Dennis Craig, Campus Historic Preservation Officer Friday, April 21, 2023
3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
805 S. Mathews, Urbana
Meet at front/east doors
The cornerstone of the Tina Weedon Smith Memorial Building was laid on November 9, 1917 by Captain Thomas J. Smith in honor of his wife. Designed in the Beaux Arts style, it houses a large performance and recital hall, the acoustics of which are very precisely controlled to account for an audience. Smith Memorial Hall was the first building at the University of Illinois to be fully funded by private donations, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Dennis Craig, three-degree Illinois alumnus who is also a Bronze Tablet honoree, left the private sector as an architect to become the UI’s Campus Historic Preservation Officer. When he’s not managing projects to ensure the UI is compliant with the National Historic Preservation Act, he’s responding to inquiries like the one from a granddaughter of a contractor on the Mumford House or a woman whose great uncle carved one of the statues at Memorial Stadium. And of course, he’s the go-to person whenever a newly unearthed time capsule is discovered. (He thinks there are at least twenty or thirty still buried around campus.)
**NOTE: For logistical reasons, this SAS will be limited to the first 25 confirmed registrants.**
*If registration is full email chp@illinois.edu to be added to a waitlist.
