A former women and children’s shelter in East Garfield Park would be designated as an official landmark under a recommendation introduced to City Council today by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.

The property at 2678 W. Washington Blvd. includes a three-story mansion designed by architect William Longhurst in the Queen Anne style and completed in approximately 1880, as well as a one-story dormitory from 1923 designed by Holabird & Roche. Four care organizations used the complex to provide social services to unwed mothers and children and other vulnerable Chicagoans during much of the previous century, including the Chicago Home for Convalescent Women and Children, the Florence Crittenton Anchorage, the Volunteers of America Living Center for Girls, and Inner Voice Inc.

The landmark designation would protect all exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the main house and dormitory. The bronze sculpture on the lawn east of the main house, created in 2011 by a group of Academy of Art University students and named “Passage,” would also be protected.

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