Dilapidated and vacant buildings are more than eyesores in a community. These structures can lower property values and impact safety. But before starting up the bulldozers, Landmarks Illinois wants property owners and city governments to consider renovation and restoration.
The nonprofit’s latest list of endangered historic places includes the Spivey Building in East St. Louis and various Meramec Caverns Barns, including one in Madison County.
Quinn Adamowski, regional manager of advocacy for Landmarks Illinois, told St. Louis on the Air that the cost of demolishing these buildings is greater than just their financial values on paper.
“We’re losing our cultural heritage in our shared history. Communities lose the ability to generate new revenues. Oftentimes, when buildings come down, there’s not really a use for an empty parking lot,” he said. “When we lose buildings, we’re losing our past, we’re losing our present, and we’re losing the ability to invest in our future.”
Adamowski said there are several success stories of historic buildings being saved and given a new purpose, including the former Broadview Hotel in East St. Louis. The building was included in Landmarks Illinois’ endangered historic places in 2021, and in 2025 it opened as senior housing.
“[Broadview Hotel] sat for a very long time until a developer had the gumption and tenacity to want to turn it into housing. Today, it is 110 units of affordable senior living,” he said. “The mayor indicated that [the New Broadview] was the largest private investment in East St. Louis in decades. That largely tells the story about how preserving old structures for new use brings investment into a community.”
Adamowski said he sees a similar future for the Spivey Building — East St. Louis’ first and only skyscraper. The Spivey was built in 1927 as the offices of the East St. Louis Journal, and eventually became space for Illinois Light & Power. It has sat empty for nearly 40 years despite being on the National Register of Historic Places.
“The Spivey Building is an interesting case study when we consider what makes an endangered property, because whatever peril there may be — threat of demolition, deferred maintenance, open windows, lack of roof — that’s what the Spivey represents. But the Spivey also represents hope. It was built right before the Great Depression. It was a spectacular building … [and] underscores what the Roaring Twenties was all about,” Adamowski said. “We actually struggled a bit with listing it because the question was, ‘Does it indeed have a future? Will somebody be able to invest the dollars into it?’ And after talking with folks that do that work the answer was, ‘Yes.’ If there’s a plan put together, that building can definitely have a future.”
Also featured in Landmarks Illinois’ list of endangered historic places are several Meramec Caverns Barns scattered down the Historic Route 66. Starting in 1933, the proprietor of the caverns, Lester Dill, offered farmers free paint jobs on their barns if they allowed him to paint advertisements for cavern tours. Of the nearly 400 barns Dill and his staff painted across 14 states, only a handful remain — including one in Madison County.
“Prior to the 1970s, it was very common for companies and organizations to use barns as advertising. Then the federal government passed a law that banned the continuation, so slowly these have been disappearing from the landscape as well,” Adamowski said. “We feel that these [barns] needed to be highlighted because of their importance [and] the nostalgia that they bring, and because of the storytelling potential around them.”
For more on endangered historic buildings in Illinois, including other successful rehabilitated places in Belleville and Millstadt, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
