It's been a long goodbye, but today marks the very end for Melrose Park's Kiddieland.
Bulldozers and wrecking balls will move into the area where the popular amusment park used to thrill children and parents and begin to tear down the remaining structures to make way for a Costco.
Kiddieland, which operated in Melrose Park since 1929, shut down in October, after family members who owned the site and the park failed to come to an agreement on a new lease. The family members who owned the lease were looking for a better payday.
Since the announcement, Kiddieland has offered up a number of its attractions for auction. Perhaps most famously, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee bought the amusement park's signature ride, The Little Dipper, and recommissioned it there.
The Costco store that will move into the location is expected to be open as early as November. Officials from Melrose Park said the store, which finalized plans to build there last week, will generate more than $1 million in tax revenue for the city. That's about double what Kiddieland supplied, according to the Chicago Tribune.
