The 1800 Club, a bar at the corner of Sherman Avenue and Elgin Road in Evanston, has closed.

The bar, on the ground floor of the 1800 Sherman Ave. office tower, has gone through ownership and name changes since the building was purchased by Northwestern University in 2005.

The 1800 Club, a bar at the corner of Sherman Avenue and Elgin Road in Evanston, has closed.

The bar, on the ground floor of the 1800 Sherman Ave. office tower, has gone through ownership and name changes since the building was purchased by Northwestern University in 2005.

University spokesman Alan Cubbage says the the bar’s lease runs through the end of February, but the owners vacated the premises recently and the space appears to be closed for now.

Cubbage said the university doesn’t have specific plans for the property after the lease runs out, but that it does not plan to lease the space to another bar.

The university’s purchase of the building touched off a controversy in the community over taking the property off the tax rolls. But private tenants in the building have continued to pay property taxes on their leasehold interests in the property since the ownership change.

The university has gradually increased the amount of space in the building that it uses for its own tax-exempt uses.

The 1800 Club was the closest bar to the NU campus and at one time drew a sizable crowd of students. But reports in the Daily Northwestern indicate fewer students patronized the establishment in the past couple of years.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.

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