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Wicker Park Dentist Since '65 With Museum-Like Office Calls It Quits

By Alisa Hauser | November 6, 2015 10:01am
 Inside Dr. Casals' dental office.
Luis Casals, Wicker Park Dentist and Yolanda Casals
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WICKER PARK —  A dentist office seemingly untouched since the 1960s yet serving patients as recently as last month has closed, as a retiring 81-year-old doctor and seasoned outdoorsman bids goodbye to Wicker Park.

"You have to accept reality, that one is not eternal," said Dr. Luis Casals, DDS, a Norwood Park resident who opened his Wicker Park practice in 1965.

Casals, who owned the vintage building at 1948 W. North Ave. for 50 years, sold the 109-year-old property for $550,000 to Tefik Mehmeti on Aug 31, county records show.

The sale to Mehmeti — the son of a former patient — was "off market" and arranged between the two of them, Casals said.

Casals and his second wife, Yolanda, who has served as his receptionist and office manager since the 1970s, are selling their waiting room furniture, including mid-century mod chairs, Puerto Rico tourism posters, hunting relics, kitchenware and more.

Casals said he is unsure if anyone would want to buy his avocado green and beige exam room furniture and clinical equipment, built to withstand time and better than the modern devices, he claimed.

On Thursday, the phone was ringing nonstop with inquiries from passersby following up on the "for sale" signs taped to the furniture, visible from the window, which was no longer crammed with the plants that Yolanda had given away to patients.

A painter, sculptor, hunter, fisherman and voracious reader, Dr. Casals put his hobbies on display, so patients could, for instance, stare at the horns or hide of a wild goat he shot down in Puerto Rico in 1956 while getting their teeth cleaned.

"Hunting is incidental to loving other parts of nature, likes wild mushroom hunting and conservation. If I were not a dentist, I would have been a curator at a museum, but I realized pay in museums is not too good. I wanted to grow up and get married and pay my children's tuition.  I'm a pragmatist," he said.

Dr. Casals' pragmatism included following in the path of two uncles, two cousins and a best friend, all of whom were dentists too.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Casals came to Chicago to study at Northwestern and then briefly went back to Puerto Rico to work as a dentist but preferred Chicago, so he returned.

Born and raised in Mexico, his wife had four children from her first marriage when she met Dr. Casals, who had two children from his first marriage.

The couple has been working together since the mid 1970s, commuting from Norwood Park to Wicker Park.

"We won't miss traffic on the Kennedy!" Dr. Casals said.

Dr. Casals said many of his mostly Hispanic patient base moved away from the neighborhood and in recent years, the paid parking meters on North Avenue were a challenge.

"I'm taking a patient's tooth out and they say hurry up, my meters up," Dr. Casals said.

When asked how he feels about retiring, Dr. Casals said, "I worked over 60 years. I'm not really sad. I've had my fill. I've paid dues."

He added, "Work is the secret to staying healthy. Most of my friends have passed away. I just kept working."

A 1960s-era lighting device that allows Dr. Casals to see teeth.  [Photos by DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]

(l.) Horns of a wild goat killed in Puerto Rico and other animal parts in one of Casals' 3 exam rooms.

A metal desk from the 1960s for sale, along with a 2nd desk, not pictured.

Casals' building at 1948 W. North Ave. is up for rent.

 

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