One of the last surviving buildings left behind by the company credited with helping many Northbrook families through the Great Depression is about to be razed, with nothing to replace it but grass.
Attempts to redevelop or replace the two-story brick building at 1856 Walters Ave. have failed repeatedly in the last 15 years, and Northbrook officials say there’s nothing new on the horizon. Demolition will proceed as soon as permits are approved, likely in August, according to the contractor.
The downtown Northbrook structure wasn’t built until the late 1940s, according to historical sources. But it became a familiar reminder of the business – Culligan Zeolite Company – that may have saved a town that lost most of its jobs during the Depression when the area’s brickyards closed, according to “The People of Culligan,” written by the late Northbrook resident, Don Hintz.
Culligan used the building for both offices and industrial purposes, according to the Hintz book. It was also used for decades as a place for new or marginal businesses to set up shop at relatively inexpensive rents, according to Pioneer Press archives.
“From its Culligan days, and its other role as a business incubator, the building has been an important part of our history,” Northbrook Historical Society President Judy Hughes said. “But at this point, it’s so neglected that it’s a hazard to the community.”
She said the building had been vacant for years, and a small fire had blazed briefly within its walls two years ago.
Northbrook Director of Development and Planning Services Tom Poupard said that his office had asked that the building be demolished, and owner Betty Parkinson had agreed.
“The structure was showing signs of failure,” he said via email. Once razed, by Northbrook code, the property must be planted with grass.
Company founder Emmett Culligan had moved his growing business to Northbrook in 1936 because the village had built new streets 12 years earlier in expectation of a housing boom. But the streets were still vacant in the mid-1930s, and Culligan won permission to spread industrially-produced “zeolite” water-softening crystals on the pavements to dry, according to “Northbrook: The Fabric of Our History (2000).”
Culligan moved the company headquarters to Northbrook’s Shermer Road industrial district in the 1950s and later to a site at Sanders and Willow roads, its last local headquarters.
But Culligan kept some operations within the brick building and an attached hut and small wooden building, and space was leased at below-market prices to local entrepreneurs, according to Pioneer archives.
The brick building has been vacant since 2003, and the hut and wooden building were razed two years later, according to the archives.
Northbrook builder Alan Schwall said he has been hired to demolish the building – constructed without toilets or running water – by Parkinson, who bought the property with the intention of developing it. He said she has no plans for the property beyond demolition. Parkinson did not return calls.
Once the 1856 Walters building is razed, it will leave 18,700 square feet of property on the corner of Walters and Lorenz Drive, where any new project would have to deal with close proximity to the busy Metra tracks.
Poupard said most previous attempts to develop the property had tried to retain the old building, “which was a laudable goal. With that going, there are certainly more options possible.
“Hopefully this will spur some new interest.”
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