Retiring Realtor Restoring 1892 Brookings Building as Crown Jewel of His Career
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ When Du Quoin accountant and Du Quoin State Bank board member Jim Luckey left Du Quoin for California he put in a call to realtor Phil Corley of Pinckneyville and told him, "I'm coming back to Du Quoin. Get me an offer on the Brookings Building (which he had purchased for $70,000 only months before from the Brookings and Mark Miller estates).
Corley remembers it well. "Jim came back to Du Quoin and I told him 'Jim, I don't have any offers on it for you'." Luckey was disappointed and headed for the door. "I hollered at him and told him (Luckey) to come back here a minute. I don't want to offend you, Jim, but I'd make you an offer of $30,000 for the Brookings Building and the smaller building next to it on North Division Street and--really--I hope you'll turn it down. I don't have any idea what I'd do with the building," remembers Corley. "He accepted the offer. I sold the little building that Cricket Press is in for $10,000 so the whole thing cost me $20,000," he said.
He bought both Du Quoin's signature downtown building and downtown's money pit. In two year's time he would go on to spend $132,000 on a complete restoration of the property. And, as they say, "Build it and they will come."
And, they did. Dr. Patel leased office space for 21 years. There were insurance agents, investment bankers and an assortment of other professionals. Most have gone out there on. They either left or bought buildings of their own. "And, I wish them all well," said Corley.
But, left with a largely vacant centerpiece on Main Street Du Quoin, Corley has embarked on a restoration even greater than before. And, he hopes it is magnetic to potential tenants who have an eye for quality and attention to detail.
"I got down to where I was losing interest in it. I was putting it up for sale. There was some interest, but not alot," he said. So, for the second time in 22 years he has taken another leap of faith.
The entire roof has been resealed. The upstairs has been completely cleared and cleaned. "Every tenant I ever had left some of their stuff up there and it was a mess. All of that has been cleaned up. It's a tremendous building and I have hired a very talented painter--Dan Richendollar of Aqua Color, Inc. of Pinckneyville--to do the work. He is fixing metal that was damaged. We had put some wood on the building 22 years ago and we are going back to the original metal. We are replacing the cheap looking stainless steel railings with black metal," he said. The building's doors and windows are all being painted to match and bring back the historic attention to detail that it had when it was built. The twin spires are being completely restored, repaired, primed and painted. Dr. Patel's old office is being completely renovated and decorated.
The finishing touch will be a black awning that will cover the front and say 'Brookings' on the middle of it. Smaller awnings will be installed at the western corner and on the Division Street side. The lower offices will get new vertical blinds and the upstairs windows will all get new custom draperies.
"I want it to stand tall," said Corley, a realtor and developer whose career here began in 1970. On July 1 of that year he opened a real estate office in Pinckneyville, then later sold it and purchased a Century 21 franchise in Mount Vernon. His work there has included construction of seven buildings which he leased. He later sold three of them and the construction of more than 250 homes across Southern Illinois.
"This Brookings project is going to be the crown jewel that ends my career," he said.
The Brookings Building was begun in 1892 and completed approximately two years later. In 1892, the Du Quoin Evening Call wrote that the building was: "a business and office room edifice erected by Messrs. A. C. and W. E. Brookings on the block of ground bounded by Main, Division and Elm streets--the business center of the city."
"The new edifice measures 82x88 feet, is two stories high, and is connected on the second floor by a large corridor with the Brookings & Forester block, (45x80 feet) thus forming by far the largest business block in the city. The original plans were for a three story hotel, and were prepared by Mr. Brinton B. Davis, architect, of Paducah, KY. These were altered and adapted to their present use by Mr. Vic. M. Hatfield, of this city, who superintended the construction and fitting up of same. Work was begun in September, 1892, but , owing to a delay of about two months in the arrival of the second story joist and iron work, had to be suspended until spring."