Jackson Park [Eric Allix Rogers/Chicago Patterns]

At noon on Wednesday, February 28, Preservation Chicago released its annual Chicago 7 list of most endangered buildings. Each year for the past 15 years, the local historic preservation advocacy organization has used this list to draw the public’s attention to threatened elements of Chicago’s built environment. Whether they face specific and urgent threats, or longer-term and more diffuse ones, failing to preserve these places would erase important parts of Chicago’s history and harm the distinctive and celebrated built environment of the city.

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Built in 1928, located at Sheridan and Bryn Mawr.

Andi Marie/Chicago Patterns

Located at 5800 N. Ravenswood Avenue on what was originally Hiram Roe’s Farm is Chicago’s largest cemetery. The City of Chicago had been after Hiram’s farmland for a long time, but he refused to sell unless the city promised to build a cemetery and name it after him. They agreed, but city clerks misspelled the name and the result was Rosehill Cemetery instead of Roe’s Hill Cemetery. I believe there was some underhandedness taking place back in 1864.

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