UPDATE: Champaign approves historical marker designation

Update 9:00 p.m.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The Champaign City Council has passed a proposal to create a Historical Marker Designation Program.

Tuesday night, the vote in favor of the proposal passed 6-0.

The program will ensure there is a standard procedure on how to submit a historical marker, and outlines what the city would consider a historical marker in the future.

The idea for the program takes after the street signs around the city honoring people who have made a difference in the community.

Now, the city will recognize places that have made impacts.

Public Works Information Officer, Kris Koester, said the first will be 63 East Chester Street, which people may remember as Chester Street Bar. Koester said that historically, the bar had other functions over the years.

“Started out as a livery. So, we’re talking horses and train traffic would be stopped there because of its proximity to the train tracks,” Koester said. “Later became a place where they treated people who were coming down with polio, and then it became a taxi company. And then it became a live music venue for numerous years.”

Chester Street Bar was a gathering spot for the LGBTQ+ community for decades before it closed in 2017.

The building collapsed in 2021.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The Champaign City Council will vote on a proposal to create a Historical Marker Designation Program at their meeting on Tuesday night.

If they approve the proposal, the city will have specific criteria for what qualifies as a historical marker as well as the steps an individual or group has to take to designate something as a historical marker.

In the same proposal, the City Council will also vote to repeal the Historical Signage Program. The signage program was approved in 1996 when Champaign approved the historic designation of the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood.

Under the new program proposal, the current Sesquicentennial Neighborhood signs in the public areas would be pre-approved for the Historical Marker Designation Program. Any new signs added to the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood will follow the proposed Historical Marker Designation Program guidelines, assuming it is approved by the City Council.

To be approved as a historical marker, the location will be an organization, or event that had a significant impact on the city. The proposed location must also be geologically related to the honoree.

In the new proposal, those wishing to create a historical marker will send an application to the Public Works Department, who will then send the application to the Planning Department for the Historic Preservation Commission to review. Then, the request must be approved by the City Council.

The proposal also specifies that historical marker designations will be limited to one area, but neighborhoods may have more than one marker in its boundaries. The city will only designate four historical markers a year, but they will have no expiration date.

The goal of the Historical Marker Designation Program is to create a program which did not over burden staff or financial resources and to create a program that follows a similar procedure as the Honorary Street Name Program.

The Honorary Street Name Program allows residents to honor people, groups, entities and events that have significantly impacted the community. This program is expected to remain unchanged after Tuesday night’s meeting.

The Historical Marker Designation Program signs will be similar to signs that Public Works has used since 2004 to recognize high school and college state and national champions.

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