A tiny historic village in western Illinois has a big problem.
State-owned properties in Bishop Hill are in need of an estimated $22 million in repairs.
Now Landmarks Illinois, a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to saving important historic places, has named Bishop Hill’s 1848 Colony Church one of its 2024 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois.
“Amongst the needed repairs are a new roof, siding, and paint. The wood in the building is rotting and its gutters are failing,” said Bonnie McDonald, President and CEO of Landmarks Illinois. “Its foundation needs to be repaired as well.”
Bishop Hill, near Galva in Henry County, is a state historic site operated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
There are two other state historic sites on this year’s Most Endangered List – Buel House in Pope County and Shawneetown Bank in Gallatin County.
McDonald said Landmarks Illinois put the sites on the endangered list to call attention to a lack of state resources provided to IDNR to maintain them.
The symbol of religious freedom
Bishop Hill was founded in the 1840s by hardy Swedish immigrants who came to western Illinois seeking religious freedom.
In their utopia on the prairie, they built a two-story wooden church and they worshipped in a sanctuary lined with walnut pews.
For direct descendants of the Bishop Hill colony, the funding situation and the condition of the Colony Church are equally frustrating.
“This is why people came to Bishop Hill, for religious freedom. And this is the symbol of that,” said Joella Krause, who grew up in Bishop Hill and remembers running up and down the hallways of the Colony Church when she was a child.
“I get chills sitting up there, knowing that my ancestors sat there and worshiped several times a day in that atmosphere. And that’s something that once the church is gone, that piece is going to be gone as well.”
Krause started documenting the decline of the Colony Church and other state properties around a year ago and is part of a group of local citizens banging the drum as loudly as they can to get the state to take action.
“Even if the state said tomorrow, we’ll fund it, their process takes nine months to a year, and I don’t think the church can survive that. I really don’t,” she said.
John Taylor is also banging that drum. He runs Crossroads Cultural Connections in Bishop Hill, which brings in musicians from all over the world to perform.
Taylor said he started worrying about state-owned properties in 2015 when there were talks about dissolving the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
When that did happen two years later, state historic sites were moved under IDNR, which also operates state parks.
“The support for historic properties that are owned by the state has continued to decline over time. And because they’re historic properties, the needs of those properties, to maintain them over time, just continues to increase,” Taylor said.
Water infiltrating the church's foundation
IDNR told TSPR there is $1 billion in needed improvements for historic sites and state parks.
The estimated price tag for work needed in Bishop Hill alone is now $22 million.
The work would be divided into two phases. The first phase is on a priority list and includes the Colony Church. But there’s no timeline of when the project could be funded or when work could begin.
Taylor said he grows more concerned as no progress is made, despite the quite loud efforts to get the state to fix – and preserve -- the Colony Church and other buildings.
"People were asking questions. People were getting concerned,” he said. “And essentially it’s just the same response, year after year. That Bishop Hill is high on the priority list and then nothing gets done. And here we are now.”
Earlier this year, Firmitas inspected the Colony Church. The Galesburg-based company specializes in timber construction and historic preservation projects all over the world.
In a report, Firmitas described how the Colony Church’s problems are way worse than their appearance.
A wood drip edge at the top of the foundation is failing, allowing water to infiltrate the building at an alarming rate.
The company believes the Colony Church is on the precipice of a repair-to-cost financial turning point—meaning it will get more and more expensive to restore if work doesn’t begin immediately.
Other restoration in Bishop Hill
There might be even more problems, according to Todd DeDecker, administrator of the Bishop Hill Heritage Association.
“One thing about historic repairs is that the total cost is always above the initial. Because a lot of the cost is hidden. Water is dripping into the foundation but it could also be coming up into the walls and the interior,” DeDecker said.
The Bishop Hill Heritage Association is a private non-profit founded to preserve historic buildings in Bishop Hill after the Colony bakery building was torn down in the early 1960s.
“When it comes to historic buildings, especially pre-Civil War ones, there is always, always, always yearly maintenance,” he said.
The Heritage Association has spent more than $1 million restoring the Steeple Building, the Dairy Building, and the oldest brick building in Bishop Hill -- the Carpenter building.
DeDecker said they were not only restored to the Secretary of the Interior’s historic preservation standards, but to Colony standards.
“For example, in the Steeple Building, we had a rotten piece of walnut crossbeam. So we pulled it out and put a walnut one in. In the Carpenter Building, we didn’t have enough leftover Colony bricks to do its restoration so we had them custom-made to Colony specifications in England,” DeDecker said.
Major repairs to Heritage Association properties have been funded by donations, grants, and local, state, national and international foundations and corporations.
They’re not only restored, but self-sufficient.
“After these buildings are restored, we set up revenue streams to take care of the yearly maintenance and insurance costs,” DeDecker said. “Several of these Colony buildings we rent out to be used as businesses and the rental fees cover the yearly maintenance, covers the utilities, covers the insurance.”
Then there’s the state properties: chipped paint and siding, caved-in fence posts, and a tarp covering gaps in the roof of the only surviving Colony barn.
The state’s presence has also dwindled in town, with fewer workers.
DeDecker said he has to do a lot of explaining to visitors about who owns what in Bishop Hill.
Some buildings are owned by the state, some by the Heritage Association, some are privately owned, and one is owned by the Old Settlers’ Association.
“After we get that explained, it’s like, can’t you do something about the fence across the street or the Colony Church, or the boy’s dormitory, or the Olson barn with a missing part in its roof? Well, we don’t own those properties. That’s state-owned, state funds,” he said.
The clock is ticking
Residents say the last time the Colony Church even got a new coat of paint was in 2009, when a local business bought the paint and volunteers did the work.
But the people of Bishop Hill are now told not to do any work on the state properties -- that projects can only be done by state contractors.
That there aren’t enough state dollars for all the work that needs to be done.
That Bishop Hill is on a priority list, but there’s no word when funding will be available and work can begin.
Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking for the 176-year-old Colony Church – and the people of Bishop Hill keep working to save it.
Megan Sloan has been involved with Bishop Hill for 50 years. She started noticing the decline of state properties 20 years ago. She’s motivated by those who worked to preserve Bishop Hill’s history in previous generations.
“Their spirits came to me and said do something. They did a lot of work to keep this historic, wonderful utopia alive and well. And it’s very ill now,” she said.
Sloan says part of the problem is that IDNR is not a historic preservation agency.
“Their job is not restoration. Their job is maintenance. There’s a huge difference,” Sloan said.
Tourism impact
It’s not just Swedes and locals who visit Bishop Hill.
DeDecker said in a recent year, Bishop Hill saw 90,000 visitors from 50 states and 22 countries.
“We’re not just a state historic site. We’re also a National Historic Landmark, there’s only a little over 2,000 of those in the entire country. Yes, we are a Swedish community, but we’re also the classic immigration success story that people can relate to,” DeDecker said.
That’s a lot of traffic for a village of 113 people that operates on a municipal budget of less than $60,000 a year. Residents and business owners say dilapidation of state-owned properties is hard to ignore and affects businesses as well as tourism.
Jim Kelly is director of economic development for Henry County. He estimates the economic impact of Bishop Hill tourism is about $12 million a year.
Kelly and other local officials went to Springfield last month and met with leadership at the IDNR.
"We took the gloves off. We got down to the nitty-gritty, and we talked about the issues and the problems. And of course it all comes back to there’s no money,” he said.
Fix the buildings, or lose them
An IDNR spokesperson told TSPR that capital projects are funded in a variety of ways. Some by bonds and some by “pay-go” funds.
But most larger projects like what’s needed in Bishop Hill are covered by the state’s Capital Development Fund -- and the amount of funding available can vary year to year.
IDNR is working with the Capital Development Board and the Governor’s Office of Management of Budget on funding Bishop Hill projects.
But funding has not come through. Kelly says in Springfield he learned Bishop Hill’s spot on IDNR’s priority list has moved around from number six to number eight to ten.
“We are basically slamming our fist on the table and saying, we don’t understand. We have to fix the buildings or we lose the buildings, which is your building. You own this building,” Kelly said.
Locals believe Ox Boy’s Dormitory, another state-owned site, could close by the end of the year because of safety concerns.
And with the Colony Church now officially designated as endangered by Landmarks Illinois, Kelly said he wants the state to treat the five buildings it owns in Bishop Hill like they actually own them and care about them -- to restore them to their former glory and to preserve them for future generations.
“I hope that I’m wrong. The reality is, we got a lot of fluff, a lot of talk, and one thing about government I know is that people disappear and they don’t do a thing,” Kelly said. “Then we’re back here five years from now wondering why the building’s laying in a pile of rubble.”
Kelly believes there are other ways the state could fund the repairs, given Bishop Hill’s tourism impact.
He said cannabis sales topped $1.6 billion last year in Illinois and 30% of that was people traveling to Illinois from other states to buy it.
So he thinks revenue from those cannabis tourism dollars should be redirected to IDNR, so the agency can fund restoration of historic sites that are essential to local economies.
State has ‘plenty of money’
IDNR prioritizes capital projects – for state parks and state historic sites – by attendance and usage, estimated cost, effect on natural resources, and public safety concerns.
While Bishop Hill attracts a lot of visitors, it’s no match for places like Starved Rock State Park, which is also under IDNR and has close to three million visitors per year.
Republican State Rep. Travis Weaver said he believes the Colony Church is a safety hazard – a hole in the ceiling of the sanctuary is growing – and tourism would increase in Bishop Hill if the state took better care of their properties.
“You see roofs caving in. You see really substantial damage. But a greater concern than that, is just, it’s eye-opening how poorly the state has managed their buildings,” Weaver said. “Because if they would have managed them properly a couple years ago, these would be tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of fixes, but today they’re millions of dollars of fixes.”
Weaver said he’s grown to appreciate Bishop Hill’s rich Swedish heritage and community members who are advocating to preserve its history.
He has faith in IDNR leadership in tackling a billion-dollar backlog but said Bishop Hill doesn’t have time to wait.
“We’ve got plenty of money in this state to do things that are outside of our core, but we apparently don’t have enough money to take care of property that’s owned by the state, it’s got its name on it, it should be a top priority for them to fix it,” Weaver said.
Potential solutions and conversations
Residents say Bishop Hill wouldn’t be quite the same for visitors and tourists without the boy’s dormitory or the Bjorklund Hotel.
But it’s hard to imagine a Bishop Hill without a Colony Church.
Those with deeper ties to the community simply can’t fathom it.
Eva Spets Harlan is another direct descendant of the original colonists who founded and built Bishop Hill, who found religious freedom on the prairie and were some of the very first Swedish immigrants to arrive in the United States.
“That is the symbol of what Bishop Hill is,” she said. “It’s why they came. It’s heartbreaking to think about.”
For Landmarks Illinois, the solution is clear.
The organization said IDNR must be provided with the financial and human resources to care for historic sites, to save and preserve buildings like the Colony Church.
And they say IDNR feels the same way about the situation.
Landmarks Illinois also believes there could be partnerships with local organizations like the Bishop Hill Heritage Association to maintain the historic site properties, once the state pays for repairs.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for collaboration as we move forward all across the state regarding state historic sites,” said Quinn Adamowski, regional advocacy manager for Landmarks Illinois.
Adamowski said there’s currently legislation pending to further discuss the state of state historic sites and establish an Illinois Historic Preservation Board.
“It’s about having a larger conversation about state historic sites and how we’re allocating resources across the state,” Adamowski said.
Note: Historic photos of Bishop Hill were provided by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association.
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