Two subjects that are as old as civilization are being taught in a building on the former MacMurray College campus in Jacksonville by neighbors who are injecting local enthusiasm into their lifelong passions.
Michael Woods and Tim Smith have purchased the old MacMurray Hall building, a large 1920s-era brick-and-stone science classroom structure on East College and South Clay streets and are transforming it into the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex. As the building's metamorphosis continues, the two men have already started to teach farming and music through the educational edifice, and room by room they are setting it up as a vibrant community center for locally grown products, artwork and music.
Pianos of all types and rooms full of donated musical instruments are used by the institution's 30 current young music students, with 50 students expected in the fall. Offices housing complementary organizations are being filled in former classrooms, with space already occupied by a soil and water conservation district and several nonprofits.
As the complex's agricultural-related spaces are being finished, work is already underway on connected projects throughout Jacksonville. Urban farming operations are in full bloom on unused and marginal properties in the city, with certain crops already being harvested as chickens and bees assist in the overall process.
The Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex is a recent development for Woods and Smith, but they are both drawing on a lifetime of experience and enthusiasm for the project. They hope to turn the old campus building into a hub for learning, creativity and community participation that will enrich and improve the lives of central Illinois residents.
"I think Illinois and agriculture are sexy again."
Michael Woods is the manager for the Division of Natural Resources within the Illinois Department of Agriculture. He heads the department's Climate Smart, nutrient loss, conservation, soil and water, and environmental programs. Woods has advanced degrees in agriculture, and his prior work put him at the forefront of the local foods movement in the Quad Cities in Illinois.
Woods moved to the Jacksonville area before the COVID-19 pandemic to start an agri-business program at Illinois College in Jacksonville. Even after he took the job with the Department of Agriculture, Woods had a vision of revitalizing the local foods movement in his new hometown.
"I think Illinois and agriculture are sexy again," Woods said. "We don't produce a lot of our own fresh vegetables in this state anymore, but there's a calling to return to that."
Tim Smith was raised on a farm between Jacksonville and Franklin but moved away for 40 years to pursue his career as a church musician. He was an organist and choir master at Episcopal churches in Florida and Texas. Smith had not planned on returning to the Jacksonville area until he and his sisters inherited the family farm.
Once reestablished in Jacksonville, Smith learned about a local benefactor, Scotty DeWolf, who had proposed a music school based on the Venezuelan El Sistema method of music teaching, where students learn music for free on donated instruments.
"I am really aware of how important music was in opening doors that otherwise might not have been open to a central Illinois farm kid," Smith said. "There seems to be a lack of music education in the Jacksonville school system. They offer instrumental music at the middle school level but not before, which is a little late."
Smith and Woods ended up being neighbors in Jacksonville, and over time discussed possible ways to combine their individual passions into a single entity. When MacMurray College closed in 2020, the seeds were planted for what has become the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex.
"Michael's daughters were interested in piano lessons, and I found out his interests in permaculture, sustainable agriculture and cover crops," Smith said. "One thing led to another, and we decided we would buy this building to do both things."
"We grow a neighborhood from within."
The first floor of the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex is dedicated to local foods and agriculture, and Woods anticipates the floor will be at least partially open by the fall. One of the rooms is being turned into a certified community-supported kitchen where residents can learn to cook and preserve locally grown produce.
"We love to give vegetables to food banks, but at times there is a breakdown because a lot of people don't know how to cook with fresh vegetables," Woods said. "When they get this free food we want to make sure they know how to use it."
The first floor will also feature a food hub that supplements area farmers markets by offering another outlet to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables every day. The hub will feature a subscription food box program but, unlike other programs of this type, the Jacksonville operation will let customers choose their own items to fill the box, in order to cut down on waste.
A fresh herb and tea room, a store that sells agricultural-based products like natural inks, and a soup-and-sandwich restaurant are other features being developed on the first floor. The operation will use the building's existing greenhouse to grow flowers for purchase and to hold flower-arranging classes. The backyard will feature aesthetic gardens where people can sit or stroll.
Meanwhile, the complex's urban farming operations to produce locally grown foods, titled Main Street Farms, are already well underway. There are a total of five acres under cultivation in two areas of Jacksonville, along the Town Brook and on a residential lot where a house had been torn down.
"We are putting farms in neighborhoods, taking these vacant lots in what we call Main Street Farms Agrow-Hoods," Woods said. "We grow a neighborhood from within, and we grow it by having food and a sense of place, community and revitalization."
Each Main Street Farm parcel's carefully sculptured plantings mix vegetables and flowers and they are edged with Indian corn and broomcorn. There are "chicken trains," where wheeled coops allow chickens to be moved so their instincts allow them to naturally till and fertilize the ground. Adjacent beehives help with pollination.
The Town Brook site will feature a walking trail. Woods and Smith have purchased a dilapidated house nearby to serve as a produce processing center. Local middle school and high school students are being recruited to work these urban farms to learn and earn.
Woods is working with the Western Illinois University Institute for Rural Affairs to develop an apprenticeship program to train people to become farmers. The apprenticeship program would be based at the Jacksonville complex, a program Woods hopes will be in operation by this fall.
Volunteers now tend the Main Street Farms, but Woods hopes to eventually have paid staff at the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex and its associated urban farm plots. The entire operation, which Woods anticipates will be fully operational by the 2024 growing season, will be supported by grants, partnerships and the sale of agricultural goods.
"The difference between our venture and community gardens is community gardens are great spaces and some of them are dynamic and vibrant," Woods said. "But often many of them turn into weed patches because nobody has a centralized focus around it."
"Music education at a fairly young age is important."
The second floor of the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex will feature art classes and workshops, art therapy, plus ample space to display the works that are produced. Nonprofit office and meeting space on the floor is available right now. But the most active part of the building may be on the third floor, where the music and theater programs will be housed.
Tim Smith has taken Scotty DeWolf's El Sistema vision, which DeWolf titled the Esprit de Corps Academy, and on April 1 started taking students for free lessons. Classes are being held in a local church until the complex's elevator is certified as operational, something that should occur any day now.
"I expected 10 students and we enrolled 25, and we now have over 30," Smith said. "We sent brochures home with students in their backpacks as they went on summer vacation and we have 20 more kids who are interested."
The El Sistema method of free music education as offered by the Esprit de Corps Academy has produced many world-renowned musicians, the most notable to date being Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
"Music education at a fairly young age is important for several reasons. It raises grades, it raises test scores, it raises critical thinking," Smith said. "Whether or not kids go on and be professional musicians, those benefits remain."
The Esprit de Corps Academy is supported through grants and individual contributions. Donations of all types of musical instruments are encouraged.
"Years ago when I was a child and studied music here at MacMurray College, it was a major cultural center for music education, and it had been all the way back to the mid-19th century," Smith said. "I think it can be that again."
"Jacksonville is on the cusp of something truly remarkable."
The Jacksonville community, which was hit hard by MacMurray's closing three years ago, is enthusiastically welcoming the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex.
"The new complex housed in the former MacMurray Hall builds on the legacy that both agriculture and the arts has had on the development of Jacksonville since its establishment in 1825," said Jacksonville Mayor Andy Ezard. "The City Council and I are encouraged by this new endeavor as it seeks to contribute to the entrepreneurial spirit in the region, looking for ways to strengthen the economy, provide better quality of life, and build on local assets."
Brittany Henry, executive director of the Jacksonville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, anticipates the complex will attract many more visitors to the community.
"The combined effect of these initiatives will likely attract students, researchers, music enthusiasts and curious visitors from all over, eager to experience the unique blend of agriculture, music and community that Jacksonville now offers," Henry said. "Kudos to the team behind this inspiring endeavor for their dedication to fostering growth, learning and cultural enrichment in the area. Jacksonville is on the cusp of something truly remarkable, and I can't wait to see the lasting impact this project will have on the community and its reputation."
The MacMurray Foundation and Alumni Association was formed after the Jacksonville campus closed. It's made up of people who have a strong attachment to the former college, and chairman David Ekin is pleased that one of the campus's iconic buildings is being brought back to life.
"It is heartening to see buildings of the former campus repurposed for uses that relate to MacMurray's mission," Ekin said. "I think MacMurray alums, although still saddened by our loss, will be thankful and proud that the campus continues to be a vital part of Jacksonville and continues the legacy of the college, although in a different way."
Social media pages are being established for the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex, but for now information about the agricultural portion can be found at townbrook.wordpress.com, and the arts side at theespritdecorps.com.
Taking an old college building that occupies half a city block and transforming it into something new and untested is quite a gamble. But the men at the heart of the effort are optimistic about their chances for success.
"It is a big risk. But the building was affordable, and opportunity knocks but once," Smith said. "I think the risk will pay off."
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What's happening with MacMurray buildings
The buildings on the former MacMurray College campus in Jacksonville were auctioned off for $1.4 million in November 2021, more than a year after the college closed. Several have changed hands since then.
Mike Hayes, the owner of the Hayes Group in Jacksonville, purchased several of the college's iconic campus buildings during the 2021 auction, including MacMurray Hall, McClelland Dining Hall, Annie Merner Chapel, the Kathryn Hall administration building, student residence and classroom building Rutledge Hall, and the Putnam Springer Fine Arts Center.
Hayes kept McClelland Hall and Annie Merner Chapel and leases them to MacMurray alumnus Brian Reilly, the owner of Cured Catering, as event venues. Hayes sold MacMurray Hall to Michael Woods and Timothy Smith for the Midwest Agricultural and Arts Complex. The Putnam Springer Center was purchased as the new headquarters for the Morgan County Health Department.
Hayes sold Kathryn and Rutledge Halls to Macomb resident Ben Hickman of HT Properties, who had also purchased the Jane Hall dormitory at the original auction. Hickman has transformed Rutledge and Jane into apartments which are now being rented, and he has listed Kathryn Hall for sale.
Ryan Turner, the owner of Turner Painting and Construction in Jacksonville, was the original purchaser of Pfeiffer Library, Julian Hall, Gamble Campus Center and the Jenkins Educational Complex.
John and Rachel Rohn of Jacksonville now own the Educational Complex, which is being used as the Midwest Athletic Center for sporting events, performances and community event space. The Campus Center is now owned by the Jacksonville Salvation Army and it is their new local headquarters and food pantry site. Otto Roman has purchased the Pfeiffer Library and Julian Hall buildings and has not yet announced his plans for the properties.
1983 MacMurray graduate Mark Leach was the original purchaser of the Kendall, Norris and Michalson residence halls. He still has plans to turn the structures into apartment units.
The former MacMurray campus has a new addition. The MacMurray Foundation and Alumni Association partnered with the Illinois State Historical Society, Bound to Stay Bound Books and property owner Otto Roman to install a historical marker honoring the legacy of MacMurray College and its predecessor, Illinois Women's College. The Foundation has also refurbished the monument to Old Main/Harker Hall, which dates to the early 1900s, on property now owned by the Morgan County Health Department.
The historic ornate metal signpost which once identified the north edge of campus at the intersection of East State and Clay streets has moved one block to the west and now holds the sign for the Jacksonville Area Museum. The new institution, located in the 1906-vintage old Post Office building, is where the former college's history is interpreted and where the MacMurray archives are stored. – David Blanchette
