Park Blog

Chef Benny DelValley began working in kitchens at age 16, and has worked in many over past 20 years with different styles, from seafood to Spanish and tapas. (First was Scully’s Chicken and Fish in Urbana.) He has been an executive chef and has worked in catering.

“I really don’t have a culinary identity because I have just been exposed to so many cultures because of my family and my upbringing. I just love everything.”

DelValley’s mom is registered with the Native American Community. He remembers, “We had a 28-foot tall Lakota-style tipi that we lived out of every summer growing up my whole life. We would go all over the United States with it and go to different campgrounds.”

Tiyospaye means “extended family,” which is what they called gatherings, where they would often have drum circles, and his mom would make ribbon shirts for the boys and jingle dresses for the girls. “We would eat Native American food,” he said.

“I wanted to do a Native American menu (at Supper Club) because I just felt like that hasn’t been exposed much in our area so I wanted to be able to offer something different to people,” he continued.

The menu was “created specifically for this dinner party.”

“Succotash is actually a Native American dish, and it is called the Three Sisters because it is the three main elements that Native American tribes would use, which is corn, beans and squash. So that succotash will go on top of the sweet potato mash, and on top of that will be a beef filet.”

Dessert will focus on corn: sweet corn, honey butter cake, sweet corn custard and lavender infused sugar.

After expenses are paid, Chef Benny plans to donate his proceeds to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (USA).

“That is an organization I’ve donated to before, and they really bring awareness to women and children who go missing in reservations or are murdered on reservations,” DelValley said. “It really gets overlooked a lot. Every little bit counts.”

When asked why people should come to the April  7^th Supper Club, Chef Benny stated: “People should come to experience something different. That’s what food is about. That’s what art is about. I think that’s what I am about.”

Allerton Park and Retreat Center is in the midst of three projects that will increase accessibility at the Monticello-area park. They include the first phase of an off-road multi-use path, power chairs that will soon be available to check out, and continuation of the park’s first fully accessible woodland trail.

The trio of efforts have been at least partially funded by state and local grants, as well as private donations.

The multi-use path, which received a $130,110 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, will eventually run along Old Timber Road from the North Entrance to the Sun Singer statue. Work has begun on the first phase, which runs from Allerton’s West Entrance to the iconic statue, a one-mile portion of the eventual three-mile trail, which will consist of crushed rock.

“Construction on this phase has started and will be complete in 2025,” said Micah Putman, Allerton’s Associate Director of Park Operations.

“We hope that this connection will bring a new recreational opportunity to the park while increasing safety and connecting the park more intimately with our neighbors and wider community.”

Allerton was one of 19 Illinois communities to receive state grants for trail development.

“Trail development projects contribute to safer transportation and improved recreation opportunities across Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This grant program helps us maintain these indispensable spaces for bike riders, hikers, joggers and families to enjoy our state’s natural beauty.”

Another grant – this one for $7,349 from the Community Foundation of East Central Illinois – plus a donation from Brenda and Wayland Eheart, has allowed staff to purchase three power chairs, allowing those with limited mobility to better enjoy the park’s trails and Formal Gardens. Two chairs can be used on the paved and graveled paths of the Formal Gardens/Mansion area, while the other is able to handle more rugged terrain.

“(We) estimate that there are up to 10,000 limited mobility visitors to the park annually. There is a dire need to serve those visitors with mobility support to access the various physical attributes of the park,” Allerton officials stated in the grant application.

The electric powered wheelchairs are designed for outdoor use and include orthopedic rotatable seats. One is outfitted with two seats, while the others are solo seated. All will be available to check out for use later this spring.

Meanwhile, multiple donations from Friends of Allerton have allowed work to continue on the first phase of the Wandering Woods path, which will feature a fully accessible concrete surface through a wooded area near the Main Parking Lot. Fundraising is ongoing for additional phases, including components of a children and family natural play area. The first phase of the accessible path is expected to be completed later this year.

It is common for staff at Allerton Park and Retreat Center to hear stories from visitors who have fond memories of the 1,500-acre park, which was donated to the University of Illinois by Robert Allerton in 1946. But a history like that of the late Jane Gregg Schowalter is not one they hear very often.

Donations made to Allerton in memory of Jane have been used to restore the former bedroom of her uncle, John Gregg Allerton, the decades-long companion and legally adopted son of Robert Allerton. John Gregg’s brother Scranton was Jane’s dad, making Jane one of the only direct family members of John and Robert Allerton.

Allerton’s Associate Director of Advancement Bridget Frerichs recalls visiting with Jane and her husband Bill Schowalter in November 2019, when Jane lived in a memory care facility near the Schowalter’s home in Princeton, NJ.

“Honestly, it was kind of like meeting a celebrity,” recalls Frerichs. “I was so thankful to be able to sit and talk with Jane. It was amazing to hear her and Bill reminisce not only about her uncle John, but about her time volunteering at Allerton and role in starting the Holiday Showcase in the 90s.”

The later Allerton connection occurred when Bill Schowalter returned to his alma mater, University of Illinois, to serve as the Dean of Engineering (1989-2001), and Jane’s family ties naturally led her to the Monticello-area park.

The Allerton connection was present even when the Schowalters were living in Princeton, where Bill had become an assistant professor in 1957. Bill fondly remembered a visit from John and Robert in the early 1960’s, recalling that the visitors were formal but quite cordial, even fun-loving.

“They drive into our little driveway, these two gentlemen, with the top down on a convertible, looking like they were having a great time,” said Schowalter, noting that John had once given him some opera LPs/albums that he has to this day. John also gifted Bill and Jane two of his original watercolors, which are now displayed in his restored room.

When Jane passed away in April 2020, the family asked that memorial gifts be made to Allerton to help renovate John’s room, which now serves as one of the 17 hotel rooms in the 1900-era Mansion. The donations from friends and family helped start the restoration process, and prompted Bill and children Katherine, David, and Mary to plan a trip to Allerton in November 2021 to see the progress. While visiting, the family met with volunteer designer Anne Carlson and Allerton staff, who outlined the vision and budget for the full renovation.

“This was just a no-brainer if we could find the funds to do it,” said Bill. “We enjoy natural beauty. Jane enjoyed Allerton and got a thrill every time she went there because of the connection to her uncle.”

The Schowalter family made an additional gift to complete the restoration, as well as an endowment to support the historic space in perpetuity. They will return to Allerton this spring to officially dedicate the room in Jane’s memory at an open house on April 20 (10 – 11:30 a.m.). The public is invited to see the updates, which include more historically accurate furniture, window coverings, and décor, a complete bathroom remodel, and fresh robin egg blue paint. (The event  is free, but registration is appreciated for planning purposes at https://go.illinois.edu/Room4 by April 19.)

Allerton Executive Director Derek Peterson is pleased with the work, saying Room 4 “became one of my favorite rooms in the Mansion.”

Peterson explained that Gregg’s room is the latest to be updated in the multi-year plan to restore all rooms in the Mansion. In the past four years, five guestrooms and three common areas have been renovated, with two more guestrooms scheduled for completion by July.

“We hope to restore two to three rooms every year until the entire Mansion is complete,” Peterson said.

It is also significant that the family of John Gregg Allerton made it possible, he added.

“This is truly a family project that an entire community gets to enjoy and appreciate. Through that legacy we are thankful for — and can feel the spirit of — John Gregg as it is returned to the house he loved.”