Chicago Week in
Review – November 10 – 17
Reports taken from
the Chicago Tribune
November 10, 1891
Captain E. D.
Comings floats a big plan for carrying passengers to the 1893 World’s Columbian
Exposition by way of the lake.
Projecting the ability to transport 17,000 passengers an hour between
the city and Jackson Park, Captain Comings announced the formation of a company that would
build or lease five excursion stammers, each holding 3,500 passengers and capable of serving an onboard meal. The plan also included the vision of building a
“Coney Island” somewhere on the lake not more than 20 miles from the city, to
which the great steamers could transport passengers after the fair closed in
the fall of 1893.
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| Columbian Exposition Pier in foreground (wikimeida.org) |
Constable Robert
Crawford and a friend drive off the opened Halsted Street bridge and plunge
into the Chicago River at 12:30 a.m.
Approaching the abutment at the crossing, the constable apparently
failed to notice that the swing bridge had rotated on its turntable, and horse,
buggy and the two occupants soared into the night air. The companion jumped and landed on solid
ground. Mr. Crawford went into the
river, striking a piling as he fell, and became entangled in the buggy’s
harness, which kept him from hitting the water. Nearby sailors heard his cries
for help and came to the rescue. The
horse never reappeared.
November 12, 1863
“It smells rank to
high heaven,” The Chicago Tribune editorializes about the condition of the
Chicago River, “and to every man and woman’s olfactories which approach within
ninety rods of its redolent shores. What
is to be done with it? It is a question,
the solution of which must be reached at once.
Delays are dangerous, and growing more so every day. Some remedy must be applied. Either the cause of its present condition
must be abated, or some new and untried experiment must remedy the evil.”
November 13, 1951
An 8.5 million
dollar, two-level garage under Michigan Avenue and Grant Park, extending from
Randolph Street to Monroe is proposed by the park board. Planned to hold 2,567 cars, the structure
would be financed with revenue bonds. Ralph H. Burke, city airport engineer and
former chief engineer of the park district, said that first construction would
begin under the park with a temporary roadway acting as a detour while Michigan
Avenue entrance and exit ramps were constructed.
November 14, 2010
The 116-year-old
Francis J. Dewes mansion in Lincoln Park goes on the market for $9.9
million. With 16 rooms and eight
working fireplaces, the mansion was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places. Dewes came to Chicago
in 1868 from Prussia and served as a bookkeeper at established breweries in the
city before founding his own company in 1882. A tour of the mansion can be found here and here and here.
November 15, 1954
The will of Edward
H. Bennett, designer of Buckingham Fountain and the bridge at Michigan Avenue
and the Chicago River, reveals an estate of $325,000. The will leaves $250,000 to his widow, Olive;
$3,000 each to two sisters, and architectural books, documents, jewelry and
seven valuable portraits to his son, Edward H. Bennett, Jr.
November 16, 1902
Chicago football
led to misery just as much a century ago as it does today. At 2:30 a.m. at Emil Devic’s bar at 1610
Wabash a group of college students were celebrating a football victory when
some glasses fell to the floor and broke.
John Hoback, the bar tender brought the glasses back to the bar where
Joseph Ryan, the establishment’s manager, insisted he return to the table and
charge the customers for the damage. Mr.
Hoback, apparently taking objection to the tone in which the demand was made, announced that he was quitting, and Mr. Ryan argued with him, finally firing
him. At that point he bar tender claimed that Ryan
started over the bar for him. “When Ryan
rushed at me I knew he would kill me if he could,” said Hoback, “so I drew my
revolver and shot him.” Ryan died of two
shots to the head.
November 17, 1891
William Ordway
Partridge, the sculptor of the statue of Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, leaves
the Leland Hotel to return to his studio in the Boulevard Montpanasse in
Paris. Before leaving the sculptor said,
“Your Art Institute has the nucleus of what can easily be made one of the best
all around schools of art in the world, with possibly Kensington as its only
superior. Then, too, I consider Chicago
admirable for the absolute independence of its taste in art. The East adopts or admires a thing because
Europe has stamped it with approval.
Chicago does so because Chicagoans feel it to be art, no matter whether
others have praised or have even seen it.”
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| Shakespeare by William Ordway Partridge (JWB Photo) |
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