Lori Osborne’s project got an “A” in class, but the city of Evanston could do her one better.
It might just get the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union headquarters, 1730 Chicago Ave., onto the National Register of Historic Places.
In a public history class she took last spring at Loyola University, Osborne, an Evanston resident, wrote a proposal calling for the building’s recognition. The Evanston City Council on Monday authorized the Evanston Preservation Commission to support the nomination to the state of Illinois.
“I like that something I do in class doesn’t get put in a drawer in my house,” Osborne said.
The WCTU, founded in 1874, has been headquartered in Evanston since 1900. It operated out of its current location on Chicago Avenue during Prohibition, which began in 1919 with the 18th Amendment.
Osborne said the temperance union’s fight for Prohibition is a part of history that should be remembered.
“You don’t have amendments to the Constitution without a large amount of public support,” she said.
Prohibition proves an interesting case-study in how societal values have changed, she said.
“People have a late-twentieth-century view of Prohibition,” Osborne said. “Nowadays, it would not be a social reform people would commonly advocate.”
Evanston’s connection with temperance predates the union and even the city itself. Northwestern petitioned the state in 1855 to amend its charter and ban the sale of liquor within four miles of NU’s campus.
When Prohibition became law, local residents believed “the country had caught up with Evanston,” Osborne said. When it was repealed, residents made sure local laws kept liquor out of the city. Evanston remained “dry” until the 1970s.
The temperance union supports Osborne’s proposal, said Mary McWilliams, site manager at the headquarters.
“This is where the work was done to get the 18th Amendment passed,” McWilliams said, adding that the WCTU’s role in empowering women also made the headquarters a historic place.
“It was the organization that taught women how to run a meeting, how to stand up and speak,” McWilliams said.
The nomination rests not on the building’s architecture but rather on its link to an important time in national and local history, Osborne said.
“The building is a very nice building, but it’s not one of those dazzling architectural creations,” McWilliams said.
The preservation commission’s recommendation will be sent to the state, where the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council will vote June 14 whether to send the nomination to the National Park Service. The park service has responsibility for compiling the historic list, McWilliams said.
A place on the list would help the union secure grants for maintenance projects, McWilliams said. It also would make it possible for the headquarters to become a local landmark, which the WCTU intends to pursue.
If the building became a local landmark, the preservation commission would oversee any significant changes to its exterior.
“Just because it’s not listed for architecture doesn’t mean we want to change the outside of the building,” McWilliams said.
Osborne, who has given tours at Frances Willard’s house and serves on a committee that takes care of the headquarters’ interior, agreed that the site is unique.
“There’s a lot of history in that building,” she said.
