More than bricks and mortar....

I am heartbroken by the loss of the Metropolitan Building in downtown Champaign.  Absolutely heartbroken.

Given that I am dealing with life and death issues in my family, I tell myself that I should not be so saddened by it.  It is a building.  A thing.  Ahhhh....but I love buildings....I always have, since I was a little girl.

I first fell in love with it when I came to town as an undergrad in 1980.  A little girl still in some ways.  A few years later I wrote a paper on it for a Historic Preservation class with Lachlan Blair (oh, I had a soft spot for Lachlain Blair....Ernie, Eileen and I even named an imaginary band after him but that's another story).  The bar Rafaelle's (sp?) was in the corner storefront at that time.  I loved their jukebox.  I liked playing Alligator Woman by Cameo over and over---as is my wont to do when I like a song.  My friend Eileen was seeing Chuck Tripp then----an amazing musician and he sometimes played at Rafaelle's so he managed to get the key from the owner and we explored it.  At that time the painting in the third floor was still somewhat intact.  It had been a hall for one of those groups---Knights of Pythias perhaps?  I can't recall now.  There was wonderful grain painting on the doors and woodwork in parts of it.  It was stunning.

Years later, when we moved back to town, Ernie worked at Periscope for a couple of years and we explored it again many times.  I guess Ernie's Club Twang is truly dead.

It finally had people---the right people as well----to love it and take care of it.  To me, it was one of the most iconic buildings of downtown Champaign---other than the Art Deco City Hall.  Every night I would drive west on Main Street and it would be there looming ahead of me.  I would watch the pigeons swarm over it rhythmically and something would relax in my chest.

We drove by this morning after the farmers' market.  We stopped and were going to take pictures but after one or two I just didn't have the heart for it.

I know it was a building....not a living thing....but just the same my heart hurts.