Showing posts with label Transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transportation. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

September 30, 1947 -- Chicago Transit Authority Begins Operations

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September 30, 1947 – Chicago’s surface and elevated lines are absorbed into the Chicago Metropolitan Transit Authority, a corporation created by the Illinois legislature with the intention of allowing the city to purchase the lines and operate them as a publicly owned transportation system.  Hoping for a smooth transition, the new system’s management has directed that all senior staff members of the old system should continue in their current positions until the change-over is completed.  The biggest difference for riders will be an increase in fares – from 9 to 10 cents on surface lines.  Rides on elevated trains will continue at 13 cents.  The last hurdle in the process was cleared in August when $105 million in revenue bonds was sold to finance the new corporation.  Of that sum $75 million will go to the present owners of the surface lines, and $12 million will be paid out to the owners of the elevated lines.  The necessity for the move came just before the end of World War II when a federal district court judge ordered the two transit companies into bankruptcy, making it clear that providing public transportation in Chicago could only occur through public ownership of the system.  Philip Harrington, the chairman of the new transportation authority and an engineer, says, “For decades our local transportation has been partly frozen.  It is not to be wondered at that there is a tremendous job in taking over.  We are going to move as rapidly as we can, but not until we are sure where we are going.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 30, 1947].  In 1952 the new authority would purchase the assets of the Chicago Motor Coach Company, the bus line under the control of Yellow Cab Company founder John D. Hertz.  At that time surface transportation was handled primarily by electric trolley coaches – in the 1950’s the city’s fleet of 700 trolley buses was the largest such fleet in the United States.  [en.wikipedia.org]  That era ended with a natural disaster … the blizzard of January 26-27, 1967 demonstrated that the trolleys were unable to maneuver around abandoned vehicles without disconnecting from trolley wires, and the whole city shut down.  The last trolley coach ran on March 25, 1973.



September 30, 2016 – The Chicago Department of Transportation announces that construction on Phase 1 of the Wells-Wentworth Connector improvement project has begun.  The three-phase project is designed to create a new roadway between the Loop and Chinatown, a plan that was originally proposed in the Chicago Plan of 1909.  CDOT commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld says, “This project exemplifies Chicago’s strong commitment to the economic growth of the Chinatown community.  By creating direct road transit and bicycle access to Chinatown’s thriving commercial center, we hope to strengthen the community’s identity and economy.”  [www.chicago.gov]  The first phase of the project will widen the existing right-of-way on Wentworth Avenue between West Seventeenth and West Nineteenth Streets, laying new sidewalks on both sides of the street and providing a buffered bike lane, additions that will improve pedestrian and bicycle access to Ping Tom Park and its field house.  This three-phase project is the first of several major infrastructure improvements planned for The 78, a 62-acre tract that is bordered by Clark Street, Roosevelt Road, Sixteenth Street and the Chicago River.  This, the newest of Chicago’s neighborhoods, according to the developer, Related Midwest, will be “showcased in a half-mile riverfront experience connecting to the existing Chicago Riverwalk and on par with the greatest urban waterfronts of the world – all while featuring undeniable ‘Chicago Soul.’”  [78chicago.com]


September 30, 1990 – The Chicago White Sox defeat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1, in the last game the team will play in Comiskey Park, the oldest baseball park in the major leagues.  The last pitch is thrown by Bobby Thigpen who gets Seattle’s Harold Reynolds to hit a grounder to Sox second baseman Scott Fletcher who throws to Steve Lyons at first for the out.  Tickets for the final game sell out in two hours when they go on sale on June 9, and a crowd of 42,849 is on hand to bid farewell to the old ball yard.  These are the last of the 72,801,381 fans who have watched the Sox compile a record of 3,024 wins and 2,926 losses in Comiskey since it opened on July 1, 1910.  Said Sox pitcher Wilbur Wood, “It’s a shame they’re closing it down . . . It’s like with all of the older parks, not for the players but for the fans.  The new parks are so symmetrical that you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.  And the fans are so far away.  I hope the fans are close at the new park like they were at Comiskey.”  [Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1990] 


September 30, 1983 – The Wild West comes to Wacker Drive as three men waylay the 121 Wacker Express bus and hold up the 27 passengers aboard, relieving them of “about $500 in cash, miscellaneous jewelry and wallets and purses.” [Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1983]. The bandits board the bus at State Street and announce a hold-up after stuffing a few dollar bills in the fare box. Police say that the bills will be dusted for fingerprints. This is the third bus robbery of the year. On October 28 a 23-year-old South Side man is indicted on charges of armed robbery in the commission of the crimes.


September 30, 1982 –The United States Naval Reserve ends its 89-year presence on Chicago’s lakefront as it leaves its three-story Art Deco building at the foot of Randolph Street.  The 50-year-old building will be torn down to make way for the widening of Lake Shore Drive and the straightening of the “S” curve where the drive crosses the Chicago River.  Reserve units have been transferred to Park Forest, the Great Lakes Naval Station, Glenview and Gary.  The Navy Reserve in the city began operation on September 30, 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition. [Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1982] The reserve eventually moved to a building at 20 North Michigan Avenue before it moved into an old converted freighter on the Chicago River.  Illinois approved funds for construction of the armory in 1927 and the armory, which cost $465,000, opened in 1932.


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Saturday, September 26, 2020

September 26, 1979 -- Rock Island Reaches the End of the Line

 

September 26, 1979 – The Interstate Commerce Commission rules that the bankrupt Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad will be taken over and operated by a management group selected from 14 other railroads.  Following the decision, a federal judge denies a request by the railroad to delay action on the commission’s decision.  Vice-President Walter Mondale announces the ICC decision, saying that restoration of service on the strike-bound Rock Island is critical to Midwest farmers who are in the middle of bringing in the annual soybean and corn crops.  The members of the striking United Transportation Union agree to go back to work after the ICC announces that they will be paid “prevailing industry wage rates”. [Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1979]  The ruling of the ICC marks the first time in U. S. history that the federal government has ordered a major railroad taken over because it is failing.  It is estimated that the federal government will be paying $80 to $90 million to operate the Rock Island for the ensuing eight months.  The railroad traces its history back all the way to 1847 when a charter was granted to its predecessor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company. At the height of its operation the railroad extended as far west as New Mexico, as far north as Minnesota and as far south as Louisiana and Texas.  Chicago was its eastern point of origin.  The railroad was ultimately liquidated in 1980 although most of The Rock’s principal routes still exist today under the control of other lines.

explore.chicagocollections
September 26, 1953 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that work has begun on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fountain at Brookfield Zoo.  It will be located at the intersection of the zoo’s east-west and north-south pedestrian malls and is expected to be completed by May of 1954.  The fountain will shoot water over 60 feet into the air, and it will fall into a pool that is 215 feet in diameter.  Mrs. Clay Judson of Highland Park, the wife of the president of the Zoological society which operates the zoo, will sculpt four animals’ heads that will sit atop six-foot columns around the fountain, donating her services free of charge. The sculptures will celebrate Roosevelt’s achievements as a statesman, naturalist, hunter, and soldier.  The architectural firm of Olsen and Urbain and Russell Read design the fountain’s layout and mechanical systems.  The same firm will also design the Seven Seas Panorama at the zoo, which will open seven years later.  The cost of the fountain will come from a memorial fund in the name of the late president that is administered by the Ferguson Fund at the Art Institute of Chicago. The fountain was dedicated on May 14, 1954.


September 26, 1949 – Chicago learns that the architectural firm of Vitzhum and Burns has won a competition for the design of a church and Franciscan friary to be located at 108-116 West Madison Avenue, the site of the La Salle Theater.  The church, St. Peter’s, will replace one that has stood at 816 South Clark Street since just four years after the Great Fire in 1871.  The Franciscan Fathers made some darned good deals in the process of arranging for their new place of worship.  In 1942 the order bought the ten-story Woods Theater building from the Marshall Field estate for $600,000, property that it sold in June of 1949 for $1,200,000.  At the same time the order bought the site for the new church from the Marshall Field estate for $515,000.  The plans for the new building include a 1,600-seat auditorium, a chapel above the main auditorium that will seat 300, with the two upper floors serving as the friary.  Some heavy hitters participated in the competition, including Edo J. Belli, Nairne W. Fischer, Hermann J. Gaul, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, Rapp and Rapp, and Shaw, Metz and Dolio.  Due to the scarcity of building materials in the post-war years it took awhile to finish the new St. Peter’s, but the church finally opened in 1955.


September 26, 1925 – Three construction workers die and two others are seriously injured as a steel concrete scoop breaks away from the fourteenth floor of the Metropolitan Building at Randolph and La Salle Streets.  The three men who die are all working on scaffolds below the scoop.  Two of three workers on the highest of the two scaffolds manage to hang on and survive as the scoop kills the third man on the platform, suspended 25 feet below it.  The crash occurs when hundreds of workers are flooding the Loop on their way to work. The intersections are jammed with people, and police reserves are summoned to clear enough room to permit the dead and the injured to be removed from the area.  The Metropolitan Building as it appears today is shown above.
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Thursday, September 10, 2020

September 10, 1925 -- Chicago Plan Commission Urges "Immediate" Start to Outer Drive

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September 10, 1925 – Engineers for  the Chicago Plan Commission make a presentation to the executive committee, urging that an immediate start be made on the outer drive from the Field Museum through Grant Park, over the Illinois Central tracks and through the warehouse section north of the river, all the way to Chicago Avenue.   It is expected that the project will cost in excess of $9,500,000  (over $140,000,000 in today’s dollars).  Present at the meeting is a “Who’s Who” of Chicago citizens, including James Simpson of Marshall Field and Company, Julius Rosenwald, Joy Morton, Charles H. Wacker, Frank I. Bennett, Harry A Wheeler, Colonel William Nelson Pelouze, John V. Farwell, Edward B. Butler, and Michael Zimmer.  Simpson reads from the report, including one passage that states, “If the improvement is made in the near future, it can be done at the least possible expense.  If it is delayed every year that passes will add greatly to the cost.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1925]  The report also underscores the importance of the huge project, stating, “The development of this large territory is inevitable in the future.  We advise the improvement to hasten this development – a territory whose progress now is retarded, because of its inaccessibility.”  Change takes time, and the plan did not approach its completion until the bridge that carried the Outer Drive, today’s Lake Shore Drive, across the Chicago River was opened in 1937.  The above photo shows the bridge under construction in 1936.

September 10, 1954 – The state civil defense director, Robert M. Woodward, graces Chicago with some upbeat news when he announces that a hydrogen bomb dropped at Madison Street and Kedzie Avenues between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. would cause 3,030,096 deaths and 1,382,421 injuries.  With an evacuation window of 15 minutes there would still be 1,876,227 deaths and 844,013 injuries.  For those wondering why we folks in our sixties and seventies sometimes act so strangely, it might be good to remember that we grew up with regular updates like this instead of the latest updates on Pokémon Go.

chicagotribune
September 10, 1953 – The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association presents a general plan for redeveloping and preserving the Near North Side, from the Chicago River on the south and west to North Avenue on the north and the lake on the east.  The ambitious plan has a number of long-range objectives.  First up is the rehabilitation and conservation of three industrial districts, the first of which is roughly bounded by Chicago Avenue, Wells Street and the North Branch of the river.  The second area is located at the river, North Avenue and Halsted Street while a third, smaller location, is at the southwest corner of Division Street and Larrabee Street.  The second major recommendation of the plan is the rehabilitation and conservation of an area east of Wells Street and south of Chicago Avenue, through which Ohio and Ontario Streets run.  Another component of the proposal is the conservation of the neighborhoods west of La Salle Street and north of Division Street through the adoption of a minimum standard of housing and zoning laws.  The proposal recommends the widening of State Street from the river north to Chicago Avenue, a project that has been in the city’s plans for two decades, along with the widening of Clark Street from the river north to North Avenue. Also recommended is the development of Orleans Street and Clybourn Avenue as a “semi-superhighway.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1953]  Also recommended is work on Ohio and Ontario Streets to make them ready to accommodate traffic flowing to and from the proposed highway to be built west of the north branch of the river.  Commuter service by the Chicago and North Western Railroad to a new terminal near Michigan Avenue and the river is recommended as well.   The chairman of the association, Newton C. Farr, says that the program as outlined would take at least a decade to carry out.


September 10, 1948 – Mayor Martin H. Kennelly gives approval to a proposal submitted to the city council, requiring that city officials and employees be required to sign non-Communist affidavits or face dismissal.  The proposal, sponsored by Forty-Fourth Ward alderman John C. Burmeister, also mandates a “loyalty committee” of three to five aldermen appointed by the mayor.  The mayor says, “I think it’s all right. We don’t know who we have working for us.”  The mayor is pictured in the above photo.


September 10, 1924 – A magic evening takes place on the lakefront as 3,000 children carrying lanterns march into the Grant Park stadium, today’s Soldier Field, in a “preliminary dedication”. [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1924] Despite a light rain the Pageant of Music and Light has spectators cheering “as the army of girls and boys marched into the arena and scattered about to form [a] sparkling wheel.”  A mixed mass chorus under the direction of William Boeppler rolls thorugh “The Heavens Declare,” following the song with a rendition of “Beautiful Savior” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. A children’s choir of a thousand voices than takes over, led by Hans Biedermann.  The program concludes with the Civic Band of Chicago leading the crowd in “America.”  The official opening day for the massive stadium will occur a month later, on October 9, the Fifty-Third anniversary of the Chicago Fire. The first event held in the new sports arena will be a police track meet that features a thousand athletes from the police department, drawing 90,000 spectators.  At the urging of the city’s Gold Star Mothers the Municipal Grant Park Stadium is officially renamed Soldier Field on November 11, 1925.





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Sunday, August 30, 2020

August 30, 1937 -- Lake Shore Drive in Lincoln Park Opens

 

chicago tribune historical photo
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August 30, 1937 – North bound traffic enters new pavement on Lake Shore Drive for the first time.  The former north bound lanes will be closed for the construction of pedestrian subways at North Avenue and Division Streets, work that will be completed before the second week of October.  After that, the west lanes of the three separate roadways will be given over to local traffic while the east lanes will be used for express traffic, headed to and from the new Lake Shore Drive bridge across the Chicago River.  The above photo shows the new road opening on August 30, 1937 as work continues on what will become the south bound express lanes of the new road.  The photo below that shows the area as it appears today.


August 30, 1911 – Chicago Building Commissioner Henry Ericsson says that the 16-story Unity building at 127 North Dearborn Street is leaning 30 inches out of plumb toward the south.  Ericsson says that it is a dangerous situation and that the building will eventually collapse if something is not done quickly.  Thirteen months earlier building department engineers found the building fifteen and three-eighths inches out of plumb at the fifteenth floor, but no action was taken.  The office tower, at one time the tallest building in the city, would be jacked back into place and would stand for another 78 years until destruction began in 1989 as part of the demolition of the structures that stood on Block 37.  It had quite a history.  In 1891 John Peter Altgeld took out a $400,000 loan from the Chicago National Bank, controlled by John R. Walsh, a tough rags-to-riches banker who controlled the Chicago City Council.  When Altgeld was elected governor in 1892, Walsh lobbied for control over the state’s patronage employees, but the scrupulously honest Altgeld refused. When a nation-wide Depression came in 1893, Altgeld lost $500,000 on the building, and it was sold into receivership. It was in Room 711 of the building that the first meeting was held to form the service club that would become Rotary International.

August 30, 1891 – The Chicago Daily Tribune greets news that a new art museum will be built on the lakefront with an editorial in its favor.  “The most important feature of the scheme, however, is the securing of a permanent art gallery for the city of sufficient dimensions to meet all demands for long years to come . . . It may be anticipated that the new structure will be as perfect as money and skill can make it, and as beautiful as artistic taste can suggest . . . something which will more clearly reflect the growth of enterprise, skill, and artistic taste in the World’s Fair City.”  The paper, and the city along with it, got its wish.  


August 30, 1867 – A forewarning of things to come is issued at 4:00 a.m. when a fire is discovered on the second floor of a five-story brick building situated at No. 20 State Street, the approximate location today of the Tortoise Club just north of Marina City.  The fire in a building that houses the David Henry wholesale liquor dealer and importers is well underway before it is discovered and destroys an entire block of businesses before it is brought under control.  The David Henry Co. values its stock at about $70,000 (about $1,225,000 in today's dollars) with only $17,500 covered by insurance.  Other adjoining businesses suffer as well … what fire doesn’t claim, water from the efforts of the fire brigade ruins.  A narrow alley runs along the south side of the David Henry building, and much of the water used to douse the fire runs into the rear of basements extending back from Lake Street, ruining much of the stock in buildings that are not affected by the flames.  It will be a little over four years later that a fire will destroy most of the city, but the fire on State Street on this day shows how quickly things could get out of hand in a city built principally of wood. The block that burned is shown as it appears today in the above photo.
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Sunday, August 16, 2020

August 16, 1978 -- Loop Elevated Should Go ... Says Tribune Editorial



August 16, 1978 – In an editorial the Chicago Tribune states its opposition to a recommendation by the Chicago branch of the American Association of Architects that a way be found to preserve Chicago’s Loop elevated structure.  The paper asserts, “Anyone who finds a resemblance between Chicago’s elevated and San Francisco’s cable cars must have been standing at Lake and Wabash so long that the screeching has softened his brain.  No way can the “L” be considered charming, quaint, fun, or attractive to visitors . . . There is no good reason, either sensible or sentimental, to preserve the “L” one day longer than is economically unavoidable.  The noisy, dirty eyesore is of no architectural value and will interfere with the practical and esthetic pleasures and profitability of both the State Street mall and the North Loop renewal plan.”   

August 16, 1965 – United Air Lines Flight 389, carrying 24 passengers and a crew of six, disappears from radar screens only five minutes from its scheduled arrival at O’Hare International Airport.  Boats searching the lake about seven miles off Highland Park are hampered by darkness, but twisted pieces of wreckage are reported.  The last communication with the flight occurs at 9:18 p.m. as the O’Hare control tower gives directions for approach to the airport, receiving a “Roger” from the pilot.  Search planes and helicopters drop flares in an attempt to illuminate the search area, and by 1:00 a.m. more than 20 vessels are there, many of them private boats from yacht clubs along the North Shore.  A temporary morgue is also set up in the gymnasium of Highland Park High School. The plane had only been in service for three months at the time of the crash.  Three months later another Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Cincinnati, killing 62 of the 66 passengers on board.  Three days after that United Airlines Flight 227, another 727, crashes on landing at Salt Lake City International Airport, killing 43 of 91 on board.  There is widespread concern that the Boeing 727, first flown in 1963, is an accident waiting to happen.  Extensive review, however, reveals that the airplane is airworthy and properly certified. Those reviews also reveal that pilots, accustomed to flying DC-6’s and other propeller planes, were having trouble adjusting to the rapid descent of the new plane.  The Federal Aviation Agency subsequently required airlines to make changes in training procedures to emphasize the importance of stabilized approaches. The above Chicago Tribune photo shows the crowd gathered on a Highland Park beach, awaiting word from the search area.

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August 16, 1963 – The Commission on Chicago Architectural Landmarks appoints a committee to draft an ordinance that will provide a framework for the city to preserve its important architectural and historical places.  At the meeting, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the commission also designates Hull House an architectural landmark and initiates an inquiry into the status of the vacant Sullivan house at 4575 Lake Park Avenue.  Its last order of business is the decision to submit a request to the building department as well as the department of city planning, asking that the commission be notified if a proposal is made to demolish the Reliance building at 32 North State Street, a building that has already been designated a landmark.  It is too bad that the initiative was launched so late, after many historic city treasures had been lost and many more were soon to be gone.  The Sullivan home on Lake Park Avenue is an example.  Originally built for architect Louis Sullivan's mother, it was finished about the time of her death in 1892.  Sullivan, himself, lived in the home until 1896 when his brother, Albert, took up residence with his family.  Despite being designated a landmark in 1960, the home was razed in 1970.  It is pictured above.



August 16, 1893 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the Art Institute of Chicago and the Armour Institute have joined forces “for the purpose of establishing in Chicago a full and thorough course of study in architecture.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, August 16, 1893] W. M. R. French will direct the Art Institute coursework, and the Reverend F. W. Gunsaulus will handle the work for the Armour Institute.  The Art Institute library in 1893 had 1,300 books and 19,000 photographs with 200 books and 1,000 photographs relating directly to the subject of architecture.  The Armour Institute had 10,000 volumes in its library as well as physical and chemical laboratories and courses of study in electricity, mining, and mechanical engineering.  Director French says of the decision, “The Armour Institute, under the Presidency of the Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus, has laid out courses of technical study of the highest order. The departments of mechanical engineering, electricity, civil engineering, etc., are equal to those of the Institute of Technology of Boston, and the laboratories, shops, library, and appliances are in accord with the most approved and modern practice in technical schools.  There are already 500 applicants to enter the various departments upon the opening of the first school year, Sept. 14.”  William French is shown above at the easel. Reverend Gunsaulus is the man at the desk in the photo above that.


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Monday, July 6, 2020

July 6, 1954 -- Chicago Transit Authority Makes Major Upgrade on Lake Street Line

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July 6, 1954 – The last trips are made by wood and steel elevated cars on the Lake Street branch of the system, today’s Green Line, between the Loop and Forest Park.  The general manager of the Chicago Transit Authority, Walter J. McCarter, reports that enough modern cars have been received to provide all metal cars for the Lake Street branch.  Metal cars have not previously been used on the Lake Street line because of a city ordinance that requires any elevated branch that heads into a subway to be made up of all metal cars.  Those lines had priority for the new cars.  Wood and steel cars will continue to be used during rush hours on the Ravenswood, Douglas Park, and Garfield Park branches and for the Evanston-Wilmette line.  The wood and steel cars date as far back as 1914 and 1915 when 250 of them were built by the Cincinnati Car Company.  A second order of 200 similar cars was delivered between 1922 and 1924.  The St. Louis Car Company delivered 200 of the new 6000-series cars to the C.T.A., beginning in August 1950.  Interestingly, the C.T.A. had purchased 600 brand new streetcars in 1947 and 1948 “when it became painfully evident that a tremendous shift was underway in travel habits from public transit to private automobiles”. [Chicago-l.org]  The agency solved two problems at the same time by rebuilding the streetcars into rapid transit cars.  Although the existing streetcar could not be modified as a whole, all of the components, right down to light fixtures and window frames, were used to outfit a new body shell, work which the St. Louis Car Company did between 1950 and 1959.  Three generations of equipment used on the Lake Street line are shown above – a wood car, a 4000-series car (the ones replaced in the early 1950’s), and a car of the bicentennial era.


July 6, 1964 – The 35-story Equitable building, now 401 North Michigan Avenue, is topped out in a light rain as a 35-foot white beam with the names of 6,000 Chicagoans written on it is hoisted into place at the top of the tower.  Also on the beam is the number 192,113,484, corresponding to the population of the United States at this time.  The building, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in the mid-century modern style, is already 75 percent rented.  At a luncheon for about 200 civic and business leaders at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel, James F. Coates, the chairman of the Equitable Life Assurance Company of the United States, says that the landscaped area to be built south of Tribune Tower and in front of the Equitable building will be “the most beautiful in the world.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1964]  Today the trees that have stood in that area for 44 years have all been cut down and the area to the southwest of the tower is the site of the Michigan Avenue Apple store, which opened in the Fall of 2017.  In the above photo 401 North Michigan sits on Michigan Avenue with another Skidmore design, NBC Tower, to the east.



July 6, 1935 – The razing of the old Coast Guard station at the mouth of the Chicago River begins, work that is expected to take three weeks to complete.  Dedicated in 1903, the station’s days became numbered when part of it was destroyed by fire in 1933.  As soon as the demolition is complete, work will begin on a new station with work expected to wind up by late fall.  The old station had responded to 8,454 calls for assistance.   The old station with flag still flying proudly is shown above, along with the photo showing the station today.

July 6, 1915 – On its way to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, the Liberty Bell Special makes a stop at the La Salle Street station on a rainy evening.  Three hundred police officers are stationed around the station as “modern patriots by the thousands – grown patriots and patriots of the public schools, war patriots and peace patriots, Republican, and Democrat, and Socialist patriots – stormed the station.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 7, 1915] Some were fortunate to gain entrance to the station, but “tens of thousands” had to remain outside in a downpour. When the train arrives, over an hour behind schedule, three Army buglers, “trim and ramrod straight” signal its entrance. Then the line of people that stretches from Van Buren to Monroe Streets begins an orderly entrance to view the Liberty Bell, which stands on a specially constructed flat car, suspended in a wooden frame. A special guest is 10-year-old Margaret Cummins of 1102 Wellington Avenue, whose great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Mauger, took the bell to his farm and buried it when he learned that British soldiers were coming to seize it.  The bell remains in the city until midnight when it begins the next leg of its coast-to-coast trip.  This is the second trip that the Liberty Bell has made its appearance in the city ... the first visit was a much longer stay at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition as the above photo shows.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

June 9, 1886 -- Chicago's North Side Gets a Cable Car System

chicagology.com
June 9, 1886 – Controversy continues to swirl through City Hall as Charles Tyson Yerkes works to get his cable railway system extended from the Loop to the North Side of the city.  Yerkes calls on Mayor Carter Harrison, persuading him not to veto an ordinance giving him the right to build the northside system with a promise that the cable cars will not run on State Street … as long as one-half of the owners on State between Kinzie and Division sign a protest against the use of the street for the railway within three months.  Harrison seems satisfied although there is considerable dissension within the City Council and among businessmen of the North Side.  Still to be resolved are the terms under which Yerkes will be given use of the La Salle Street tunnel beneath the river.  Lurking in the shadows is the suspicion that the entire ordinance has been passed with votes delivered by aldermen paid to agree to its terms.  Notable is the fact that nine aldermen of the West Side and nine of the South Side voted for an ordinance that has no effect on their districts while every North Side alderman, with one exception, voted against it.  The system Yerkes proposed actually began in 1859 as a horse-car line.  Yerkes, heading a Philadelphia syndicate, gained control of it in 1885.  The system depended on the use of the tunnel at La Salle Street, and on July 6, 1886 Yerkes got his wish when the tunnel ordinance was passed.  The North Side Street Railway would pay $20,000 a year to lease the tunnel, but the company could subtract the expense involved in maintaining it, a sum that Yerkes figured would be $19,235.  The company would eventually operate 177 grip cars and a much larger number of trailing cars.  It would run as far into the Loop as Jackson Boulevard and would operate three powerhouses, pulling nine separate cables.  The photo shows the La Salle Street tunnel as a cable car emerges.

June 9, 1900 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the U. S. State Department has appointed architect William Le Baron Jenney as one of the official delegates from the United States to the Congress of Architects, to be held at the Hotel de Ville in Paris from July 28 to August 5.  Adding to this honor, the American Association of Architects has named Jenney as a member of the main executive body of the Congress when it convenes.  He will be the only representative that Chicago will have in the Congress.
J. Bartholomew Photo
June 9, 1894 – The bronze statue “A Signal of Peace” is unveiled in Lincoln Park before 2,000 people.  The statue is a gift from Judge Lambert Tree, a prominent judge of the Cook County Circuit Court who also served as the United States ambassador to Belgium and Russia.  During the ceremony Lincoln Park Board President Crawford reads a letter from Tree in which the judge states, “I fear the time is not distant when our descendants will only know through the chisel and brush of the artist these simple, untutored children of nature who were, little more than a century ago, the only human occupants and proprietors of the vast northwestern empire of which Chicago is now the proud metropolis.  Pilfered by the advance guards of the whites, oppressed by government agents, deprived of their land by the government itself, with only scant compensation; shot down by soldiery in wars fomented for the purpose of plundering and destroying their race, and finally drowned by the ever westward tide of population, it is evident there is no future for them, except as they may exist as a memory in the sculptor’s bronze or stone and the painter’s canvas.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1894]  President Crawford then accepts the gift and the sculptor, C. E. Dallin, contributes brief remarks before he pulls a rope that reveals his work, which rests atop a pedestal northwest of the great equestrian statue of General Grant.  For more on Judge Lambert Tree and his gifts to Chicago you may refer to two pieces in Connecting the Windy City, here and here.  

June 9, 1884 – The Committee on Harbors and Bridges introduces an ordinance at the City Council meeting, requiring that bridges remain closed for at least 20 minutes after being opened with the time that they are open restricted to ten minutes. The problem of balancing the needs of over a half-million people with river commerce that had 11,203 vessels entering the port in the preceding year is becoming more and more clear.  One alderman expresses the opinion that “citizens were entitled to as much consideration as the river interests … Business in the city should not give way for business on the river” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1884] Another alderman warns against “Shutting off the shipping facilities by guarding the river too closely and subjecting the vessels to too many regulations.” A third says that the problem could be greatly improved if “the bridgetenders were more attentive to their duties.” Still another alderman observes that such an ordinance “would be a great detriment to the lake interests and drive the business to Milwaukee.” The council approves the report of the committee and places the ordinance on file.  The subject would come up over and over again, but it would be close to a hundred and ten years before any meaningful restrictions would be placed on the opening of bridges on the river.  The above photo shows the swing bridge at Kinzie Street, the predecessor to today's bascule bridge.


June 9, 1884 – The Chicago Harbor Master issues orders ta gang of men to cease their efforts to fill in a portion of the Chicago River at the Kirk Brothers Soap Factory, a river front operation that sprawled from approximately where today’s Wrigley Building stands to the east side of the lot where 401 North Michigan Avenue and the new Apple Store stand.  The Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “Work has been going on for several weeks, and in plain sight of the city officials engaged in building the bridge at Rush street.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1884] When Harbor Master McCarthy investigates the situation, he finds a row of pilings extending 250 feet along the river and a dozen feet beyond the property line of the factory.  The management of the company says the work is for a coffer-dam to protect the foundation of an addition to the factory, but they admit they have no permit.  They also reply that the “coffer-dam” will not be removed when the work is complete.  They are ordered to stop the construction and a police officer is posted at the site to make sure the order is obeyed.  At the time of the incident James S. Kirk and Co. was one of the world’s largest soap factories with a workforce of 250; by the time the century ends it would employ 600 workers and produce about 100 million pounds of soap each year.  The business ended in 1929. 

Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 2 comments
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