From Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church to the reconstructed and relocated Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room at the Art Institute, Preservation Chicago’s annual ranking of the city’s seven most endangered buildings is so full of local history it has eight entries.
Like the guitar amplifier scene from the movie “This Is Spinal Tap,” the city’s architectural preservation watchdog offered up a simple explanation for having its top-seven list go to eight.
“It’s seven-plus-one,” said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago. “Because we had an extra one.”
There’s a lot more than eight endangered structures if you count the iconic bridges and tender houses falling into disrepair along the Chicago River, which collectively form one item on the expanded list. And topping Preservation Chicago’s 24th annual list are two historical features at the Art Institute, which may fall by the wayside under a plan to expand the sprawling campus along South Michigan Avenue.
1. The Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room and McKinlock Court at the Art Institute
In 2019, the Art Institute of Chicago retained Barcelona architectural firm Barozzi Veiga to craft a master plan to expand the museum’s 1 million square feet of space, transforming the campus by opening it up to Grant Park, the lake and even the train lines bisecting the 17-acre site.
The plan began to take shape with the 2024 announcement of a $75 million gift to create a new building to house the museum’s collection of late 19th century modern and contemporary art. While details have yet to emerge, Preservation Chicago fears it may spell the end for both the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room and the McKinlock Court Garden.
Designed by architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, the Chicago Stock Exchange Building was demolished in 1972. But a piece of its history was relocated and restored at the Art Institute, where the ornate two-story trading room reopened in 1977 as a reception hall at the east end of the museum.
For nearly half a century, the trading room has hosted everything from weddings to corporate events, with visitors admiring its ornamented columns, stained-glass skylights and elaborate stenciled walls. Miller believes time may be running out on the room.
“It’s really a fabulous room that was used for events and receptions and art openings,” Miller said. “It was something they were really proud of.”
The adjacent McKinlock Court, a century-old outdoor garden with a replica of Carl Milles’ Fountain of the Tritons that has long served as a unique events space and alfresco oasis for weary museum visitors, may also be vulnerable to redevelopment, Miller said.
Preservation Chicago would like both the trading room and outdoor garden declared Chicago landmarks and is encouraging the Art Institute to locate its new building over the property’s railroad trench instead of demolishing those structures.
It is also launching a change.org petition to save both features at the Art Institute, Miller said.
2. Chicago River Bridges and Tender Houses
Chicago’s collection of bascule bridges is the largest in the world, crossing the Chicago River’s main channel and all of its branches, and occasionally stopping traffic as they rise to let boats pass underneath.
But the steel bridges and unique tender houses – some with intricate carvings – are in disrepair. A tender house at the 98-year-old LaSalle Street Bridge, for example, is the “poster child” for the cause, with “big chunks of stone” missing from the structure, Miller said.
“These are really beautiful gateways to our city,” Miller said. “It’s sad to see these bridges and these tender houses in need of so many repairs.”
Miller said the bridges and tender houses should be landmarked and preserved, and if they need to be replaced, the city should build modern facsimiles of the iconic structures.
The 124-year-old Cortland Street Bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River – the oldest bascule bridge in the city – was designated as a Chicago Landmark in 1991 and is currently undergoing such a restoration. The Chicago Department of Transportation began the work in September with a pledge to “retain the character” of the historic bridge and tender houses.
3. “The Pope’s Church” – St. Mary of the Assumption Church and School
Closed by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2011, St. Mary of the Assumption Church and School on the city’s Far South Side has been vacant and deteriorating for 15 years.
But Preservation Chicago is hoping the ascension of south suburban Dolton native Robert Francis Prevost, who was named last year to head the Catholic Church, may resurrect the buildings where the future Pope Leo XIV once attended school and served as an altar boy.
Located on East 137th Street in the Riverdale neighborhood, the gothic school and church building opened in 1917, with an adjacent midcentury modern church built in 1957. Both buildings have fallen on hard times, with a large hole in the roof of the church and years of neglect belying their storied history.
“We have the opportunity to restore a building tied to the first-ever American pope in history, who happens to also be from Chicago,” Miller said. “The whole idea of bringing this back and celebrating this as (an) historic site may really help a neighborhood that’s seen just so much disinvestment over that last half century.”
Preservation Chicago would like to see the church designated a local landmark and embark on a restoration project with community partners, creating a pilgrimage site for visitors interested in seeing the South Side religious roots of Pope Leo XIV.
In July, the village of Dolton purchased the pope’s modest childhood home for $375,000 as a potential tourism and pilgrimage site.
4. Chicago’s Labor Union Halls
Chicago’s union roots run deep, dating back to the deadly Haymarket Riot in 1886, which grew out of a strike at the McCormick Reaper Works and became a seminal event in the modern labor movement.
As labor organizations began to make Chicago their home, many union halls sprang up on the city’s Near West Side during the middle of the last century, forming what came to be known as “Union Row.” Now more broadly dispersed, several union halls across the city are in need of repairs, listed for sale or facing demolition.
Built in 1951, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America Building on North Sheridan Road is facing demolition. The 122-year-old United Electrical Workers Union Building on South Ashland Avenue was recently sold and repurposed as a residential building, with historic murals inside the building rescued for relocation.
Preservation Chicago is recommending the creation of a thematic Chicago Landmark designation of the union halls across the city to protect the structures and their history.
5. Chicago Loop Synagogue
A congregation founded nearly a century ago, the Chicago Loop Synagogue opened its current midcentury modern building in 1957 on South Clark Street. Designed by the Chicago firm Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett, the synagogue contains an enormous stained-glass window on its eastern wall and the large bronze sculpture “Hands of Peace” by Israeli artist Henri Azaz over the entrance. The building has been hailed as one of the city’s architectural gems.
Once thriving with more than 8,000 members in the 1950s, synagogue membership has dwindled to less than 400. This winter’s severe cold snap caused the building’s boiler pipes to burst, adding to the synagogue’s financial strains.
Among Preservation Chicago’s recommendations is the potential sale of 17 unused stories of air rights for development, with the additional stories set back from the synagogue’s historic facade to fund building repairs and improvements.
6. South Park Terrace Apartments
Built in 1905, the South Park Terrace Apartments in the Washington Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, were designed by architect Harry Hale Waterman, a Frank Lloyd Wright associate, in the Prairie School-style.
The courtyard building on South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has deteriorated due to neglect, with structural issues, water leaks and rotted floors. In March 2025, a portion of the building caught fire, leaving burn marks on the blonde facade’s brickwork and boarded-up windows, forcing residents to vacate their apartments.
Preservation Chicago is seeking Chicago Landmark designation for the building, and is encouraging the city to acquire it through a sister agency such as the Chicago Housing Authority to restore it as affordable housing.
7. Yukon Building
Completed in 1898, the two-story Yukon Building was designed by Holabird & Roche, a pioneering Chicago architecture firm that built a number of early commercial high-rises.
Initially conceived as an eight- or 12-story building, the modern-looking structure of steel and plate glass was likely downsized due to the nearby construction of the “L” tracks on Van Buren Street in 1897.
Once a part of Chicago’s “Old Chinatown,” before the Chinese community migrated farther south in the 1920s, the Yukon Building has survived massive redevelopment in the Loop, in large part because its positioning under the “L” tracks limited other options, Miller said.
But the building is listed for sale and Preservation Chicago is recommending its designation as a Chicago Landmark to preserve a modest and enduring structure with rich architectural and cultural history.
8. St. Mark Roman Catholic Church Campus
A Humboldt Park mainstay since the 1890s, the St. Mark Roman Catholic Church built a larger building to accommodate its growing congregation in 1963. The low-slung, midmodern church, designed by architect Allan Louis Karl, who worked at the firm Barry & Kay, features a large open hall supported by concrete and steel shafts, multi-textured walls and terrazzo floors. The church also has stained-glass windows created by French artist Gabriel Loire
Closed by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2022, the vacant campus, which also includes a century-old greystone rectory and red-brick school building, was put up for sale.
Preservation Chicago supports the adaptive reuse of the church building as everything from a library to a community center.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com