Structural Memorials

Name of Building or Business: Busse School

Built: 1956

Demolished: 1994

What is currently at that address: Busse Park

The Busse School was a definite product of the Baby Boom in Mount Prospect; it stood at the intersection of Owen and Henry Streets and was built in 1956. With the heights of the boom came the depths of the bust and with shifting demographic trends, School District 57 faced declining enrollment through the 1970s which forced them to close many schools. By 1982, the school district was forced to close the Busse School, although there was a large public outcry. For many the closing of Busse School was seen as the end of an era of neighborhood schools. When the building came down, a number of alumni of the school commented on it being last school in the community where the parents could see the school from their front porch and the children could go home for lunch in nice weather. In 1987 School District 57 sold the building to the Mount Prospect Park District, who rented the building out to a number of different organizations and then in 1994 demolished it to construct Busse Park.

Name of Building or Business:  Busse Flowers Greenhouses

Built: 1916

Demolished: 1986

What is currently at that address:  Townhouses

Busse Flowers is the longest running business in Mount Prospect. It is all retail today, although it started out in 1916 as a greenhouse company. Mount Prospect was a largely rural village until the 1950s and many of the residents worked on farms or in agricultural fields. One of the biggest products of Mount Prospect was flowers. Other than Busse Flowers, there was also Kellen Brothers Greenhouses, Homeyer Greenhouses, and Haberkamp Greenhouses. Over the years the property became more valuable as residential property and all the greenhouses were closed. In 1986 Busse Flowers sold its greenhouses to the Village as a part of a TIF District development and became a strictly retail establishment.

Name of Building or Business: Busse Buick

Address: 2 W. Busse then 30 S. Main

Built: 1912 and 1918

Demolished:  2006 and 199

What is currently at that address:  Blues Bar and Condos

In 1908 William Busse was walking along Michigan Avenue in Chicago with a business associate. They passed a Buick dealership and were fascinated by the car they saw in the window. They were a little cautious, but agreed to buy a car. William Busse enjoyed the car and two years later upgraded to a larger car. He was so impressed that he contacted the manufacturer and offered to become a local agent, he was told that the Buick Dealers in Chicago had a deal that there could be no other dealers in Cook County outside the city limits, so William Busse went home, but did not forget. Two years later, he was finishing building the 2 W. Busse building and a stranger showed up and asked to speak to William Busse. He explained that he was a Buick representative and had come to offer Busse a charter for a local agency. Busse Buick was born in 1912 and originally housed in the building at 2 W. Busse. This building houses Busse’s hardware store and each day they would roll the cars out onto the street in the morning and then roll them back into the store at night.

Soon a small cinderblock garage was built. This 1915 cinderblock building was built to be used as a service station, complete with gas pumps; however it was too small for their operations. In 1918, they began construction of a larger garage at 30 S. Main Street. The building was expanded in 1921 and then again in 1928. In that same year, William Busse broke up the Busse Hardware Store, he made Busse Buick independent; sold the hardware store to Frank Biermann, creating Busse-Biermann Hardware; and sold the farm equipment dealership to Herman Meyn.

The building along Main Street was a center in the village. It was a full service mechanics shop, gas station, and a car dealership. The Busse Buick dealership remained a landmark in downtown Mount Prospect for fifty years and remained within the Busse family for that entire time. When the dealership was sold in 1966, it was the oldest Buick dealership in Cook County. However, with the development of larger dealerships in fringe areas and increased sprawl, a dealership in the center of town was not large enough to compete and had no space to grow. When the dealership was sold, it moved and the building was later used by the Northwest Electric Supply Company. The façade of the building was modified and the structure was not well maintained. Eventually, the building was demolished in the 1990s to make way for a condominium building.