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“It’s a sad day for Lombard,” Deb Dynako, President of the Friends of the DuPage Theatre, emailed me tonight, as she told me that the DuPage Theatre is being torn down. The outgoing village trustees, with only seven days left in their terms, commanded a majority acting to destroy the theater despite the incoming elected trustees constituting a majority to save the structure, according to today’s Daily Herald.

The DuPage Theatre restoration has long been contentious, and its recent history has been a serious of ups and downs, with state elected officials working to save it and some village elected officials working to destroy it. Now, ironically, the elected officials seeking to destroy it will no longer constitute a majority of the village board, the residents of Lombard having spoken through their vote, but it won’t matter. DuPage Circuit Judge Kenneth Popejoy refused to extend his temporary restraining order on the destruction, which would have permitted the Illinois Supreme Court to decide on the case and, in practical terms, would have permitted the new village board majority to save the theater. Rejecting the will of Lombard’s residents in the election, the outgoing village board chose to destroy the theater before leaving. Shame on them. A shame for Lombard, which has lost a unique architectural treasure. The DuPage Theatre is an irreplaceable part of Lombard’s history and downtown that might have had a prominent and honored place in their present, and contributed to a better future.