The neat black and white awning that tops the 10th Street door to the Woman’s Club of Wilmette looks crisp and new; an illusion, Woman’s Club membership chair Edie Rowell notes, since the awning, like the club’s outer stone walls, were among the items that survived a devastating fire in February 2015.
The blaze gutted the historic building at 930 Greenleaf Ave. that had, in one form or another, housed the club since 1910, 19 years after its founding. Even while firefighters were still keeping an eye on hot spots, club co-president Barbara Bischoff said, “The building is not the club,” and vowed to go on.
But the rambling stone edifice at the corner of 10th Street and Greenleaf was part of a tradition club members did not want to see disappear. Twenty-one months later, Bischoff and Rowell are looking forward to opening the first phase of the club’s reborn home by the middle of next year – first, for club functions, and then for community events shortly thereafter.
Club officials, who created a new 5013(c) foundation to help with fundraising, hope to raise as much as $1.5 million to fuel not only the completion of that first phase, but to continue restoration efforts into the second floor of the building, the two said.
“I can’t tell you how exciting this is,” Bischoff said Nov. 10, less than three weeks after contractors covered the building’s main interior with a non-combustible roof made of American steel. “It’s truly a joyous time to be able to enclose the building envelope.”
For the club’s roughly 100 members, who continued to meet elsewhere and consider their future while construction workers picked through the fire-blackened building shell, the community’s needs were the ultimate driver of their decision to rebuild rather than move, Bischoff said.
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“The loss of the building would be tragic,” she said. “It was a place where people were married, where they held funeral luncheons, where the Girl Scouts met.”
“In short,” Rowell added, “all of the rites of passage of life in Wilmette.”
The community’s generous response also played a part, Bischoff said. That included a $1,200 gift from Romona School second grade students last year, the generosity of which still causes Bischoff and Rowell to tear up.
“It’s been grueling for everyone, but we’ve had tremendous support from neighbors and the village, ” Bischoff said of the journey, which started after 1.5 million gallons of water poured onto the burning club turned into a near-impregnable ice barrier and delayed initial recovery efforts for weeks.
Northbrook architect Timm Martin, chosen to design the restoration, agreed with Bischoff. He praised Wilmette administrators, including Community Development Director John Adler, for guiding the club through the many zoning and permitting hurdles involved in the project
Martin, who grew up not far from the club and said he has a soft spot in his heart for the building where his mother was a frequent visitor, said his main mission is to restore as much of the club’s original outer look as possible, while modernizing what will lie inside.
One aspect of his architectural research will wind up in the club’s new walls, he said: “I found a perfect match for the stone in a Wisconsin quarry, and in fact I’m confident it’s the same quarry where the original stone came from.”
Bischoff and Rowell, who is also chair of the club’s building committee, said the restored club will have better designed space for meetings, public and private events, exhibitions and traditional Woman’s Club events like its fall antiques show.
The rebuild will add modern electrical, plumbing, and, with luck, 21st century sound and IT infrastructure to club capabilities, Bischoff said. And even the basic plumbing upgrade is cause for a little excitement, she and Rowell joked.
“Before the fire, the poor gentlemen who visited the club had to go down into the back reaches of the lower level to find a bathroom,” Rowell said. “They won’t have to do that anymore!”
The building’s rebirth also signals the determination by club members to keep the institution vibrant and attractive to current and future members, Rowell said.
When the club announced a “Raise the Roof” celebration in October as a kick-off event for the latest renovation push (an event canceled by poor weather), former club co-president Kay Malm said, “it is important to us that the building be seen as a hub for the community, and that our membership be expanded and diversified to include the entire spectrum of age, income, race and ethnicity.”
“This is a fantastic time to join the club,” Rowell said. “People who join now have the opportunity to affect the direction of the club for the next century.”
To learn more about the Woman’s Club of Wilmette and how to join, or contribute to the club’s building restoration effort, visit www.womansclubofwilmette.org or the club’s Facebook page, or call 847-251-0527.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy