Mansion Restoration
Updating Mansion rooms ensures this historic space remains relevant and functional as we open our doors to serve the public in a new, service-oriented way.
Individual room endowments, recognized with a plaque on the door, will provide long-term funding to make continual updates and ensure rooms remain consistent, comfortable, and historically inspired.
Elevating our accommodations will encourage visitors to prolong their stay and further experience the peace found at Allerton, while allowing us to increase revenue to further support the Mansion and Park.
Artisan Village
This core area of the Park across from the Visitor Center is being transformed to serve as the creative campus for The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, increasing opportunities for connection, creativity, and learning.
The Robert Allerton-original “lean-to” shed will be renovated to serve as the Village Hall with a fiber arts classroom, a fine arts classroom, and restrooms.
A new pavilion will serve as covered outdoor classroom and communal gathering space, while a former maintenance shop will be repurposed to serve as a workshop, furthering expanding what can be taught and created here.
Investment in multipurpose programming space at Illinois’ first folk school will create a vibrant hub of activity in our unique rural setting, with naming opportunities to recognize donors’ commitment to art, culture, and community.
The Farms: An Allerton Folk School
A named endowment to support The Farms will expand opportunities for learning and creativity. By providing consistent annual funding, an endowment will allow us to supplement instructor fees, invest in necessary equipment, and lower registration costs for students.
Bringing more students to Allerton for folk school courses will grow and strengthen our community of people who value education and the arts.
Support for Farms courses will create a wider variety of programming – attracting a more diverse audience and creating accessible opportunities for multi-generational learning, continuing public education, and invaluable personal interaction.
Accessible Natural Areas
Connecting visitors with nature in meaningful ways is essential to the health of people and our planet.
The addition of a new children’s garden around the accessible path in the Wandering Woods will create a multi-generational, accessible feature to Allerton’s existing upland oak-history forest.
Endowments for the path itself and funding for a dozen individual garden components will create unique, inspiring areas that will connect more children – and adults – with nature.
When complete, Old Timber Trail will provide nearly three miles of packed gravel trail for hiking and biking, creating a safer off-road pedestrian option and further connecting the entire Park, from the north entrance to the Sun Singer.
Support from the community is needed to complete and endow three sections of trail, which will each be named and recognized with a sign.
These new recreational opportunities will allow more people of all ages and abilities to more intimately experience the natural world – ensuring future generations will continue to use, improve, and protect it.
