John Russell Ghrist finally has convinced someone to listen to him.
For three years, the local historian has been writing to developers asking what they planned to do with an old one-room schoolhouse on their land along Shoe Factory Road near Hoffman Estates.
His mission has been to save the 69-year-old building, which has been ravaged by vandals and is nearly obscured by overgrown weeds.
No one paid much attention until a developer, Shoe Factory LLC in Hoffman Estates, appeared before the village’s Plan Commission with a proposal to build a residential and commercial complex on the site.
Now some residents want to see if the former Charles A. Lindbergh School can be saved and turned into a museum or a community center.
“The way the farms are going, everything is being torn down,” said Florence Schifferer Jones, 73, who attended Lindbergh School as a child, graduating from the 8th grade in 1939. “What will be left for children? All they’ll see is rooftops.”
Ghrist couldn’t be happier.
“I am grateful that people have finally noticed the building and taken an interest in it,” said Ghrist, who has written a book on the school’s history. “These areas are quickly vanishing. Once they are gone, we will have no record, no visual remembrance of what was there before someone started pouring concrete.”
Local historians say the building might be significant because of its architecture and stone walls.
“It’s probably the most unusual school building, maybe even in the state of Illinois. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Marilyn Lind, chairwoman of the Hoffman Estates Historical Sites Commission.
Lindbergh School was built in 1929 after another school, which had been built in 1890, burned down on the site, said Ghrist. Lindbergh closed in the 1940s, after it and several other local schools were consolidated into Elgin Unit School District 46.
In recent years, the building was rented as a house, with interior walls installed to create bedrooms and a kitchen.
The building has been vacant for at least two years, but the inside has been ravaged by vandals: The windows are broken, the walls and front door have been kicked in, and the toilet and bathroom sink have been smashed. Empty beer cans, cigarette packs and newspapers dating to 1994 are strewn about.
“We want to at least take a good look at it and save it if it’s at all possible,” said Lollie Guiney, a member of the historical sites commission. “It’s a beautiful building. If you washed its face up, I think it would really turn out nice.”
Moving the schoolhouse could be tricky because it has a basement. The developer said he is willing to work with local historians to see what can be done with the building.
The school site is part of a 322-acre development proposed for south of the Northwest Tollway, between Rohrsen Road and Berner Drive.
The proposal calls for townhouses, houses, a new satellite campus and conference center for Northern Illinois University, a hotel, a restaurant, a retirement community and an outdoor music theater. The decision whether to save the school and rezone the surrounding land will be discussed at the village’s next Plan Commission meeting Aug. 26.
