Historic St. Charles factory to be torn down after falling into disrepair

Plans to convert a historic former factory in St. Charles into 14 luxury townhouses have been dropped because the building has fallen into disrepair and is too costly to save.

Plans now are to raze the building at the northeast corner of South 13th and Indiana avenues. The two-story brick manufacturing building was constructed in 1904 for the Heinz Brothers Cut Glass Co. and later was used as a lamp factory.

Aldermen had approved the project in 2017. The city’s approval of the project expired in June 2021.

“The property has remained in a partially demolished state for an extended period of time, resulting in a number of property maintenance code violations,” Community Development Director Russell Colby told alderpersons at the St. Charles City Council Government Operations Committee meeting Feb. 22.

At the meeting, Kim Malay, chairperson of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, expressed dismay the building will be torn down. Members of the commission along with Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley have worked to try to save the building.

“We are kind of considering this a demolition by neglect,” Malay told alderpersons. “Unfortunately, it was left to weather poorly with it being open. So what the commission hopes is that at some point in time, maybe the City Council and commission can work together to find a way to prevent this from happening again.”

The commission is doing a survey of buildings that could “potentially run into this situation down the road,” Malay said.

“We will definitely be bringing that back to you hopefully later in the year,” she said. “But we really would like to see some cooperative effort to see if we could address that.”

Al Watts, community engagement director for Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, told alderpersons the building is part of the city’s rich manufacturing history. He would like to see the building saved.

“There’s very few of those buildings that are left in the city,” he said. “We are certainly willing to work with the property owners and the contractors to find other ways in which we can save money. There are state and federal benefits that are available if the building is landmarked, either locally and/or federally.”