What should happen to McHenry’s Landmark School? City eyes new protections for building with school closing

When Landmark Elementary School turned 100 years old in 1994, the city of McHenry and its Landmark Commission awarded the building a plaque recognizing its significance to the community.

What that landmark designation for the school did not do is protect the building’s exterior from potential changes – or the building from demolition. At its regular meeting Tuesday, the city’s Landmark Commission began the process of trying to ensure that the city will have a say in any potential alterations to the building in the future.

As of now, the school “does not have protection under the current ordinance,” McHenry City Planner Cody Sheriff said.

Opened to students Oct. 1, 1894, Landmark sits on Waukegan Road in downtown McHenry. Since 2001, it has operated as a school of choice in McHenry School District 15, offering a year-round class schedule. Citing the building’s age and cost to bring it to current standards, the school board voted July 23 to close the school at the end of the 2024-25 academic year.

The school district has not said what the future could hold for the historic building, but it has determined that the students attending there now would be sent to the schools they are currently assigned to. The year-round program also will end.

There are 21 landmarked buildings listed on the commission’s page on the city website. Of those, only those named as landmarks after Jan. 5, 2009, are protected from demolition or alterations that would change its historic nature.

According to that city ordinance, “No exterior construction, alteration, demolition or removal is permitted on property and structures nominated or designated under this chapter as landmarks or preservation districts, except as shall be approved by a certificate of appropriateness or certificate of economic hardship.”

The commission held a public hearing during Tuesday’s meeting, the first step toward protecting the structure from aesthetic changes to its exterior by requiring that certificate of appropriateness to move forward. Notice of that hearing was sent to the building’s owners and neighboring properties, and a notice of the hearing was published in the Northwest Herald.

Chris Moore, one of the Landmark Elementary School parents who had spoken at the District 15 hearings earlier this summer in favor of the building remaining open, spoke in favor of its future protection.

He noted that in 1967, the district wanted to tear down the school, but residents fought to keep it from being sold to a developer. According to news stories at the time, 1,000 McHenry residents rallied in the streets to preserve the building.

There is an increase in interest because of Landmark School.”

—  Cody Sheriff, McHenry city planner and Landmark Commission liaison

“It is still here, it is still housing students and still kicking,” Moore said.

The year-round program also was threatened with closing in 2006, when voters were asked to pass a tax referendum for the district. That referendum passed on a 62% to 38% margin, according to Northwest Herald stories at the time, after five previous failed referendum questions.

Stephanie Carbone also spoke in favor of the school’s historic landmark status, but she asked whether the building still could be used as a school if it was purchased by a private owner.

“It might not need a change of use, since the school district is eliminating the only school of choice parents have in McHenry,” Carbone said.

Sheriff noted that the protections are via ordinance. Although the city of McHenry controls a strip of land behind the school, which is planned for a future Riverwalk expansion, it does not own the land that Landmark sits on.

As part of the commission’s work, Chairman Thomas Hillier volunteered to write a report to the council outlining what building features the commission believes should remain. The public hearing also was continued to the Nov. 6 meeting.

There are several new commissioners after “not being able to get a quorum for a long time,” Sheriff said. “There is an increase in interest because of Landmark School.”

There are two open seats on the commission, which residents can apply to fill at City Hall, Sheriff said.

Sheriff did not say whether the commission planned to bring other landmark buildings under the 2009 ordinance that, like the school, have historic plaques but are not protected. A public hearing would be needed for each building.

“We will have to break this off incrementally, depending on what the commissioners want to go through,” Sheriff said.