Will shake up in restoration effort get Belleville’s Koerner museum open sooner?
Neighbors in Old Belleville Historic District have complained in recent years, wondering why it was taking so long for the Gustave Koerner home to be restored and opened as a museum.
Jack LeChien and Molly McKenzie, co-chairs of the Gustave Koerner House Restoration Committee, have overseen the project for two decades, working with a small contingent of volunteers and hiring contractors as money became available through fundraisers, donations and grants.
Now neighbor Bill Enyart, an attorney and former Congressman, along with volunteers Tom Bell and Rhonda Latina, have formed a nonprofit foundation with the goal of raising $1.2 million to $1.5 million in private funds and taking over the restoration.
“We are putting together a fundraising plan as we speak,” Enyart said this week. “Our goal is to have a three-year plan, and we are going to complete this project in three years.”
The Greek Revival-style home at Abend Street and Mascoutah Avenue was built in 1854 for Koerner, a German immigrant, attorney, judge, politician, journalist and friend of Abraham Lincoln. It later was converted into apartments. The city of Belleville bought it in 2000.
On Monday night, the City Council agreed to rent the property to the new Koerner Home Foundation NFP (Not for Profit) for $1 a year through at least 2031. Included in the lease is another vacant city-owned building across the intersection at 123/127 Mascoutah Ave.
The foundation plans to renovate that building, too, and use it as a welcome center for lectures and other activities associated with the Koerner museum, according to Enyart.
“The neighborhood was getting a little impatient, so I agreed to help put this (foundation) together in order to save this really vital treasure in Belleville,” he said of the Koerner home.
Enyart, 76, said the foundation’s three founders plan to form a board of directors in the coming weeks and launch a fundraising campaign in the fall.
LeChien and McKenzie, who are volunteers, said their role under the new framework is unclear, as they weren’t part of talks related to the foundation’s creation, structure or goals, and they didn’t know a lease was being signed until it appeared on the City Council agenda.
When asked about their role in the future, Enyart said, “They certainly have some ideas, and they have contributed in the past, and we are relying on some of the work they have gotten done in the past, particularly the architectural study of the premises.”
Small fundraisers not enough
In the past, LeChien and McKenzie have acknowledged that small fundraisers such as raffles, concerts, silent auctions and trivia nights weren’t yielding the kind of money they needed to finish the Koerner home restoration. They recently got the city’s help obtaining three state grants.
This week, LeChien said he’s relieved that people in the community have stepped forward to help with fundraising, regardless of his involvement, because personalities and egos shouldn’t get in the way of restoring an important local landmark.
“I wish them the very best, and I’m grateful for their commitment to the project,” he said. “They’re concerned about their neighborhood and getting the job done, and I’m all for that.”
LeChien, 78, is a history buff who spent 17 years as a news reporter and talk-show host for WIBV-AM radio and 22 years as a Section 8 housing inspector for St. Clair County before retirement. He also served as Belleville Ward 7 alderman for five years.
McKenzie, 72, worked more than 30 years for the former Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. That included managing the Old Cahokia Courthouse and Nicholas Jarrot Mansion in Cahokia Heights. She’s a member of Belleville’s Historic Preservation Commission.
This week, McKenzie said she was available to serve as a consultant if asked, noting that the Koerner project involves not only restoration but also maintenance, public relations and education.
“I really don’t want to be in the fundraising game anymore,” she said. “We estimate that we raised about $900,000 (since the beginning). That’s from cash donations, fundraisers and grants. If they can raise $1.4 million in three years, more power to them.”
Mayor Jenny Gain Meyer said the Koerner home lease, which lists Bell as foundation president, was designed not to determine who’s in charge of restoration, but to specify in writing landlord and tenant responsibilities for everything from maintenance to insurance.
Meyer said she expects the restoration committee and foundation to work together, noting that LeChien and McKenzie have the background and knowledge to ensure historical accuracy, and the foundation is willing to take on the difficult task of raising money.
“I see this as a passing-of-the-torch kind of thing,” the mayor said. “Jack and Molly are finishing out the grants (for) the porch. They’ve gotten it to this level, and they both know that the fundraising ... let’s be honest, that is the hardest part of any project.”
Meyer was referring to three grants, totalling $500,000, that the state awarded to the city several years ago for the Koerner home, mainly to replace a dilapidated, two-story side porch. That’s now under construction.
Funds also are being used to install reproduction doors and windows in that area, a handicap-accessible back sidewalk, new water and sewer lines, plumbing for a bathroom and utility closet, a first-floor heating and cooling system, insulation and masonry.
Past work includes stabilizing the foundation, tuck-pointing the brick, replacing the roof, rebuilding the chimneys, installing other windows and shutters and painting the exterior.
Crisis management at play
Restoration is generally much more expensive than remodeling or renovation, and with very old buildings, it’s often necessary to focus on crisis management to keep roofs from leaking or chimney’s from collapsing, according to LeChien and McKenzie.
Enyart said part of the problem with the Koerner home restoration has been too much reliance on state grants.
“You know how government funding is,” he said. “It can take years. It can come with a lot of strings. And so our plan is to raise the money for these renovations from private donors, so we’re not subject to the fits and starts of any kind of government grant funding.”
All parties seem to agree that it was smart for the restoration committee to get the Koerner home placed on the National Register of Historic Places and hire a professional firm to prepare a five-volume Historic Structure Report early in the process.
The report provides detailed information about the home’s original condition, down to paint colors and wallpaper patterns. LeChien and McKenzie refer to it as their restoration “bible.”
“We made it very clear in the beginning, when (Bell and others) started getting involved, this Historic Structure Report has to be followed, and they are following it,” McKenzie said this week.
For the past two years, Bell, 80, a retiree who operated an electrical supply company in Belleville for four decades, has been working on the home’s interior. Enyart said his contacts in the construction industry have been invaluable in getting donated or discounted materials.
Like McKenzie, LeChien said the most important thing to him is following the Historic Structure Report for restoration and accurately telling the story of Gustave Koerner.
“I don’t know what plan (the foundation has) as far as programming in the future, but if they call on me, I’ll do what I can,” he said. “If they want to program it themselves, OK. If they ask Molly and me to be involved, OK. But the burden of fundraising has been lifted from us, and that’s good news.”
Koerner and his wife, the former Sophie Englemann, built their first home at Abend Street and Mascoutah Avenue (formerly Shawneetown Road) in 1849, but it was largely destroyed by fire. They rebuilt in 1854 and added Italianate details in the 1870s.
The committee selected that period for restoration purposes because it’s when Koerner was back home in Belleville after an “illustrious” career in politics and the diplomatic corps, according to LeChien.
Koerner owned the home at 200 Abend St. until his death in 1896. It was later converted into two apartments and then four apartments. The city bought the building in 2000, knowing that local historians wanted to see it restored and turned into a museum.
Eventually, city officials and other community leaders would like to see the Koerner home become part of a statewide trail, leading visitors to Lincoln-related historic sites throughout Illinois.
“Lincoln walked through the building,” Enyart said. “The connection between Koerner and Lincoln is so significant, and really we have not taken advantage of the community’s ties to Lincoln.”
