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Children’s Memorial Hospital 700-701 W. Fullerton Pkwy.
The Renaissance Revival and Classical-Style buildings of the former Children’s Memorial Hospital, at the Northwest and southwest corners of Fullerton and Orchard, were designed by the noted architectural firms of Holabird & Roche and Pickney & Johnson in the 1920s. These two red-brick structures create a transition and gateway to two Chicago Landmark Districts, the Mid-North and the Arlington-Deming Landmark Districts.
Threat
Both Nellie Black and the Martha Wilson Pavilions of Children’s Memorial Hospital were discussed for preservation beginning in earnest in 2011. However, both are to be demolished and replaced with new buildings “in the spirit of the old,” but with little historic fabric remaining.
We at Preservation Chicago would offer that these two historic facades remain as part of the development, and that both structures be retrofitted on the interiors and perhaps modify the entries to these buildings to make them ADA accessible as needed. When polled in a City-funded study in January 2009, an overwhelming number of residents voiced support for plans that would adaptively reuse several of the buildings. In that study, 82% voted that they would like to see the Nellie Black and Martha Wilson buildings preserved.