Jim Richert, principal owner of Banging Gavel Brews in Tinley Park, sat in the Fulton Room of the 160-year-old historic Vogt House, that housed the brewery, as a customer sang a Billy Joel song in the main bar room across the hallway.
He wiped a few tears from his eyes, but not because of the karaoke serenade.
Banging Gavel Brews, 17400 S. Oak Park Ave., was recently awarded the 2025 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Adaptive Reuse. It was one of nine recipients in the state, and the only one in the south suburbs to earn the recognition.
Richert said he honestly wasn’t familiar with the honor, but as he researched more about how rare it is to win the award, especially in this area, he said he got emotional.
“It’s mind boggling,” he said. “I’m very proud of this place, and I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team here. It was a lot of sacrifice by a lot of people that supported us and really believed in what our vision was for this building.”
Since its opening two years ago, the space has become interwoven in the community in many ways, Richert said, but residents might not understand how hard it is to keep an 1865 building running. He said the brewery had to post a plea on social media in mid-September for financial help due to poor summer weather that affected the summer beer garden sales, which the brewery depends on for the rest of the year, he said.
Richert said the business is hit with challenges every day, from staffing to payroll expense, to insurance, but the unique cost of preserving the century-old building is the biggest challenge.
The building, believed to have been built in about 1865 as a private home, is three stories and includes a basement, where Banging Gavel has its brewery, and was built by brothers John and Allen Lewis. It was added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in January 1988 because of its architectural significance.
“Walk in the front door and you’re taking a step back 100 years,” Richert said.
Richert said when his team bought the building in 2017 out of foreclosure, it was a “wreck.” He said as a Tinley Park resident, he wanted to ensure the building was “restored, brought back to life and had a meaningful purpose.”
The overall cost of that venture, he said, approached $5 million, including the purchase of the property and renovation costs. The Tinley Park Village Board also approved an incentive package for Banging Gavel worth $850,000 that included a $450,000 historic preservation grant.
Richert said a lot of work went into the project and still does. In order to fit the brewing tanks in the basement, he said he had to excavate the basement floor 18 inches lower and removed brick livestock stalls that dated from the time of horse and carriage transportation.
He said the floor pattern upstairs was converted from different household rooms into a large gathering space with sound boards and even an upright piano for live music events and community jam sessions.
The work wasn’t easy, he said, and so many things went wrong in the restoration efforts he named one of the beers after Sod’s Law, which means that if something can go wrong, it will, often at the worst possible moment.
For example, he said to repair the floors they had to send a wood sample to a Wisconsin lab to determine its exact wood species, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down shortly after sending the sample, and they couldn’t get the results back.
He also said they had to redo the three flights of metal stairs in the back of the building because they weren’t centered.
Moreover, he said that pretty much everything in the building needs continual maintenance to preserve, from the balcony areas to the original 1865 woodworking on the floors, to the pillars outside the house.
Whenever something needs to be replaced, he said, they have to find the exact species of wood and material that’s accurate to the original house construction. He said they also conduct a yearly deep maintenance of the place, after every New Year’s party.
The kitchen upstairs is also ventless in order to preserve the building, so he said they cook food in high power air fryers.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand that if me and the rest of the team didn’t have that determination and perseverance, this never would have happened,” Richert said. “I also wouldn’t be able to walk down the street, walk out my front door, if I didn’t see this through.”
He said his team felt a sense of responsibility to finish the effort because the space not only preserves and saves over a century of community history, but it also allows that history to continue living through it as a gathering space.
“I always say it’s like, Banging Gavel Brews, we’re just passing through,” Richert said. “It’s about this building. The Vogt House. This is living history. I get emotional about it because of how much I care about it and because there’s no other venue in this area that can match this, and I appreciate that, and I don’t take it lightly. I want people to appreciate and enjoy this experience, for generations to come.”
Richert said when he first pitched his idea to the village, he said he didn’t just want to create another brewery or restaurant, but rather offer a complete, unique experience that combines a historical national landmark with a brewery, restaurant, cocktails, entertainment and more that draws people to gather in a piece of history in different ways.
So it made for a special memory when he hosted a lunch for about a dozen descendants of the Fulton family, who owned the home for decades, in the Fulton room, surrounded by the original 1865 wood that made up the floors, window pains, walls, columns and more.
But it also meant a lot hearing that a resident said the bar has become the go-to reunion spot whenever she and her friends return from college.
The Brewery hosts a number local musicians, such as a jazz trio, to karaoke to charity events, such as the Tinley Wish, a nonprofit organization focused on helping Tinley Park families who are facing difficult situations during the Christmas season, or Embracing Emily, a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps cancer patients with treatment costs.
On Sundays, Richert said he allows charity organizations to use the space free of charge, and donates 10% of sales that day to the cause.
Built in 1865, The Vogt House is Tinley Park’s only National Register-listed landmark. (Addison Wright/Daily Southtown)
“That’s kind of like what we try to strive for here,” he said, “you know, taking care of the people that need help and when you need help, hopefully they take care of you too.”
John Scahill, a longtime Tinley resident who lives a couple miles from the bar, said he remembers the building before the restoration, when a business did not occupy the space.
“It was nothing,” he said Wednesday sitting at the bar.
Now, he said, it’s incredible to drive by and see it restored. He said he visits a couple times a month, during which he chats with both familiar longtime Tinley residents and also new people.
He said he recently met a couple that moved to the area from New Orleans — Aimee and Ryan Hamilton.
Aimee, Hamilton who moved here nine years ago, said she walks to the bar at least once a week, usually for “wine Wednesday.” She said she likes the cocktails, wine selections, the “beautiful” beer garden and the brewery atmosphere that feels slightly upscale.
She said her running group often meets at the bar for their summer craft beer series, where they run three miles and return for drinks. The group also incorporates the bar into other events year round, such as a marathon relay run between bars in the area.
“This is an atmosphere, and we love it here,” Hamilton said.
Another group of customers at the bar said they drove down from Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood to try it for the first time after hearing people in their neighborhood talking about it. They said they weren’t aware of the building’s history but liked the food and would come back.
Richert said the community showed up and helped increase sales after the business’ plea, but the following week, they had the lowest attendance in a while.
He said any support is helpful and that his ultimate goal is to keep the house preserved and alive for future generations, filling it with people and music.
“If you care about what this truly means to the community, which I think is significant or otherwise we wouldn’t have done it, come out and support it and have a nice time,” Richert said.
Beyond even the state recognition, Richert said creating Banging Gavel Brews has been a worthwhile effort.
“I mean, I put everything I have into this place, you know, and it’s like, I may lose it all, and I don’t know. But at the end of the day we can’t take it all with you anyway, so I figured I want to make a mark in my community that people can hopefully appreciate and create experiences and memories. That’s what it’s all about.”