I think it is nice to have the Hollywood Citizens Association and the Hollywood House in Hollywood. I also take pride in relating the story of when Hollywood in Los Angeles tried to copyright the name. It was revealed in court that Hollywood in Illinois predates Hollywood in California and may have been the inspiration for the naming of the Hollywood subdivision in Los Angeles.
We don’t have to have the Hollywood House. Most people that now use the facilities may be able to meet somewhere else. But then, why preserve Grossdale train station in Brookfield?
Why does Riverside maintain its antiquated water tower or police station and library? Why does LaGrange have its inefficient Stone Avenue train station? For that matter, why does the other Hollywood have the Hollywood sign?
Maybe it is because sometimes people want to feel they live someplace that is special. A Hollywood School with more parking and a multipurpose room is not special.
Anyone who moves to a school district in the near suburbs of Chicago should know that school facility sizes are limited by land. Parents and children at Hollywood School have recognized that for decades.
By destroying the Hollywood House you will be irrevocably destroying part of the local culture. To my family that culture was, and is, more important than expanding facilities in the school.
Guy Adami
Brookfield
