Historic Commission

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Gamon Room, City Hall I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm Present In-person – Louise Ferrebee (Chair), Joe Szczepaniak (Vice Chair), Bob Purdy (Secretary), Nancy Flannery, Syed Hussain Absent – Mike Hill II. Public Comments None III. Approval of February Meeting Minutes Approved on a motion by Joe, seconded by Syed, and passed unanimously. IV. Treasurer Report: None V. Ongoing Business A. Walking Tour of Main Street: research update. Commissioners reported their progress in getting details about the homes on the tour. Syed has created a shareable spreadsheet for the data on Google Docs. When completed, this information will be included in the finalized tour. B. Future historical marker sites.  Red Grange: Preliminary text has been developed and Louise will be pursuing with Wheaton Park District the possible placement of the marker in Rotary Park (former Wheaton Central High School property).  1887 Railroad Depot: Although not on the list of potential future markers, this station was brought up in light of the recent developments at Cosley Zoo. The Commission will continue to investigate what the plans are for the station as well as the two barns that are on the property: one of the barns is Wheaton’s oldest barn. These structures may also be considered for the list of endangered Wheaton buildings. VI. New Business A. Preservation Week Home History Research  Commissioners each signed up for orientation/training sessions with Gretchen Murphy at WPL on the various available dates in April.  HISTORIC COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Month Date, Year  The Home History events for the public will be May 9 and May 13 from 6-9 pm. Historic register applicants will be asked to sign up in advance for the half-hour sessions. B. Check list of Preservation Week tasks and assignments. Louise reviewed the various tasks to be completed, ensuring that a point person was assigned to each. Categories are:  Set up historic lectures  Notify historic home/building owners  Wheaton Historic Property (WHP) signs  Publicity C. Preservation Week Banners. Two additional large banners are planned for this year, for a total of three placements: Adams Park, City Hall, and the French Market. A motion to purchase the new banners at $95 each plus mounting hardware not to exceed $100 was made by Louise, seconded by Bob, and passed unanimously. VII. Updates A. Wheaton Register of Historic Places: application and support documentation on website. Louise is working with Tom O’Brien on converting the new PDF documents to web pages. This should be completed by the April meeting and in advance of Preservation Week. B. Commission Handbook Approval. This will be completed soon. C. Disclosure Statements due. All commissoners have completed this. VIII. Commissioner Comments. Nancy described the history of the 1932 Otto Hake murals that were a WPA project. Depicting various Native American scenes, they were originally mounted on the 2nd floor auditorium space of the Adams Memorial Library and later moved to the upper atrium/3rd floor of the County Administration Building as part of the DuPage Heritage Gallery. Planned changes to the gallery involve removing them, but apparently they are attached to the walls with an adhesive that prevents removal without destroying them IX. Adjournment. Joe moved to adjourn, Nancy seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. The meeting concluded at 8:38 pm. X. Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 16, 2024 Respectfully submitted, Robert Purdy Secretary 2