Showing posts with label Adams Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adams Street. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

September 15, 1971 -- Apollo Astronauts Spend Two Days as Chicago Celebrates

Chicago Tribune photo


September 15, 1971 – Chicago fetes the Apollo 15 astronauts as 200,000 people turn out to greet David R. Scott, Alfred M. Worden, Jr. and James B. Irwin at a noon parade through the Loop.  Irwin, who was the lunar module pilot on the 12-day mission that took place from July 26 to August 7, was appreciative of the greeting, telling a packed City Council meeting, “I would like to thank all of Chicago for giving us such a warm welcome.”  [Chicago Tribune, September 15, 1971]. This is the city’s eighth astronaut welcome, and Colonel Scott says, “In all honesty I am not surprised.  I’ve traveled quite a little lately, and, believe me, the word is out … everybody knows about Chicago.  I can assure you the three of us will tell the rest of the country about this city.”  The parade, which travels down State Street to Adams Street and then north on La Salle, ends at the entrance to City Hall, where at a special meeting of the City Council the men are presented with honorary citizenship medals.  After the applause dies down, the honors continue at the Bismarck Hotel, where a civic luncheon is held.  As Air Force violinists serenade the throng, the astronauts present Daley with a large color photograph of the moon and an American flag they carried with them on the longest lunar mission of the Apollo program.  Then the three astronauts move over to the Sherman House where they conduct a briefing for Chicago and suburban high school students.  Their stay in Chicago ends on the following day when they visit Children’s Memorial Hospital.  The Apollo XV mission was the fourth mission to land on the moon.  It was the first to use a lunar roving vehicle, and is memorable for Commander Scott’s use of a hammer and feather to illustrate Galileo’s theory that without air resistance, objects drop at the same rate due to gravity.  In the above photo the three astronauts receive medals making them honorary citizens of Chicago as Mayor Richard J. Daley applauds.

 

September 15, 1976 – Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Walter Mondale, speaking to reporters at Midway Airport, says that President Gerald Ford’s record “belies and puts a falsehood to everything he says he’s now for.” [Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1976] Using notes that he had jotted down during his flight to Chicago, Mondale attacks Ford on four fronts.  In the area of health care, Mondale says that the President has made no proposal for a health-care program affordable for most Americans.  In education he asserts that the federal oversight of education under Ford “is the worst in 40 years.” Mondale finds that “The record is absolutely miserable,” showing that 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs since Ford took office. He also finds that the Ford administration is responsible for high interest rates that make affordable housing difficult to find.  “Their record couldn’t be worse on all of their objectives,” the Democratic candidate states.  “I think it’s clear that on the issues he has raised, he has a miserable performance record. And if trust must be earned, he doesn’t deserve the trust of the American people.” The election went down to the wire, but the Carter-Mondale ticket pulled out a narrow victory.  If 3,687 votes  in Hawaii and 5,559 votes in Ohio had been switched from Carter to Ford, the incumbent would have been victorious.


September 15, 1966 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reveals a plan to target downtown stores in Chicago in an effort to create jobs for African Americans in the city.  Speaking to a rally of 500 in the Greater Mount Hope Baptist Church at 6034 Princeton Avenue, Dr. King says, “I’m going to march straight up Michigan avenue and straight up State street and organize every store in the city.”  [Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1966] The next day, he reveals, pickets will demonstrate in front of the Saks Fifth Avenue store on Michigan Avenue.  In his address Dr. King also criticizes Senator Everett Dirksen for his opposition to the civil rights bill.

September 15, 1961 – Three carpenters fall 43 stories to their deaths as a scaffold on which they are being lifted separates from the hoisting hook inside the core of the east tower of Marina City, under construction north of the river on State Street.  Mike Einsele, a worker inside the core, says, "We were raising forms inside the core and I was about five feet above them.  They were standing on the scaffolding, and I guess a cable slipped.  I heard a loud noise and I turned around to look.  The bodies bounced crazily, hitting one obstruction after another, until they hit the bottom.  I heard the thuds when they hit and I got sick.  I got out of there then.”  [Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1961]  Another worker, Will Bridges, who was working ten stories below the scaffold and who had just stepped out of the way to get a drink of water, says “Everyone inside the core heard them fall.”  Speculation about the cause suggests that the heavy forms on the scaffold that were being hoisted for the next phase of concrete work jammed against the wall of the core and twisted the hoisting hook enough so that the scaffold fell away.


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Thursday, August 27, 2020

August 27, 1939 -- Peoples Gas Building Loses Its Cornice




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August 27, 1939 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that one of the largest cornice removal projects ever undertaken in the city has begun on the Peoples Gas Building at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street.  An estimated $90,000 (close to $1,700,000 in today’s dollars) will be spent in the removal of the original overhanging cornice that extends completely around the building.  Shaws, Naess and Murphy are the architects responsible for the roof modernization with the Gerhardt F. Meyne Company providing the construction services.  Although the cornice appears to be in good shape, the decision is made to replace it in order to avoid future problems.  The top photo shows the finished northern section of the building in 1908 with a pronounced cornice as construction of the south section of the building continues.  The second photo shows the building as it appears today with the cornice removed.



August 27, 1978 – At a time when it appears that Chicago’s Loop elevated system is doomed, architect Harry Weese writes a guest editorial for the Chicago Tribune in which he asks that the system be spared.  He begins by calling the elevated system “a landmark of structural and artistic integrity and of historical significance.”  [Chicago Tribune, August 27, 1978]  “Like the old Auditorium Theater,” Weese asserts, “which languished for 25 dark years before being recalled of its former splendor, a redeemed “L” would be a proud symbol of an age when Chicago led the world in its technological revolution.  It is part of the city’s legacy, as much as its museums and park systems and architectural landmarks . . . Putting people underground enhances neither their psyches nor their safety.” 

Chicago Tribune Photo
August 27, 1945 – The city welcomes General Charles de Gaulle, the president of the French provisional government at a banquet at the Blackstone Hotel.  After he is greeted by Mayor Edward Kelly and Illinois Governor Green, the general says, “It is said that often nations hide their aims from each other.  But the French nation does not hide hers.  She wants to attain a degree of activity enabling her to play a role much more important than before in the economy and exchanges of the world.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, August 28, 1945].  He continues, saying that he has an “unshakable faith in the future," concluding, “Let me say that the welcome of Chicago has greatly contributed to the faith.  Viva Chicago! Viva America!  Viva France!”  General de Gaulle is greeted at the Chicago airport, today’s Midway International Airport, by several thousand people when his plane arrives around 8:00 p.m. Streets are packed with people near the Blackstone Hotel as a car whisks the French leader to the banquet in the Crystal room of the hotel.  On the following day General de Gaulle attends mass in Holy Name Cathedral, visits two war plants, and is honored in a parade from the Blackstone Hotel to the La Salle Street entrance of City Hall where he speaks at a public reception before he leaves for Ottawa, Canada.   Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly and General de Gaulle share a ride to the Blackstone Hotel in the above photo.


August 27, 1930 –The Lindbergh beacon begins official service at 9:00 p.m.  Ceremonies on the roof of the Palmolive building precede the lighting of the mighty beacon which is illuminated when the President touches a button at the White House.  The beacons namesake, Charles Lindbergh, is not at the ceremony, declining an invitation to attend so that he could avoid reporters and cameramen.  An hour before the beacon is illuminated, a dinner is served on a terrace below.  In attendance are Rear Admiral Moffett of the Navy’s air forces; Major General Frank Parker, the Sixth Corps area commander; Sir George Hubert Wilkins, a noted explorer; and Captain Fritz Loose of Germany, in town for a series of air races.  Charles S. Pearce, president of the Colgate-Palmolive Peat Company, welcomes the guests and presents Merrill C. Meigs, the chairman of the civic committee in charge of the dedication.  City Attorney William D. Saltiel accepts the light on behalf of the city.  The beacon consists of two beams – one, a rotating two-billion candle power lamp, 603 feet above the street, and the other, a fixed eleven-hundred million candle power light that points directly to the municipal airport. The Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “For a few seconds the big light was held stationary, pointed to the southwest, then it began a leisurely turn, touching the loop skyscrapers as it went. The new Merchandise Mart, already blazing with lights, was given added brilliance by the beam; the Mather tower loomed out of the darkness as the shaft brought it into view, and a degree or two further east the beam gilded the flag staff of the Tribune tower and illuminated the mosque-like dome of the Medinah Athletic Club.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1930]. The beacon will need some fine tuning, apparently. People on top of a six-story building in Michigan City, 35 miles from the city, report they cannot see the light. A pilot flying the United States mail from Omaha says he was about 100 miles away from the airport when the beacon was illuminated, but he did not see it until he was directly over the municipal airport on the southwest side of the city.  Further tests will be conducted to determine the most advantageous angle for the great beam.  For more on the Lindbergh light, please turn to this entry in Connecting the Windy City.


August 27, 1872 – Montgomery Ward begins the first mail-order company by creating a catalog to reach rural consumers.  The catalog is one page and consists of a simple list of 163 items with ordering instructions.  After coming to Chicago in 1865, Word worked in wholesale operations for several firms and “In tedious rounds of train trips to southern communities, hiring rigs at the local stables, driving out to the crossroads stores and listening to the complaints of the back-country proprietors and their rural customers, he conceived a new merchandising technique: direct mail sales to country people.” [http://www.lib.niu.edu] With a stake of $1,600 Ward and two partners worked from a small shipping office on North Clark Street. A year later both partners abandoned the project, but Ward hung on, and in the next ten years or so saw the growth of the catalog to 240 pages, offering 10,000 items for sale.


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Saturday, July 4, 2020

July 4, 1974 -- Marquette Building in Jeopardy

J. Bartholomew Photo
July 4, 1974 – The Chicago Tribune reports that an attorney for the owner of the Marquette Building on the northwest corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets has labeled a city proposal for saving the building as “premature and not pertinent.” [Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1974]  The city’s proposal had been put forth on June 10 when the city Commissioner of Development and Planning, Lewis H. Hill, suggested that the building could be saved if the owner, Romanek-Golub and Co., was given “lucrative zoning bonuses” that would allow it to raze the buildings in the block bounded by Adams, Dearborn, Clark and Monroe Streets while allowing the Marquette to remain.  The position of Romanek-Golub is that it cannot “earn a fair income on operation of the Marquette under any circumstances” and that landmark status for the building “stigmatizes any building in the eyes of lending agencies and others.”  A position paper in which the Department of Architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle assesses the worth of the building states, “The preservation of the great works of architecture, which are this city’s unique, valuable, and ongoing contribution to the culture and civilization of the twentieth century, must be seen as a positive force that will enhance the quality and thus the life of the city.”

July 4, 1902 – 10,000 people gather in Independence Square at Douglas Park and Garfield Boulevard as Illinois Governor Richard Yates unveils a great fountain as a band plays, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean and 700 school children sing along.  In his speech the governor says, “You may go around the world, and into every port, and you will find no flag so dear to the seekers for freedom as the stars and stripes that wave over there.  It represents an unequaled, a sublime, and unprecedented citizenship.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 5, 1902]  The sculpture by Charles J. Mulligan stands on top of a 15-foot base in the shape of the Liberty Bell.  The children in the sculpture hold Roman candles that once served as fountainheads.  They also carry a flag, bugle and drum in the celebration of an old-fashioned Fourth of July.  Today the fountain basin is dry, surrounded by a ten-foot high fence as the above photo shows.
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July 4, 1891 – The flag at Fort Sheridan is raised for the first time on its new flagstaff at 9:30 a.m. The Fifteenth Infantry is called out in full dress parade at 9:00 a.m., forming up on the road between the main entrance to the fort and the guardhouse, opposite to and facing the flagstaff.  Edith Crofton, the youngest daughter of the post’s commandant, Colonel R. E. A. Crofton, is given the honor of raising the flag.  The Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “It was no light task for a young woman to hoist a large flag to the top of a staff 210 feet high.  Nevertheless she bravely tugged at the rope and the flag slowly but surely ascended.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 5, 1891]. As the flag reached the top, the assembled soldiers presented arms, and as spectators applauded, the post’s musicians played “The Star Spangled Banner.”


July 4, 1883 – A reporter for the Chicago Daily Tribune sets out for a stroll through the Lake-Front park, today’s Grant Park, as “a deliciously cool breeze fanned his perspiring brow.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 4, 1883] He discovers that nearly every bench had one or two occupants, concluding that “as a tramps’ paradise the park was an eminent success.  Deep, raspy snores, indicative of a tranquil slumber, floated up from various quarters of the park, and here and there could be dimly seen a recumbent figure, flat on its back, its arms and legs ungracefully distributed about it, a coat serving as a pillow and darkness as a cove.” Encountering a police officer on his way out of the park, the reporter asks if the situation is normal and if anything is being done about it. “Yes, sometimes we pull ‘em in,” responds the officer. “but not often. It’s only when they’re drunk and come down here disturbing the quiet sleepers.  They’re not all bums that sleeps here.  Some of ‘em are pretty well-to-do, but put on their old clothes, leave their valuables at home, and come down here to sleep.  It’s cooler, you know, than sleeping in a close room.  Come down and try it some night, and I’ll see that you ain’t arrested.” The above photo shows the park as the decade comes to an end.
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Sunday, June 28, 2020

June 28, 1956 -- Pullman Gives Way to Borg-Warner on Michigan Avenue




June 28, 1956 – Using a golden hammer as 250 people look on, Champ Curry, the president of Pullman, Inc., chips the first piece of stone from the Pullman building at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street.  The Speedway Wrecking Company will start razing the building in July to make way for the $12 million Borg-Warner building.  The demolition ceremony includes speeches by representatives of Pullman and Borg-Warner as well as the Los Angeles developers who will underwrite the cost of the new building. For more information on the Pullman building, turn to this entry in Connecting the Windy City.  The Pullman building is shown in the top photo and the Borg-Warner building that replaced it below that.

June 28, 1954 – The captured German submarine, the U-505, is towed by the Coast Guard tug Arundel to the Calumet Shipyard and Dry Dock Company on the Calumet River where engineers will begin preparing it for eventual display at the Museum of Science and Industry.  The submarine has been tied up at a dock next to Tribune tower for the previous three days. The engineer in charge of the project, Seth Gooder, says that the first step will be to pump the fuel oil out of the boat’s bunkers and steam clean them.  Then the sub will be moved to the American Shipbuilding Company on the Calumet River at One Hundred First Street for structural work.  It is anticipated that sometime between mid-July and mid-August the U-505 will be moved across Lake Shore Drive and on to the museum grounds.  An account of that move across Lake Shore Drive can be found here in Connecting the Windy City, and more information about the sub's proposed arrival in the city can be located here.  The above photo shows the captured German submarine tied up at a dock next to Tribune Tower prior to the boat's departure for repairs on the Calumet River.


June 28, 1951 – Big day at Sheridan Road and Diversey Boulevard as the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen begin to move into new headquarters at 2800 Sheridan Road.  Patrick E. Gorman, the Secretary-Treasurer of the union, says, “Our union of 250,000 retail butchers, sheep shearers, packing-house workers, and dozens of other craft workers in the industry needed a place to call ‘home.’  We hunted around for a location, one that would lend dignity both to our union and to Chicago.  We finally hit on the idea that the place for us was at Diversey and Sheridan, where a ramshackle building needed tearing down.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 28, 1951]  The “ramshackle mansion” had a long history, originally constructed for Rudolph Schloesser, a banker, an associate of Potter Palmer, Marshall Field and George Pullman, who, after the Chicago fire of 1871 built one of the most impressive buildings in the city, the Schloesser block, that stood where Phillip Johnson’s and John Burgee’s 190 South LaSalle building stands today.  Later, Schloesser’s home gave way to other families, and then to a restaurant called the Maisonette Russe, ending its life as the campaign headquarters for Charles S. Dewey.  The new headquarters for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters will feature meeting rooms, a clubroom, a library, and executive offices.  Classical music will be piped through the rooms of the building at half-hour intervals and televisions will be located in the recreation and dining rooms.



June 28, 1864 – The members of the Chicago Packers’ Association agree on four resolutions at a meeting in the Tremont House.  They are as follows:

Resolved, That it is the sense of this association that the various stock yards of this city should be consolidated into one.

Resolved, That said yards should be conducted by a joint stock company, the stock of which should be accessible to all.

Resolved, That the said yards to meet the requirements of the different interests concerned ought to be located near the city limits of the South Division.

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to confer with the committee of the Common Council in relation to the sanitary condition of the Chicago river, and that such joint committee examine each and every slaughter, rendering and packing establishment and their relation to the condition of the river.

In this same year of 1864 the Union Stockyards opened on 320 acres of swampland just southwest of the city, land that was purchased for $100,000.  Within five years the area would be incorporated into the city.  On July 20, 1974 the enterprise closed, 110 years after the four resolutions were adopted in the Tremont House on the southeast corner of Lake and Dearborn.

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Sunday, May 31, 2020

May 31, 1960 -- Federal Center Announced


May 31, 1960 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that four Chicago architecture firms are joining together to plan “a glass and steel structure” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 31, 1960] that will replace the federal courthouse.  It will sit on the east side of Dearborn Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard, providing more than 1.3 million square feet of space for somewhere around 5,500 employees of the United States courts and 19 federal agencies.  The paper reports that “The surrounding walks and plaza, as well as the lobby floors, will feature granite paving.  The lofty first floor of the 30 story building will be devoted primarily to the lobby, stairways, and 24 elevators.”  Plans include air conditioning and “if conditions warrant, atomic bomb shelters.”  Completion date for the building is slated for late 1963 with final drawings due by the end of 1960.  This will be the first of two tall government buildings that will replace the old courthouse across Dearborn Street, a building that will be razed as the courthouse is being constructed so that a new federal building can be constructed in its place.  The architectural firms involved in the project are: the office of Mies van der Rohe; Schmidt, Garden, and Erikson; C. F. Murphy; and A. Epstein and Sons.

May 31, 1952 – Major Lenox R. Lohr, president of the Science Museum, today’s Museum of Science and Industry, announces that visitors will soon be able to walk through an 18-foot heart, part of a 3,000 square foot exhibit sponsored by the Chicago Heart Association. As part of the experience a human pulse will be audible. In another part of the exhibit the circulation of blood will be illustrated. The heart would fit into the chest of a 28-story human, which will make the museum an educational facility with a very big heart, indeed.

chicagoparkdistrict.com
May 31, 1926 – “The Seated Lincoln” is unveiled in Grant Park at a location just east of Van Buren Street. It is the last work of Augustus St. Gaudens, who died in 1907.  Judge Charles S. Cutting delivers the principal address at the ceremony, saying, “Lincoln was in every sense a real human character.  Abraham Lincoln has become a world figure.  He is the symbol of law and liberty throughout the world.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 1, 1926]. All of the principal players involved in bringing the statue to Chicago have long since died.  Augustus Saint-Gaudens completed the first model for the sculpture in 1897, but it was destroyed by a fire in his studio.  He had another model ready for casting in 1906 and died a year later. John Crerar, who died in 1889, began the process by which the statue came to Chicago by leaving $100,000 in his will to create it.  Both of the trustees entrusted with Crerar’s Lincoln fund have died as has New York architect Stanford White, who St.-Gaudens named to design the architectural setting for the monument.  It has been 37 years, then, between the time Crerar funded the statue and its unveiling in Grant Park.  Originally, according to a design by architect Daniel Burnham, the monument was to have stood near a similar monument to George Washington near the proposed Field Museum in Grant Park.  Nothing was done for nearly two decades, though, as Aaron Montgomery Ward led the city into a series of law suits over the appropriate use of Grant Park, ultimately prevailing in his belief that the park should remain parkland. The final case was decided in 1910, and development of the park began.  During this time the sculpture was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as well as the 1915 San Francisco Exposition.   In 1924 the South Park Commissioners allocated a permanent site on what they intended to be the Court of Presidents and the sculpture was dedicated on this date in 1926.  The commissioners’ intent to install a similar monument to George Washington opposite Lincoln’s seated form never materialized. 

 May 31, 1900 – At noon a Northwestern Elevated Railroad train carrying invited guests enters the Union Loop and “the new road, the last one to be completed of those composing the great elevated railroad system of Chicago—the greatest in the world—was formally opened.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 31, 1900] Twenty minutes later the train is speeding northward, having circled the Loop, carrying 250 passengers, all guests of the company.  It takes 22 minutes to reach the northern terminus of the line at Wilson Avenue. On the way the train passes five trains headed south, all packed with paying passengers.  It is a BIG DEAL.  The Tribune reports, “Along the entire line of the road the windows were filled with people, who cheered and waved their handkerchiefs as the four cars composing the first train rolled by.  Tugs and factory whistles violated the anti-noise ordinances in the most flagrant way.”  The guests on the train disembark at the Wilson Avenue station and make their way to Sheridan Park, a station on the Milwaukee Road, where lunch is served. Afterward a ceremony is held on a temporary rostrum.  The Chicago Commissioner of Public Works proclaims, “The completion of the road marks an era in the history of the North Side and will tend to the development of this part of the city.”  The President of the railroad, D. H. Louderback, says, “We intend to make our road the best in the country. Its construction is perfect, and with its four tracks it is the best and most flexible in the city.  We will aim to accommodate all passengers.” This was the last hurrah for Charles Tyson Yerkes, the last line of his transit empire, and he spoke on this day only of the development that would come to the north side of the city because of the new railroad line.  After attempting to pass around a million dollars in bribes to get exclusive rights to operate a city-wide transit enterprise for a period of hundred years in 1899 – and failing to get the appropriate legislation passed – he was persona non grata in the exclusive social circles of the city and at City Hall.  By the end of 1900 he had sold the majority of his Chicago transit holdings and departed for New York.  The Northwestern Elevated Railroad still exists today – hop on the Red Line in the Loop and head north.  The above photos show the railroad under construction and as it appeared at about the time of its opening.

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Tuesday, February 11, 2020

February 11, 1936 -- Hollywood Stars Robbed after Terrorizing Loop Chase


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Chicago Tribune photo
February 11, 1936 – Hollywood stars Jackie Coogan and his finacée, Betty Grable, are waylaid and robbed of two diamond rings after dancing at the Congress Hotel.  As they drove toward their rooms at the Hotel Sherman on Randolph Street, two men forced Coogan to the curb at the corner of Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue.  Coogan is able to speed away from the trap and heads across the Michigan Avenue bridge to the turnaround at Tribune Tower where he reverses direction and heads south again with the pursuers close behind.  Back across the bridge the two cars head west on Wacker Drive to Wells Street, turning south on Wells to Adams Street, where the robbers pin Coogan’s car against a support for the Loop elevated line.  There the robbers take Grable’s diamond engagement ring, along with Coogan’s diamond ring and his wallet.  Police suspect the robbers are the same pair that robbed the wife of orchestra leader George Olson, Ethel Shutta, of $12,000 worth of furs and jewelry the week before.  Coogan and Grable are in town performing at the Oriental Theater.  The above Tribune photo shows Grable and Coogan having breakfast at the Hotel Sherman on the morning after the incident.
February 11, 2010 -- A 3.8-magnitude earthquake centered in a farm field near Hampshire shakes a wide area from Wisconsin to Tennessee. At first reported to be a 4.3-magnitude quake, the estimate is revised downward after data is more closely analyzed. Whatever it was, it shakes a lot of people in the area awake when it occurs at 3:59 in the morning.
February 11, 1963 – The first car to enter the garage at Marina City follows the serpentine pathway to a space on the nineteenth floor of the east tower.  Only black steel poles, about two feet high, spaced at six-foot intervals, separate the car from doom.  The garage will officially open in mid-March and will be operated by Marina City Garage and Parking Corporation.  It will accommodate 900 cars.  The rate for monthly parking is expected to be about $30.00.  Attendants will be able to access cars by way of a special elevator installed next to the core of the tower.

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February 11, 1962 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports on a discovery by researchers for the Chicago Title and Trust Company – details of the last law case that Abraham Lincoln tried in the city, a case heard in March, 1860.  Lincoln, at the time a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, came to the city on March 22, 1860 in order to try a case involving about five acres of land on the lake that was created after the U. S. government built a pier north of the river’s mouth.  The dispute was between William S. Johnston and two men who claimed prior rights to the property, William Jones and Sylvester March.  Lincoln represented Jones, who was one of the city’s first real estate investors and also served as the superintendent of schools, and Marsh, a meat packer.  The case was tried before Judge Thomas Drummond in a building that stood at the northeast corner of Clark and Washington Streets.  It lasted for 11 days before a jury found in favor of Lincoln’s clients after a five-hour deliberation.  The case was another in a series of cases that would continue for decades as the courts grappled with the question of the ownership of submerged lands along the city's lakefront. The lawyer who went on to become the President of the United States is shown above as he would have appeared in 1860.

February 11, 1889 – Apparently, the good citizens of Joliet are angry and determined not to take any more abuse from Chicago.  At a meeting of a joint committee composed of members of the Joliet City Council and members of a city businessmen’s association, a resolution is adopted that reads, “Resolved, That the City Council be requested to use all honorable means to prevent Chicago from sending its sewage down the Desplaines Valley.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, February 12, 1889] Joliet Mayor J. D. Paige says, “When the works [the Chicago Water-Works] were built Chicago was to send down more water.  Instead it has given more sewage.  If we allow them to build a bigger ditch we will get more sewage.  Chicago has not complied with anything it has agreed to do.  The question is:  Is this sewage and do we want it here … The water is nastier here than it is in Chicago.  They have as much sewage there, but the putrefaction is well under way when it gets down here.  Down on Lake Joliet it is thick; you can’t force a boat through it.”  The conjecture is that the first practical step in pressing Joliet’s case will be supporting a $50,000 suit of Joliet resident Robert Mann Woods against the city of Chicago for damage to one of his buildings from the sewage in the canal.  Businesses and homes such as the one above in Lockport sat right next to the canal and were beneficiaries of whatever Chicago decided to send their way.


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