10/28/2025
A proposal is in place to demolish the Jackson Square Antique Mall and the historic building it resides in for the sake of erecting (heinous) condos.
The 120-year-old JSM is a cherished landmark and home to over 70 small, locally owned businesses that give our town its unique charm and vitality. Now, this historic Egyptian Revival Art Deco gem is threatened with demolition to make way for run-of-the-mill condominiums β and the pitiful plan shows an embarrassingly ordinary eyesore casting its ugly shadow over our townβs treasured uniqueness, ensuring thereβs no distinguishing La Grange β physically or culturally β from any other mundane suburban everytown on the BNSF. Itβs appalling.
I attended the four-hour Plan Commission meeting on October 14, where Dan Spain (the applicant/town villain) fumbled monotonously through an uninspired presentation, and his architect-in-Crocs was basically on a filibuster about pickleball courts, trying to keep the people from saying their piece. But the people stuck around. I spoke, repping both as a soon-to-be-displaced JS vendor and also as a horrified town resident, who moved my family to La Grange expressly for its charm and history. And I was hardly alone. The local community came out in droves and spoke passionately in overwhelming opposition. And there are so many perspectives, so many points. Yes: preserve history, save small businesses. Thatβs my thing. But also: the homes this will encroach upon; the schools this will overcrowd; the traffic and pollution this will create; the infrastructure this will strain. It was all so obvious. The energy in the room was palpable. It felt great. We were the people and we were right. And when it was time for the commissioners to deliberate, as if we werenβt even there, the plan was voted to advance, 5-2.
Dan Spain is buying up La Grangeβs charm to turn a profit. It is a monopoly masquerading as progress. It is boring and it is irreversible and it is a mistake.
Email your local officials. Attend town meetings. Sign the petition. Speak up for our history, our residents, our community!
Go to savejacksonsquare.com to get involved π