After a run of nearly a century and a quarter, the University of Chicago is moving on from Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. In March the university announced that by 1 October it will cease operations at the facility, which served as the research center for some of the most accomplished astrophysicists of the 20th century.
The university will decide on the fate of the observatory and the surrounding 77 acres in the coming months. School officials are currently reviewing multiple proposals from groups interested in owning the property.
Though not unexpected, the University of Chicago’s decision signals the end of a long, successful venture. In 1892 George Ellery Hale, a professor at the newly founded school, helped persuade Chicago financier Charles Tyson Yerkes to build a public observatory located close enough to the city for a day trip by train (see the related article on the history of Yerkes). The facility, located on Geneva Lake in southeastern Wisconsin, made an immediate impact when it opened five years later. Its prominence continued throughout much of the 20th century, despite the astrophysics field’s overall shift to mountain, desert, and spaceborne observatories. Scientists including Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Nancy Grace Roman, and Gerard Kuiper made important discoveries working at Yerkes, which hosted the university’s department of astronomy and astrophysics until the mid 1960s.
Over time, Yerkes’s impact on research at the university waned. Though as recently as a few years ago Yerkes employees were involved in new science, such as building equipment for the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, the observatory’s programs have shifted mainly to education and outreach.
In 2006 the university agreed to sell the property for $10 million to the New York–based developer Mirbeau Companies, which planned to build a resort hotel and luxury condominiums. But for the deal to go forward, Williams Bay, a small village of about 2500 residents where lakefront properties can sell for more than $1 million each, would have had to rezone the area. That never happened. At public hearings, residents didn’t hold back in voicing their displeasure, and in 2007 the university called off the sale. In pursuing the Mirbeau deal, the university passed on a roughly $4.5 million offer from Illinois’s Aurora University, which has a campus at Williams Bay that borders the Yerkes property.
Most recently the university opted to announce the end of operations at Yerkes before securing a definitive plan for the site, a decision that caught many Williams Bay residents off guard. A university spokesperson says that it’s no small expense to maintain the observatory, especially considering the institution’s other astronomy endeavors—in particular the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) in Chile, for which the university has pledged $50 million. (Yerkes’s 1895 telescope, the largest refractor ever used for research, has a 1-meter aperture; the aperture of the GMT’s reflector will be 24.5 meters.) If the university doesn’t find a buyer by October, it will close Yerkes Observatory and spend a minimal sum for upkeep.
The university is currently reviewing multiple options for selling the property; proposals were due on 15 June. One offer comes from the Yerkes Future Foundation, which is led by local resident Dianna Colman. The proposal includes no money for the university and depends on raising millions of dollars—ideally about $20 million—for an endowment to maintain the building and property, perform upgrades, and preserve the glass slides and other historical artifacts. The building would remain open for scientists, historians, and students and would also host weddings and other non-astronomy events to bring in additional revenue.
Though the university won’t comment on other proposals (an Aurora University spokesperson says the school is not involved in the Yerkes bidding this time around), Williams Bay village president Bill Duncan doesn’t expect to see another Mirbeau-like deal. Village residents are just as steadfast as they were a decade ago, he says. The municipality would still have to rezone the land, and it would have trouble providing water and sewer services for a large development. Residents also feel a connection to the observatory: Williams Bay is close to gaining certification as an International Dark Sky Community, Duncan says, and the observatory is part of the village’s logo.
More than 300 locals showed up at a public hearing on 18 May to offer input to university officials. “We heard loud and clear that people do not want the University to approach this as an ordinary real estate transaction,” Derek Douglas, University of Chicago vice president for civic engagement and external affairs, said after the meeting. “And we agree.”
