ZONING CODE ENCOURAGES DEVELOPMENT OF CHICAGO LANDMARKS

by Cora Saddler & Suzanne Hanney

A density bonus incentive for downtown developers is leveraging preservation of landmarks in neighborhoods across Chicago.

According to the Chicago zoning code updated in 2016, downtown developers pay into a fund to receive greater floor area ratio (FAR). The resulting Neighborhood Opportunity Bonus encourages commercial development in neighborhoods lacking private investment. Priority is given to landmarks whose exterior renovation is visible from the street and whose interiors are accessible to the public. These are buildings that can become neighborhood anchors or centers of community life.

Holy Trinity Cathedral (see related story page 12) was one of four landmarks awarded $250,000 in 2019, along with On Leong Merchants Association, 2212 S. Wentworth Ave.; Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church (Minnekirken), 2610 N. Kedzie Ave.; and Beverly Unitarian Church, 10244 S. Longwood Drive.

Last November, the Greenstone United Methodist Church, 11211 S. St. Lawrence in the historic Pullman neighborhood, was among 12 Adopt-a-Landmark awardees. Its $1.08 million grant will go a long way towards a restoration that could cost up to $2.4 million, said the Rev. Luther Mason, pastor, in a telephone interview.

The beautiful Greenstone United Methodist Church in process of restoration.

(photos courtesy of the church)

The Greenstone Church simply completed the picture of perfection that George Pullman had for his namesake model industrial town of the 1880s, 12 miles south of downtown Chicago, Mason said. In addition to brick townhouses for the workers at his company, which built railroad sleeping cars for 19th century transcontinental travel, there was an arcade building, a market hall, a hotel – but no saloons.

Built in 1882, the church has a façade of green serpentine stone quarried in Pennsylvania, its original cherry wood altar and pews, 90 percent of its stained-glass windows and its manual tracker organ – one of the few in the United States. But in all its 140 years, the porous serpentine stone has been a problem, Mason said. Where the stone was improperly placed, it has worn down to the church’s underlying brick structure. Acid rain from nearby steel mills compounded the erosion.

The church’s 92-foot bell tower has been stabilized and its roof replaced, thanks to American Express, the United Methodist Church and the Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side. The roof came in $20,000 under budget, said Mason, who has a background in construction management. Twenty church members – most of them on fixed income – have committed to raising $1,000 each. Mason is also optimistic about two other six-figure grants.

“Folks that don’t get it think it’s about the stained glass and pipe organs,” Mason said. “It is and it isn’t. When you restore the building, you restore relationships.”

Since President Barack Obama named the diverse Pullman a National Monument in February 2015, “There is something about this little town that Pullman built, that history, that is still alive. It’s an amazing time to live in Pullman,” Mason said.

Obama cited the town’s labor history in his dedication speech. During a recession in winter 1893-94, Pullman cut wages—but not rents— in the town. When a union grievance committee visited him, he retaliated by firing them. The union went on strike the next day and tied up railroad traffic across the nation until the federal government intervened on behalf of the company.

The beautiful Greenstone United Methodist Church in process of restoration.

(photos courtesy of the church)

African Americans made Pullman history, too – not in the factory, but as porters on the sleeping cars. Because the job afforded a cosmopolitan life, the porters held a position of respect in the Black community, according to National Park Service material. In 1937, the Pullman Company signed a contract with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters for higher salaries, better job security and better grievance procedures – the first major labor agreement between an African American union and a major corporation. The National A. Philip Randolph Museum on the north side of Pullman tells the story of the man who led the Brotherhood for four decades.

Pullman has long been divided north-south by 111th Street, but the National Park Service doesn’t see boundaries, Mason said, and is working with everyone to make things happen.

Justice work comes first, he said. Pullman dreamed of a school for manual labor, and Mason is part of a group that formed a nonprofit Pullman Tech Workshop, in which people will do construction training focused on historic preservation. Original Pullman worker cottages, for example, have unique wooden porches, which must be replicated if they are torn down in an historic district. The nonprofit will start construction training in the spring in partnership with the Revolution Workshop Training program on the West Side, whose current population is 60 percent South Siders. Administrative offices will be in the church.

Greenstone has been under Methodist care since 1907. The current church is a merger of three previous congregations, which turned mostly Black in the 1970s and 80s. During the pandemic, the congregation grew with church services on Zoom, and with worshipping outside from Palm Sunday into November. Mason called on his experience as a 1980s DJ for the latter. But walking down the street afterward, people called out to him about his sermons, so he knew they were listening there, too.

Live music and art festivals have brought tourism to Pullman. Mason sees Greenstone’s potential to augment that, to be a “beacon of the community,” where people can worship together, have community dinners, study the bible, “listen to a pipe organ concert, cry or bicker.”

Mason is now in his ninth year at Greenstone, but 15 years ago, he was working construction and driving by on I-94 when he stopped to see the Pullman factory clock tower and the Greenstone steeple. He knew nothing about the church, except that it was quiet and serene. “Man, I’d love to serve that church one day,” he recalled.

A few years later, the Methodist district superintendent called him to pastor there, because, with his background, he could assess the church and parsonage infrastructure. “I definitely want to stay here to see this through,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind staying here until mandatory retirement at 72.”

Other November 2021 Adopt-a-Landmark awardees include:

Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church,

4501 S. Vincennes Ave., granted $900,000, is the last building designed by Dankmar Adler—a German-born American architect and engineer whose partnership with Louis Sullivan created a new architectural style characterized by modern art features. Built in 1889 as Isaiah Temple, this landmark possesses fine acoustics for its 1,200- seat auditorium, vaulted ceilings, and horseshoe gallery. The grant seeks also to honor gospel singers the church produced, such as Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Ruth Jones, and Dinah Washington.

Second Presbyterian Church,

1936 S. Michigan Ave., granted $250,000 for maintenance and upkeep. Built in 1874 by prominent New York architect James Renwick Jr., the Gothic- Revival-style church was reconstructed by Howard Van Doren Shaw after a 1900 fire. Known for its original spotted limestone, elegant Louis Comfort Tiffany windows, and Arts & Crafts interior, the church was home to the prominent Glessners, Pullmans, and the widow of Abraham Lincoln. It is a National Historic Landmark.

Muddy Waters House,

4339 S. Lake Park Ave., granted $250,000 to preserve the legacy of McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, father of the Chicago Blues. Waters entered a contract – the only option available to Blacks in that era – to buy the home in 1954. Because of his financial stability, he was able to pay it off in 1963. With two stories and a basement, the home provided rehearsal space and hospitality (lodging and food) to Blues legends like Paul Oscher, Little Walter, Otis Spann, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry and James Cotton.

Gunnison Street Lofts,

1215 W. Gunnison St. in the Uptown Square District, $250,000. The Uptown Square District is one of the best-surviving commercial and entertainment-based neighborhoods of the early 20th century. Many of the exuberant structures were inspired by the fantasy style architecture of the Venetian Gothic and Spanish Baroque Revival, with Art Deco influences, and ostentatious terracotta designs.

Stone Temple Baptist Church,

3622 W. Douglas Blvd., $250,000 for preservation and restoration. Built in 1925 as a synagogue and refuge for Jewish immigrants escaping persecution in Romania, it became a Baptist congregation in 1954. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. campaigned for civil rights there during the Chicago Freedom Movement. Still decorated with Jewish religious symbols, the church combines eclectic influences of Romanesque, Classical, and Moorish architecture.

K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Temple

- Kehilat Anshei Ma-arav (K.A.M.) Isaiah Israel Temple, 5039 S. Greenwood Ave., $250,000. The oldest Jewish congregation in Chicago, K.A.M. was organized in 1847, and Isaiah Israel was founded in 1852. The congregations merged in 1971 and are known for a commitment to social justice and reform, with programs for refugee rights and alleviating food scarcity. Alfred S. Alschuler was the architect for the Byzantine structure built in 1924.

6901 S. Oglesby [Ave.] Cooperative Apartment Buildings,

$249,999 for protection and preservation. With the rising cost of both land and labor, apartment living became the most affordable and necessary option for both the lower and middle class. Exemplifying the early stages of real-estate history and the beginning of high-rise cooperatives along Lake Michigan and the South Side, this 11-story English Gothic style co-op, built in 1928-29, illustrates the beginning of the visually distinctive, lakefront skyline.

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House

- On Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Till was brutally tortured and lynched. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket at his Chicago funeral. She continued to live in this home in the tightly-knit West Woodlawn neighborhood until 1962. She dedicated the rest of her life to keeping her son’s memory alive and advancing the Civil Rights movement. Located at 6427 S. St. Lawrence Ave., the house will receive $249,541.

Pentecostal Church of Holiness

- The brick building at 4208 W. 15th St. with the distinctive bell tower, $248,000. Designed by architect Louis Gunzel in a Romanesque Revival style with Art Deco finishes, the church was built in 1931-32 by Czech immigrants. Subsequent Bishop Michael R. Dempsey helped thousands of Chicagoans find jobs and improve housing conditions during the 60s and 70s. The building remains a place for community gathering and for receiving assistance.

Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House,

9401 S. Ewing Ave., built in 1907, $243,260 to preserve the history of brewing companies, its Queen Anne and Tudor Revival style architecture, and its effect on the larger community. Adopting the “tied house” system, Chicago taverns were controlled by large breweries that sold their products exclusively. High architectural designs and styles were commissioned to attract customers and counter the anti-alcohol activism of the day. Schlitz Brewery has ties to the German ethnic community.

John J. Glessner House,

1800 S. Prairie Ave., is the only remaining Chicago building by renowned American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Finished in 1887 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, Glessner House's cold, rugged exterior is contrasted with its warm, inviting interior designed for comfort and hospitality. John J. Glessner considered the home as a symbol of happy family life and simplicity amidst the ornate designs of the Gilded Age. A grant of $100,000 will preserve its legacy on Prairie Avenue.