Local preservationists seek to protect old DuPage County Forest Preserve headquarters in Glen Ellyn

While the DuPage County Forest Preserve District's Board of Commissioners is busy discussing what to do with its former headquarters located near St. Charles Road in the Churchill Woods Forest Preserve, the group Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation is busy trying to save the historic building.

The former Forest Preserve District administration center — commonly referred to as the “McKee House” after the first superintendent who lived there, Robert McKee — was built in 1936, but it has sat vacant for the last 10 years. District staff presented four options the Board of Commissioners could take regarding the building at its Sept. 19 meeting: no action, demolition, structural preservation and residential rehabilitation.

Of the four options, the president of Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation hopes the Board will choose to preserve the structure of the house and allow it to be used by members of the public.

“Converting this building for public use would be just fantastic,” said Linda Gilbert, president of the preservation group. “It would help preserve the building because the public would be coming in and out.”

The McKee House has a history of being used by the public, and community members have told Gilbert they would like to be able to use the facility in that way as well, she said. The facility could be rented for meetings or events, which would help cover some of its operating costs.

Although it was the home of Robert McKee from 1936 until 1960 and then the following superintendent, Chuck Johnson, from 1960 until 1996, it also was used by the public during that time, said Barbara Plumer, McKee’s granddaughter.

Members of the public, including Boy Scout troops, were able to use the facility for their own meetings and events, Plumer said.

As the Forest Preserve District headquarters, the building also was used for administrative purposes, such as hosting District meetings.

After Superintendent Johnson moved out of the McKee House in 1996, it served as a guard house until 2002. Since 2002, the house has remained unused.

“It just seems like that’s an awful lot of history to just tear down,” Plumer said.

Both Gilbert and Plumer voiced concerns that the house had been left unmaintained by the Forest Preserve District, allowing vines to grow on the outside of the building and water damage to occur inside due to a leaky roof and clogged gutters.

Besides the house’s history, Gilbert said the building also is architecturally and environmentally important, as it was built out of limestone quarried in Naperville and old growth wood.

In 2006, when the Forest Preserve District first considered demolishing the McKee House, both Plumer and the Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation became involved in an effort to save the house, even though Plumer lived on the east coast and the house technically sat in unincorporated Lombard — not Glen Ellyn — at the time.

In the last year or so, however, the boundaries between Lombard and Glen Ellyn were redrawn, making the McKee House part of unincorporated Glen Ellyn, Gilbert said.

The McKee family, Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation and other groups and individuals held a rally in 2006 to show their support for preserving the house. That year, the DuPage County Housing Authority leased the house from the Forest Preserve District, planning to convert it into a home for veterans.
The plan fell through, and in 2010, the house was again in the hands of the District.

Of the four options proposed by the Forest Preserve District, the most expensive would be residential rehabilitation, something Gilbert said she would not support because it would close the home to public use and cost too much.

Not taking any action or demolishing the house would cost the least, according to the Forest Preserve District staff’s presentation, available on the District’s website.

Over time, taking no action would gradually increase the cost to the Office of Land Management and Law Enforcement, according to the presentation. Demolition and site restoration, which would include seeding and planting trees in the area, would cost about $68,000.

Structural preservation of the home would include steps such as replacing the roof and removing mold and lead paint from the interior, and it would cost between $85,000 and $110,000, according to the presentation.

The Board of Commissioners will revisit the four options for the McKee House sometime this month, according to the DuPage County Forest Preserve District’s website.

Gilbert said she hopes the Board will consider allowing the vote to hold until the next Board is sworn into office in January, allowing more time for a partnership to develop between the Forest Preserve District and the Citizens for Glen Ellyn preservation.

She now is working on a report for the Board that includes some potential future uses of the McKee House and details the house’s history.

“[The McKee House] is a beautiful tie-in to the Forest Preserve and history,” Gilbert said. “Why would we throw that away?”