Officials with the Woman’s Club of Wilmette, which has been a nomadic organization since fire gutted its historic headquarters at 930 Greenleaf Ave. in February 2015, say they hope to be able to move back into at least a portion of the building before the end of this year.
“Our objective is to get the building envelope completely enclosed and get ourselves into at least a part of the first floor,” said Edie Rowell, club co-president.
The planned activity ends what Rowell called a pause in club efforts that shut down construction during 2017. During that time, she said, the club dealt with unforeseen problems with a subcontractor’s steel fabrication, and with the frame design for one section of the new building.
Rowell said the club hired a new architectural firm, Chicago-based Woodhouse Tinucci Architects, last November. In December, the firm began assessing the property’s status, she said. It will soon complete a feasibility study on how best to rebuild the stone structure and to update earlier design plans in order to do that.
Club officers held an open house last month with members and neighbors of the property, to update them on what has happened since fall, 2016, when contractors were able to rebuild a collapsed auditorium wall and put the auditorium under a roof.
“People mainly had questions about when we were going to reopen and questions abut site maintenance,” said Kay Malm, the club’s other co-president.
Between late 2016 and this January, the club worked with construction and design officials to rework steel framework plans for the roof that was to be raised on the building’s south side, Rowell said.
In January, they hired Chicago-based Bulley and Andrews as contractor for the project, Rowell said. She and Malm said the contractor and architects are working together to determine what it will cost to complete the building.
In late 2016, club officials at the time said they wanted to raise up to $1.5 million to fuel a significant portion of the building’s reconstruction.
Malm said the club has started a membership fundraising drive handle whatever costs are determined for construction, which she said will be done in phases. Letters have gone out to members to start that effort, and the club is also trying to set up a working group to create a future fundraising campaign that will target the larger community, she said.
The Greenleaf location housed the Woman’s Club since 1910. Before the fire, the building also was a site for community events.
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Since the fire, Woman’s Club membership has met in several locations, including the Michigan Shores Club, “but we want to go home,” Rowell said.