RainbowDishes: Metropolitan Building burns down in downtown Champaign

2 days ago (yes, I am very up-to-date) the historic Metropolitan Building (also called the Bailey-Rugg Building) burnt down. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 7, 1997 (11 years to the day that it burned down). The second story ceiling was so high, the Champaign High School basketball team used to practice there. The building is actually 3 buildings (219 and 221 North Neil Street and 111 West Church Street). Several dates exist for when the building was constructed, the earliest being 1871 and the latest being 1878. City documents and the registration form for the National Register list 1871 as the year.

Here are some before pics. The Metropolitan Building is the whole building in this pic. The first floor was the Estate Sale (an antique store). The upper 2 floors were being renovated for upscale condos/apartments. They were scheduled to be available spring 2009.

(click on any of the pics to enlarge)

And from the other side of the building.

Here is a couple of pics of during the fire (click on any of the pics to enlarge)...

...and after the fire. (click on any of the pics to enlarge)

The first picture shows M2 in the background. In the foreground is the poor clock in downtown Champaign. The clock has been moved around a few times. It was repaired a few years ago only to be ran over by a car. It was then repaired again. It looks like it is ok, even though it was directly across the street from the fire.

This is the comment on the flickr page:The Bailey-Rugg Building (aka the Metropolitan Building aka the Hamilton Building) was one of the finest Italianate commercial buildings in Champaign (and may have very well have been in downstate as well). It originally housed the Robeson's Dry Good's Store (which moved down Church Street) and the Rugg Shoe Store. It was destroyed by fire this morning in a devastating fire that took the heart out of downtown and my hopes of making downtown a historic district.

Here is a better shot of the front of the building. The building on the left was a law firm. They haven't announced yet if the building is structurally sound yet. I heard that over 120,000 gallons of water was pumped into the law firm building. The roof of the Metropolitan Building collapsed into the basement of the building.

After the jump, watch a couple of videos I found on YouTube of the fire. One during the fire and one after the fire. Very sad!

Here is a map of the area. Please note, the correct address for One Main should be 2 Main Street, but many years ago a business man built his building at that corner. He wanted his business to be at 1 Main Street. He got the city to approve the address swap, so he was at 1 Main Street, the building across the street is 2 Main Street. This is the only place in Champaign that this happened. The building M2 across Neil Street is currently under construction. It is being built by the same company that built One Main. The obviously couldn't call is 2 Main since it isn't actually on Main Street. So the new building is just called M2.

Here is a video from a block or two away. This shows how big the flames got. The building on the left side is One Main. I am guessing it is about 100 feet away from the Metropolitan Building. Luckily the maintenance worker for One Main stayed on the roof with a garden hose and kept putting out the fires that were started by the blowing burning embers. The Orpheum Childrens Museum (probably directly to the left of the camerman, maybe even a little bit behind him) had a small fire start on the roof of their building. The museum is 2 blocks from the Metropolitan Building. The blue 1 on the map represents close to where the cameraman was standing.

Here is another shot of the building (this time the front). At the end of the video, when the camera pans towards the right, you get a better view of the new M2 building, which is under construction. M2 had a lot of windows break because of the extreme heat. The blue 2 represents about where the cameraman was standing.