Chicago (Fox news) – Demolition reportedly began Tuesday on the Chicago
apartment building where President Ronald Reagan lived briefly as a child.

Chicago’s DNAInfo.com website said crews from Heneghan Wrecking Co.
began tearing down the Hyde Park building at 832 E. 57th St., where the
40th U.S. president lived from ages 2 to 3 with his parents on the first floor 
in 1914 and 1915. 

The University of Chicago purchased the building in 2004 as part of an effort
to buy all residential property immediately north of the hospital. It plans to
install a plaque at the site to commemorate Washington’s connection.

Preservationists had tried to save the building, the website reports, but those
efforts were unsuccessful. The university said it had no immediate plans to
build on the property.

“In the short term, the site will be part of a construction staging area, to be
used for the new Center for Care and Discovery Hospital and for construction
of a new parking garage for the medical center,” university officials said in a
statement.

Despite persistent rumors, university officials have repeatedly said the site
will not be used for a Barack Obama presidential library.

Ronald Reagan, (with “Dutch” haircut) Neil Reagan, and
parents Jack and Nelle Reagan. Family Christmas card
around 1916-17.

President Ronald Reagan