BLOOMINGTON - A Twin City businessman may save a half-century-old landmark in downtown Bloomington from being tossed in a landfill.

The old Osco Drug sign, 210 N. Center St., will come down after the New Year, giving way to another sign with the store's new name, CVS Pharmacy. By all accounts, the Osco sign was erected in 1952 when Osco moved into the building.

"It's part of downtown Bloomington. It's part of our history. I'd hate to see it go to the landfill," said David Beich, a Twin City businessman and collector who wants to buy the sign. "It just needs to be saved, and it needs to be saved by somebody."

Beich, who collects stained glass, tile and other building materials to renovate old homes, said he could store the sign in a warehouse or donate it to an interested party for public viewing.

The sign will not, however, find a home at the McLean County Museum of History in downtown Bloomington.

"It's too large for our collection," said Greg Koos, executive director of the museum.

The sign currently is covered with a white plastic tarp.

Within the next month or two, CVS plans to take down the sign, said store manager Kevin Frost.

"They're going to replace it with a CVS sign, a similar lighted sign that hangs off the building," he said. "I don't know what it will look like."

Frost didn't know what CVS planned to do with the old sign.

CVS Corp. purchased all free-standing Osco Drug stores in January as part of a deal with New York investment group Cerberus Capital Management, which bought several Cub Foods and Albertson's stores. That deal also included the Cub Foods at 402 N. Veterans Parkway, Bloomington. That store will not switch names, however.

All free-standing Osco stores switched names this summer, but Jewel-Osco stores remained the same.

The Osco building on Center Street was built in 1857 to serve as a dry goods store operated by Edward Benjamin and John Schermerhorn, according to a publication by the McLean County Museum of History.

The drug store later replaced W.B. Read and Cos., a stationery and book company that had occupied the building since 1895.

Osco then expanded to the adjacent Marblestone building in 1957.