City Council Votes To Save Historic Geneva Blacksmith Shop

GENEVA, IL — A circa 1843 Geneva blacksmith shop under months of scrutiny has avoided a fate other historic buildings couldn't.

Geneva City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to save the building by upholding the Historic Preservation Commission's Aug. 15 decision to deny a demolition and de-designation request for the Alexander Brothers' Blacksmith Shop.

"These early buildings are tied to the community's earliest settlement and are a rare resource in the Geneva community," Historic Preservation Commissioner Jewel Jensen said at the meeting, according to the Daily Herald. "The unassuming, modest limestone building is the earliest surviving example of the water-powered industries that once lined the Fox River."

The special meeting was held after Director of Community Development David DeGroot received a letter from the applicant's attorney Sept. 7 requesting City Council consider an appeal to the commission's determination to save the blacksmith shop, standing at 4 E. State St.

The Shodeen Family Foundation, which owns the limestone structure formerly home to the Mill Race Inn, applied for demolition, saying the shop could not be economically renovated and put into service. The finding was based on a proposed development scenario to repurpose the structure as a single-occupant management office for the foundation, Patch reported.

The Historic Preservation Commission held near-monthly public hearings from January to July regarding the potential demolition and de-designation as a historic landmark.

The property was identified in 2008 as one of the 63 in Geneva that should be landmarked and protected, as it played an "important role in illustrating how Genevans have lived throughout the years," according to city documents. In 2018, City Council approved its landmark designation and three years later reduced it to just the limestone structure rather than the entire 1.4-acre plot of land it sits on.

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As for what's in store for the blacksmith shop, the Herald reported Shodeen representative David Patzelt said, "There are no plans. That's it. There are no plans."