Most endangered

Chronicle Media

WINN — 042915 — endangered COLOR-1 A downtown Rockford structure and a famed Rock River monument are on a new list of most endangered properties in Illinois.

The Ziock Building and the Lorado Taft-designed Black Hawk statue in nearby Oregon, Ill. are on an expanded list announced last week by Landmarks Illinois, a private organization dedicated to preserving the state’s historic buildings and sites.

“The sites named to the list, as well as the critical work of our State Historic Preservation Office, are all exceptionally important to not only local residents, but the local economy,” said Bonnie McDonald, President of Landmarks Illinois. “By calling attention to the potential for reuse and revitalization of these historic places, we are encouraging job creation and economic development across Illinois – something everyone can support.”

The Ziock Building, 416 S. Main, Rockford, is among five properties statewide that are eligible for a River Edge Redevelopment Zone Historic Tax Credit.

The credit, which expires in January 2017, was created to revive and redevelop challenged historic properties in five river-adjacent Illinois cities: Aurora, East St. Louis, Elgin, Peoria, and Rockford. A bill to extend the program is currently under consideration in the Illinois Senate.

WINN — 042915 — endangered COLOR-2Other properties on the list include the home of the Schwinn Bicycle Company co-founder, a Lincoln-era home in Springfield, an 1855 Greek Revival house and barn, an iconic fifty-foot statue located in a state park, vanishing mid-century modern houses, a former state hospital’s main building, key projects in the expiring River Edge state historic tax credit program, a vacant archdiocesan school, a large-scale industrial bakery, a southern Illinois “thatched cottage,” an early Chicago movie palace, and lastly, the vital office that administers the State’s historic preservation programs.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Ziock Building was built in three phases between 1912 and 1950. Today, the complex is commonly known as the Amerock Building because of its last major tenant and owner.

The Blackhawk statue overlooking the Rock River has had several repairs and patches over the decades, but the now 104-year old statue is in desperate need of full conservation – its concrete body in some places is so deteriorated that if not addressed immediately there is a risk that the damage will quickly accelerate and the majority of its original details will be lost.

Now in its 20th year, this statewide list calls attention to threatened historic resources in need of assistance in the form of responsible stewardship, creative reuse plans, and/or advances in public policy. The slow economic recovery, state budget crisis, and a lack of available financing continue to challenge historic sites throughout Illinois.

Since the inception of Landmarks Illinois’ Most Endangered list in 1995, a third of the listed properties have been saved, less than a quarter have been demolished, and the rest are in varying stages between being continually threatened and rehabilitation.

The complete Most Endangered list is available at www.Landmarks.org.