ENGLEWOOD — An Englewood resident is transforming a historical but dilapidated building into a community hub and cafe, and she’s celebrating the milestone with a Valentine’s Day-themed event.
Englewood native Jennipher Adkins applied twice for city funding to renovate her limestone building on the corner of 69th and Morgan Street to no avail, she said.
Since 2018, Adkins’ nonprofit, Englewood Real Estate Development Corp, has owned the Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 958 W. 69th St. The 126-year-old building is one of the few remaining taverns of the 57 constructed by Schlitz Brewery across the city during pre-Prohibition years. It was designated a Chicago landmark in July 2011.
But Adkins proved the third time’s a charm when she was approved for a $250,000 Adopt-A-Landmark grant in late January. The city program supports projects that will revitalize historic buildings.
Adkins will use the $250,000 to restore the former tavern’s crumbling roof, she said. The repair is one major step in Adkins’ goal of transforming the Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House into an “air fryer cafe” where customers can enjoy hot food and drinks, she said.
If all goes as planned, the cafe could open by 2026, Adkins said.
Total costs to build the cafe will be about $313,900, Adkins said. Landmarks Illinois, a nonprofit that preserves historic places, helped Adkins conduct a building assessment and complete the grant application to analyze rehabilitation costs and bring her project to fruition, she said.
On Saturday, Adkins will join Skyline Council, a committee of young professionals at Landmarks Illinois, to show love to the building and commemorate what’s next for the 69th Street corridor, she said.
From 10 a.m.-1 p.m., neighbors can visit Englewood’s Salvation Army, 945 W. 69th St., to make valentines for the Tied House. Skyline Council will host the free, family-friendly event and provide supplies and treats.
Attendees can share their visions for the cafe before stringing heart-shaped designs on the building’s exterior. The event will end with a group photo in front of the newly decorated tavern.
Adkins will also launch a crowdfunding campaign at the Valentine’s Day event to raise funds to complete work on the cafe, she said.
“This will be a catalytic project that’ll light the entire area up,” Adkins said.
Adkins received the Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House in 2018, she said. She had the help of Matt Cole, who then worked for Neighborhood Housing Services.
The 69th Street building was formerly the Caribbean Lounge, Cole said. The business closed due to a number of city violations and was foreclosed on in 2013, Cole said.
Neighborhood Housing Services began assessments of the building as part of the city’s Troubled Buildings Initiative, Cole said. He quickly fell in love with the building’s limestone facade and oversized wooden bar.
NHS was bumped from the project after M&T Bank, which foreclosed on the building, took control of the historical site, Cole said.
Cole dedicated “a whole lot of time” to contacting the bank, encouraging them to partner with a local real estate developer to rehab the former tavern, he said. He sent a letter to the bank’s president, and their response “got the ball moving” on landing Adkins as the new property owner, Cole said.
Adkins has always “loved taking something that is completely dilapidated and rehabbing it instead of tearing it down,” she said.
Adkins used the city’s Large Lots Program to transform a wooded Englewood area into the Yale Harvard Garden Park. And in 2017, she partnered with Landmarks Illinois to create the Neighborhood Conservation District to preserve homes on her Englewood block.
So when Cole and the bank contacted Adkins about rehabilitating the Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, she swept up the “passion project,” she said.
After receiving ownership of the building in April 2018, “people came to me and said what they saw it could be,” Adkins said. She thought the space would be perfect for a brewery — an amenity foreign to Englewood, Adkins said.
Then the pandemic hit in 2020, and the offers and proposals dried up, Adkins said. The building continued to sit vacant.
Adkins applied for city funding opportunities to rehabilitate the building, she said. If no one else was going to do the work to reimagine the site, she would, Adkins said.
“I didn’t want to see the building stay dormant any longer,” Adkins said. “The will was there. The brains were there. We were going to make it happen.”
Adkins enlisted the help of Landmark Illinois to assist in her preservation efforts, she said. The nonprofit helped Adkins conduct a building assessment with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., and nail the Adopt-A-Landmark grant.
In the years since the building has sat vacant, a large hole has formed in the roof, Adkins said. The $250,000 city grant will take care of the masonry work.
A newly announced $2,500 grant through the Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black Grant for Chicago’s South Side will also aid the building’s restoration and construction of the cafe.
“This project is bringing something to the community that is missing right now,” said Alyssa Frystak, chair leader at Landmarks Illinois’ Skyline Council. “It’s important in every neighborhood for there to be a place for people to go, enjoy food, talk and gather. This will be a great opportunity to bring economic development into the community.”
In the years to come, Adkins hopes to build out additional spaces at the Former Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, she said.
An adjacent outdoor space could become a beer garden, Adkins said. Vacant apartments above the cafe could be used as a community gathering space for neighbors and local organizations, Adkins said.
Adkins hopes to partner with an operator “who sees the vision and is committed to the community” to help her develop the project, she said.
Adkins said 69th Street “has it going on.” Soon, the community will have one more space where neighbors can sit and enjoy a meal together, she said.
“People have to buy into Englewood. They have to see the love, heart and sweat of the people that live here,” Adkins said. “Once this place opens and a catalytic fervor starts, maybe then they’ll start to see.”
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