Sun-Times: Why tearing down Englewood to save it hasn’t worked

Sun-Times:

From 2008 through 2018, 861 buildings were razed in Englewood. In West Englewood — Racine Avenue is the dividing line for the two neighborhoods that together make up what’s known in the area as Greater Englewood — the number was 829.

Those are the second- and third-most demolitions of any community area in Chicago. About 74% of the structures that came down were owned by the city.

The only area with more demolitions in that period was West Town, with 933.

But West Town also saw 1,400 new-construction permits issued over the past decade — far more than in Englewood and West Englewood, which together had just 140. The number of permits in greater Englewood accounted for less than 1% of all that were issued citywide.

There's a video to this also [VIDEO]

Karl Mables, 30, who has lived in the 6400 block of South Honore Street for most of his life, discusses the number of vacant lots in his neighborhood, Englewood, on the South Side, Wednesday, July 3, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

#tbt The demolition of the South Side Masonic Temple earlier this year

The demolition of the South Side Masonic Temple - 6400 S. Green St - took place earlier in this year. Will share the three posts I wrote about that unfortunate event after sharing a photo with link to one J.R. Schmidt who wrote about going to Englewood in February '18 and seeing this architecturally significant building being demolished.

J.R. Schmidt photo

And then he writes: 

Built in 1921, the temple was abandoned in the 1980s.  Preservation Chicago had it on the “endangered” list for perhaps a decade.  Now we’ve lost another bit of our history and our culture.

I don’t know what is planned for the southwest corner of 64th and Green Streets.  Here’s hoping it will be something worthwhile.

Via Marathon Pundit

The pic above is a more recent pic courtesy of John Ruberry in 2016 who in recent years had taken up urban exploration.

Here are our posts of the temple's demolition from earlier this year.

• The South Side Masonic Temple is under demolition
• Documentation of the demolition of South Side Masonic Temple
• South Side Mason Temple in Englewood - demolition imminent...

Documentation of the demolition of South Side Masonic Temple

South Side Masonic Temple - Eric Allix Rogers/flickr

We were alerted to a blog at Urban Remains that has at least three posts and a number of pics about the demolition of South Side Masonic Temple at 6400 S. Green St.

• clarence hatzfeld's south side masonic temple (1921) undergoing demolition, part 1
• documentation of south masonic temple building (1921) demolition continued, part 2
• documentation of south masonic temple building (1921) demolition continued, part 3

The South Side Masonic Temple is under demolition

Thanks to AJ Latrace - formerly of Curbed Chicago - we learned that the demolition process for the South Side Masonic Temple at 64th & Green Streets in Englewood has began. There were some pics provided on Friday through his twitter page.

Demolition is currently underway on the south side Masonic temple. pic.twitter.com/CMiYRe9srs

— AJ LaTrace (@ajlatrace) January 12, 2018

Sorry to see this wonderful building go, unfortunately it has proven to be unsafe for it to remain standing at its location. There had been some plans over the years for it's eventual reopening but sadly nothing came through and the building sadly is coming down. The temple will not experience a rebirth.

Also on Friday Rachel Kim shared a link to a South Side Weekly article that talks about the endangered buildings of Chicago. One of those buildings of course was this masonic temple in Englewood and it was written in 2015.

In 2015, the @SouthSideWeekly interviewed a local leader who made a hopeful case for the historic South Side Masonic Temple to be brought back to life. It breaks my heart to see another piece of history—a community anchor—being destroyed.https://t.co/OgXEPv4WDl https://t.co/wx79TBMknU

— Rachel 윤희 Kim (@rachelykim_) January 12, 2018

Finally David Schalliol showed us his own pics of the masonic temple before it's demolition during a much warmer period of time - hurry summer can't wait! His tweet was shared last month and lets the world know as Eric Allix Rogers had also that this building is slated for demolition in the future. What a shame.

After years of neglect, Chicago's remarkable South Side Masonic Temple is slated to be demolished. Some information about the building from @Pres_Chicago, which added it to their Chicago 7 list in 2004: https://t.co/hWo1ppv41y pic.twitter.com/9G9940h8v0

— David Schalliol (@metroblossom) December 6, 2017

What magnificent pics, especially the interior one - almost as if this was an urban exploration photo shoot. And I really liked that auditorium with the stage. With the right plan and the right amount of money it could've been a wonderful center of activity in Englewood once again.

However, now that the building is going away hopefully the community organizations of Englewood - especially RAGE can come up with a plan for this soon to be vacant lot. So what's next for this site?