Connecting the Windy City

Thursday, September 17, 2020

September 17, 1974 -- Mercantile Exchange Approves Plans for New Headquarters

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September 17, 1974 – The Chicago Tribune reports that members of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have approved plans for a twin-towered office building that the exchange will occupy at Wacker Drive and Madison Street.  The vote is overwhelmingly positive, with 2,478 in favor of the plan and 567 standing in opposition.  It is expected that construction will begin in spring of 1975 on a site where a city parking garage is located.  The Chicago Mercantile Exchange will own the 40,000-square-foot trading floor that will be located at the base of the structure, joining the two towers together, along with ten percent of the first tower.  Metropolitan Structures, Inc. and JMB Realty Corporation will own the rest of the space in the buildings.  The new trading floor and office space will replace the exchange’s location at 444 West Jackson Boulevard, where a 25,000-square-foot trading floor is located along with adjacent office space.  The twin-towered project would be finished in 1981 according to plans drawn by architect Joseph Fujikawa.  For more on the architect you can turn to this entry in Connecting the Windy City.  When it opened what is today CME Center was the city’s first all-concrete skyscraper.  At the time it was the home of the largest open outcry futures exchange in the country.  With floor plates of 29,000 feet the LEED Gold® building encloses 2.3 million square feet of space overlooking the Chicago River.

September 17, 1969 – The City Council, by a vote of 30 to 6, approves two ordinances that clear the way for the office and residential development that Chicago now calls Illinois Center.  One ordinance establishes guidelines for the development of the area, and the other codifies the relationship between the city, the owner of the property, Illinois Central Industries, and three developers.  The plan calls for buildings of up to 90 stories with 45,000 workers, and 17,500 apartments with 35,000 residents.   In an editorial the Chicago Tribune writes glowingly about the project, asserting, “Chicagoans must feel some exhilaration to see, at long last, this strategic area built on in a manner suitable to its location in the center of the city.  And Chicagoans should take an eager, continuing, and responsible interest as Illinois Center plaza gradually develops . . . A brilliantly successful development here will be a civic asset the importance of which it would be almost impossible to exaggerate.” [Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1969]  The photo at the left shows the approximate area where the Hyatt Regency Hotel stands today.

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September 17, 1962 – The $2.75 million Loyola University Center at the southwest corner of Rush and Pearson Streets opens to students.  Loyola’s president, the Very Reverend James F. Maquire, says, “The center enables the university to accommodate meetings and gatherings of alumni and friends, to provide facilities for public lectures, luncheons, and conferences, and to serve other functions and activities for business and community groups.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 16, 1962]  The new building will include two cafeterias, 18 classrooms, a bookstore, conference rooms, student lounges, and a formal meeting room for administrative meetings.  A two-story enclosed walkway will connect the University Center to Lewis Towers, the main classroom building, which sits to the east just off Michigan Avenue.  As part of the dedication ceremony, at which His Eminence the Archbishop of Chicago Albert Cardinal Meyer officiates, a mural by Park Ridge artist Melville Steinfels is dedicated.  It depicts 400 years of Jesuit education.  The student center is the next step in a move downtown that began in 1946 with a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Lewis – an 18-story skyscraper located at 820 North Michigan Avenue, located just to the west of the city’s historic Water Tower. The site is considerably different today as Loyola’s eight-story School of Communication wraps around the north and west sides of The Clare, a senior independent living high-rise, at 55 East Pearson.  A new student center is located just to the west on the northwest corner of Pearson and Wabash Streets.  The photo shows Lewis Center as it appeared in the 1950's, shortly after its purchase.

The second photo shows the area as it appears today.

September 17, 1954 – The first new office building to be constructed in the Loop since 1933, the ten-story Sinclair Oil Corporation’s office building on the northeast corner of Wacker Drive and Randolph Street, is officially opened as more than 200 business leaders and officials from the state and city attend the ceremonies.  The new building contains 225,000 square feet of office space and 14,000 square feet of basement parking space.  The structure will consolidate various divisions of the corporation that were previously scattered in four separate locations.  The building is gone today, replaced by the Goettsch Partners tower, finished in 2010, at 155 North Wacker Drive.  The Sinclair building is outlined in the older photograph.  The award-winning Goettsch replacement is shown to the left.

September 17, 1922 –The new $1,600,000 Madison Street bridge is lowered into position for the first time at 2:00 p.m., leaving the Clark Street bridge as the only center-pier bridge left in the central area of the city.  It will be three weeks before pedestrians will be allowed across the new bridge, and it will be at least six weeks before traffic crosses the new span.  The bridge’s sidewalks will be 13.5 feet, eight feet wider than the sidewalks on the old center pier bridge that is being replaced.  Work on the new bridge began on December 1, 1919, but there is a long delay in the fabrication of the steel for the span.  It isn’t until late September of 1921 before work resumes.  In March of 1922 the bridge’s bond issue expires, and work is once again ordered to a halt.  In June Chicago voters approve a new bond issue, and work resumes on August 1.  According to historicbridges.org “This bridge stands out among the bridges of Chicago as one of the most historically and technologically significant since it is the first example of a design that Chicago would use in construction on many bridges during a period of over 40 years.  It also retains ornate sidewalk railings that greatly contribute to the visual beauty of the bridge.” The above photo shows the bridge under construction in 1922.  In the right foreground is the swing bridge which it will replace.

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Labels: 1974, Chicago Architecture, Chicago Development, Wacker Drive

Sunday, July 5, 2020

July 5, 1967 -- Lions Club Lines Up for Longest Parade in Club History

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July 5, 1967 – More than 18,000 members of Lions International parade down Michigan Avenue from Wacker Drive to Ninth Street as 200,000 people view the procession.  The parade steps off at 9:30 a.m. on a route that is supposed to last four hours.  However, four hours into the event units are still lining up at the starting line.  The parade finally ends at 2:55 p.m.  For the members of Lions International this was the largest parade ever mounted.  Appropriately, it marks the fiftieth anniversary of the organization, which was founded on June 7, 1917 at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago. Included in the parade are more than 40 floats, along with costumed marching units from all over the world; there is even a goat, bird, pig and groundhog from Virginia accompanying a “motley looking brand of ‘moonshiners.’”  Mayor Daley is at the reviewing stand between Harrison and Balbo before he leaves to speak at the opening of the Lions convention at Chicago Stadium. Governor Otto Kerner is also on hand to watch the festivities.  The above photo, taken in 1919, shows the original Lions Club members arranged in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.

July 5, 1938 – The Deerpath Inn of Lake Forest is swept by a fire that does $250,000 damage, most of which is covered by insurance.  Although the walls of the hotel are still standing, the top floor is destroyed with much of the rest of the structure damaged by smoke and water.  The dormitories of Ferry Hall at Lake Forest College are opened for hotel guests who “just had time to snatch their jewelry and clothes before the fire swept their rooms.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 6, 1938] Fire departments from North Chicago, Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station are needed to help the Lake Forest firefighters. The first Deerpath Inn was located on Deerpath Road and was converted from a private residence. In 1928 the hotel moved to a new location with 102 rooms in a three-story structure. The second Deerpath Inn was designed by architect William C. Jones who based his design on a Manor House in Chiddingstone, Kent, England. [LFLB History.org] Today the inn, now called the Deer Path Inn, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the Historic Hotels of America.  The inn has a special place in this writer's heart. When I was a sophomore in high school the Army transferred my father to Fort Sheridan, and arriving in a frozen Chicago in November of 1965 after nearly four years in Hawaii, this was the first place we stayed.

J. Bartholomew Photo

July 5, 1915 – The South Park Commission places plans for the improvement of Grant Park on exhibit in Blackwell Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The exhibit includes a model of the peristyle, designed by Edward H. Bennett, that will stand in the northwest corner of the park at the corner of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue.  Other plans include a pair of pylons sixty feet tall to mark the entrance to the park and a line of trees from Randolph Street to Twelfth Street with a gravel walk 30 feet wide beside them.  J. F. Foster, Superintendent of the South Park Commissioners, says that when the work is completed Grant Park “will be a beauty spot unsurpassed by any of the formal gardens in the United States and equaled only by the public gardens of Italy.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1915] One of the great pylons, part of the 1915 plan, that today greets visitors to the park is pictured above.  Note the "Y" symbol in its center panel.

July 5, 1911 – An unabated heat wave in the opening days of July reaches a high of 101.5 degrees at 2:00 p.m. on July 5 with devastating results.  In the first five days of the month 125 infants have died from heat-related causes.  The fear is that a far greater number is to come.  Dr. C. St. Clair Drake of the Bureau of Vital Statistics says, “The soured milk fed the children in these hot days has started intestinal disorders which are rapidly growing worse.”  On this day 44 men and women die with one man, “crazed by the high temperature” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 6, 1911] hanging himself.  Ice companies are having tremendous difficulty in transporting ice to the outlying sections of the city since so much of the shipment melts before it reaches its destination.  Shrinkage is usually about ten per cent; ice companies are losing close to 80 per cent of their shipments in trying to get it delivered. As a result, fresh milk, fruit and other food items are in short supply in some parts of the city. Companies are also having difficulty in keeping their horses up and working.  Forty horses have died on city streets and over 200 have been affected so much that they cannot work.  The Humane Society has received 300 emergency calls since July 3.  On this one day alone over 300 horses are felled near the Loop with just one fountain for teamsters to water their horses in the area, that in front of the Y.W.C.A. on South Michigan Avenue.  Cooling temperatures and a slight chance of rain is predicted for July 6.

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Labels: 1967, Chicago Event, Michigan Avenue, Wacker Drive

Thursday, June 11, 2020

June 11, 1971 -- Hyatt Announces New Wacker Drive Hotel

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June 11, 1971 – Hyatt Corporation announces plans for a $40-million hotel for which construction will begin in September.  The 34-story hotel will stand on the southwest corner of East Wacker Drive and Stetson Avenue.  The hotel will be developed by a joint venture of Jupiter Corporation, Metropolitan Structures, the Prudential Insurance Company of America and Illinois Central Industries.  With 1,000 rooms the reinforced concrete building, faced with brick, will feature “a dramatic glass walled lobby which will extend beyond the wall of the tower much like a conservatory.”  [Chicago Tribune, June 12, 1971]  Edward Mate, the chief of design for A. Epstein and Sons, the architect, says that the hotel will have “three levels of restaurants and lounges, opened up towards the glass lobby to give dramatic vistas.”  A landscaped court is expected to link the hotel to the 111 East Wacker Drive building and the 30-story Blue Cross-Blue Shield building that is under construction.  The above photo shows Mayor Richard J. Daley at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new hotel on April 25, 1972.

chicagology.com

June 11, 1923 – A rapidly moving fire sweeps up the freight elevator shaft of the Capitol Building, formerly the Masonic Temple building, as 2,000 members of various lodge organizations struggle to escape flames that overtake the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth floors.  Loop streets in the vicinity of Randolph and State Streets are blocked by fire department equipment and theatergoers headed for performances in the many venues that are near the stricken building.  Among those theatergoers is New York Governor Al Smith, in town to take in a show, who watches with his party  He and his party watch as firefighters attack the flames.  Several women attending meetings on the upper floors faint and are rescued by firefighters. Two firefighters are overcome by smoke but are carried safely from the building.  All eight elevator operators remain at their posts although the capacity of the cars is insufficient to carry the hundreds of people who are meeting on the upper floors.  Flames spread between the floors on seven different levels and in places where firefighters hack their way through brick and plaster walls to get at the flames, the fire shows itself on the north side of the building just across the alley from the Chicago Theater where several thousand spectators take in a performance with no knowledge of the mayhem just a few feet away.  The building, designed by Chicago architect John Wellborn Root, would limp along after the fire until it was finally demolished in 1939.  The 31-story Joffrey Tower occupies the site today.

June 11, 1892 – A curious coincidence is noted in the Chicago Daily Tribune, “remarked upon by numerous people in marine circles ...” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 11, 1892] On the previous day in Chicago as Benjamin Harrison was being nominated for re-election as President of the United States at the Republican convention in Minneapolis, “the schooner Benjamin Harrison was passing through Harrison street bridge in Chicago, the Protection towing her and the Union astern, with the barge Sunshine following in tow of the Satisfaction.” 

June 11, 1863 – The Chicago Tribune reports that Mr. John McAuley has successfully moved the first brick building, a two-story structure that will become the New York Dye House.  Safe in its new location at 208 Clark Street, the building is “now in a s good condition as before it was moved,” reports the Tribune.  In a rapidly growing city with lots and lots of room to build, house movers perfected their craft quickly. The Encyclopedia of Chicago notes that the industry had become so common in the middle of the nineteenth century that the Chicago City Council passed ordinances prohibiting more than one building at a time to stand in the streets or for any one building to stand in the streets for more than three days.  Over a period of a few years Chicago building movers became, perhaps, the best in the world, mostly because of the city’s attempt, beginning in 1855, to raise itself out of its own sewage by jacking up a significant number of buildings anywhere from four to fourteen feet.  By 1890 1,710 permits were issued for the movement of structures throughout the city.  That was the year that 33,992 linear feet, or 6.4 miles, of building frontage changed locations within the city.  For more on the ability of Chicago to move its buildings around you can turn to this blog entry in Connecting the Windy City.  The above photo shows the raising of the Robbins Building in 1855, a building 150 feet long, 80 feet wide and five stories high, located at the corner of South Water Street and Wells Street. 

June 11, 1861 – An editorial in the Chicago Tribune once again screams at the foulness of the Chicago River . . . “Cross the river at nightfall and see what an odor of nastiness prevails there.  It will breed a pestilence, this huge, filthy ditch, which reeks with the garbage of distilleries and slaughter houses, sewers, and cesspools, and the odorous refuse of the Gas Company.  We do not remember to have ever before seen it as abominably unclean as now.  The hot season is at hand.  What shall be done?  The question is an easy one to answer.  Set the big pumps at Bridgeport at work, and in twenty-four hours time, fresh, pure water from the lake will take the place of this infamous broth concocted of all uncleanness and pent under the very nostrils of our citizens.  Let the river be pumped out; it is high time.”  [Chicago Tribune, June 11, 1861]  It would be another 39 years before the river would be “pumped out” with the opening of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, but this piece does show that the idea for reversing the river had been under consideration for decades before the 1900 completion of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

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Labels: 1971, Chicago Development, Chicago RIver, Hotels, Wacker Drive

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

May 26, 2016 -- LondonHouse Opens for Business

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May 26, 2016 – After a $200 million renovation effort, the former London Guarantee and Accident building at 360 North Michigan Avenue is opened as the 452-room LondonHouse.  A slim contemporary addition just to the west of the original neo-classical building at 85 East Wacker Drive completes the project.   The original 1923 building, designed by Alfred Alschuler, was the second of four great skyscrapers, each constructed on a corner of the brand-new Michigan Avenue bridge in a span of eight years from 1920 to 1928.  The other three include the Wrigley Building (1920), Tribune Tower (1925), and 333 North Michigan Avenue (1928).  A highlight of the renovation can be seen in the top three floors of the building.  The twenty-first floor includes a bar where live music will bring back memories to some of the London House jazz club that operated in the base of the building until the early 1970’s.  On the twenty-second floor there is an outdoor terrace, perhaps the most elegant rooftop bar in the city, a space where great views of the river will complement the drinks.  A special events space in the belvedere or temple at the top level of the building will be available for private parties.   An interesting historical side note in the design of the building relates to the Michigan Avenue elevation.  Architect Alfred Alschuler was presented with a problem when he began his design – a property owner, John W. Keogh, refused to sell a small piece of land on Michigan Avenue that held a two-story brick building.  Alschuler designed the new building so the space above the two-story building would serve as an airshaft, providing light and air to the offices surrounding it.  Eventually, the developer, John S. Miller, acquired a long-term lease for the small lot and Alschuler designed a five-story in-fill compatible with the base of his new tower.  The top photo with the red arrow shows that part of the plan.  The second photo shows the new building shortly after it opened. probably sometime in late 1925 or early 1926.  Notice the creation of Wacker Drive is underway to the west of Alschuler’s design.  Also note the train yard at the left of the photo in what is today Illinois Center.  

May 26, 1952 – The Chicago Park District unveils a $2,500 model of the underground garage that it is preparing to build in Grant Park. Anticipated plans have the garage situated between Randolph and Monroe Streets and between the Illinois Central railroad tracks to a point within 40 feet of buildings on the west side of Michigan Avenue. The two-level garage, 23 feet below Michigan Avenue, will occupy 400,000 square feet and will hold 2,500 cars. Fees will be 45 cents for the first hour and 15 cents an hour after that. The first hour today will cost you 27 bucks.  The photo above shows the 1954 opening of the garage with the Prudential building, finished a year later, under construction in the background.

May 26, 1943 – The capacity to train aircraft pilots in the Great Lakes doubles as the U. S. S. Sable joins the U. S. S. Wolverine, which has been carrying out carrier operations off the Chicago lakefront since August of 1942.  The Sable, converted from a sidewheel passenger vessel known as the Greater Buffalo of the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation company, is somewhat larger than the Wolverine.  She is outfitted with a 12,000-horsepower engine that can deliver a speed of up to 20 knots and has a length of 550 feet and a beam of 100 feet.  As a passenger ship the Sable had room for 2,120 passengers and 1,000 tons of freight.  Since all of the planes that practice landings and take-offs on the ship will be based at the Glenview Naval Air Station, there is no need for a hanger deck and money is saved in re-fitting the ship by retaining much of the fine furniture, china and linens that were a part of the ship’s previous life.  Captain W. K. Berner, a Navy pilot since 1924 and a 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, will command the Sable.  The Executive Office will be Commander H. H. Crow, a Naval reserve officer since 1909, a veteran of World War I, during which he served aboard the U. S. S. Tacoma and the U. S. S. Buffalo.  The photos above show the Greater Buffalo and the U. S. S. Sable.

May 26, 1900 – An invasion of the “District of Lake Michigan” from land and water is planned as 600 police officers, 16 patrol wagons, and two unarmored tugs carrying three-inch field pieces advance on territory held by a rag-tag band that pledges allegiance to Captain George Wellington Streeter.  The whole affair is put on hold, though, as one Lincoln Park policeman, William L. Hayes, spoils everything “by calmly ambling into the district alone and arresting the entire army of invasion, [taking] their cartridge belts away from them, [kicking] their mud fortifications down, and marched them off to the East Chicago Avenue Police Station.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 27, 1900] For over a dozen hours the 13 men of the invading army defied the police, but their numbers dwindled as the day wore on and only five remained when Hayes walks into the encampment. The group had earlier formed an invading party as a boat carried them from South Chicago to the area on the lake just north of the river now known as Streeterville.  After the “invasion” at 2:00 a.m., a proclamation was issued that reads, “Now, therefore, we, the property-holders of the District of Lake Michigan, do declare the District of Lake Michigan to be free and independent from the State of Illinois, the County of Cook, and the City of Chicago, and that we will maintain our independence by force of arms to the best of our ability, and all armed forces except those of the United States military, coming into this district, will do so at their peril.”  Early morning strollers along the new Outer Drive near Superior Street are surprised to hear a sentry’s order to halt and identify themselves.  Things progressively become more serious. Captain Barney Baer, a Lincoln Park policeman, retreats after his horse is shot and killed, the bed of his buggy splintered, and a bullet “bounced … with great nicety off the top button of the Captain’s coat.”  After a lengthy conference at City Hall it is decided that “the State, the county, and the city should move out to attack the insolent foe hand in hand.”  The tugboat John Hay is outfitted with two field guns as is the fire tug Illinois as 600 policemen from all over the city form ranks in front of the Chicago Avenue pumping station.  But … “Just as the long line of blue heroes was beginning to throw out skirmishers down Chicago avenue, and just when Admiral Fyfe was wondering whether he should open fire from the field guns, with brick bats or six cans of sweet corn” Hayes, the lone Lincoln Park cop, decides things have gone far enough. He walks into the fortifications of the enemy and says, “Say, fellers, cut it out.”  As “the long line of blue heroes” continues east along Chicago Avenue toward a glorious battle, the defenders of the District of Lake Michigan stand down and are marched west on Superior Street to the East Chicago Avenue police station where they are charged. "A" in the above graphic pinpoints where George Streeter's boat, the Reutan, went aground in 1886. "B" shows where it was hauled ashore in what is today Streeterville.  Note that at the time the Chicago water tower, just to the right of "B," sat on the edge of the lake.

chicagotribune.com

May 26, 1894 – The Lake Street elevated line begins proceedings in the Superior Court to condemn a portion of its “alley line” east of Market Street (what is today Wacker Drive) and a portion of its North Side line.  In the suit the company claims a right of way from Market Street through the alley between Wabash and Michigan Avenues, through the alley between Wabash and Michigan Avenues (today’s Garland Court ), from there east to the alley between Lake and South Water Streets and west to Market Street.  The suit proposes to condemn 22 feet of the rear of all lots facing north on Lake Street between Franklin and Fifth Avenue (today’s Wells Street), and the same number of feet on the rear of all lots facing north on south Water Street between La Salle and Fifth Avenue.  Additionally, the company sues to have a 60-foot strip that begins 100 feet east of Fifth Avenue and continues along the alley between Randolph and Lake Streets condemned.  Buildings occupy all of the ground that is sought, the value of which is thought to be near $600,000.   The condemnation suit seems to be an attempt to head off the Northwestern elevated company in its desire to complete a downtown “Loop” that circles the business district and connects with other lines running from the north, south and west. The attorney for the company says, “Satisfactory progress has been made towards securing signatures of property-owners, but the Lake street company does not intend that structures which may be erected interfering with that projected loop shall stop it from running its trains further into town.  That is why we have decided to build east through the alleys immediately.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 27,1894]. Prior to completion of the Loop elevated line, or the Union Loop, there were three elevated railway lines in the city – the South Side Elevated Railroad, the Lake Street Elevated Railroad and the Metropolitan West Side Railroad, each with its own terminal on the edges of the central business district.  The Lake Street Elevated line’s extension, referenced above, was completed along the north side of the business district in 1895.  The Union Elevated Railroad, controlled by Charles Tyson Yerkes, was constructed under less than above board financial arrangements and was completed in 1896 and 1897, running north and south on Wabash Avenue and Wells Street.  The south leg along Van Buren Street was also completed in 1897.  The Library of Congress website states, “The Union Elevated Railroad is one of only a few extant examples of transit systems that have remained in continuous operation for [over] a century.”  [www.loc.gov] 

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Labels: 2016, Chicago Architecture, Chicago Development, Hotels, Michigan Avenue, Wacker Drive

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

May 12, 1860 -- Republican Convention Begins with Wigwam Dedication

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May 12, 1860 – The convention of the Republican Party begins with the dedication of the Great Wigwam, at the corner of Lake and Market [what is now Wacker Drive] Streets.  The building, the largest convention hall in the United States, was begun just a month earlier.  Built entirely of wood, the building could hold close to 11,000 people with a stage that could seat between 600 and 700 people.  The two-story structure had a gallery on three sides “the pitch [of which] is such that from every part a perfect view of the speaker’s stand can be gained.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 14, 1860]   The cost of the Wigwam was between $5,000 and $6,000 [somewhere between $155,000 and $185,000 in today’s dollars].  The interior was “rough and unplaned” … the wall in back of the raised stage was the brick wall of the adjoining store.  Between 7,000 and 8,000 people are on hand for the dedication, finding that the hall “presents a feature most satisfactory in its acoustic qualities.’ A Tribune reporter finds that even in the remotest areas of the gallery he “could hear distinctly the fuller tones of the speaker’s voice.”  The Wigwam was meant to be a temporary structure and was demolished before the 1871 fire, but it played host to one of the biggest events in the city’s, perhaps even the country’s, history when on May 18, 1860 Abraham Lincoln won the presidential nomination of the Republican Party on the third ballot.  Today, 191 North Wacker Drive stands at this location, one of three buildings in a row designed by New York architecture firm Kohn, Pedersen and Fox.  The original Wigwam and 191 North Wacker are shown in the photos above.

May 12, 2011 – The Chicago Tribune reports that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Chicago to improve its sewage treatment system so that the river will be clean enough for “recreation in and on the water.” [Chicago Tribune, May 13, 2011] The new order goes far beyond those of a state panel that a year earlier had issued guidelines that would make the river clean enough for canoers and paddlers who “briefly fell into the water”. The ruling will necessitate the overhaul of two out of three of the city’s massive sewage treatment plants. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District estimates the cost will be close to $1 billion while the EPA puts the estimate at something less than $250 million. “We’ve got a chance for our generation to do something big for this important river,” says Senator Dick Durbin.

May 12, 1947 –A doleful editorial in the Chicago Daily Tribune begins, ‘Chicago is in a civic slump, however much it may be thriving industrially.  Dozens of improvement projects are languishing in this, the very city that once was a pioneer in every kind of municipal enterprise.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 12, 1983] “We have many things to be proud of,” the editorial continues, “but most of them were achieved long ago.  Now we cannot even get rid of smoke, to say nothing of obsolete railroad terminals.”  As a result, Chicago, the paper observes, is losing ground to other cities, “New York is building bridges, tunnels, and roads to overcome the handicaps of its site. Los Angeles has vastly extended its boundaries and is getting water from sources hundreds of miles away.  San Francisco has solved its problems of expansion by building bridges that are unequaled in all the world.” In the meantime, “Chicago, the erstwhile city of ‘I Will,’ the city that once was a national symbol of energy and originality, lives on her past.”  As the Tribune nears its one-hundredth anniversary, the column concludes, “Those who should be pulling Chicago out of its slump may expect to hear form The Tribune frequently and not admiringly as this newspaper enters its second century.” Contrasting the 1947 photo taken looking east from where today's River Point tower stands with the site as it appears today shows that, fortunately, the lack of vision that the paper lamented did not last forever.

May 12, 1941 – A two-car elevated train slams into a bumper on the dead-end tracks of the Market stub at the Madison Street-Wacker Drive station, runs over a platform, and finally comes to a stop with its front end dangling over the street 50 feet below.  Fortunately, there are no passengers on board the train. The train’s motorman says that the brakes did not hold as he tried to stop at the station.  When this portion of the elevated opened in 1893, Market Street, like much of the West Loop was primarily made up of light industry, warehouses, and small businesses, and it was in this area that the Lake Street elevated ended its run before the Loop elevated system was completed.  As early as 1897, when the Loop began operation, the stub was slated for demolition.  Yet, it kept operating, primarily as an overflow route, when the Loop reached capacity, until the late 1940’s when it was demolished, making way for today’s double-decked Wacker Drive.  A photo of the Market Street stub appears above, along with a photo of the accident in 1941.

May 12, 1880 – A Criminal Courts judge upholds the right of the city to transfer the control of Michigan Avenue and Thirty-Fifth Street to the South Park Commissioners, upholding the Boulevard Act of 1879.  The judge states that on February 21, 1869 the charter of the Board of South Park Commissioners gave that body the responsibility for existing highways and “to lay out new ones within the defined limits of the South Parks, and to manage and control them, free to all persons, but subject to such necessary rules and regulations as shall from time to time be adopted by said Commissioners for the well ordering and government of the same.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 13, 1880] Subsequent legislation added to the charter but did not impair it.  The Boulevard Act of 1879 went even farther as the judge observed in his opinion, “It is an act to enable the Park Commissioners ‘to take, regulate, control, and improve public streets leading to public parks, and to levy and collect special taxes or assessments to pay for the improvement itself.’  It authorizes the Park Commissioners to ‘connect’ the present park system, including existing boulevards and driveways, with any point within the city by the use of ‘connecting street or streets, or parts thereof,’ and it authorizes the city, town or village ‘to invest any such Park Boards with the right to control, improve and maintain any of the streets of such city’ … ‘for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act.’”  The commissioners, in other words, had the legal authority to connect any road leading to or abutting a park to city streets that would make a connection to a park, and they had the right, with permission of the city, to levy taxes to build and maintain such connections.  The judge upholds the right of the South Park Commissioners to assume responsibility for Michigan Avenue south of the river since it is an important connection to the roads and boulevards leading to city parks. The above photo shows Michigan Avenue in 1885 at its intersection with Van Buren Street.

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Labels: 1860, Chicago Architecture, Chicago Event, Lake Street, Politics, Wacker Drive

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

May 6, 1957 -- Lower Wacker Drive Opened to Traffic

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May 6, 1957 – The lower level of Wacker Drive is opened to traffic as Mayor Richard J. Daley and other officials take part in ceremonies.  A year earlier the upper deck of Wacker, running along the west side of the Loop, was opened after the expenditure of $11 million on the project.  The upper level had no direct connection, though, to the new Congress Expressway, which is still under construction.  Traffic on that level of Wacker has to pass under Congress and turn right on Harrison Street, then right onto Wells and right again onto Congress.  The lower level will use ramps to take traffic on and off the new expressway.  There will be no way to head east on Congress from either upper or lower Wacker Drive.   Engineers estimate that of the 90,000 automobiles passing through the Congress plaza daily, 20,000 are expected to use the ramps to or from lower Wacker Drive.

May 6,1942 – Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Chick Evans, and Tommy Armour tee it up at the Edgewater Golf Club with the admission fees from the 3,500 spectators going to benefit the Fort Sheridan Athletic and Recreation Fund.  The team of Crosby and Evans win the match, 2 up, both men shooting 36, one over par. Armour cards a 37 and Hope a 38. The round ends after nine holes as overzealous fans “crowded [the players] at every step, seeking autographs or at least a walking proximity to the two stars. Small boys scale the Edgewater fences by the hundreds to follow Bing and Bob.” [Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1942] As a side note the 94-acre Edgewater Golf Club is now a part of the city’s Warren Park at 6601 N. Western Avenue. When the old golf course was re-zoned in 1968 to allow real estate development on the property, a grassroots effort to save the land as open space ensued. A third of the property became the first urban state park when Illinois purchased it for $8 million in 1969. The Chicago Park District condemned another 32 acres in 1972 and a new park, complete with a nine-hole golf course was opened in 1980. The golf course is dedicated to Robert A. Black, Chief Engineer at the Chicago Park District for more than 30 years. The layout of the old golf course is pictured above.  A look at what Warren Park looks like today is shown beneath it.  An awesome history of the course and the politics involved in its transformation can be found here.

May 6, 1929 –The South Park Board approves the lakefront ordinance, offering hope that the three-year dispute between the board and the Illinois Central Railroad is moving toward a conclusion.  Among other things the ordinance contains provisions for construction of the Randolph Street viaduct and an Illinois Central suburban train station in Grant Park. The station was originally intended to be completed by February 20, 1927, but disagreements between the park board and the railroad delayed the plan.  At the meeting of the South Park board two amendments are added to the ordinance. One holds the I. C. liable for any damage to viaducts resulting from the operation of trains.  The second assures the South Park board of complete control of the Roosevelt Road viaduct “with particular reference to the granting of franchises to public utilities companies to provide transportation to the municipal bathing beach and other attractions on the lake front.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 7, 1929] The above photo shows Grant Park in 1929.

May 6, 1909 – At a hearing before Major Thomas Rees, the Chief Engineer of the Department of the Lakes, representatives of river and commercial interests present their evaluation of conditions on the Chicago River, testimony which appears to strike “the death knell of the Lake street bridge and other center pier structures which have obstructed traffic in the Chicago river for years.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 7, 1909]   Attorney Edward Cahill, representing river interests, testifies that the old style bridges are “menaces to traffic.”  Captain Rardon, a mariner who was in charge of the first vessel to leave the Chicago harbor on October 9, 1871, leaving a burnt-out city behind him, said that “center pier bridges obstruct the flow of water, create a disastrous current in the river and otherwise make navigation dangerous.”  The only argument in favor of the swing bridges comes from the president of the Lake Street elevated who expresses his doubts that the federal government could interfere with his company’s contract with the city to run its trains over the bridge at Lake Street, a contract that has an expiration date of 1940.  The city generally agrees with the testimony while pleading for more time.  Alderman Charles M. Foell, speaking on behalf of the city, says, “The council agrees that these center pier bridges are a menace to river commerce, but we also assert that the city has no funds provided for the work of changing the bridges at present … we are anxious to cooperate with the government in this work, and urge that we be granted time to obtain the necessary funding.” The Lake Street elevated line, today's Green Line, is pictured above in 1909. 

May 6, 1883 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that the excavation for the nine-story headquarters of the Pullman Palace-Car Company on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street has begun.  As the Home Insurance Building on La Salle Street is nearing completion – arguably the first metal-framed commercial skyscraper in history – the Pullman building will be “perfectly fireproof from cellar to garret – fireproof tile and iron beams being used throughout.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 6, 1883] The structure will have a dual purpose.  The Pullman headquarters will have an entrance on Adams Street while a number of apartments in the building will be entered through the Michigan Avenue entrance.  Company offices will occupy the first four floors of the building, and speculation is that the fifth floor will be given to the offices of General Phillip Sheridan.  The five upper floors will be devoted to apartments of from seven to ten rooms and a number of bachelors’ suites from two to four rooms.  The ninth floor will have a restaurant overlooking the lake with “a large covered promenade … making it a delightful resort in warm weather.”  The half-million-dollar building will have its boilers located in a separate structure, given “the prejudice against living in a building with large steam boilers in the basement.”  The Tribune assessment of the building concludes, “One of the objects sought by Mr. Pullman … was the furnishing to those employés of the company who desired them living apartments of superior character more convenient to their business than those in which many of them now abide … Mr. Pullman has expressed a wish that such a structure might be erected for their benefit.”

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Labels: 1957, Chicago Politics, Congress Street, Highways, Transportation, Wacker Drive