CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - Demolition is underway at the former McKinley YMCA in Champaign.
Crews started tearing down the building that was built in 1910 Thursday.
The demolition at 500 W. Church St. will make way for Central high School's expansion.
The News Gazette reports the building was once the Phillippe Mansion. That and two others nearby, the Burnham Mansion at 603 W. Church and the Capt. Edward Bailey home at 606 W. Church, were all bought by the Champaign school district.
The building was bought by the YMCA in 1938. It sold it again in 2011 to Leon Jeske. It reopened the next year as the McKinley Fitness Center.
He sold the property to the school district last August for $1.5 million, the News Gazette states.
