This year’s list of Illinois’ ten most endangered historic places includes the usual mix of farmhouses, residences and government buildings. But as Brian Mackey reports, it also mentions five neighborhood schools, including Springfield’s Enos Elementary.
Click here (PDF) for a map and detailed descriptions of Landmarks Illinois’ Ten Most Endangered Places.
The schools are in Springfield, Jacksonville, Pekin, El Paso and Harrisburg — but they represent similar buildings across the state.
Landmarks Illinois, the non-profit group that publishes the annual list of endangered places, says saving historic schools can be a particularly hard sell.
Jean Follett is the director of Landmarks Illinois. She says leaders would rather be able to point to a new school — a “monument,” she calls it.
FOLLETT: “It’s great for them to be able to leave office and say that they’ve built this many new schools. Nobody’s going to care if they say they’ve renovated 20.”
And Illinois’ school construction law only allows funding to replace aging schools. A proposal under consideration in the House would change the law to allow funding to rehab such schools.
— Brian Mackey
