Fraternity House Cleans Up

A College Town Designates its First Historic District

By Kara Laughlin | Online Only | Mar. 22, 2002

The former Theta Club, designed by Joseph Royer in 1905

Credit: Dan Leasure

In a college town like Urbana, Ill., where open land is slowly being converted into industrial parks and local property managers build apartment complexes to attract University of Illinois students, the words restoration and preservation are not exactly part of the local parlance. Here, preservationists take their victories where they can find them, even if it means finding them in a historic district comprising just two buildings.

This summer, Urbana (population 36,000) designated its first-ever historic district: the Joseph Royer House and adjacent cottage, both built by local architect Joseph Royer.

Royer House

Credit: Leasure

The Royer family lived in the houses in the early part of the 20th century while the architect pursued his career as one of the county's predominant designers, building grand brick schools and government buildings that contrast with his intimate residences.

The historic district is located in a tree-lined residential area, where bricks pave many of the streets and sidewalks. Just two blocks away, streets leading to campus are peppered with modern university dormitories, mini-marts, and pizza joints.

City preservationists say they are heartened by the presence of the city's first historic district, however small. Yet its creation has generated big controversy. Most of the discord came from the owners of the Royer House—the Theta Chapter of Omega Tau Sigma—who were in the process of selling the building when the petition to preserve it was filed.

"I really don't think this [designation] should be done against the owner's will," says Linda Berent, faculty advisor for Omega Tau Sigma, adding that if there had been any applicable financial incentives to help them restore the house, they would have considered it. The fraternity had little money, she says, and depended on members, who weren't necessarily experienced with home maintenance, to make repairs. "If communities want to set up these sorts of protections, they really ought to fund them," she says.

The fraternity had occupied the Royer House, a two-story mission-style structure built in 1905, for 32 years, when a fire last June damaged the building's original clay tile roof. It was the final straw for the Theta Club. After years of costly stopgap repairs, including a recent $30,000 investment to bring the building in line with fire codes, the Theta Club decided to sell its only asset and buy another property for the fraternity.

"Everyone was concerned after the fire," said Karen Kumer, executive director of the county's nonprofit preservation association. "It looked like [the building's] slow process of decline would continue."

Royer cottage

Credit: Dan Leasure

A group of neighbors, worried that the house would be sold to a developer who might raze it, approached the owner of the adjacent residence, who shared their concerns. She signed a petition nominating the Royer House and her English-revival cottage, built for Royer's mother-in-law in 1923, for designation as a historic district. Buildings in a historic district may not undergo major alterations to their exteriors without prior permission from Urbana's historic-preservation commission.

Because Urbana's ordinance requires the signatures of 25 percent of the property owners in a proposed historic district, only one signature was needed to carry the petition, which the city council approved 6–1 in November.

Although neighbors and preservationists were pleased, the Theta Club was not. Berent says that after the historic designation, they lost every offer they had on the house and started getting offers for less than half of the building’s $220,000 appraisal price.

"We had a contract for the full appraisal price before [the designation]," Berent says.

Anticipating a long winter with the house still unsold, Theta Club applied for, and was granted, permission to patch the roof without having to refurbish it with its original clay tiling. When the house sold this February, it was for about 15 percent less than the offering price.

Urbana City Councilor Esther Patt, who lives a block away from the district that her vote helped to create, believes that historic preservation is a tough sell in Urbana because land is often considered more valuable than any buildings on it.

"There are definitely people in the community with a high level of awareness regarding issues of preservation," Patt says, "but I think there's an attitude among a lot of people in the local government and in the community that historic preservation is a nicety, but not a necessity."

As proof, Patt points to several buildings that were recently lost to expansion despite the efforts of local preservationists. In 1999, the 150-year-old Ater-Jaques house collapsed days before it was to have been moved as part of the city library's expansion plan. Last year, despite assurances from the county board that it would be saved, a 95-year-old sheriff's residence built by Royer was destroyed to make room for expansion of the city's county courthouse. Such losses are particularly bitter in a city that wasn't established until 1833 and doesn't have many buildings that predate the turn of the last century.

"It's very frustrating because a lot of the community doesn't seem to have pride in our cultural heritage," says Kumer. "Education is the biggest thing we need to do. We try our best, but people don't seem to pay attention."

South view of Royer House

Credit: Leasure

Mrs. Yung Sun King, the new owner of the Royer House, say that the historic designation provided them with the opportunity to buy the house. She and her husband had been interested in the house before it became part of a historic district, but had been outbid by local developers and property managers.

"The house caught us because of the location," says Mrs. King, who bought the house for her three children to live in while they study at the University of Illinois. "We didn't buy it because it was historical, but we understand that we have a responsibility to preserve the exterior." She plans to repaint the house's stucco walls. For the time being, the clay roof will have to wait.

Urbana, too, will have to wait for a second historic district. In February, another nomination was presented to the Urbana Historic Commission, this one affecting 57 property owners. Though the commission rejected the proposal, noting that the petition's 14 signatures represent only 24.56 percent of those affected, the district could be redrawn and resubmitted. It's unclear whether or not that will happen.

For now, Urbana has the Royer historic district, and it's a start, however small.

Kara Laughlin is a freelance writer who writes about art and culture. She lives in Urbana, Ill.

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