Chicago Cubs: Classic Wrigley Field features that no longer exist

Chicago Cubs: It has been over a decade since the classic Budweiser building stopped donning the famous red roof

3701 N. Kenmore Avenue is one of the oldest buildings in the Lakeview area, built 24 years before the ballpark in 1890. The building in reference is the one on the corner of Waveland and Kenmore just outside left-center field. Most people know this as the Budweiser building.

All sorts of advertising had run on that rooftop from local restaurants, to WGN TV, but most remember its days advertising Budweiser with the bright red covering the entire roof, hence the “Budweiser Building” nickname. Years of long home runs to left-center saw the ball fly in front of that classic sign; it almost felt like a part of the park itself.

Budweiser had been advertising on that building for several decades before 2008 would see it all come to an end. There were even disputes between Anheuser-Busch and the building’s owners on payments for the ad, causing to the owner to temporarily tarp-off the roof. By 2009, the ad was gone entirely when Anheuser-Busch did not renew their deal with the building, and fans at Wrigley Field on Opening Day saw Horseshoe Casino take up the ad space on the building’s roof.

Since 2009 other ads have been on that building including United Airlines and Guaranteed Rate, but like the Torco building, today it is just blocked by one of the video boards, so it now lives in the shadows.