The Forum
- Preservation Architecture
- Preservation Planning
- Commercial
- Assessments
- Building Envelope
- Cultural Resources
Vacant since the 1970s, The Forum is currently undergoing a historic rehabilitation by Urban Juncture, which purchased the building in 2011 and began work to stabilize and revitalize this Bronzeville landmark, with a focus on celebrating Black culture and innovation.
McGuire Igleski has been working with Urban Juncture as the organization’s Historic Preservation Architect to bring this intention to fruition. To support the project, McGuire Igleski listed the building on the National Register of Historic Places, which made the rehabilitation project eligible for Federal and State Historic Tax Credits. Following the listing, McGuire Igleski successfully secured these credits by preparing and submitting both tax credit applications to the National Park Service and the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office. Simultaneously, McGuire Igleski is leading the exterior restoration of The Forum to stabilize and repair the historic masonry, reconstruct missing features, and revitalize the first floor storefronts.
Historic Photo: The University of Chicago Library, John Steiner Collection 1860 – 2001
Chicago, Illinois
Urban Juncture
31,705 square feet
Constructed in 1897 by Chicago Alderman and later California Congressman William E. Kent and his father, Albert E. Kent, The Forum is a late-nineteenth-century meeting and social hall, modeled after its Roman namesake. The building was designed by prominent local architect Samuel Atwater Treat to accommodate a range of events, while the storefronts on the first floor contributed to the commercial core along 43rd Street. While The Forum was built for the initial citizens of the community, including immigrants and American-born of Irish, Scottish, and English descent, and German Jews, it seamlessly became a meaningful part of daily life for “Black Metropolis” which developed at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the 1920s, the Great Migration had brought an influx of Black Americans to Chicago’s South Side. Soon after, the 43rd Street corridor became a central part of Chicago’s jazz and blues music scenes, with performances by Nat King Cole, Floyd Campbell, and Captain Walter Dyett at The Forum. Between 1940 and the early 1970s, the hall served as the headquarters for the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW), an African American fraternal organization. The Forum was also an organizing center for civil and labor rights movements.