Some South Side Bronzeville residents are hoping to get landmark status for an endangered neighborhood structure.

Chicago Public Radio’s Natalie Moore reports.

**
Since 2000, the sprawling Rosenwald Building has been an eyesore on the corner of 47th and Michigan.

The apartments were once home to luminaries like Gwendolyn Brooks, Joe Louis and Nat King Cole.

Former Rosenwald resident Bobbie Johnson says the building is an important link to Bronzeville’s past. 

JOHNSON: It’s one of the last vestiges that tell the story about the African-American settlement in the city of Chicago migrating from down South.

The grassroots group calls itself the Save Rosenwald Coalition. It wants city landmark status for the Rosenwald as a step to protect it from demolition.

The community’s new alderman Pat Dowell says she supports residential and commercial redevelopment.

But she says landmark status could hamper redevelopment of the Rosenwald.

The current owner says he has no plans for the building.

I’m Natalie Moore, Chicago Public Radio.