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Historic-survey consultants present Northeast Quadrant building survey to council; recommend districts and nominations
Summary
Consultants from Southern Illinois Historic Preservation on March 25 presented a Northeast Quadrant Building Survey to the Carbondale City Council, reporting that a state grant and a city match funded an inventory of historic and architecturally significant properties.
Consultants from Southern Illinois Historic Preservation presented the results of a Northeast Quadrant Building Survey to the Carbondale City Council on March 25, reporting inventory work funded by a $21,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' State Historic Preservation Office and a $9,000 city match.
Dr. Rachel Malcolm Enser, principal of Southern Illinois Historic Preservation, said the survey documented roughly 223 acres and 828 parcels within the survey boundaries — Knight Street on the north, Jackson Street on the south, Wall Street on the east, and Washington Street on the west — and inventoried 456 structures including residences, commercial properties and public buildings. The survey used aerial and street-level documentation, Sanborn maps, tax-assessor records, structural analysis and archival research. The draft survey was completed in May 2024 and the State Historic Preservation Office approved it in July 2024, the consultants said.
Consultants described two primary periods of architectural contribution in the quadrant: National Folk Houses (worker cottages, many dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries) and mid-century modern houses (ranches and split-levels built during model-cities–era development in the 1970s). The presentation recommended considering a small historic district of National Folk Houses on North Merriam Street and noted other candidate resources, including the Irma Hayes Center and Bethel AME Church (the latter reportedly designed from a catalog by an African American architect, per the consultant).
The consultants said the model-cities program (1968–1974) contributed to the midcentury housing stock and that Carbondale's model-cities program showed elements of local success because it was run internally by neighborhood residents. The survey report will be incorporated into the city's next historic preservation plan and may inform nominations to the National Register and local designation processes.
The presentation was informational; the council did not vote on designation during the meeting. Consultants invited further discussion and offered to work with the city on potential nominations.
