Historic Commission

Tuesday, January 19, 2021 I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:09 pm. Present/virtual: Nancy Flannery (Chair), Barbara Dutton (Vice Chair), Steph McGrath (Secretary), Emelie Engling, Linda Moran, Bob Purdy Absent: Diane Burant, Andrew Welker Public Comments: Lisa Buchanan, Scott Berger II. Approval of Minutes Minutes of the November 17, 2020 meeting were not approved, pending formatting issues, and will be submitted at next month’s meeting. III. Old Business A. Site markers: Bob checked with the city and the Chicago Aurora & Elgin marker will probably be installed in September. Discussed options for installers. B. Tidbits: Linda reported that the uploads to Wheaton Patch were going smoothly and that she was still learning the process for posting to You Know You’re From Wheaton If... on Facebook. C. History booklet reissue: Zach Bishop at the DuPage County Historical Museum made a low resolution scan of Wheaton and Its Homes which Nancy tried in her OCR software, but the text came out too scrambled. Steph suggested asking for a few sample pages done at a higher resolution to test. We could also try OCR conversion using the scanner at the Wheaton Public Library. D. Cantigny: Nancy reported that the materials she received from her Freedom Of Information Act request to DuPage County for Robert McCormick Mansion building plans seemed incomplete. Discussed some strategies for getting more information. IV. New Business A. Landmark application: Scott Berger shared some of the history of his home at 418 S. West and his research process. He attended a Home History Research Help session  about 10 years ago. B. Historic house update: The home at 323 W. Union across from Longfellow school will be torn down. It has especially nice original exterior architectural detail. C. Wheaton Community Relations Commission: Would like suggestions for women past and present from Wheaton to celebrate during Women’s History Month. D. Home History Research Help: Steph shared her discussions with Gretchen Murphy at Wheaton Public Library on how to best publicize our offer of virtual assistance on demand and will pull together some draft calendar text for review. E. History videos: A series of local history videos is now on Youtube; the ones on the Chicago Aurora & Elgin might tie into our history tidbits somehow. F. Commissioner Application: Lisa Buchanan introduced herself and her interest in serving on the Historic Commission. She exited the meeting while members discussed and approved her application, which now goes to the City Council. G. Local history materials: Nancy’s neighbor recently passed away and the family was discarding some Wheaton memorabilia. Nancy rescued it and will contact Wheaton Public Library and DuPage County Historical Museum about donating the materials so the public can access it. V. Commissioner Comments None VI. Adjournment Steph moved to adjourn, Bob seconded, the motion passed unanimously; the meeting concluded at 8:28 pm. 2