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Demolition continues at Polo Inn in Des Plaines

At long last, the shuttered Polo Inn in Des Plaines is coming down.

Demolition of the 85-year-old building at 374 Lee St. began earlier this week and continued Thursday, closing a chapter of local history for what was constructed as the first hospital in the Northwest suburbs.

The two-story, 9,000-square-foot brick building, opened in 1931 by Dr. Frederick Heller and Dr. Arthur Purvis, was converted into the Drury Northwestern Motel in the 1950s, and called the Polo Inn since 2005.

But the building was shuttered after floods damaged it in April 2013, and the property was cited by city inspectors for numerous building and health code violations. It also went into foreclosure.

Des Plaines city attorneys went to court last April, seeking to condemn the property, and they finally got permission to raze the building in August.

Alderman Patti Haugeberg, whose 1st Ward includes the motel site, said she'd like to see it become a retention area because of its location in the floodplain.

She's also keeping a souvenir brick from the building, where she was born.

"There's a lot of history to it," she said.

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