Former village hall razed

Fifty years into its history, Streamwood marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another Wednesday.

The day saw the start of demolition on its former village hall and police station, opened in 1970.

Current Village President Billie Roth recalled working in that building as village clerk from 1981 to 1985.

She was easily able to follow the progress of the bulldozer tearing the old building apart from the window of her office at the current village hall, which opened in 1990.

The monuments of the veterans memorial in between were protected inside wooden boxes from the demolition debris to the east and the upcoming removal of the driveway to the west.

While Roth and a few other officials fondly remembered their times in the old building, it was generally viewed as a structure whose usefulness had reached an end.

"It's pretty exciting, really," Roth said.

First elected village president in 1989, she remains the only person to have occupied her present corner office.

Most of Roth's memories of the old building are from the mid-'80s. There was a gap between the end of her service as clerk and the beginning of her time as village trustee, by which time Streamwood's council chambers had already moved to a fire station which now no longer exists.

But the village was only 13 years old when the first village hall at 401 E. Irving Park Road opened its doors in 1970. Previously, its administration had operated out of a converted house.

The administration's move to the current village hall in 1990 allowed the police department to take over the entirety of the old building.

But the continued expansion of the police department created a space strain that was only relieved by the move to the new, larger building next door on July 9.

Village Manager Gary O'Rourke said the old station was still adequate for the department's needs when he first came to Streamwood as police chief in 1994.

That was when the village had 9,000 fewer residents than today and employed 12 fewer police officers than the present 59, O'Rourke said.

If there was a most bittersweet moment during the demolition for O'Rourke, it was when the office once used by him and present Police Chief Alan Popp was taken down more than a year ago to make room for the new station's construction.

Popp began his career as a police officer in the old station in 1983 but believes the best times are still ahead.

"As many great memories as there were in the old building, there's going to be a lot more in the new one," he said.

An open house for the community to see the new station is being planned for the fall, once the site of the old station has become parking lot space.