Jean Humphrey, Nancy Mavrogenes, Nancy Bell, Christine Poll, Ruth Burnham, and Elizabeth Safanda, 1990.
Women have frequently been the driving force behind the preservation of history. The history of historic preservation in Kane County, Illinois reflects this fact. Many of the iconic historic structures that remain in the county owe their preservation to women.
Evelyn Johnson, Nancy Polivka, Rosemarie Thomas, Lorraine Miller, and Norma Shearer were the founding mothers of our organization Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley (PPFV), originally named “Restorations of Kane County.” These women formed PPFV in 1974 to raise money for the preservation of the 1843 Durant-Peterson House located in the LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve and to operate it as a museum for the public. Over the following fifty years, this organization would partner with citizens, city governments, and developers to preserve countless structures including the Beith House, Jones Law Office, Heinz Brothers Cut Glass Factory in St. Charles, and the Fabyan Windmill, Fabyan Villa, Riverbank Laboratories, Pure Oil Station, Alexander Brothers Blacksmith Shop, Dodson House, Country Day School, and 1893 Viking Ship in Geneva.
Elva Ruth Garfield, with help from Evelyn Johnson, founded the Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills in 1977 to help save the buildings and farmland. The farm, which was settled by Timothy Garfield in 1841, was a center of community activity after Garfield built a small inn on the property in 1846. Today, the 366-acre farm shares the story of life on a farm in the nineteenth century.
Faye Stone was a leader in the effort to save the 1872 Sholes School, a one-room school that was originally constructed on David Sholes’s farm in Burlington. The Campbell family, who owned the property in 1979, donated the school to the Pioneer Sholes Preservation Society on the condition that it be moved. Through several discussions and possibly a little arm-twisting, Faye convinced the Forest Preserve District of Kane County to allow the school to be moved to the LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve near the 1843 Durant-Peterson House. The Sholes School was restored and has operated since then as a popular museum teaching elementary school children what education was like in the nineteenth century.
Darlene Larson founded the Friends of Fabyan in 1979 initially to restore and preserve the Fabyan Japanese Garden. She did not stop there. For over three decades she also raised money for the restoration of the Fabyan Villa, Fabyan Windmill, Fabyan Garage, and some of the concrete art on the property including an eagle perched on a pedestal on the island of the Fox River. To learn more about Darlene Larson's legacy with the Fabyan Estate, visit the Geneva History Museum for their special exhibit on Darlene now through December 21, 2024.
Janet Safanda was a board member of PPFV, co-executive director of PPFV, and appointed member of the Geneva Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). In 1988, Janet, along with the rest of the HPC were removed from the commission by the city council for their opposition to the demolition of the former City Water Works facility at W. State Street and River Lane on the Fox River in Geneva for a proposed hotel and restaurant. Later, instead of demolition, a new developer reused portions of the Water Works for the Herrington Inn. After her death in 2012, Janet was described by the Kane County Chronicle as "a fierce defender of history [and] a powerhouse for preservation."[1]
Liz Safanda was the executive director for PPFV from 1985 to 2018 and a significant contributor to saving many historic structures in Kane County. In 2008, she submitted an application that earned a grant of $53,000 for the 1893 Viking Ship that was stored in Geneva’s Good Templar Park. The grant was used to restore deteriorating portions of the ship winning a Driehaus Award for Preservation Advocacy from Landmarks Illinois the following year. Liz, with support from many in Geneva, earned a second Driehaus Award in 2013 for helping to convince the owner of the former Pure Oil Station in Geneva to repurpose the station rather than tear it down. For more on Liz, visit our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@preservationpartners.
Without these and many other Kane County women, the historic treasures of this valley would likely be gone and with it, a crucial connection to the past.
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[1] Brenda Schory, "Safanda was a Powerhouse for Preservation," Kane County Chronicle, August 8, 2012, https://www.shawlocal.com/2012/08/07/safanda-was-a-powerhouse-for-preservation/ajc4bxr/.