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| (JWB, 2010) |
120 years ago
today . . .
On March 1, 1892 The
Chicago Tribune reported
that visitors at the World’s Fair in Chicago, a monster undertaking that would
be held 14 months later, would have Waukesha water to drink, furnished at one
penny a glass. The President of
the Waukesha Hygeia Mineral Spring Company, James E. McElroy, a Chicagoan,
outlined the plan. Two months
earlier Chicago had passed an ordinance giving the company the right to lay a
pipeline into the city. Forty
miles of eight-inch pipe would connect the company’s supply in Wisconsin to the
site of the fair on the south side of Chicago. McElroy estimated the pipeline would be finished by July and
that it would supply 1,000,000 gallons of spring water a day. The only restriction placed on Hygeia was
that the water served at the fair had to be served, bar fashion, at a cent a glass.
112 years ago
today . . .
Chicago was slammed
with the worst snowstorm in 16 years with 12 inches piling up, accompanied by
winds reaching 52-miles-an-hour.
Just one death was reported as a result of the storm. Poor old Gustav Lundquist, who had been
employed for two years by the Union traction Company, had the job of keeping
the LaSalle Street tunnel clean and in good repair. He was given additional help because of the severity of the
storm and at 3:30 p.m. was at the north end of the tunnel, supervising his crew
while standing on the track used by north-bound trains. Seeing a train approaching, Mr.
Lundquist stepped over to the south-bound track, but a train was approaching on
this track, too, and “before his companions could warn him of his danger he was
struck and knocked against the tunnel wall.” He was wedged so tightly that it took a half hour to release
his body. All of the city’s horse
teams, along with 300 sewer department workers, were called to the First Ward
to clear the snow thrown on the sides of the streets by the streetcar plows and
the shovels of the sidewalk cleaners.
The snow was carted off to the foot of Randolph Street and the
lake. State Street merchants
estimated the storm had cost them a half-million dollars in sales.
100 years ago
today . . .
On March 1, 1912
Chicago took delivery of its first automobile fire engine, the first of three
provided for in the city’s annual budget.
The roaring of the new engine “created a sensation on the streets,”
according to The Tribune and “attracted a crowd to the north end of the city
hall.” The engine weighed in at five tons with rear wheels that stood five feet
high with spokes that were three inches thick. Built by the Nott Fire Engine Company, it had a top speed of
35-miles-an-hour. It was the first
such fire engine to be built complete in the United States, one of only six in
the country.
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| (JWB, 2008) |
Also on this date
Marshall Field & Co. announced the acquisition of the Trude building
property at the corner of Wabash and Randolph, finishing its efforts to control
the entire block bounded by State, Randolph, Washington, and Wabash. The Tribune observed that the move would give to the
company “the unique distinction of being the only one to occupy an entire city
block, and also the largest area occupied by any strictly retail establishment
in the world". This parcel became
the only piece of real estate in that block that was not directly acquired by
the founder of the company, Marshall Field I, who had died in 1906. The plan was to lease the building on that site
until all the leases expired in 1915, then tear it down and build a new
twelve-story structure at a cost of three-quarters of a million dollars. Things must have moved along quickly;
the Graham, Burnham & Co. addition on the site was completed by 1914.
90 years ago
today . . .
To show how far
what once was the city’s finest neighborhood had fallen from grace on March 1,
1922 The Tribune
reported that an opium party was interrupted the night before at 2437 Prairie
Avenue, when four men and three women “were brought back from their poppy dream
wanderings” by the “dope squad” of the Cottage Grove station. Mrs. Margaret Black, the landlady, and
six others were arrested. All lived on Prairie and Indiana Avenues.
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| (JWB, 2007) |
Also on this date
it was announced that the Cubs had arrived in camp on Mr. Wrigley’s Catalina
Island. The Tribune noted that
“Beautiful weather greeted the newcomers and their initial drill of hi-lo and
throwing served to eliminate many pounds of the superfluous flesh accumulated
during the winter of inactivity.”
Hack Miller, newly acquired from Oakland, “came into camp carrying enough
beef to make a couple of ball players.” Only one player failed to join the club in Los Angeles
for the trip to camp. Carter
Elliott, an infielder, never showed.
Perhaps he knew what was coming.
The team finished 13 games behind the New York Giants with Carter
Elliott not on the roster.
And from the
more things change, the more they stay the same department, The Tribune reported on this date that “Mickey” Norris,
a business agent for the Stone, Lime and Cement Teamsters’ Union, “stuck a
revolver in his pocker yesterday and started out to ‘kill fourteen men.’” Norris ended up shooting three men: Michael Windle, a foreman for the White
Paving Company, Joseph Doyle, Vice-President and business agent of the Ice
Wagon Drivers’ Union, and John Reddington, a bartender. All three were shot at a saloon
belonging to Edward Healy at 4459 W. Madison Street. “I was out to kill fourteen men I’ve got marked down,”
Norris said. “I would have got
them, too, if the police had let me alone.”
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