Demolition of Merchants & Farmers Bank Building

The building located the southeast corner of Center St. and Whitney St. being demolished in Spring 2007. Sorry for shaky camera, but it was cold out and i walked to the place in the 31-degree weather (unusually cold day for April).

The 107 year old building was built in 1900 and was originally called the Merchants and Farmers Bank Building, and was downtown Grayslake's largest commercial building. The bank's entrance was located on the corner. Next to the bank in the same building was Grayslake's Post Office, a barber, and Florence's Drugs store. The building was expanded in 1901 to include a hardware store. In more recent years the ground floors were used as restaurants. The bank eventually closed but its space became home to a restaurant too. In 2001 the building was condemned and forced to close. Closure was blamed on poor maintenance, mouse droppings, and several other incidents. The building was listed for sale for 6 years before the land was bought. It was demolished and a new building containing apartments and retail will be built to replace it.

This is all the footage I have of the tear-down. I never did get back there to see the rest of the demo because of school.

A Very Old Photo of the M&FBB can be found here:
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5716/dscn4856gf5.jpg

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• demolition
• grayslake
• illinois
• old
• building

[tvkid744]

weird place there were apartments above and i guess they kicked everyone out because there was horrible mold and i guess rats it was scary to walk by it,now it's just a giant hole with walls around it saying whitney street condos.

[jonrev]

The ex-Police Department next door is also going to be demolished for those condos.

[OmgxxEmily]

Wow.

i dont even rememeber that building.

[jonrev]

It was in downtown. I'm sure you've seen it before.

[PampersPete]

I got kicked out of the Silver Saddle once for being drunk. I ended up pissing on the front doors of some business that used to be part of the bank.....good times....good times.....It's kind of sad to see so many things have changed over the years from 2,000 miles away :-(

[6969Wolf6969]

that's kinda sad to see a historic old building like that get trashed so ruthlessly. oh well.

[potofjoe]

Turn me down for a loan, will you? Well, TAKE THAT !!!!

[rmcnnlly]

I remember going there as a kid when it was still a bank in the early 1960's.

[jmfoxfire]

i miss that building.

[publicenemy1010]

fuck that building!

[OmgxxEmily]

I probably saw it a lot of times before but never actually knew what it was.