Even as advocates celebrated the Chicago City Council’s vote Wednesday to make Promontory Point a historic landmark, they still called for vigilance.
“You never know with the Park District. You never know with the city,” said Jack Spicer, one of the leaders of the Promontory Point Conservancy community group. “It’s a wonderful public testimony on their part that they care about the point. It’s really good news in the neighborhood and the whole city too because they stopped and took a good look at the value here and decided it was worth protecting.”
Residents have been fighting to save the original limestone steps on the peninsula along Lake Michigan between 53rd and 57th streets for more than 20 years. In the early 2000s, much of the Chicago lakefront, made earlier from limestone steps, was replaced with concrete to combat erosion.
“We need to just make sure that the Army Corps of Engineers makes good on the promise and the money we’ve secured to shore up the foundation of the point for years and years to come,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Fifth Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston, a longtime supporter of protecting Promontory Point, said landmarking was a lengthy process but that it demonstrates the tenacity of the community.
“The people that are here today with my community have stood with me for 23 years in making sure this happened,” Hairston said. “This is a testament to what happens when we put all of our efforts and our resources together and the types of things we can accomplish, so thank you.”
Hairston will step down in May after first taking office in 1999.
Desmon Yancy, the newly elected 5th Ward alderman, said he is grateful to Hairston for her efforts and plans to continue her legacy of supporting the point.
“I’ve been hanging out at the point since 1985,” Yancy said Tuesday ahead of the vote. “I know the impact it’s had on others. It’s been able to maintain the character that has made it such an important landmark in people’s lives here on the South Side.”
But Promontory Point conservancy leaders like Spicer and Debra Hammond have concerns that being a city landmark is still not enough to ensure the limestone steps will be preserved.
“‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,’” said Hammond in a conservancy newsletter in March. “Promontory Point has never been in as safe a place and in as dangerous a place as it is right now.”
The conservancy members say their uncertainty is because of uneven protections.
Promontory Point is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places. National guidelines state historic properties must be used and preserved as they were historically, but there can be exceptions under any of these protections.
“In any landmark, like if they landmarked the Sears Tower, if for some reason it turned out it was rotten to the core and they had to tear it down for public safety, they can do that,” Spicer said. “This is the question. They’re not saying ‘absolutely never’ would they demolish the revetment.”
The Chicago Park District, which oversees and maintains Promontory Point, under national guidelines, is allowed to replace aspects of the point with similar fixtures for restorative purposes. For example, if one of the original trees cannot be replaced by the same type, it can be substituted with a similar species.
After many years of advocating for replacing the limestone revetment with concrete, the Park District stated its commitment in January to rehabilitating the existing limestone. The Park District did not respond to questions about why officials no longer favor concrete.
Given similar mixed messages in the past, residents have been wary of promises of support.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced separate funding for Promontory Point in January to allow the city to develop a plan to reduce risk to the lakefront from coastal storm damage while preserving the existing structure.
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According to Mike Padilla, senior project manager for the Army Corps project, the Army Corps has just begun the consultation process, adhering to guidelines outlined by the National Historic Preservation Act. He said this process includes evaluating options to mitigate impact to historic structures, such as the limestone, while simultaneously prioritizing storm damage protection.
“In addition, the Seattle and Buffalo District of USACE will be conducting a third party review of the Promontory Point feature,” Padilla said earlier this week. “The review will utilize any pertinent information on Promontory Point such as previous reports as well as future design efforts by the city.”
Padilla said this process will inform the “appropriate historic treatment” for the design.
The city funding totals $5 million for the design, which Padilla said will likely all be needed to complete the process. The funding for the third-party review amounts to $450,000. Padilla noted that additional funding will need to be appropriated by the federal government and city for construction.
No matter how the design takes shape, something will need to be done to protect the shoreline from wave damage. Though the point has weathered decades of coastal storms, the limestone requires upkeep to protect the natural area residents love.
“The historical context of what this land has meant to folks here in Chicago is much more than any of us know,” Yancy said. “We’re beginning a new chapter in the story of Hyde Park and Promontory Point.”
Ezra Maille is a freelancer.
