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lockportlegend.com news
the Lockport Legend | November 22, 2017 | 3
National PastForward conference features Lockport
Jessie Molloy
Freelance Reporter
The National Trust for
Historic Preservation’s annual
PastForward conference
paid a visit to Lockport
as part of its 2017 event in
Chicago this week.
The three-day conference
draws preservationists, architects,
and city officials
from around the country for
the event, which takes place
in a different city each year.
While the main event was
held at the Palmer House
Hotel in the Chicago Loop
this year, one of the convention’s
“field studies” was
the trip to Lockport to learn
about the I&M Canal National
Heritage Corridor.
The site spans the length
of the canal from the Chicago
River in Bridgeport to
the Illinois River in LaSalle-
Peru and became the first
National Heritage Corridor
designated by the U.S. government
in 1984. During
their bus ride down to the
Gaylord Building in downtown
Lockport, just under
40 conference attendees
learned about the areas the
canal travels through. Upon
their arrival, the conference
goers got to see the canal
itself before heading inside
the Gaylord Building.
Before attending their
scheduled lecture on the history
and development of the
I&M Canal, its heritage corridor,
and the surrounding
communities, the guests got
to experience the Gaylord’s
exhibits including its standing
first floor gallery dedicated
to the I&M canal and
the National Trust for Historic
Preservation’s current
second floor exhibit on the
old Joliet Prison.
The exhibit, which will
soon be closing out a year
long run at the Gaylord, highlights
the prison’s history,
Alex Cole, of Asheville, North Carolina, makes her way through the “Illinois Passage: Connecting
the Continent” exhibit Friday, Nov. 17, in the Gaylord Building. Photos by Laurie
Fanelli/22nd Century Media
features photos and original
items from the prison, and
discusses the efforts being
made to restore and preserve
it since its closure in 2002.
“Our goal is to figure out
a plan,” Pam Owens, the Director
of the Gaylord Building
and a member of the task
force working to preserve
the site, told the group. “The
state holds the property right
now and the buildings are
falling into disrepair, but we
have had positive movement
in recent months getting
them to talk about plans to
stabilize the site so it doesn’t
get worse.”
After the luncheon and
walking tour of the canal,
the group planned to drive
past the old prison building,
which was designed by
renowned Illinois architect
William W. Boyington, as a
last stop before heading back
to Chicago.
In addition to the Gaylord’s
exhibits and the luncheon,
students from Lewis
University created a small
booth in the building’s main
entrance to discuss the canal
and its connection to President
Abraham Lincoln with
the guests.
“Lincoln advocated for
the canal while he was in the
state legislature in Springfield,”
said Kole Torres, a student
who works for the Lewis
University History Center
and designed the exhibit.
Lewis’ History Center
provided the photos for the
prison exhibit and the director
of the school’s History
Center, Dr. Dennis Cremin,
was one of the coordinators
for the outing.
During the luncheon,
which was catered by the
building’s Public Landing
Restaurant, Jerry Adelman,
the president and CEO of
Openlands which helped
work to create the heritage
corridor, addressed the group
about the more detailed history
of the area and the canal.
“This tour has been great
setting the context and the
importance of looking at
things on a regional level
and engaging local communities,”
said attendee Eileen
Huggard, a city and regional
planning student at the Pratt
Institute in Brooklyn, New
York. “I’m very interested
in the regional approach to
preservation and planning,
so the fact that this was
the first dedicated historical
preservation area in the
country is especially interesting.”
While Huggard saw the
session as a history lesson,
another attendee, Joey Bryan,
a city planner from the
Nashville suburb of Franklin,
Tenn., planned on bringing
some of Lockport’s canal
ideas home with him.
“Franklin started as an old
Mill town but it’s growing
and shifting to a more corporate
focus now,” Bryan said.
“The Horpith River is pretty
much the life source of the
community and we’re looking
to do a riverfront walk,
so I wanted to see what they
had done here.”
While this was Bryan’s first
time attending the conference,
Huggard has attended four
others and says the field studies
are her favorite part.
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Cara Vonk, of San Carlos, California, takes a photo of the
I&M Canal.
“They’re always just wonderful,”
she said.
“I really enjoyed the
mixed group of people coming
together and I really
enjoyed seeing Lockport
and the Gaylord building,”
Bryan said. “This is very
well done. It tells the story
without making you feel like
you’re in a museum.”
1002 S. State St. • Lockport, IL 60441
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