Old Roycemore School building
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Roycemore School
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| Location | 640 Lincoln Street, Evanston, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 42°3′41″N 87°40′44″W / 42.06139°N 87.67889°WCoordinates: 42°3′41″N 87°40′44″W / 42.06139°N 87.67889°W |
| Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | 1915 |
| NRHP Reference # | 87001256 |
| Added to NRHP | August 3, 1987 |
The old Roycemore School building is a Northwestern University building that is included on the National Register of Historical Places. The structure had formerly housed the Roycemore School from its opening until 2012.
Roycemore School was founded in 1915 as an all-girls school. It became co-ed in 1962. The Prairie Style building was designed by noted Prairie School architect Thomas Eddy Tallmadge. Tallmadge, who worked with the renowned Daniel H. Burnham, later taught at Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology). The former Roycemore School building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, based upon its unique open Prairie Style school floor plan.
While the building itself is prairie style, its other interiors are decidedly a departure from that style. The gymnasium, with its vaulted ceilings and heavy beams, are a throwback to a more Victorian style. Small windows let in light keeping it warm in the winter months.
At the entrance to what were the administrative offices, the prairie style is on full display, if sometimes obscured by the ivy vines growing up the side of the building at the corner of Orrington and Colfax. That portion of the building looks more prairie home, much like its neighbors along Orrington, than a business office.
While the building itself is prairie style, its other interiors are decidedly a departure from that style. The gymnasium, with its vaulted ceilings and heavy wooden beams, are a throwback to a more Victorian style. Small windows let in light keeping the room warm in the winter months and often stifling in the summer. A small balcony looks down upon the floor across from the heavy wooden stage.
At the entrance to what were the administrative offices, the prairie style is on full display, if sometimes obscured by the ivy vines growing up the side of the building at the corner of Orrington and Colfax. That portion of the building looks more prairie home, much like its neighbors along Orrington, rather than a business office.
As its property lease with Northwestern University for the lot at Lincoln St. and Orrington Ave. was due to end in 2014, in early 2000 the school began looking for another Evanston location that would allow room to continue a trend of enrollment growth that had occurred over the previous 10 years, with updated technology and to accommodate a larger, regulation-sized, gymnasium. Roycemore began classes at 1200 Davis Street in Evanston on January 6, 2012.
Despite zoning that allows Northwestern to utilize the property as a dormitory, neighbors have voiced objections to the possibility. Dormitories are considered to be the least favorite potential reuse of the site amongst nearby residents. Also, despite the building having hosted classes for the near-century the Roycemore School was housed there, some neighbors also objected to the idea of Northwestern utilizing the site for university classes. Many neighbors reiterated longtime objections to the housing of student housing located west of Sheridan Road, complaining of the noise produced by students' late-night partying and their commuting to and from classes and the disruption it causes for the single-family homes nearby. The City of Evanston has objected to potential redevelopment of the site that would require demolition or partial demolition of the structure, as it considers most of the interconnected buildings the make up the components of the structure to be local landmarks, and Northwestern's associate vice president of facilities management Ron Nayler has stated that the University only intends to restore the landmark buildings, rather than demolish them. Nayler did however say that the school may potentially replace a home on the site that is not itself landmark. Potential uses zoning would allow encompass, amongst other things, housing for fraternities and sororities, faculty or administrative offices, student dormitories, university classrooms, and upperclass-student housing. Development on the site would directly impact the adjacent residential neighborhood, which includes a new single-family housing development across Orrington Avenue. In the meantime, Northwestern has been intending to utilize the building through interim uses.
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