What used to be at Commonwealth & Walnut?
Although the Grape + Bean is today the only retail establishment in the heart of Rosemont, the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Walnut Street historically was home to several shops. Before the Grape + Bean, the Rosemont Park Market occupied 2 East Walnut Street for more than 80 years.
Across the street at 1 East Walnut Street was another commercial building, in use as early as 1921 and known to have been occupied by a grocery store in the ’30s; a pharmacy from the ’40s through the early ’60s; a real estate office in the mid-’60s; and a bank from 1968 through 1993. The back side of the building, numbered as 405 Commonwealth Avenue, housed a beauty salon from the ’40s through the ’60s. The building subsequently was demolished and replaced by townhomes in the late ’90s.
And in the middle of Commonwealth Avenue at Walnut Street was North Rosemont Station, built in 1913 – one of three trolley stops in Rosemont. As early as 1928, a branch of the Sanitary Grocery Store (a local chain later acquired by Safeway) was operating out of the station; in 1938, the City condemned the property in order to remove the trolley tracks and widen Commonwealth Avenue (the last train had run in 1932).
A photo from 1930, shows all three buildings (and is the only currently known image of North Rosemont Station – not to be confused with the more historic and better documented trolley station at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Rosemont Avenue).