Waukegan Hotel

Constructed in 1928, the Waukegan Hotel is a 12-story highrise on the corner of Sheridan and Washington. It rivaled the Karcher, just down the street, as Waukegan's grandest hotel, and both share a very similar history.

 

The building earned a shady reputation at the start of downtown Waukegan's decline in the 1960s; preventing restoration efforts that were already in-talks back then from ever happening. Towards the end of its original life, the Waukegan had been converted to a nursing home before closing in 1980, and left abandoned for nearly 15 years. By the time a successful renovation finally took place in 1995, it had become infested with pigeons -- a Tribune article claims that over 20,000 lbs. of pigeon shit was removed from the building.

 

Resurrected originally as the Chateau Apartments - senior housing - the building later became low-income housing known as the Harborview Apartments; and from the sounds of it, everything spiraled downhill fast. It has universally-poor reviews on ApartmentRatings.com, listing complaints ranging from nonexistent management to unsanitary conditions and shady tenants left and right. Fortunately, new management picked the building up only a couple of years ago and renovated it into luxury condos. The building is now known as the 102 Washington Apartments.

 

The building has seen only a couple of major changes to its architecture over the years; the biggest being an extension grafted to the west facade. What it houses I am unsure of, but I am under the impression of stairs and/or elevators seeing-as, like the Karcher, the exterior fire escape was removed. The balconies are also a fairly-recent addition.

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