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Historic Club, Hospital Among Threatened Landmarks

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Historic Club, Hospital Among Threatened Landmarks

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A 100-year-old private club that may be partially demolished for a hotel and a hospital building that could be cleared away for an Olympic village are among the structures on a most endangered buildings watch list.

The list was released on Thursday. A group called Landmarks Illinois releases a list annually.

Topping the list was the Chicago Athletic Club building, at 12 S. Michigan Ave. The 114-year-old private club was once the playpen of Chicago kingpins like Marshall Field, Cyrus McCormick and William Wrigley, who adopted its logo for the Chicago Cubs.

But the club closed last month, and Illinois Landmarks said a hotel developer has proposed preserving the front area, but demolishing the rear two thirds of the building to construct a 250-foot tower.

The group said the project "would constitute an unprecedented alteration to the world-famous Michigan Boulevard 'streetwall,' which is a protected Chicago Landmark District."

Also on the list is the 100-year-old main building of Michael Reese Hospital, at 2929 S. Ellis Ave. Landmarks says the building's floor plan and ornamentation make it "one of the best examples of a Prairie Style hospital."

Among the other structures included in the list are:
--The former Illinois Central Hospital, later known as Hyde Park Hospital and Doctors Hospital, at 5800 S. Stony Island Ave. Illinois Landmarks says that despite being rated as historically important by the Hyde Park-Kenwood National Register District, a developer and the University of Chicago plan to demolish the building and construct two hotels and a conference center.
--The Raber House, at 5760 S. Lafayette Ave., which predates the Great Chicago Fire and once was part of a grand estate belonging to real estate developer and politician John Raber, but which has now been vacant for more than a decade.
--A group of Queen Anne cottages on the city's West Side, which were built in the 1880s and which the Landmarks Commission says are an example of a unique architectural style. The cottages are largely vacant and up for sale.
--St. Laurence Parish Church, at 7418 S. Dorchester Ave., which has been closed since 2002 and has been vacant since except for the rectory.
--The Recycled Paper Greetings Buildings at 3636-38 N. Broadway, two adjacent neoclassical buildings which once housed a dairy and later a candy company, but which are now up for sale. The Landmarks Commission says they are "vulnerable to replacement with residential development which is commonplace in the Lakeview neighborhood."
--The Gunner Mates' School building on the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, which is obsolete as a training facility and stands to be demolished for a new officers' food galley. The Landmarks Commission says the building, which dates from 1954, was "a groundbreaking modern design for a military base," with a glass and steel structure and overhead trusses. Its architect, Bruce Graham, also designed the John Hancock Center, the Landmarks Commission said.
--The River Forest Bank Building, at 7753-71 Lake St. in River Forest, which has been purchased by a developer who has yet to make plans public. The Prairie School building, which dates from 1912, is in the River Forest National Register Historic District, the Landmarks Commission said.
--The Old Masonic Temple, at 220 N. Sheridan Rd. in Waukegan, which has been vacant since the Freemasons left it in 1988 and is now up for sale. The City of Waukegan wants the building to be rehabilitated and reused, but currently it continues to deteriorate.
--The Foley Rice Cadillac Dealership, at 644-46 W. Madison St. in Oak Park, which is for sale and not protected as a landmark. Illinois Landmarks says it is the last auto dealership on what was once Oak Park's "Motor Row."
--Central School, at Wille and Thayer streets in Mt. Prospect, a one-room schoolhouse that dates from 1996. The building must be physically moved by February 2008, or else the Mt. Prospect Historical Society will have to give the building back to the church that gave owns the property, which wants to use it for a parking lot. The building was the site of Mt. Prospect's incorporation and the first public school. It was moved from its first location in 1939, the Landmarks Commission said.
--The Harmening Homestead, at 26-W-258 Lake St. in unincorporated DuPage County near Hanover Park, which includes a house and barn the Landmarks Commission says "has stood frozen in time under the same family ownership since 1939." But Hanover Park wants to annex the land, and it falls within a city plan area for a new commercial and business park development. The building does not have any historical protection, the Landmarks Commission said.

Other Historic Buildings Meet Wrecking Ball Or Soon May
Several other once-glorious Chicago buildings have met their demise this year, and plans are in place to have others torn down.

--The Farwell Building, an art-deco structure at 660-664 N. Michigan Ave., is set to be torn down and replaced with a parking garage. Under the plan, the building's façade would be placed back on the parking garage. The building has been an official city landmark since 2004.
--Preservationists have also been fighting to save the former Lake Shore Athletic Club building, at 850 N. Lake Shore Dr., a beaux arts building that once housed a club, and later housed a Northwestern University dormitory that closed in 2005. A developer has announced plans to demolish the building for luxury condos. But Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) has sided with preservationists in opposition to the plan.
--After being closed for 17 years, the Nortown Theatre at 6320 N. Western Ave., an art-deco cinema dating from 1931, was demolished this summer. The building had been used by a church and a Pakistani-American community center after it closed, and while a developer had wanted to preserve the structure, it was found to be structurally unsound, according to published reports.
--Crews this week began demolition of a 107-year-old building at 1920 S. Halsted St. in the Pilsen neighborhood, a terra cotta commercial structure which published reports said was the subject of a petition for preservation. The city was forced to demolish the building after its owner failed to meet legal development guidelines, according to published reports.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)