A 117-year-old Colonial Revival house on Prospect Avenue in Highland Park was demolished in early August 2026 after years of dispute over whether the city should have intervened to protect it. The Smith House, built in 1909 and designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw, stood on a one-acre lot before demolition crews reduced it to rubble. The property’s loss followed a failed effort to create a noncontiguous historic district for architecturally significant homes and a subsequent change in the city’s owner-consent rules.
The demolition of 175 Prospect Ave. followed a September 2025 City Council vote, reported by The Record North Shore, that changed the consent requirement for residents seeking to nominate a noncontiguous historic district. The 4-3 vote required consent from all property owners. Mayor Nancy Rotering and councilmembers Tony Blumberg and Andrés Tapia voted against the amendment; councilmembers Jon Center, Barisa Bruckman, Yumi Ros and Annette Lidawer voted for it, according to the same report. The Chicago Tribune reported that the Highland Park Historic Preservation Commission had already found the Prospect Avenue house met several criteria for consideration as a local landmark and imposed a one-year demolition delay, which expired in February 2026.
A Rule Change That Doomed a Nomination
On Sept. 3, 2025, former Historic Preservation Commission vice chair Jean Sogin submitted a nomination for a proposed noncontiguous district encompassing nine homes by Howard Van Doren Shaw and three by Frank Lloyd Wright, according to The Record North Shore. The proposed district would have grouped the properties by their Arts and Crafts principles rather than by adjacent property lines. It included the Prospect Avenue house and 11 other properties and had met the former 25 percent owner-consent threshold, with six of 12 owners signed on, the Chicago Tribune reported. The council rejected the district and approved the unanimous-consent requirement for future nominations.
The council’s action turned the Prospect Avenue case into a broader dispute over how much weight Highland Park’s preservation system should give to collective architectural value versus individual property-owner consent. Preservation advocates have described the amendment as a setback, while supporters have emphasized property rights, according to the Tribune’s reporting. Billy Levy, who lives in a restored Frank Lloyd Wright house in Highland Park and photographed the demolition, said the loss changed the neighborhood’s character and argued that the city’s historic identity is conveyed through its buildings.
What the Rule Change Did
Before the September 2025 amendment, a proposed noncontiguous district could proceed with the former 25 percent owner-consent threshold; the Prospect Avenue proposal had six of 12 owners signed on. The council rejected that proposal and changed the requirement for future nominations to consent from every property owner. That consent requirement is distinct from the Historic Preservation Commission’s role: according to the City of Highland Park, the commission hears requests for landmark designation and demolition of existing structures and issues certificates of appropriateness. In the Prospect Avenue case, the commission’s one-year demolition delay created time for review but did not itself guarantee preservation, and the council ultimately controlled the ordinance change and district vote.
Highland Park’s approach also differs from at least one nearby model. The Village of Winnetka says its March 16, 2021, code amendment allows its Historic Preservation Commission to impose a demolition delay of up to 270 days for a historic or architecturally significant home, a separate process from Highland Park’s owner-consent rule for noncontiguous districts.
What the Preservation Process Does — and Does Not — Do
The city's preservation framework gives the Historic Preservation Commission a role in hearing requests for landmark designation and demolition of existing structures, as well as applications for certificates of appropriateness, according to the City of Highland Park. A demolition delay is therefore a review period, not a permanent guarantee that a property will be preserved. In a separate case, city records say the commission imposed a 365-day demolition delay on 1375 Sheridan Road on Jan. 8, 2026; that delay is set to expire Dec. 8, 2026. The broader preservation record also includes ongoing documentation of the city's designed environment. Highland Park says it has completed eight comprehensive architectural surveys, most recently in the Sunset Terrace Subdivision in 2021. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources likewise reports that Highland Park studied its designed landscapes, including noteworthy private estates and gardens. Those surveys and landscape studies help document the setting in which Shaw, Wright and other architect-designed homes are considered, even though documentation alone does not prevent every later demolition or property change.
Sogin, who had worked in historic preservation for 25 years and serves as local chair of the League of Women Voters, told the Tribune the sudden ordinance change left her feeling cut off and prompted her to end her involvement in local preservation work. She had hoped to protect a cluster of important community houses through a single historic district and said she had the time, expertise, and willingness to participate in that work, noting that many younger prospective homeowners often lack the time or energy for extensive historic-home renovations.
Shaw's Legacy and a Parallel Fight Over Central Avenue
Shaw received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1926, underscoring the national stature of the home that was lost. Property records reviewed by the Tribune show the 6-bedroom, 6,760-square-foot house sold for $1,564,000 in October 2025 before it was torn down.
Highland Park is weighing a separate dispute over the Cornelius Field House at 147 Central Ave., a 4.3-acre landmarked estate recognized as holding the city's first home. On Aug. 17, 2026, the City Council gave preliminary approval to divide the property into two lots of roughly 89,000 square feet each despite opposition from the Historic Preservation Commission, according to The Record North Shore. The subdivision is scheduled for formal consideration by the council again next week, per the Tribune. If approved, the historic building would remain standing while a new structure could be built on the second lot.
Julie Ehrlich, president of the nonprofit Highland Park Historical Society, opposes the proposed subdivision and compared it to cutting up Versailles, the Tribune reports. She said she worries about the community's loss of historic architecture and warned that Highland Park's notable historic homes disappearing could leave the city looking like any other suburb. Seeing significant historic homes torn down, Ehrlich said, is heartbreaking.
Only Three Landmarks Sit on Large Lots
The Central Avenue debate lands against a backdrop of scarcity: out of 74 local landmark properties in Highland Park surveyed in 2026, only three sit on parcels larger than two acres, while 55 sit on lots smaller than one acre, according to The Record North Shore. That imbalance helps explain why the city's largest, most storied estates keep drawing subdivision pressure even as smaller landmarks face comparatively less redevelopment interest.
Levy, while critical of how the Prospect Avenue demolition unfolded, said he supports saving the Central Avenue house through subdivision of the large parcel, though he cautioned against applying that same logic to smaller lots elsewhere in the city. He told the Tribune that education is key to preservation and said he envisions a program to help homeowners understand landmark designation and encourage more voluntary applications.
Not every preservation story in Highland Park has ended in demolition. On April 27, 2026, the city council designated 273 Sheridan Road, a 1936 French Eclectic home designed by William B. Betts, as the city's 79th historic landmark after owners Kimberly and Barry Schliesmann submitted a voluntary nomination, The Record North Shore reported. Betts designed at least 18 other Highland Park houses, according to the Tribune, and the Sheridan Road property was later home to landscape architect Marshall Liston Johnson, who designed its Prairie-style grounds and was known for Rosewood Park, Chicago's Columbus Park, the Gardner's Memorial at Laurel Park, and the Ford Pavilion at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
Highland Park currently regulates 135 structures under its historic preservation framework, according to the City of Highland Park Architectural Survey Report. The Prospect Avenue demolition and the Central Avenue subdivision dispute illustrate how the city's preservation rules are being tested through different procedures: demolition review in one case and proposed changes to a landmarked estate in the other.
