Mt. Prospect society to empty storage locker at Randhurst

A turn-of-the-century piano sits in a storage locker in Randhurst Shopping Center's basement. A 4-foot-tall radio of the same era stands nearby. Non-electric washing machines, horse harnesses and farm tools such as corn huskers are there, too.

All of it will be moved next month by the Mount Prospect Historical Society before the center is remodeled into a residential and retail center.

"We've got colorful old radios and sofas -- all sorts of really neat stuff," said Gavin Kleespies, Mount Prospect Historical Society's executive director.

For the past nine years, some of the society's collection has been stored in the basement, which originally was built as part of the center in the 1962. The basement had been designed as a nuclear bomb fallout shelter for Mount Prospect's residents.

On yet-to-be-determined dates in May, the society, with the help of the Mount Prospect Rotary Club, the Mount Prospect Youth Commission and local Boy Scouts, will split the pieces up and taking them to three locations around the village, Kleespies said.

The largest and oldest items, like the piano and radios, will be housed at the society, 101 S. Maple.

But the other items will be taken to locations that are still being worked out, he said.

The society has rented a 1,500-square-foot storage locker at Randhurst since 1999, he said.

Some of the items had been part of a small museum housed at St. John Lutheran School in Mount Prospect from 1976 to 1996.

The mall's owner plans to gut the interior this summer, keeping the major retail anchors: Carson Pirie Scott, Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond and Steve & Barry's.

The mall's massive basement will become an underground parking lot, while a floor of retail and multiple stories of upscale apartments will be added. The name will change to Randhurst Village.