history:  From 'Green Book' sites to Thompson Center" by Charles j. Johnson.

They didn't list the 11 Most-Endangered Places in 2020 for some reason, but the Landmarks Illinois folks released their list of nine places, six of them in the Chicago and suburban counties.

Chicago's James R. Thompson Center made the list for the fourth consecutive time.  It is not known what will happen to the 1985 Loop building designed by Helmut Jahn.  (Just recently it appears that Amazon bought it.)

The rest of the list doesn't just include big downtown buildings but also more humble locations that hold enormous cultural significance.

Making the list for the first time are the state's "Green Book" sites.  The "Negro Motorist Green Book" was published between the 1930s and the 1960s as a guide for black people who faced refusal of service and the threat of violence in some areas while traveling, including Illinois in so-called "Sundown Towns" where a black person would be in serious trouble if they were still in town after the sun went down.

The guidebook was the title of the 2018 feature film.

--RoadDog

Iowa's Prairie School Trove-- Part 3: Seven Homes

While Wright was working on the hotel and bank project, a local physician asked him to design a home.  The Stockman House, completed in 1908, is Iowa's only Wright-designed Prairie Style home and open to the public on tours.  The house is Wright's take on middle class housing in "A Fireproof House for $5,000."

It is now on the National register of Historic Places, but it too was almost lost as plans were to tear it down for a church parking lot.  The city acquired it and moved it to its present location.

Another seven homes were designed by three other Wright protegees.  All are part of the Rock Crest-Rock Glen National Historic District.  All homes are private but you can do a walking tour of their exteriors.

--RoadDog

Iowa's Prairie School Trove-- Part 2: Historic Park Inn

Mason City, Iowa, got its Frank Lloyd Wright connection when its leaders decided they wanted a hotel.  Attorney James Markley's daughters attended boarding school in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which had been designed by Wright.  he was so impressed that he recommended him for the project.

The combination City National Bank, Park Inn Hotel and law offices, done in Wright's classic Prairie School style opened in 1910.  It is the only remaining of the six hotels he designed and was the prototype of one of his most famous works, the long-gone Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

However, the bank fell on hard times in the 1920s, went out of business and became retail space.  The hotel struggled along until 1972 when it was divided into apartments.  It fell into such disrepair that it was put on a list of top ten most endangered properties in Iowa.

The nonprofit Wright on the Park Inc. took ownership and, after an $18.5 million renovation,reopened the whole thing in 2011.  There were detractors, but its reopening has led to a renaissance of downtown Mason City.

Hotel e\reservations are at a high level and you can take a walking tour of it.

Iowa's Prairie School Trove-- Part 1: A Frank Lloyd Wright Connection in Mason City

From the March 29, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Katherine Rodeghier.

Before he was banished, Frank Lloyd Wright left his mark on Mason City.

Frank Lloyd Wright was asked never to return to Mason City, Iowa.  He had displeased the peole of this city by abandoning his wife and six children in a scandal around 1900.

But, before he left, he designed a hotel and a modest Prairie School home.  Now, Mason City has the only Wright-designed hotel in the world which is also quite a tourist attraction

Mason City is also the "River City" in "The Music Man", written by native Meredith Wilson.

--RoadDog

Detroit's Majestic Building

From Buildings of Detroit.com.

It was located at 1011 Woodward Avenue and designed by famous architect Daniel H. Burnham.  The Beaux Arts style building opened in 1896 and helped usher in Detroit's Skyscraper Age as the second one built.  The first one was 1890's Hammond Building.

It remained the most imposing structure until Burnham's 18-story Ford Building in 1909.

The Majestic Building stood 222-feet and was 14 stories high, the city's tallest until the Ford Building.  It was entirely faced with terra cotta and considered fireproof.

It was destroyed in 1962.  The 1001 Woodward Building, built in 1965, is ar its site now.

--RoadDog

City of Chicago Doing It's Part on Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Ironwork

Good news for Louis Sullivan fans, and for that matter, anyone who likes special architecture. Chicago is ready to come up with almost $10 million in the form of a subsidy to restore the ironwork at 1 South State Street, the former Carson Pirie Scott department store. The ironwork covers the lower two floors

"The ironwork is widely considered a Louis Sullivan masterpiece...and is in extremely poor condition," said a Planning Department manager.

The building will now be known as the Sullivan Center. This is epecially good news since three Sullivan-designed buildings were lost in the last year. The million square foot, block-long building was purchased by developer Joseph Freed in 2001 for $19 million. Carsons moved out this past March. A big chunk of it was provided by Chicago, $13.5 million, of which $5.5 was to offset repairing the terra cotta and rebuilding the cornices. Nothing was slated for the ironwork, however.

Chicago Tribune, September 2nd, "Restoring a Jewel" by Jeannette Almada.

Keep on Down That Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog