March 2013


Chicago and Maps25 Mar 2013 02:04 am

More from the Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year-Book for 1908. Cook County Senatorial Districts, Cook County Congressional Districts “In force July 1, 1901.” and Map Showing the Territorial Growth of Chicago. Click to enlarge.

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Chicago and Crime and History22 Mar 2013 06:32 pm

Another offering from the Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook for 1908, the impressively corrupt Mayor Fred Busse and fellow city officials. Looks like facial hair was on the way out.

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Chicago and History and Loop20 Mar 2013 05:07 am

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I love this ad, it’s so mysterious. I believe the controls were intended for printers, but perhaps they manufactured remote control devices for Bond villains on the side. Haven’t found much online about the Kohler Brothers, except a few more ads they placed with the Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook. I’ll dig a little more in the Trib archives. I like that they had offices in the lovely Fisher Building.

Art and Ghost Signs and Signs and The Hidden20 Mar 2013 04:58 am

Wish I could remember where I saw this. I was visiting Prairie School Style homes with a friend last January and came across it. This requires research!

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Architecture and Chicago and Lincoln Park and Louis Sullivan and Preservation10 Mar 2013 05:28 pm

I drove over to Wells Street to take pictures of the former location of the Ripley’s Believe It…or Not! Museum for an upcoming post. On the way back I stopped by several Adler and Sullivan buildings I’d yet to visit. If you didn’t know already, the best time to visit buildings and snap pictures is early Sunday morning. Even the busiest streets have plenty of parking and no sidewalk traffic.

Here are several still standing structures erected by A&S in the early days of their partnership. Most are located in Lincoln Park. Wish the weather had cooperated a bit. I’ll return another, brighter day.

1826–34 N. Lincoln Park West, Row Houses for Ann Halsted

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440 W. Belden, Ann Halsted House

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2147 N. Cleveland Ave., Leon Mannheimer House

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2310-12 N. Lincoln Ave., Ferdinand Kaufmann Store & Building

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Chicago and History and Loop and Louis Sullivan and Old Photos and Preservation and The Hidden07 Mar 2013 05:56 am

Here’s an ad cribbed from a badly battered copy of the Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook for 1908 I recovered from a friend’s trash. I’ll be running a few other interesting scans from the book in the coming week.

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E.W. Blatchford Co., for a very long time, made lead shot at the Clinton address. The building once had a distinctive shot tower that can be seen on this package. It was, apparently, quite the eye-catching landmark back in the day.

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Obviously, it was not a giant rook, despite what their logo would have you believe.

Of special note, after the factory suffered a fire in 1889, the firm of Adler and Sullivan was commissioned to redesign the interior. Today it’s a condo. See what it looks like today and learn more about this and other Adler and Sullivan fragments at my site.

By the way, the E.W. stood for the amazing first and second name of Eliphalet Wickes.

Architecture and Englewood and History and Old Photos06 Mar 2013 12:20 am

Another picture from the same book.

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Architecture and Chicago and Old Photos and Signs and Uptown06 Mar 2013 12:17 am

Found in a 1980 book about layout and design. Highly inaccurate caption (those cars look 70s to me), but I’d love to know if this is Uptown and when. It might be somewhere along Milwaukee Ave. Click to embiggen? Great signage!

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Art and Chicago and Columbian Exposition and Crime and Statues04 Mar 2013 01:20 am

As an addendum to my piece on statue desecration/destruction, I visited the Garfield Park Conservatory and snapped a few pictures of the restored bull and Native American goddess of grain statues (originally, in plaster form, on display at the Columbian Exposition). Welcome back!