Chicago's Green Mill, Menard Home outbuilding, and search for historic Mesker Buildings featured in latest issue of Historic Illinois

SPRINGFIELD - Chicago's famed Green Mill jazz club, the mystery of an outbuilding at the Pierre Menard Home in southwest Illinois, and the ongoing search for historic Mesker Buildings are featured in the latest issue of Historic Illinois, a publication of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA).

The Green Mill, located on Broadway and Lawrence in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, is a legend in the Windy City. Throughout its nearly 130-year history, the establishment has gone through many incarnations. It survives, though, even after many north-side neighborhood establishments closed their doors many years ago. The Green Mill continues to serve up jazz music, and although infamous for its association with the Chicago Mob, its full story reaches back to the 1880s as Pop Morse's Roadhouse.

The ongoing mystery of a nearly 200-year-old structure behind the Pierre Menard Home in Randolph County is the subject of another article. The square, brick structure topped by a pyramidal roof has been described as a blockhouse, servants' quarters, smokehouse or pigeon house, but historians still can only speculate about its use. The building was reconstructed in the 1930s, and few references of the building exist in the historical record. Since the home of Pierre Menard, a successful Canadian entrepreneur who served as Illinois' first lieutenant governor, is open to the public as a state historic site, visitors are told this mysterious outbuilding could have had a number of uses.

The IHPA's "Got Mesker?" campaign is also featured in Historic Illinois. More than 600 of these buildings with metal facades or decorative elements made by Mesker Brothers and George L. Mesker & Co. have been identified in Illinois, and the IHPA has launched a nationwide search for Mesker buildings. As more Mesker Buildings are identified, they will be added to www.gotmesker.com, which also has tips on how to spot these structures in your community.

The articles in this latest issue of Historic Illinois were written and edited by IHPA staff.

Historic Illinois is a bimonthly IHPA publication that features historically significant sites in Illinois. Subscriptions are $10 per year, which includes six issues of Historic Illinois and one full-color Historic Illinois Calendar. For more information, call (217) 524-6045, visit www.Illinois-History.gov, or write: Historic Illinois, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1 Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, IL 62701-1507.