Illinois preservation group says Richmond Wooden Bridge is endangered

The historic preservation group Landmarks Illinois said the wooden bridge in Richmond is one if its 2023 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois.

The W.A. McConnell Foundation, named after the village’s founder and founded in May 2021, nominated the bridge for inclusion on the endangered list. Member Allison Kessel Clark wrote the nomination.

“Through lack of attention and basic maintenance, irreplaceable history can be lost forever. Richmond’s historic wooden bridge is quietly suffering this fate. Once a popular and beloved landmark, this bridge – and its now-gone twin – formed a practical connection in a frontier community that had been previously divided by a railway,” Kessel Clark’s application reads.

Believed to date from the 1850s, the bridge on George Street, between Main and Charles streets, is one of two bridges that once connected the east and west sides of Richmond over the Chicago and Northwestern Rail Line tracks. The second bridge on Broadway Street was closed in the winter of 1985-86 and later torn down, according to Northwest Herald stories at the time.

Kessel Clark remembers driving over those bridges in a school bus in the 1970s and 1980s, often without thinking about the structure under them.

“It did what it was supposed to do,” Kessel Clark said, which was get students across the railroad tracks.

Cars can’t drive over it, but people can walk over it. Our engineering firm gave it a safety check. Walking on it is fine. Cars are not.”

—  Richmond Village President Toni Wardanian

Although it is nice for the bridge to bring attention to Richmond, Village President Toni Wardanian said, she’s unsure why the bridge was included in the endangered list.

“Cars can’t drive over it, but people can walk over it. Our engineering firm gave it a safety check. Walking on it is fine. Cars are not,” Wardanian said.

The George Street bridge has been open only to pedestrians and bikers since summer 1986, according to reports at the time. It is featured on the village logo, Wardanian said.

McHenry County Historical Society and Museum Administrator Kurt Begalka called the bridge a symbol of Richmond, as recognizable to residents as the Long Grove covered bridge.

The village “is taking a little bit more of an optimistic view of the condition of the bridge,” Begalka said.

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The 2020 report from village engineers Baxter & Woodman recommended “ongoing inspections of the bridge, paying special attention to the timber cap beams. If the condition of the timber cap beam worsens, we would likely recommend a rehabilitation project since the condition of the rest of the bridge is adequate to stay in service with some repairs.”

The cost of recommended repairs to the the sidewalk railings and other suggested work “would be less than $15,000 if work was performed by village staff or a local contractor,” according to the report.

Wardanian said she hopes that being placed on the endangered list can “point us in the direction of funding opportunities” for its preservation.

Richmond, the foundation and other groups may need to get creative to find those funds, Kessel Clark said.

“We are not looking to rebuild or doing anything dramatic. We are looking to prevent further deterioration instead of, ‘Look at this hazard, we have to pull it down,’ ” Kessel Clark said.

“Let’s sit down and see what ideas you have and I have ... and come together” for a plan, she said.