Champaign considers historical marker program, plans to honor C-Street Bar

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CHAMPAIGN — The former site of the Chester Street Bar would likely be the first location recognized if the city adopts a new historical marker program.

The Champaign City Council will vote on the program’s creation at its 7 p.m. meeting today.

“The creation of this program was directed when City Council requested to consider a program to recognize 63 E. Chester Street for its impact on the LGBTQ+ community and to establish that location with a recognition marker once the program was in place,” Administrative Services Manager Kris Koester wrote in a report to council.

“Once the signage is designed, a marker will be placed at 63 E. Chester and information about the designation placed on the City of Champaign’s History page on the City’s website.”

The bar was damaged by a fire shortly after it was sold to Scott Cochrane in 2017.

Then, in June 2021, a storm brought down two of the structure’s walls, and it was determined that the rest of the building would have to be demolished for the safety of neighboring properties.

The idea to recognize the site originated with former Chester Street Bar employee Leslie Krause, who brought the request to council shortly after the building’s collapse.

City staff previously proposed the following memorial text in 2022:

“The City of Champaign recognizes 63 E. Chester Street with this historical memorial. A building stood in this location from 1863 until 2021. Its various businesses and respective owners made lasting contributions to the City of Champaign and its residents. These contributions impacted transportation in late 1800s through mid-1960s; live music in the 1960s and 1970s; and had significant impact on members of the LGBTQ+ community from 1978 until the building’s closure in 2017.”

The proposed program criteria states that, in order to be eligible for a historical marker, an organization, entity or event must have either had “a significant lineage to the City” or “a significant cultural, historical, or humanitarian impact on the City.”

Under the proposed policy, community members who wish to propose a marker designation would complete an application form and submit it to the public works department for review.

Letters of support would also be encouraged.

Public works would then forward complete applications to the planning and development department, which would schedule a time for review by the Historic Preservation Commission.

If the majority of the commission supports the request, it would then be forwarded to City Council for final approval.

As with the honorary street names, the city would only approve four marker designations per year.

However, while most honorary street names only last for 10 years, historical markers would have no expiration date.

The proposed resolution would also incorporate existing historic signage in the city’s sesquicentennial neighborhood into the new marker program.

However, Koester added, “The Historical Marker Designation Program will not apply to entities where license agreements currently exist with the City of Champaign (e.g., Experience Champaign-Urbana and the African American Heritage Trail).”