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By Larry Lough

LARRY@THEWOODSTOCKINDEPENDENT.COM

While the long-term use of the Old Courthouse for the arts and artists is uncertain, short-term use is assured.

The Clayworkers’ Guild of Illinois, which has annually hosted a year-end art show in the historic building on the Square, has extended this season’s exhibit, opening for special hours during the just-concluded Groundhog Days festival.

And according to the guild’s president, Anne Marie Whitmore Linzini of Woodstock, plans are to expand hours starting in May with the return of the Woodstock Farmers Market to the Square on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. The market is now at its winter home in Building D of the McHenry County Fairgrounds.

The guild’s annual exhibit showcases its members’ artwork in various mediums, including ceramics, jewelry, and glassware.

According to a news release from Linzini, exhibiting artists besides her are Susan Clough, Susan Galloway, Tom Vician, Jonna Kivisto, Regina Lombardo, Socorro “Coco” Medina, Jill Munger, Frank Richards, Celeste Garcia-Morales, Deanne Ferguson, Patricia Vollkommer, Nancy Terranova, and Lena Wells.

Galleries will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays through the end of April, when Tuesday hours will be added, opening at 8 a.m. on market days in conjunction with the farmers market.

The long-term picture for the Old Courthouse is more complicated.

Among the proposed uses for the 1857 Old Courthouse is an artsfocused community center that the Woodstock Public Library would manage. That is one of four plans the city is working with as it remodels and renovates the downtown building and the attached Sheriff’s House (1887) for civic and commercial uses.

Library Director Nick Weber has said the concept could include space for art exhibits, an artists’ studio, retail

INDEPENDENT PHOTOS BY KEN FARVER

space to sell artists’ works, and meeting rooms. He proposed that as an expansion of the mission of the library, which doesn’t have space at 414 W. Judd St. to accommodate the art component.

The space on the south side of the first floor of the Old Courthouse has been leased by the Northwest Area Arts Council for its Old Courthouse Arts Center, but the council notified the city last summer that it would be leaving that space at the end of the year.

The Clayworkers’ Guild has always subleased space for its show, according to City Planner Darrell Moore.

“Upon hearing that there was interest from the Guild to stay on longer, and that the Northwest Area Arts Council also wanted to continue with a new concept for the art gallery, the city restructured the lease agreement with NAAC making it possible for the Guild to stay on,” Moore reported.

Moore said the lease agreement would allow the Arts Council – and, in turn, the guild – to continue using the building until the beginning of September, which is the soonest the city expects interior renovation to begin on the building. At this point, plans for the two buildings also include an expanded Public House restaurant, which now occupies the ground floor of the Old Courthouse; a new restaurant for Ethereal Café; and a Milk House ice cream shop.

be aggressive with the renovations after having received approval in December for state tax credits, which were considered essential to attracting a private developer for the project. The city also plans to continue to use funds from the tax increment financing district for the restoration, along with a bond issue that tenants’ rents would help to pay off.

Moore suggested the long-term involvement of the arts council in the Old Courthouse would be subject to an agreement with the Woodstock Public Library and its plans for a community center. That idea, Moore said, came from the Old Courthouse and Sheriff’s House Advisory Commission in 2019.

“The original intent ... was to provide an avenue through which NAAC could continue to operate or otherwise do art programming in the Old Courthouse,” Moore’s email said.

A proposal for a Woodstock Arts Commission, which the City Council created last year, was also first made by the advisory commission, Moore said.

Introduction of a short-term strategy for an “Arts Development Plan” was scheduled for discussion at the Arts Commission’s meeting on Monday this week. Among agenda items for future meetings is the arts-focused community space concept for Old Courthouse.

INDEPENDENT PHOTO BY KEN FARVER

By Susan W. Murray

NEWS@THEWOODSTOCKINDEPENDENT.COM

A little over two years after opening on the Woodstock Square, EmpowHer Boutique will close its location at 129 Van Buren St. on March 31.

Owners Amy Henning and Ashley Klemm’s business encompassed women’s retail clothing and accessories, a full-service hair and makeup salon, and boudoir photography.

Having moved the photography portion of the business to Crystal Lake’s Dole Mansion in June, Henning and Klemm will offer salon services there as well.

The store’s clothing and accessories will be available to customers online.

“We love Woodstock,” Henning said, “and would love to stay here.”

While Empowher Boutique’s location on the Square occupies 1,800 square feet, the Dole Mansion’s 1,000 square feet is a better fit for the pair’s reduced brick-andmortar operation.

“There wasn’t a space that worked in Woodstock,” Henning said.

The pandemic, shutdowns, and resulting change in shoppers’ habits made staying in the space next to Starbucks untenable.

“People are not walking around and shopping anymore,” Henning said.

As people stayed home, they got used to shopping online, Henning said. What began as a convenience became a habit.

Besides the loss of regular foot traffic, the pandemic forced the cancellation of many events that brought people to the Woodstock Square – Fair Diddley, Harvest Fest, and the Lighting of the Square among them.

“The lack of events on the Square impacted us greatly,” Henning said.

The store’s closing marks yet another pandemic-related retail loss for Woodstock.

Since the spring, DeWane Studio, Uptown Salon, Picked Emporium, Soul Focus, and Chilly Willy’s have closed their doors. On Jan. 12, owner Suzanne Delaney announced in a Facebook post the shuttering of The Gilded Acorn on Calhoun Street. The store is having a “going out of business” sale until the end of February.

Empowher Boutique’s owners hope that with the repositioning and move, they can regain their footing.

“We’re rebranding a little bit so we can have a future,” Henning said.

Transactions filed in the McHenry County Recorder’s Office Nov. 4 to 18.

■ Residence at 1016 Harrow Gate Drive, Woodstock, was sold by M & J Real Estate LLC, Janesville, Wis., to Mark E. Thompson, Woodstock, for $295,000. ■ Residence at 119-121 Cairns Court, Woodstock, was sold by The Kristine K. Kopsell Revocable Trust, Woodstock, to Adulfo Mercado, Harvard, for $100,000. ■ Residence at 2118 N. Thompson Road, Wonder Lake, was sold by Margaret Magnine, Wonder Lake to Kurt R. VonKampen and Jennifer VonKampen, Wonder Lake, for $150,000. ■ Residence at 8805 Bull Run Trail, Woodstock, was sold by Brice D. Spreitzer, Crystal Lake, to Michael O’Malley, Woodstock, for $353,000. ■ Commercial building at 823 Lake Ave., Woodstock, was sold by Chicago Title Land Trust Company, Libertyville, to Platinum Property Partners LLC, Woodstock, for $500,000. ■ Vacant land, approximately 27 acres, at 11807 Lucas Road, Woodstock, was sold by The Bangash Family Limited Partnership, South Barrington, to Bocas Properties LLC, Schaumburg, for $225,000. ■ Residence at 429 Fremont St., Woodstock, was sold by Heather R. Graham-Lee, Woodstock, to Derek John Froehle, Woodstock, for $173,000. ■ Residence at 916 Wicker St., Woodstock, was sold by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Atlanta, Ga., to Aleksandr Ivanov, Lake Zurich, for $65,000. ■ Residence at 2240 Preswick Lane, Woodstock, was sold by D.R. Horton, Inc. - Midwest, Vernon Hills, to Matthew R. Hauck, Woodstock, for $272,720. See REAL ESTATE, Page 14