As early as 2005, the Board of Trustees became concerned about escalating expenses for operations at 41 South Prairie, its home base since 1983. The lease for the home on Prairie required the Society to pay the landlord for all utilities, upkeep, lease-dictated improvements, and property taxes. Faced with a five-year lease renewal as the only option for continued occupation of the house the Board had a difficult decision to make. The fine Victorian-era home on Prairie, home of the Historical Society for 22 years was not ideal for the display of historic items and the second floor was accessible only by a long stairway from the ground floor. It was time to re-focus the Society’s mission on the people, places and events in Park Ridge history, instead of rooms full of furniture and Americana.
So, in 2005 the search for a new permanent home began. The list of needs included adequate parking, appropriate zoning, a location that could be exempted from property taxes and provide adequate space for displays, community programs and storage for archives.
Fortunately, a new friendship was found in the management of the not-for-profit Youth Campus, a historic site along North Prospect Avenue which was the second home of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls beginning in 1908. The School was founded in 1877 to serve young girls in need, and moved to Park Ridge from Evanston, site of its first home.
Eight legacy brick Cottages were on the grounds of the eleven-acre Youth Campus, all built between 1908 and 1914. One such Cottage — the Hannah Solomon Cottage, named after the President of the School in 1908 — was not occupied at the time. The Illinois Industrial School for Girls was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Six of the eight legacy Cottages were designed in the studios of Holabird and Roche, a well-known architectural firm founded in 1881.
Following negotiations with the Youth Campus Executive Director and its Board of Directors, a ten-year lease for the Solomon Cottage was signed by both parties in April 2009. The last day at 41 South Prairie was October 14, 2009; however, Solomon Cottage was not yet ready for occupancy so the Society’s collections and archives were placed in storage, some provided through the courtesy of John Sasser, owner of the former Park Ridge Non-Profit Center at Fairview and Garden. More storage was provided by Mike and Judy Hill, owners of the former auto agency building at the corner of Main Street and Prairie Avenue.
During the next three years, 2010-2013, the Society made plans for the renovation of Solomon Cottage. An architect of renown in historic preservation, Walker Johnson, was selected to provide plans and fundraising efforts to support the renovation work began. Then in April 2012, The Youth Campus made the decision to close its residential facility in Park Ridge. Soon after the Campus grounds were sold to Children’s Home + Aid, another Chicago-based social service agency serving children in need, with its own long and storied history. Although the Society Cottage lease with The Youth Campus had been terminated, the Society’s appeal to Children’s Home + Aid management for a lease carry-over was well received and granted. However, only a few months later the new owner decided to sell the property.
In July, 2012, the Park Ridge Park District and the Mark Elliott Corporation made a joint proposal to purchase the buildings and grounds of the former Youth Campus. The Society continued to maintain its position of securing a long-term home in the Cottage, even going so far as to propose moving the Solomon Cottage to the Park District side of the potentially split property at the Campus. However, in September, the Park District made a move to purchase the entire eleven-acre property. Following a successful April 2013 referendum, the District was able to purchase purchase the entire Youth Campus property, which was later renamed Prospect Park. Conversations between the Park District and the Society resumed, with the goal of making the Hannah Solomon Cottage a home for the new Park Ridge History Center, under the aegis of the Park Ridge Historical Society.
After months of discussion and negotiations, the Park Ridge Historical Society entered into an Agreement with the Park Ridge Park District in March 2014, setting out the conditions for a long-term lease. That lease provided for a lease period of 25-years, and renewable for another like term, and required the Historical Society to fund proper renovation of the 1908 Solomon Cottage on the grounds of Prospect Park with the understanding that it would be the new and permanent home of the Historical Society.
The March 2014 Agreement called for selection of an architect acceptable to both parties to be hired by the Park District to provide renovation plans for the Cottage project. The firm of FGM Architects, which had been selected to design the layout for our new Prospect Park, was agreed to by both parties to assist the Society in planning for the renovation of the Cottage.
May 2014 – June, 2015
In May, 2014, the Park District received notice from the National Park Service (NPS) that, according to the Service, District plans for the redevelopment of the Youth Campus property would have an adverse effect on that historic property as it is listed to the National Register of Historic Places. The Illinois Industrial School for Girls. The following link leads directly to the National Archives website and the registration document: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892661
The Park District was required to adhere to certain stipulations within the NPS Memorandum, in order to receive funding from the National Park Service through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, with the process guided by the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) in Illinois. The stipulations included requirements that the rehabilitation of the Solomon Cottage and Wohler’s Hall be performed in accord with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Properties.
The SHPO was already aware of the Society plans for renovation of the Solomon Cottage, and wrote to the Society in December 2014, regarding the elements of our plan which were inadequate for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. In dialog with the SHPO, a new plan was developed to better preserve the historic character of the Solomon Cottage and comply with the above Standards.
The revised plan was accepted by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (within the DNR’s Historic Preservation Division) IHPA in June 2015. It called for the retention of the volume and character of the original dormitory, refectory/parlor and entry hall within the Cottage so as to provide visitors with a strong visual impression of the interior spaces where young students at the School’s Solomon Cottage would eat, study and sleep, while retaining the east side spaces (kitchen, housemother’s quarters and bathrooms) as places for service rooms (storage, lavatory), kitchenette and office/research space.
In addition to these interior adjustments, the front porch stairway piers were rehabilitated, and a new, more historically accurate front door added. The existing windows were repaired, if necessary, and repainted. Certain ‘modern’ windows were replaced so that the exterior east façade when restored with these windows would conform to the exact configurations and placements shown in the original 1908 blueprints. Other improvements included a handicapped accessible entry to the Cottage on the east side of the building. New flooring was installed throughout the Cottage. Also, the partial basement was upgraded to accommodate a storage space for the Society’s holdings and collections.
The revised FGM/Historical Society plan allowed for meetings, lectures, special displays, exhibits, and student and scout visits, as always anticipated for the new Park Ridge History Center.
After years of planning and working with multiple agencies to assure that all the requirements of working on a historic building were met the work could finally begin on the restoration of Solomon Cottage.
The final lease between the Park District and the Historical Society outlined the financial responsibility of the Historical Society for all renovation costs. This lease, dated November 9, 2016, shows those costs as $544,000.00.
Per the agreement with the Park District a plan was developed to allow the Historical Society to make annual payments over three years to pay back the full cost of the restoration. [This timetable was revised in the First Amendment to the Lease, approved by the Park District in February 2020, extending the payment intervals over six years, beginning in January 2021 and the society made the required payments in 2021, 2022 & 2023. ]In the fall of 2023 a new lease agreement between the two parties was approved and the remaining amount of the loan was forgiven. In the new lease agreement, the Society will pay $1 per year for the lease of Solomon Cottage for the next ten years.
Groundbreaking for renovation work at the Park Ridge History Center in the Solomon Cottage was on November 16, 2016. Construction work was essentially completed two years later.
At the conclusion of this journey, not only does the Society’s new home have ample parking for events and visiting hours, plus the benefit of a home on a tax-exempt parcel, a 50-year lease was achieved, outdoor space around the Center is available to events congenial to the weather, our home is in a most historic place in Park Ridge, and best of all, there is a good opportunity for opening windows to local history for young children visiting Prospect Park.
Photos of Solomon Cottage before and during construction are below, followed by photos of the completed renovation.
We are very proud of our new permanent home and hope you will visit the History Center when it reopens in the spring of 2021 to see how we are using this beautiful new space!
We continue to raise needed funds to repay the loan from the Park Ridge Park District. If you would like to become a member of the Park Ridge Historical Society or make a contribution to our Building Fund click on “Support the History Center” at the top of the page.
