The city of Joliet recently presented preservation awards for a house, a church and the the George Werden Buck Boys & Girls Club.

The club occupies a 1920s era building original built to be a synagogue.

Ray and Mari Hernandez occupy an 1891 house that they spent two years to restore after it was damaged by a fire.

The annual Historic Preservation Award was the latest recognition for the lighting project at St. Joseph Catholic Church downtown.

“It turned out better than I even thought,” the Rev. John Hornicak, pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church, said as he and parishioners accepted the award at a May 19 City Council meeting.

The lighting project has drawn new attention to the church built in 1905.

The proclamation citing the award also gave note to the church’s two “Romanesque Revival style steeples” that rise 156 feet and its “massive stained glass ‘rose’ window.”

The awards also noted some history of the George Werden Buck Boys & Girls Club that is not likely known by all Joliet residents.

The building at 226 E. Clinton St. was “completed in 1928 as the new synagogue for the Joliet Jewish Federation and is embellished with geometric brick relief work,” states the city proclamation.

The proclamation recognizes the club for preserving “intricate brick details of the north facade while it was being rebuilt ensuring these details were reinstated.”

Club board member Mark Inserra noted there was “quite a debate” over the preservation effort because of its $100,000 cost.

He credited the Werden Buck Company “brickyard for somehow finding brick that matched.”

The proclamation honoring the restoration effort for the house at 408 Whitney Ave. noted that its owners did not live in the house for two years while restoring it after a fire.

“We’re happy in doing our part to make the Cathedral Area and the city of Joliet a beautiful place,” Ray Hernandez told the council as he and Mari accepted the award.

The proclamation notes that the 135-year-old house “looks just as it did before the fire and maintains its historic integrity.”