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Ottawa Street Methodist Church: from sanctuary tomuseum on Route 66

Greg Peerbolte and Maria R. Traska

Some wit - or historian - once observed that in any given community, churchesand taverns are the first institutions to be built and the last to be abandoned.Joliet was certainly no exception. The last home of one of its very firstchurches, a Methodist congregation, now houses the Joliet Area HistoricalMuseum. A more modern addition on the north side of the former churchbuilding includes the new building entrance for the museum, a gift shop and themuseum's Route 66 Welcome Center.

How the church building became what it is today is a story that begins way backduring the 1830s, the earliest days of the Joliet settlement. What had been MontJoliet, a geographic landmark to French explorers and soldiers - literally a highmound located at what is now the south end oftoday's city of Joliet - had beenabandoned by the French when they'd lost the French and Indian War. It hadbeen nothing more than a lookout for the French, if that; and it had been manydecades since French missionaries had traveled among the Indians ofthe area.There were no French settlers, only occasional trappers and traders. When whitesettlers finally came to the Joliet area after the Black Hawk War, they settled afew miles north of that mound.

The history: Joliet's earliest churches

The first settlers in the vicinity were those on Hickory Creek in 1829 - aColonel Sayre and Mr.L Brown - on the east bank of the Des Plaines River,about two miles north of the creek's confluence with the Des Plaines, and a Mr.Friend, whose cabin stood about a quarter-mile farther northwest on the oppositebank of the river. Others came in 1830, including John Gougar, who alsosettled on Hickory Creek, and Charles Reed, who settled at Reed's Grove on theriver's west bank. Another two dozen men arrived between 1831 and1833.Before the land was surveyed and platted and deeds were granted, anysettler was technically a squatter and risked being removed from the land(Charles Reed, for example, had to relocate twice). James B. Campbell arrivedin 1833 and purchased a considerable tract on the east bank (67 acres in onespot, 13 in another). The following year, Campbell was the first to plat his tract- and, when he had it recorded, he ignored what Frenchmen had done beforehim and named the settlement "Juliet" for his daughter, then began to sell lots.In 1837 - the same year Chicago incorporated as a city - the village of Julietwas organized by act of the state legislature. The village unincorporated for taxreasons in 1841 but kept the name until in 1845, when, at the suggestion ofPresident Martin Van Buren, the city was returned to its original name, Joliet, to

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Figures 1 and 2: (above)Restored exterior of the

former Ottawa StreetMethodist Church (photo

©2014 by M.R. Traska; allrights reserved). (on right)

The museum entrance,featuring the Route 66

Welcome Center (photo©2012 by Keith Yearman;

all rights reserved)

honor the French explorer and companion of Father Marquette (Joliet was thenincorporated as a city).

Someone else had arrived not long after Campbell in 1833: the Rev. GeorgeWest, a Methodist preacher. At the time, there were no churches in the Jolietarea. There were only small groups of individual worshippers that made do withmission services and circuit-riding preachers or missionaries. The Methodistshad the Des Plaines mission circuit, a string of locations along the Des PlainesRiver where fellow Methodists gathered for services whenever an itinerantpreacher was in the area. The Des Plaines mission or circuit was run by the Rev.Steven R. Beggs, but he was not its pastor: the term pastor only applies to anestablished congregation with a resident minister or priest. Rev. Beggs wasn'tresident in Juliet or anywhere else on the mission circuit and so cannot beconsidered a pastor; rather, he was a traveling missionary with a regular,repetitive route.

Rev. West, on the other hand, was in 1833 the first resident churchman in thesettlement of Juliet, according to the Souvenir of Settlement and Progress of WillCounty. IL (published in 1884). But Rev. West didn't have an organizedcongregation or a church building. He merely preached and conducted Sundayschool out under the trees near what today would be downtown Joliet. The most

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accident that same year, he was replaced by Father Du Pontdavis, who continuedthe work. The parish's early records have been lost, so no one can say with anycertainty whether St. Patrick's Church was completed before or after theMethodist church building was finished. Moreover, until the mid-20th century,Joliet belonged to the Archdiocese of Chicago - and that archdiocese lost all ofits early records in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. All we know for certain isthat the first St. Patrick's church building was completed on the west bank in1838.

And here, finally, we come to the appearance of an organized Methodist churchcommunity. During 1836-37, first the Joliet Circuit was established for thesettlement, then later a Methodist society was formed. In 1838, there was anorganized Methodist congregation, and the first Methodist Episcopal churchbuilding had been completed. Constructed of prime black walnut lumber, itstood near the southwest corner of present-day Ottawa and Washington Streets,a spot now in the shadow of the railroad viaduct with its commemorative muralsand across the street from the infamously Brutalist-style Will CountyCourthouse.

This first church building lasted until 1852,when it was condemned for arailroad right-of-way (today's Rock Island line). The congregation sold theproperty to the railroad, bought a new site, and began erecting a second churchbuilding immediately at Ottawa and Clinton Streets, which was completed in1853. Unfortunately, that one burned down only six years later in 1859 and wasreplaced with a stone church at Ottawa and Clinton the same year. That site isnow occupied by the Plaza Hotel Building, which includes Joliet's popularRoute 66 Diner. At what point this congregation became known as the OttawaStreet M.E. Church is unclear, but it must have been no earlier than 1853 andpossibly not until 1859. Its fourth and last home downtown wasn't built until1910, and that's the one that decades later became the home of the Joliet AreaHistorical Museum.

one could say, then, is that there were practicing Methodists living in the Julietsettlement in 1833, as well as a group that supposedly met under the trees atGougar's Grove three miles west of Juliet and was served by the Des PlainesMethodist circuit riders. But they weren't the only local settlers with a religiousaffiliation.

There are sources - the former Ottawa Street Methodist Church's own historyamong them - that cite the presence of a Methodist circuit three miles away andan unrelated resident Methodist preacher in 1833 to claim that the Ottawa StreetMethodist Church was the very first church established in Joliet. Not true: aswe said, for that you need an organized, formally established congregationserved by a resident pastor. The first such organized congregation in Juliet wasChrist Episcopal Church, whose parish was founded on May 16, 1835,becoming the second oldest Episcopal parish in the Chicago diocese (at the time,there were only four other Episcopal parishes in the entire state). That'sEpiscopalian, as in the American equivalent ofthe Anglican Church (Church ofEngland). That this congregation merged with another Episcopalian parishmany decades later after its church building burned down is irrelevant: thesurviving parish still exists in the Upper Bluff district. Please note: ChristEpiscopal's third church building, designed by nationally known architect FrankShaver Allen and completed in 1887, was listed on the National Register ofHistoric Places from 1982 until it burned down in 2006 and its remains weredemolished. Christ Episcopal was never rebuilt.

Next: on August 12, 1835, the First Presbyterian Church was organized as asociety/congregation in Juliet. However, when a local Presbyterian ministerorganized the rival Union Church in 1839, First Presbyterian ceased to exist formany years; it was re-organized on August 3, 1866. Because of the 27-year gap,First Presbyterian doesn't count: there were two very different, unrelatedcongregations at two different times.

The next church society established was the Universalist Church, organized in1836 by Rev. Aaron Kenny. At first, its services were held in the court houseuntil a church could be built. That didn't happen until sometime betweenNovember 1843 and July 1847, during the term of the Rev. W.W. Dean. Thefirst Universalist church building was replaced with a stone church in 1856. It isunknown whether this 1836 congregation became the st. John's UniversalistChurch that once owned the multipurpose Joliet Auditorium Building block andthe chapel within it (all completed in 1891 and designed by G. Julian Barnes) orif it is related to any remaining Universalist or Unitarian Universalistcongregation in Joliet.

Now the Catholics reappeared. Any who had previously been in the area hadvanished with the French and the Indians. The first Roman Catholic parish inJuliet - st. Patrick - was organized in 1838 by Father Plunkett, who beganbuilding the church that year; but when he died a sudden, untimely death by

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Clearly, the Ottawa Street congregation couldn't claim to have been the oldestreligious congregation in Joliet - the Episcopalians had them beat. Could theyat least claim to have the oldest church building, then? No, unfortunately not.The Catholics beat them on that point - but not with st. Patrick's Church. Thathonor falls instead to the Church of St. Anthony, the only remaining Catholicchurch in downtown Joliet. Back in 1859, the First Baptist Church congregationbuilt itself a homely sanctuary with an exceedingly plain brick exterior of nodiscernible style, stuck somewhere between the most simplified Germanvernacular neo-Gothic and the blandest Romanesque imaginable. The Baptistcongregation sold the building in 1902 to the local Italian community andmoved elsewhere; they, in turn, founded st. Anthony's Parish that same year.The parish has remained solidly Italian to the present day.

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In fact, this century-and-a-half-old building on Scott Street is not only the oldestchurch structure in Joliet, but the oldest edifice of any kind still in use in thecity. The Church of st. Anthony is no longer homely, either: whereas theinterior was immediately renovated and an altar added to make it appropriate fora Catholic parish church, a 1976 renovation that included an updated altar andsanctuary also remodeled the building's exterior in the American ColonialCongregational style, aka Williamsburg Colonial, adding a new Colonial-stylespire for the square bell tower but retaining the church's original structurebeneath its renewed red-brick appearance. The beautiful stained glass windowswere likewise preserved but were covered with arched, white-mullionedWilliamsburg-style windows to match the renovated exterior and protect the oldleaded glass.

angel and the women at Christ's empty tomb. Architect G. Julian Barnes haddone much the same for the Universalist chapel in the Auditorium Buildingalmost two decades earlier.

George Julian Barnes, who was well known at the time throughout centralIllinois but not at all outside the Midwest, lived and worked in Joliet during thelast quarter of the 19th century and very early 20th century. He began practicingin Joliet around 1884. Not to be confused with the later, younger John H.Barnes (no relation), Julian Barnes rarely used his first name, more often thefirst initial but sometimes not even that. Not a problem: say 'Julian Barnes' inJoliet, and even today, most local people would think of the architect first, notthe 20th and 21 st century novelist. The Richardsonian Romanesque home ofJoliet limestone that Barnes built for himself on Richards Street in 1890 is stillstanding, a local landmark and a contributing building in the Joliet East SideHistoric District. The Auditorium Building block with its now defunctUniversalist chapel- another local landmark - went up on Chicago Street thefollowing year, 1891, also in Joliet stone; it's now one of the most well-preserved, good-looking buildings downtown. He also designed a number ofhomes located in what is now Joliet's Upper Bluff Historic District. AlthoughBarnes was known to use pattern books for his residential designs early on, hiswork on the Upper Bluff was apparently of his own invention.

So: Ottawa Street Methodist was one of the earliest religious congregations tobe established in Juliet/Joliet, but not the first. No matter: the early Methodistsettlers were still pioneers and their congregation was historically important.Before and during the Civil War, for example, several members of thecongregation worked with the Underground Railroad to hide Negro freedmenand slaves and help guide them to safety in the northern states and Canada.

The sanctuary on Ottawa Street

By 1910, none of that mattered to the Ottawa Street Methodist congregation:they were about to get a brand-new sanctuary, a much bigger, more handsomeone than the church had ever had before. The second half of the 19th centuryhad brought unbridled growth to Joliet, especially in its burgeoning downtown.Joliet was not only Stone City but also Steel City, flush with rolling mills, cokeovens and wire makers. It had breweries and wallpaper factories and all kindsof other manufacturing. By the early 1900s, the Methodist congregation wasneed of a new building to accommodate its rapidly growing numbers. Churchofficials decided to sell their current sanctuary, move one block north to the siteof an old parsonage (which was sold and moved), and build anew at thenortheast comer of Ottawa and Cass Streets.

The Ottawa Street church would have been one of his last commissions, if notthe last; Barnes had already mostly retired by the early 1900s. However, thischurch would be one of his best designs, eventually becoming listed on theNRHP - but not until after its congregation was long gone.

The congregation seemed to be proudest of the fact that the new church hadbeen dedicated free of debt. Although the building's construction had overrunthe cost estimate by some $13,000, a last-minute fundraising campaign hadbrought in more than $17,000 in donations from wealthy church patrons,including $5,000 from the Irving Street Methodist Church, which had recentlyunited with the Ottawa Street church.

The new church building would also be significantly different from its previousiterations. A Neo-Classical style rectangular building made of pale brick withgrey Bedford limestone trim, it had an Ionic portico and four tall columns eachon the south and west sides. It looked less like a church than an urban temple.A limestone tablet was inset above each entrance. The one on the Ottawa Streetside read: For the glory of God, whereas the one on the Cass Street side said:For the good of Man. Thus, they echoed the twin goals of the congregation'scharitable works. The sanctuary inside was enormous, with high ceilings.Several of the tall stained glass panels decorating windows on the north andsouth walls were copies of famous religious paintings whose images includedthe Holy Family's flight into Egypt, the boy Christ with the Elders in the temple,Christ and the rich young ruler, Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, and the

The congregation continued to thrive, all through the First and Second WorldWars, the Great Depression in between, through the arrival of U.S. Routes 66and 30 in 1926, and even into the postwar era. The sanctuary was remodeledand updated several times. But alas, growth couldn't last forever. Whenconstruction on Interstate 55 began in Illinois during the late 1950s, thatsignaled a change ahead in local population distribution. By the late 1960s as 1-55 drew housing and business away from the city center, neighborhoods andcommunities in Joliet began to shift westward to the newer subdivisions andsuburbs.

In 1983, the Ottawa Street Methodist Church celebrated its 150th anniversary(evidently still fudging and using 1833 as the year of its founding, rather than as

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the year its forerunners appeared). The building's Bedford limestonecornerstone, laid in 1909, was opened in April 1983 as part of itssesquicentennial festivities. All was not well, though. The church struggled on,its faith never wavering but its membership shrinking.

represented on the board, as are at least one member of the board appointed bythe mayor and someone appointed from Joliet Junior College.

By 2002, Shapard had determined that in order for the museum to succeed inattracting enough visitors, it had to have facilities and exhibits the quality ofwhich was on a par with those of the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium or AdlerPlanetarium on Chicago's Museum Campus. The adaptively reused formerchurch building would also require an addition on the north side of the buildingfor a new entrance, gift shop and welcoming. display area. "I named it the'Route 66 Visitor Welcome Center' solely because state grants were availablefor such facilities, and I hoped to get some," Shapard recalls. "Turns out itworked out very well, and the Route 66 theme became quite popular, grant or nogrant." But that was still ahead.

By 1996, however, the Methodist congregation had fought the good fight - andlost. The major downtown retail contingent had escaped to the Louis Joliet Mallmore than two decades earlier. A few restaurants, taverns and smaller retailersstill lingered amid the government office buildings, along with the Joliet JuniorCollege campus and some law offices, but other businesses had run off long ago.Dwindling numbers and its location in a downtown area consumed by blight andfraught with the perception of danger finally forced the congregation to closedown on Ottawa Street and merge with another Methodist church on LarkinAvenue in a newer neighborhood. The Ottawa Street building was defunct,emptied as so many others had been by organizations and businesses that fledwestward or had simply given up altogether. Like its shuttered neighbor downthe street, St. Mary Carmelite Church, the former Ottawa Street MethodistChurch was a ghost building in a spreading ghost downtown. By 1997,however, the Ottawa Street Church had already been purchased for $250,000with a museum in mind. Now, the long planning process began.

Such ambitious plans would require an architectural practice and a museumexhibit firm with extensive museum experience. Several architectural firmsspecializing in museums were interviewed by the committee, which eventuallychose Ueland, Junker, McCauley, and Nicholson (UJMN) of Philadelphia. Inaddition to remodeling the interior space and designing the addition, UJMNdesigned all the initial museum exhibits, which were fabricated by an exhibitionfirm called X Plus in Dulles, Virginia.

The revival

Cut to the early 2000s. The Joliet city government embarked upon a downtownrevitalization program. The local economy being flush with a temporaryupswing due to the city's casino income, optimistic city officials put together a$56 million economic stimulus package that included $25 million for a newminor league baseball stadium (Silver Cross Field), $10 million for a new waterpark that is now part ofthe city's park district, $5 million for the Joliet PublicLibrary, and $11 million for a new Joliet history museum. The intent was topurchase and repurpose the Ottawa Street Methodist Church building for themuseum. To fund these projects, there was a 2001 bond issue, the cost of whichwas repaid in full by 2004 from the city's gaming revenues.

Meanwhile, "It was local banker Bert D'Ottavio who proposed connecting themuseum with [Joliet Junior College's] Renaissance Center," Shapard adds.D'Ottavio was then vice-president of First National Bank of Joliet (sinceacquired by Harris Bank). The Renaissance Center consists of two buildingsnext door to the north - a former Sheridan motor inn, now converted intoclassrooms, and the old Joliet Chamber of Commerce Clubhouse, a 1925Italianate building with Spanish elements, aka Mediterranean Revival style, thatwas designed by the Burnham Brothers and later used as a nightclub during thepostwar era. These two structures currently comprise the college's downtowncampus. When people mention the Ren Center, however, they usually meanonly the former C of C clubhouse.

The first step was to purchase the former church, make it a local landmark, thenget it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. An NRHP listing andthe addition of a Route 66 tourist venue would potentially provide additionalfunding for the project. The city appointed Deputy City Manager JamesShapard as the project manager for the museum. To obtain both professionaladvice and citizen input, a committee was formed that included severalprominent local businessmen - such as Tim Wilmott, CEO of the local Harrah'sCasino - and educators as well as representatives from the Joliet HistoricalSociety. It was already clear that the city and the historical society would joinforces to create the museum. Society members would have considerable inputon the content of the initial exhibits. Even now, former society members are

The college had set the precedent for adaptive reuse when it acquired theclubhouse in 1980 for its downtown conference and educational facility, acombination of rental facilities such as meeting rooms and ballrooms pluskitchens and dining areas for the college's culinary school and student-rundining facility, where young chefs in training get to show off their skills.Connecting the museum's addition to the former clubhouse would promote bothbuildings' event venues and services - and allow museum visitors to take a shortcut into the college's superb dining room for the culinary school's weekly buffetlunches and special dinners (the buffets have been temporarily replaced with ashortened cafe menu while the HC city center campus undergoes newconstruction and remodeling of the Ren Center facilities between 2014 and

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2016). Connecting the museum and the Renaissance Center turned out to be abrilliant idea: the two facilities would add value to one another.

has been remodeled in recent years into apartments, though the sale of thoseunits initially floundered because their completion coincided with the start oftherecession of the late 2000s.

To take further advantage of this connection, the museum's initial welcomecenter design included a rooftop deck with a teak canopy that could also berented out for parties and special events in good weather. Today, the RenCenter's second-floor Grand Ballroom has doors that open onto the museum'srooftop terrace, so that both facilities can be used at the same time - the terracebecomes an outdoor extension of the ballroom, thus profiting both organizations.Use of the teak deck, however, must be arranged with the museum, not the RenCenter - even if the main affair is scheduled for the Ren Center's facilities.

The museum project's new construction and remodeling was done by CastleConstruction Company. By the time of its completion, the entire project totaledapproximately $10.5 million.

The results

The renovated former Ottawa Street church now looks every inch a propermuseum inside. The high-ceilinged sanctuary has been divided into two levels:a mezzanine balcony surrounds the space from above while providing extraroom for small displays and overlooking a much larger exhibit space below.

It's important to note that JJC hadn't been alone in repurposing historicbuildings. Rather, it had become a small but prospering nexus for adaptivereuse downtown. Right across the street was another Burnham Brothersbuilding, the former Joliet YMCA, built in 1928. It, too, had been sold andconverted, after the 'Y' moved to newer facilities. In this case, the developerstook a classic Georgian Revival building and remodeled it into senior citizens'housing, now known as Senior Suites of Joliet. That brought residences backdowntown again, though not enough yet to spark any big return to the citycenter. But it was a start.

Figure 4: The mezzaninebalcony not only provides

a bird's-eye view ofexhibits below and givesvisitors a close-up look at

the historic building'soriginal stained glass.(photo courtesy of theJoliet Area Historical

Museum)

Dividing the space this way means that visitors can't see the historic building'soriginal stained glass in full, but that's a small sacrifice in exchange for beingable to see part of the glass up close via the balcony. There is also a top floorabove the former sanctuary for the museum's administrative offices. Themodem addition north of the original church building provides the new museumentrance (the former church's west and south side entries are closed now) andfeatures a gift shop/registration and information desk plus a large open area forthe Route 66 Welcome Center exhibits (see photo). At the opposite end of theaddition, the welcome center connects via double glass doors to the mainground-floor dining room of JJC's facility next door.

Figure 3: Inside theRoute 66 WelcomeCenter; to the right

are the museum giftshop (photo ©2014by M.R. Traska; all

rights reserved)

The transformation of the former Ottawa Street Methodist Church into a historymuseum made it the third adaptive reuse project within a square-block area butthe first to become a cultural attraction. The only other cultural venuedowntown was two long blocks away on Chicago Street: the beautifullyrestored but all too frequently empty Rialto Square Theater, opened in 1926.Designed by movie palace specialists Rapp & Rapp of Chicago, it was restoredin 1980 and has been listed on the NRHP since 1990. The theater is more oftenused for concerts, plays and as a special events venue, however, than as a filmtheater. The theater also anchors a square-block area that includes the formerLouis Joliet Hotel, another historic NRHP-listed Georgian Revival building that

Inside the Route 66 Welcome Center is a space with seating that mimics classic1950s automobile bench-style car seats, where visitors can watch a shortdocumentary film about Route 66. The colorful wall murals that surround thewelcome center's space and the eye-popping Route 66-related exhibits are thefirst things that catch a visitor's attention. At the far end of the welcome center

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is a wall map of the original eight-state path of U.S. Route 66, from its easternterminus in Chicago to its western terminus in Los Angeles. Next to that aredisplays about diners and road food, two phenomena that developed in tandemwith the growth of traffic on Route 66. A few examples of classic gas pumpsare scattered around the corners of the room, along with other displays. Andthere in front to greet visitors are two figures representing 'Joliet' Jake andElwood Blues, aka the Blues Brothers, their film characters now foreversynonymous with Joliet.

The exhibits in the Route 66 Welcome Center may cover fun pop culture, butthey include some serious history, too, and have surprised and gratified many awalk-in visitor who didn't know what to expect (or didn't expect much) from asmall, local museum. The welcome center remains one of the most popularsections of the museum and draws people into the museum who otherwise mightnot have expected to find anything interesting inside. Upstairs are the moredetailed exhibits dealing with local history, including the creation of the Illinois& Michigan Canal and its importance to the greater Chicago and Des PlainesValley areas. Another big draw is the exhibit on a native son and former Jolietresident, the late John Houbolt - the NASA engineer who proposed the lunarorbit rendezvous path to the moon for the Apollo program and thereby becamethe godfather of the Lunar Module. Without both of those, the astronauts wouldnever have made it to the moon. Houbolt, the persistent Man With a Big Idea,died in April 2014 at the age of95.

From the start, attendance at the Joliet Area Historical Museum and Route 66Welcome Center has been encouraging. Moreover, the museum and the JJC'sRenaissance Center are both thriving. There will likely be more opportunitiesfor the two organizations to collaborate. The college's attractive new city centerbuilding on Chicago Street (under construction for more than a year, at thiswriting) will increase classroom space and services to downtown students onceit opens in 2016, bringing even more young people into the city center. TheWelcome Center estimates 20-25,000 visitors each year, a large portion ofwhich are foreign visitors traversing Route 66, from over 35 countries. In 2014they set a single day attendance record of over 4,000 visitors at the annual "StarWars Day", which is a cross-promotional activity to promote literacy with theJoliet Public Library.

Figures 5 and 6: (above left) One side of the John HouboltlNASA exhibit describes the moonmissions. (above right) the exhibit emphasizes technology of the era and challenges of the

Apollo missions. (photos courtesy of the Joliet Area Historical Museum)

Please note: the authors wish to thank Joliet Deputy City Manager JamesShapard and Tony Contos, former executive director of the Joliet AreaHistorical Museum, without whose generous assistance this article would nothave been possible.

References

History/Statement of significance, NRHP nomination form for Christ EpiscopalChurch, Joliet, IL; submitted 1982

History/Statement of significance, NRHP nomination form for Joliet East SideHistoric District; submitted 1980

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History/Statement of significance, NRHP nomination form for Joliet UpperBluff Historic District; submitted 1991

Commentary: Which came first, preservation or tourism?

History/Statement of significance, NRHP nomination form for Joliet YMCABuilding, Joliet, IL; submitted 2005

John Weiss

Everyone's heard the expression, "Which came first, the chicken or theegg?" Here's a more relevant question for Route 66: "Which came first,preservation or tourism?" Let's see if we can analyze that.

History/Statement of significance, NRHP nomination form for Ottawa StreetMethodist Church, Joliet, IL

Souvenir of Settlement and Progress of Will County, IL, Historical DirectoryPublishing Co., Chicago: 1884

Preservation in all its forms is extremely important. Sites, structures andmore must be saved and/or restored in order to represent a sense of timeand place. However, what to save and where becomes an importantissue. It takes lots of time and money to do preservation. You cannotsave somethingjust because it's old. Ifthere are two similar sites, suchas old filling stations, which one do you preserve? Common sensedictates that the site most likely to be visited by the greater number ofpeople is the more logical choice.Tourism means potential dollars to an area or community. Often, a site ispreserved with the hopes that it will attract tourists. I mean generic sites,not historically significant ones such as a president's home or battlefield,etc. Those high profile locations are obvious choices. Our dilemma iswith the less obvious choices.

Greg Peerbolte is the executive director of the Joliet Area Historical Museumand afan of Route 66. Maria R. Traska is an independent journalist, author andpolicy analyst who is also editor of the blog CuriousTraveler66.com and co-author of the upcoming book, The Curious Traveler's Guide to Route 66 inMetro Chicago.

Let's look at some great but lesser known sites on Route 66 here inIllinois. Joliet has the Rialto Square Theatre, Wilmington has MidewinTall Grass Prairie, and Gardner has its two-cell jail. Dwight has theWindmill, Odell has the Standard Station, and Pontiac has its swingingbridges. On their own merits, all these sites are viewed with greatappreciation by tourists who visit them.

Now, let's look at this with some cold, hard facts. Just consider anyoneof these attractions -let's say the Dwight Windmill. I'll bet there's noone in the whole world that at this moment who is planning his or hervacation to Dwight, Illinois because of the Windmill. It just isn't goingto happen. However, I will also bet that at this precise moment, there arepeople within a short distance or around the world who are planning atrip on Route 66. Are they doing this because of the Windmill? Ofcourse not. At best, the Windmill, as great as it is, will be nothing morethen a chance meeting for the traveling public.

What does all this mean? Should we just forget preservation? Are thesesites just black holes that do nothing but suck in time and money? Aretourism dollars just wishful thinking? Not at all.

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