Born in the 1890s and nearly killed off 20 years ago, the historic Yerkes Observatory along the shores of southeast Wisconsin’s Geneva Lake is getting a new life.

Instead of condos and a high-end resort, scientific research continues, and a growing array of recreational activities have turned an institution once deemed obsolete into a one-of-a-kind attraction.

Yerkes survived a close call when its then-owner, the University of Chicago, teamed up with a developer who dangled $10 million to take over the site. The university prepared to wash its hands of this important part of its legacy, touching off a furious backlash.

Astronomy buffs, concerned scientists, local officials and determined residents of Williams Bay, the rustic Wisconsin town where Yerkes is located, made it their business to rescue the place.

This page contributed editorial support, including “Save the Stargazer,” a 2005 piece that chided the university for being shortsighted, concluding: “It is ironic that even a great repository of learning and insight like the University of Chicago seems so ready to discard this global icon of astronomy and history, a child of its own dreams of the heavens, and a site with so much seeming potential for the future.”

The backlash proved too great to ignore. The university shelved its redevelopment plans, and more than a decade passed without a clear path forward. The university kept the building from falling apart, but maintenance and groundskeeping were minimal.

Those weren’t just any grounds. The parklike campus was designed by celebrated landscape architect John Charles Olmsted. The main building rises from the lawns like a “Downton Abbey”-style manor house. Science luminaries including Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble and Carl Sagan once peered through the vintage telescopes housed in the domed observatory towers.

For preservationists, seeing this treasure go fallow was a constant source of worry. As the years went by and its leadership changed, the university finally recognized that something had to be done.

In 2020, it followed through on a long-in-the-making plan to gift the observatory and 50 acres of land to the Yerkes Future Foundation, a not-for-profit that so far has raised $45 million in private donations for restoration and maintenance.

If you know anything about Geneva Lake, you might make an educated guess about where a startup charity could come up with that kind of money. For more than a century, this sparkling blue body of water 90 minutes northwest of Chicago has been a playground for super-rich families. Chicago’s “Newport of the West” has cast its spell on everyone from the Wrigleys, as in chewing gum, to the Pritzkers, as in Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

The nonprofit’s initial fundraising, though, pulled in much of its money from grassroots supporters. Local residents like the late Chuck Ebeling, a retired McDonald’s executive, made saving Yerkes their mission. Many early donations came from outside the area entirely, as former employees and devoted stargazers rode to Yerkes’ rescue, according to Dianna Colman, the nonprofit’s founding board chair.

Wealthy lakefront families have kicked in, too, and many of the park benches, meeting rooms and even an on-site apiary display the names of key donors. The foundation has set out to raise more than $100 million by 2034, an appropriately sky-high amount for an organization devoted to exploring the heavens.

The nonprofit’s first employee, Dennis Kois, continues as executive director today, overseeing the transformation that Yerkes deserved long ago. Besides a new roof and other urgent repairs, the foundation has mostly restored the retro interior, with its marble corridors and plaster detailing. The grounds, freely accessible to the public, are being updated with native prairies and dotted with newly planted trees.

The state of Wisconsin is helping to fund a new astronomy-themed, acre-sized playground with a three-story-high exploding star as its centerpiece. Tours and events featuring scientists and artists typically sell out.

An internship program is showing science students how Yerkes’ telescopes can still contribute to research today. The observatory hosts a collection of 180,000 historic plate-glass photos, enabling modern scientists to compare a star or galaxy with observations made long ago.

Meantime, the developer of an ultraluxurious resort going up next door at the shuttered George Williams College has put 90 acres adjacent to the site into a nature conservancy. That will help ensure the nighttime skies around the observatory remain dark enough for the telescopes to continue operating.

The upgrades have made a night-and-day difference in what Yerkes can offer the public. It’s getting better every year at providing experiences that connect the arts, science, nature and history.

Considering that universities have a mixed record of preserving their histories, let’s hear it for the University of Chicago. True, the university’s effort to unload the property sparked a backlash that proved justified. Still, in the end, the university deserves credit for keeping the stars shining on a part of its heritage that almost disappeared forever.

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