Franklin Park crews will demolish the former Leyden News Agency building with the hopes of revitalizing and beautifying the community, officials say.
The long-shuttered Leyden News Agency, at 9621 Pacific Ave., was the sole distributor of newspapers – including at one point the Chicago Tribune – in Leyden Township for over three decades. But it hasn’t been operational in about 20 years, Franklin Park mayor Barrett Pedersen said.
Now, the building that housed the iconic village business will soon be demolished.
It will be replaced with green space, Village Engineer Tom McCabe said. The project is expected to cost about $200,000 and is set to be completed this fall, he said.
The Metra commuter train’s Milwaukee West line runs through Franklin Park, and most of the express trains leaving Union Station headed to Elgin make their first stop at Franklin Park, he said.
Village leaders wanted to make the lot “more visually appealing” especially considering that it is situated in the downtown area and along one of the busier intersections, Franklin Park Senior Planner Ryan Adriatico said.
“We do want to make it more welcoming and more of a gateway to our downtown when people hop off the train or are parking and are going to the train to go wherever they’re going on Metra rail,” he said.
Officials had been thinking about pursuing this project for several years, Pedersen said.
The Leyden News Agency building was originally acquired by the village in 2002 and used for Public Works Department storage, such as seasonal equipment like snow plows during the summer months, he said.
But “maintaining the building was cost prohibitive” and the village purchased another property specifically for the storage of Public Works equipment so it “became duplicative,” Pedersen explained.
“There was a need of maintenance, and there wasn’t any real function for it as a building,” he said.
Despite the lack of functionality, there is a rich history associated with the property. Leyden News Agency “was a very important part” of the village’s past, Pedersen said. While operational, the Leyden News Agency not only disseminated the news but also employed area residents.
One of those employees was Pedersen himself, who started working there in high school and clocked in at 2 a.m. to begin stuffing newspapers with advertisements, he said. Eventually, he worked his way up to delivery driver and would throw newspapers out of the window onto the porch. A feat, he said, that “took a lot of practice.”
This project is part of Franklin Park’s ongoing revitalization and beautification efforts, which includes streetscape improvements on Franklin Avenue, Adriatico said.
“We wanted to build off of that and sort of start to continue even further away from our downtown just so that it’s more widespread in our community as far as green infrastructure, green space and landscaping goes,” he said.
Ryan Hudgins is a freelancer.
