City of Naperville officials, members of Naperville Preservation Inc., and community members gathered Sunday to celebrate the landmark designation of First Congregational Church in downtown Naperville.
During the event, Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli unveiled the church’s official plaque and issued a proclamation cementing it as the city’s sixth landmark and only church with the status.
For congregants like Vicki Keller, a member of the church since 1969 who initiated the landmarking process, it was a great achievement.
“It’s wonderful because I have been a member for so long. I see the value in this church. I see what it means to the congregants,” said Keller.
Naperville church is oldest in DuPage County
Established in 1833, the 193-year-old church is the oldest in DuPage County. It has had several notable members and visitors over the years, including former President Barack Obama, who spoke there in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator.
In its earliest days, congregants would gather under a tree or at each other’s homes or under a tent for service before the church’s first building was built in 1846. That was later torn down, with its current Gothic Revival-style structure erected in 1906.
“Nothing much has changed in the sanctuary since 1906. A few doors have been taken down behind me. But the original beams, the original organ, the original pews. I mean, to me, this is amazing,” she said. “I’m sitting in a pew that my forefathers sat in. It’s just exciting.”
That’s part of why Keller began pushing for landmark status last year — that, and a fear that it could be torn down.
“I didn’t want that, so I approached the church council. They had a lot of questions because it does restrict us on what we can do on the outside [of the building], but they voted yes. So then we moved on from there,” she said.
Landmark application took months to prepare
Keller formed a committee and, in collaboration with Naperville Preservation Inc., began preparing an application for review by Naperville’s Historic Preservation Commission.
The church needed to show it met several requirements, including being owned or occupied by a person of historic significance and having a direct connection to an important event in national, state, or local history.
“They had a great committee of people that took many months researching the history and meeting with Naper Settlement, viewing records, and getting information that would go into the landmark application,” said Bill Simon, president of Naperville Preservation.
The application was approved by the Historic Preservation Commission in December and finally by the Naperville City Council on Feb. 17.
Landmark status now protects the building from demolition and its facade from unauthorized, drastic changes.
“The original facades both on Center Street and on Benton are protected into the future. They cannot be altered without special dispensation…We have a chance to really see into the future what the church was like when it was first built,” said Jane Burke, a member of Naperville Preservation.
First Congregational Church releases new book
To commemorate the landmark designation, the church recently released a book about the historic building, titled “Love & Justice: The Landmarking of the 1906 Building of the First Congregational Church of Naperville.”
It can be purchased on the church website and is also available at Nichols Library, Naperville Preservation, Inc., Naper Settlement, and North Central College’s Oesterle Library.
While securing landmark status for the church was not easy, Keller said it taught her and others more about the building and gave them a renewed appreciation for their place of worship.
“I think it has now given the congregation an awareness of this beautiful building that they call their church home. And so that really is a special thing for me,” she said.
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