In February, Congressman Danny K. Davis held a press conference at the Percy Julian home on East Avenue in Oak Park to announce his efforts to have the home listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At the press conference in front of the house at 515 N. East Ave., community members and Julian supporters discussed the contributions that Percy Julian made to science, the racism his family faced when they moved to Oak Park and his daughter Faith’s efforts to remain in the house despite rising property tax obligations and maintenance issues.
All in attendance agreed that Julian’s legacy is worth honoring. Village officials touted their assistance in helping Faith Julian maintain the home, and their support of having the home placed on the National Register, but it is not clear that placing the home on the Register will have immediate, tangible benefits.
Maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Register of Historic Places is a listing that includes “buildings, districts, sites, structures, and objects that are significant to local, state, or national history because of the integrity of their location, design, setting, materials, feeling, and association.”
According to the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, which processes properties in Illinois that are nominated to the National Register, a property must meet at least one the following conditions to be considered:
1. be associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history;
2. be associated with the lives of significant persons in our past;
3. be distinctive for its type, period, or method of construction; or represent the work of a master, or possess artistic value; or, in the case of a district, be representative of a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction;
4. yield important information about the area’s history or prehistory.
Preservation architect and historic consultant Douglas Gilbert said that while it’s likely the Julian House meets several of these criteria, it is unlikely that being placed on the register will have much bearing on the current financial status of the home or that it will add any protections to the home that it doesn’t already have.
He noted that the home is already included on the National Register as a contributing structure in the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historical District. Built in 1908 and designed by architect Thornton Herr, the home benefits from all of the protections of other homes in the district that are contributing structures. Namely, it cannot be demolished and its exteriors cannot be significantly altered. As a part of a local historic district, any of these changes would also have to go through the village’s Historic Preservation Commission.
In addition, while the inclusion on the National Register “makes a property eligible for certain financial benefits,” those benefits are available to all contributing structures in historic districts listed on the National Register.
In Illinois, privately-owned, owner-occupied properties such as these can be eligible for a temporary property tax assessment freeze for rehabilitations in which “eligible expenses must equal or exceed 25% of the assessor’s pre-rehab, fair-cash value of the property and must be incurred within a 24-month period, unless an extension is requested and granted.”
“The National Historic Register really offers no protections, it’s just an honorary designation,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert has researched applications for properties seeking to be added to the register but has no relationship to the process for the Julian house. Although placing the home on the National Register might not change its immediate financial or preservation outlook, Gilbert said there are still good reasons to do so.
He pointed out that Percy Julian’s story is arguably of national significance and that placing it on the National Historic Register could highlight the home’s significance and the significance of Julian’s contributions to society.
In addition, Gilbert noted that an application for the National Historic Register is a deeply researched project that would be publicly available and thus would help educate future generations about Julian.
“The documentation is a public record. It goes on the National Park Service website and is a great resource for school children or someone invested in historic properties. It’s essentially peer-reviewed. In this case, it would focus on the home he lived in but also on who he was, and his life and work in context in the home he lived in, and of course the civil rights struggles they went through in that house.”
Gilbert pointed out that there are more financial incentives for commercial properties listed on the register, namely income tax credits.
Turning the Julian home into a commercial enterprise could happen, but the track record in the village for such properties is daunting.
“Think about the [Frank Lloyd Wright] Home & Studio in the 1970’s,” Gilbert said. “It was run down and needed a lot of work. The community stepped in and made it a showcase. I’m not saying that would happen here. A public private partnership just very visibly fell apart with the Pleasant Home after 30 years.”
In addition, the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation is now defunct and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation has had its own challenges.
“The Home & Studio is a great success, but a lot went into that,” he said. “I’m not saying it can’t happen here, but what’s the appetite for that?”
