Illinois Wesleyan plans to demolish old library

BLOOMINGTON — Illinois Wesleyan University plans to demolish its old Sheean Library next month and build a new classroom building on the site.

The Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington reports that the library building has been vacant since 2002. That's when the university's Ames Library opened.

Roger Schnaitter is the assistant to the provost at the university in Bloomington. He said the demolition will take several weeks. It opened in 1966 and Schnaitte said it was built like a fortress with a great deal of concrete.

The university doesn't know when construction will start on the new building. It's still trying to raise money for the project.