Future Downers Grove Civic Center may honor historic figures

Downers Grove leadership is set to honor two figures from village history in the naming and design of a planned Civic Center, which is budgeted at around $56 million.

Mayor Bob Barnett officially announced his wishes for the future building’s council chambers to be named for the late Mayor Betty Cheever (1928-2021) at the Village Council meeting March 8, which happened to fall on International Women’s Day.

Barnett requested that the Civic Center’s entrance plaza be named in honor of Isrel (or Israel) Blackburn (1818-1902), a former slave and Union soldier who became a Downers Grove resident after the Civil War.

“This building is an important part of our community,” said Barnett, noting the need to “deliver a message for what we consider important.”

In 1983, Cheever became the first woman to be elected Downers Grove mayor. She was reelected for three more terms and served 16 years. Cheever’s time in Downers Grove government spans 32 years, including her time as a village commissioner and on the plan commission before she became mayor.

Barnett highlighted many of Cheever’s leadership accomplishments, including switching Downers Grove to Lake Michigan water, partnering on the preservation of Lyman Woods and establishing the downtown tax increment financing (TIF) district, which just concluded last year.

“Frankly, much of what we hold dear to our village today is a function of the more than three decades of stewardship and leadership that Betty gave to Downers Grove,” Barnett said.

Barnett asked for the building’s outdoor public entrance space to be named the Blackburn Civil Rights Plaza in honor of the Civil War veteran and local business owner who specialized in “teaming,” which was organizing horse teams for the transportation of goods.

“Isrel Blackburn, born a slave, served this country in repudiation of slavery and then became a successful landowner and raised five children, largely in Downers Grove,” Barnett said. “In support of Civil Rights proclamations we’ve made, I want to make a concrete and permanent statement that civil rights is our first calling as a government.”

The proposed Civic Center will house the village hall, police station and administrative offices that are to be leased by Downers Grove Elementary District 58. The 77,000-square-foot building is to replace the existing village hall and police station buildings along Burlington Avenue.

Village officials discussed possible environmental sustainability attributes for the Civic Center, the removal of on-street parking along Curtiss Street and the burial of utility lines around the building.

The Village Council will vote on a facilities replacement and sustainability plan at a future date.