Library books a 2009 move to Goldblatt's
The Goldblatt Bros. Department Store was declared a Chicago
landmark in 1998 with active East Village Association support. It
was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Despite the city's financial problems, Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey confirms that the West Town branch will move in 2009 to the Goldblatt's Office Building at Chicago and Ashland avenues.
The small storefront branch at 2300 W. Chicago will be closed and folded into the new library.
"We are prepared to move ahead in 2009 on the new West Town Library and I understand that Consumer Services is planning to vacate in early 2009 so that we can do our buildout and get in there," Dempsey said in a letter. "I'll know more about a timeline probably after the first of the year. We are anxious to be in there as soon as possible."
The full service branch library will be about 20,000 square feet, roughly 5,000 square feet larger than the new Bucktown-Wicker Park library at Milwaukee and Hoyne. As I understand it, the library will take one floor of the Goldblatt's building.
The branch will be moved from the Eckhart Park fieldhouse at Chicago and Noble. I do not know if there will be any type of special collection housed at the library.
It is not clear if the Consumer Services agency will remain elsewhere in the building. The city renovated the 167,000-square-foot former Goldblatt's department store in 2000. The four interconnected buildings were built 75 to 85 years ago, according to the Public Buildings Commission.
