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A cure worse than the disease?

Pharmacy protest pits preservationists against power politicos

by David Harrell News Editor

As preservationists try to save a historic Lincoln Park building threatened by a proposed new El station, they’ve also rushed to rescue three Gold Coast buildings from destruction in favor of a new CVS drugstore. The preservationists, with local residents, are hoping to prevail despite the political clout behind CVS: Ald. Burt Natarus (42nd) said he supported CVS in this project—and the company itself is being represented by William Daley’s law firm, Daley & George, Ltd., in its rezoning application with the city. The three buildings in question are located at the northeast corner of State Parkway and Division Street. The area is part of the Gold Coast Historic District, which is itself listed on the National Register of Historic Places, said orthopedist and Near North resident Michael Moran. The corner building housing Monday’s restaurant is “especially important to the character of the neighborhood,” he said. The four-story Queen Anne-style brick structure was built in 1889, according to the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (LPCI). The gray stone building at 1203 N. State Pkwy.—home to a record shop and dry-cleaning business—and the Italianate-style red brick building at 12-16 E. Division are also valuable, he said. Moran and LPCI President David Bahlman have recently fired off letters to Mayor Richard Daley; Jack George of Daley & George, Ltd.; Alderman Burt Natarus (42nd); officials from the departments of Zoning and Planning and Development; CVS officials; heads of local organizations; and newspapers. On Saturday, Oct. 13, about ten Preservation Chicago members and neighborhood residents set up and manned tables at the contested corner—in the rain. “In less than two hours,” Moran said, “we had 226 signatures with addresses.” He said “virtually everyone passing by” said they were opposed to razing the buildings. The group went out again Monday, Oct. 15, and collected 443 signatures, totaling 669, “in three and a half hours of work,” Moran said. They’ll be out collecting signatures later this week too.

. Prescriptions or preservation? One of the historic buildings CVS Pharmacy wants to tear down to make room for a new store. photos courtesy of Michael Moran

“We could easily get thousands of signatures ... It’s very clear the opposition to the project is only going to grow,” Moran said, adding that if CVS and Natarus ignore the opposition, “it will create a permanent sore spot within the neighborhood.” The LPCI has suggested options to save the historic corner. One solution Bahlman suggested, which CVS has used in other Loop locations, is to “adaptively reuse” the historic structures. Or CVS could simply find another location. “We would be anxious” to discuss alternative sites with CVS and Natarus, Moran said. He explained that the group was not anti-CVS, and that the company was “more than welcome to come into the community”—just not at the northeastern corner of State and Division. “This is a highly visible intersection both for neighborhood residents and for visitors to Chicago from all over country,” Moran said. “The corner building is especially unique and important for maintaining the character of the neighborhood.” He pointed out that historic replica streetlights were installed on Division Street a few years ago. “The streetlights look great, but we are installing replica streetlights and then demolishing the real historic buildings,” he wrote in a letter to the mayor. “It simply does not make sense.” In a letter to Daley & George, Ltd., Bahlman wrote that he found it “unfortunate” that CVS wanted to redevelop the northeast corner, since the other three corners at the intersection are occupied by “singularly nondescript, non-historic structures.” Neither Natarus nor CVS representatives were available for comment. However, a spokeswoman for Ald. William J.P. Banks, who chairs the City Council’s zoning committee, said CVS’ rezoning application had not been scheduled for the next hearing. “We’re waiting to hear from the attorney and the alderman of the ward,” said spokeswoman Cathy Wendell. The expanding drugstore chain has had other run-ins with preservationists recently. Earlier this year, the LPCI helped the Portage Park Neighborhood Association protect the historic Milwaukee-Montrose Building, a three-story, flatiron-shaped, terra cotta structure built in 1929, from redevelopment by CVS. The LPCI has put the urban corner building on its list of the Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois for 2001. In 2000, CVS filed a $7 million lawsuit against more than a dozen individuals, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, claiming they had “conspired” to prevent local approval of a new CVS store in Homestead, Pennsylvania, according to the website of the National Trust Legal Defense Fund.