Drugstores: A Success Story at the corner of Milwaukee and Montrose Avenues
IllinoisThe Threat
Through a local developer, CVS/pharmacy proposed to demolish an historic building on the southeast corner of Montrose and Milwaukee Avenues, in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago and replace it with a new, stand -alone drugstore. Despite the terra cotta building’s historic past, designed in the Deco/Byzantine style by David Saul Klafter (1886-1965), a protégé of Daniel Burnham, it was inadvertently left off the Citywide Chicago survey. The neighborhood was, however, determined an eligible historic district for the National Register of Historic Places.
The Preservation Effort
The primary attraction of the location, in a major, visible corner of a dense neighborhood, made CVS keep their proposal active for some time. However, the heavy involvement of the Mayor’s office and the Department of Planning and Development allowed preservation advocates, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to persuasively argue in favor of saving the buildings.
The statewide preservation, the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, was deeply involved in the preservation effort. In 2000, the Council placed the site prominently on its Most Endangered List. Supporting the Council was the Wilson Avenue Community Association, a neighborhood organization that researched and prepared the application to the state historic preservation office for a determination of eligibility. This group also sent CVS a petition with some 570 signatures expressing local opposition to their proposal. A community hearing was then held in the first week of May, preceding the Zoning Board of Appeals review of CVS’ plans.
The Result
Conversations and negotiations persisted and then in May of 2001 the staff for a local alderman hand-delivered fliers to all residents of Portage Park stating that CVS had dropped its plan to build at that location. Saving the Klafter building on the corner of Milwaukee and Montrose Avenues was a combined effort that sprang from the coordination of numerous interested parties at the local, state, and national level.
For more information contact:
Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois
Chicago, IL
312-922-1742
