Andersonville Commercial Historic District

At least two years ago, a group of students from the Art Institute of Chicago approached the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce about producing an Historic District application for the Andersonville Commercial District. It was delivered to the Chamber Office but Ellen Shepherd, Executive director reported that no action was taken. To the surprise of many the students had also forwarded the application to the State of Illinois.

Mr. Ted Hild, the preservation officer, reviewed the proposal and sought further information. Since the original group of students were long gone the Chamber induced Kristy Menas, also a student at the Art Institute to review the application and make the changes that Mr. Hild suggested. Mark Walden from the Chamber and Thom Greene, Leroy Blommaert and Kathy Gemperle also reviewed the application. The major change was an extension of the boundaries of the proposed Historic District which are now from Ainslie on the South to the Clark Ashland intersection on the north. Though focused mostly on Clark Street there were extensions to include Trumbull School and the Edgewater Historical Society Museum.

Kristy worked hard to complete the research and meet the April 4th deadline. In May, Kristy made the presentation to the community at the Swedish American Museum Center with the help of some photos from the EHS archives. The next step was a presentation to the Chicago Landmarks Commission. After that presentation there will be a presentation to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency committee.