Wednesday, December 26, 2018

December 26, 1998 -- The Sky Pavilion at the Adler Planetarium Opens

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December 26, 1998 –The Sky Pavilion, the $30 million addition to the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, opens and Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin calls it “the most daring building in years along a shoreline dotted by gleaming white museums based on the temples of antiquity.” [Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1998]  The new addition, dubbed “the bra” for the way its C-shaped expanse wraps around the 1930 building, will add a new theater, additional exhibit spaces and a 200-seat restaurant, throwing exceptional views of the city’s skyline into the experience.  Kamin makes the point that the new pavilion teaches a lesson – “The present doesn’t have to parrot the past to respect it … [the pavilion] is both a sensitive expansion and a spectacular addition to the lakefront – every bit as much an expression of its era as its distinguished predecessor. Designed by Dirk Lohan and Al Novickas of Lohan Associates, the addition adds a stunning new space while it subtracts alterations that have taken “some of the luster off this diminutive gem.”  Kamin makes the point that the engineering that developed the addition would not have been possible without a computer that could calculate the complex angles in the new structure, a structure he calls “one of the finest meldings of space and structure in Chicago since Jahn’s masterful United Terminal at O’Hare International Airport was completed in 1988.”


December 26, 1911 – As the machinists’ strike on the Illinois Central Railroad continues, five dangerous incidents of vandalism take place between the Parkside and Grand Crossing stations of the railroad.  At 3:10 p.m. the Blue Island Express runs through an open switch at Grand Crossing, and the engine is thrown off the tracks.  At 7:00 p.m. a south bound freight train is broken in two near Grand Crossing with two freight cars derailed.  An hour later a five-coach South Chicago local train hits an obstruction near Seventy-First Street, and the engine and the first trucks of the following coach are derailed.  Ten minutes after that a south bound passenger train derails just fifty feet west of the South Chicago train.  At 8:30 p.m. two men are seen tampering with a switch at Seventh-Fifth Street, near the South Shore station, but they make their escape before police can be informed.  Reached at his home, F. S. Gibbons, the Vice-President and general manager of the railroad, says, “I don’t believe the strikers would deliberately plan to wreck trains.  I believe an investigation will disclose something else as the cause.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 27, 1911] Despite his assertion, Chicago police place an officer at every switch between Seventy-First and Ninety-First Streets.  The strike, which began in June of 1911, was not fully resolved until the middle of 1915.


December 26, 1951 – The holidays are stressful times, and motorists on Michigan Avenue on the day after Christmas back in 1951 have ample reason to be stressed as a result of a standoff between representatives of two city agencies.  Traffic policeman Phil Tolan arrests a CTA bus driver, William Wilson, at Michigan Avenue and Ontario Street in the height of the evening rush hour.  It starts innocently enough when Wilson, with a green light, moves his bus into the intersection of Michigan and Ohio.  You see this all the time today -- traffic is backed up and the bus blocks the intersection.  Officer Tolan approaches the window on the driver’s side of the bus and tells the driver he should have waited, and Wilson closes the window in the copper’s face.  “Well, I couldn’t let him sass me like that so I told him he was under arrest and ordered him to open the door and get out and show me his license,” Tolan says.  [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 27, 1951]  He orders the bus driver off the bus, but Wilson won’t open the door until Tolan threatens to break it.  A paddy wagon is called, Wilson is taken to the East Chicago Avenue station, and the CTA is left with the task of transferring passengers to another bus and getting the stranded bus out of the intersection, a process that takes close to 45 minutes.  The humor probably would have been lost on all of the motorists jammed up on Michigan Avenue that evening, but before he was a cop, Tolan drove a bus for the CTA.  The photo above was taken about a half-mile south of Ontario, but you get the idea of what a 45-minute blockade of a key intersection might have been like.


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Tuesday, December 25, 2018

December 25, 1953 -- Carter H. Harrison, Jr. Dies

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December 25, 1953 –Carter H. Harrison, the five-time mayor of Chicago, dies in his home at 2100 Lincoln Park West at the age of 93. Oscar Mayer, 94, one of the former mayor’s closest friends says, “I’ve lost my dearest friend.  He was a great and honest man.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 26, 1953]  Mayor Martin Kennelly says of Harrison, who with his father ran the city for 22 of its first 72 years, “He and his father have left an indelible mark on the history of the city’s progress.  His life and works and the principles he stood for will remain as an inspiration to all, and particularly to the young people of this city.”  Harrison and his father each served five terms as mayor. The senior Harrison lost his life to a deranged assassin as the World’s Columbian Exposition closed its run in 1893. The younger Harrison was born on April 23, 1860 at the corner of Clark and Harrison Streets.  At the age of 13 he began a period of study in Altenberg, now a part of Germany, returning in 1976 to enter St. Ignatius College, now Loyola University.  Later he received a law degree from Yale University and practiced law in Chicago until 1888, also working in real estate and as the editor of the Chicago Times after his father bought the paper in 1891.  He was first elected as mayor in 1899, serving that term as well as two-year terms in 1899, 1901 and 1903.  In 1911 he was again elected mayor and served out that four-year term until 1915. Perhaps his greatest battle was with the traction magnate, Charles Tyson Yerkes, against whom he led a fight to keep him from obtaining 50-year franchises for his companies, contracts which Harrison believed were unjust and harmful to the public.  In his autobiography, Harrison answered Yerkes, who had stated, “I cannot understand Mayor Harrison,” with the reply, “Of course Mr. Yerkes cannot understand me – I am an honest man.” 


December 25, 1892 – The Chicago Daily Tribune editorializes once again about the potential use of lakefront property south of Monroe Street and east of the Illinois Central tracks.  Pointing out that the United States government has established a “dock line” 1,300 feet east of the railroad tracks, the paper opines the feds are not “concerned with what is done west of that line.  It is a matter of no consequence to the United States whether the wharves are 1,300 feet from the tracks or 300 … Therefore, without fear of molestation from the United States, the city can proceed to construct wharves or levees in the manner which suits it.”  Since the city has the power to determine the use of the area east and west of the Illinois Central tracks to 1,300 feet into the lake, it can use that space for whatever purposes it chooses, according to the editorial.  Therefore, “… it can fill out solid to navigable water, and use the ground between the landing and the west line of the filling for park purposes.  That portion of the land not needed for harbor purposes necessarily must be used as a park, subject of the same limitations which apply to the strip west of the tracks.”  The editorial cautions against pushing forward without a plan, given the expense of creating parkland out of open water, but the writers assert that there is still a way to put the project into motion … “There is no reason why the shore line should not be pushed forward by the steady dumping of ashes and other harmless refuse, which it is often difficult to dispose of.  All that would be needed would be means of reaching the shore.”  The above photo shows what would one day become Grant Park in 1890.


December 25, 1934 – What a Christmas for Chicago – peace on earth, good will toward men, and, courtesy of the Chicago Park District, bathroom facilities at Oak Street.  Lake Shore Drive residents approve the plan to construct subway comfort stations beneath Lake Shore Drive and resident Frank G. Logan says, “We believe that this construction will provide a solution of both congestion and sanitation problems at Oak Street.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 26, 1934]  Seems reasonable – congestion and sanitary problems as a one-two combo seem like they should have a high priority.  This is an interesting piece of real estate; in 1884 the property owners along the Lake Shore Drive, at that time a residential street, gave up their riparian rights to the commissioners of Lincoln Park and agreed to pay for part of a landfill extension, including a breakwater to protect the lakeshore (and their street).  In exchange the commissioners agreed that no buildings would be constructed along the lakeshore in this area, which is probably why you see the Oak Street Bistro being assembled and disassembled each year. A proposal for the pedestrian subways was made in July of 1922, but it wasn’t until the fall of 1934 that the Illinois highway commission indicated it was willing to provide $100,000 for the pedestrian tunnels and comfort stations if the Chicago Park District was able to come up with an appropriate plan.  With no bathhouse and as many as 55,000 people flocking to the beach area on a hot summer’s day, the facilities were clearly needed.  The above photo shows Oak Street beach in the summer of 1930.
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Monday, December 24, 2018

December 24, 2015 -- Eastland's Last Survivor Dies

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December 24, 2015 –The Eastland Disaster Historical Society announces that the last survivor of the disaster on the Chicago River that claimed 844 lives on July 24, 1915 has died.  Marion Eichholz, 102 years old, was only a toddler of three years when her father jumped with her in his arms into the river to escape the sinking ship.  Eichholz’s testimony, recorded by her sister, Shirley Eichholz Clifford, provides a powerful look into the horror of that day on the river.  “People began to panic, and women were running and screaming. Dad picked me up in his arms, stood on the railing, and jumped into the river,” she said.  “I remember Dad swimming with me in one arm.  I was crying, and my strap slippers were dangling from my ankles.  We were picked up by a tugboat and brought to shore.”  Eichholz’s niece, Kathleen Kremholz, says, “What she always remembered is she had new shoes on … What she always talked about was seeing all the babies underneath the water who had drowned in baby buggies.”  Eichholz, on the left, is pictured in a childhood photo with her younger sister and her parents in the above photo.


December 24, 1887 – With the completion of an electricity generating plant at Washington Boulevard and Clinton Street, 100 “brilliant lights … blaze out on the Chicago River”. [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 24, 1887] It is hoped that the illuminated river will eliminate river traffic having “the necessity of keeping up constant whistling.” Ten miles of cable have been laid, covering all the bridges from Polk Street on the south to Indiana Avenue on the North Branch and out to the mouth of the river.  Four lights are placed on each bridge, two at each end, with a 2,000-candlepower capacity for each lamp.  The 150 lights will be the equivalent of 10,000 gas lamps.  The above photo shows the river in the 1880's ... imagine the traffic moving up and down the river at night, each boat whistling shrilly in the middle of the city to indicate its movement.


December 24, 1961 – The Chicago Daily Tribune tells the story of the first Christmas tree in Chicago, cut down somewhere near today's Division Street in 1804.  According to the paper’s account the commander of Fort Dearborn, Captain John Whistler, “decided his garrison should have a holiday tree to lift morale.  His men and their families were weary of the bitter cold and the ice on the lake to the horizon.”  The tree was dragged across the frozen river to the garrison that stood at what is now the corner of Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue.  “On Christmas day, with a few feeble candles glowing on the tree, the garrison sat down to its first Christmas dinner,” the article continues.  Guests included John Kinzie and his family and another trapper who lived across the river, Francis Ouilmette.  In the middle of the celebration a friendly group of Indians, led by Chief Black Partridge, made a visit and the group was invited to stay and “partake of the feast.”  Imagine those first inhabitants of what would become this great city, huddled together dozens and dozens of miles away from anything remotely resembling civilization, sharing a quiet communal moment in the darkness and cold of the wilderness night.  It’s enough to make us thankful for what we have.  

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Sunday, December 23, 2018

December 23, 1894 -- John Root's Grave Marker in Graceland

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December 23, 1894 -- The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that “There has just been erected in Graceland Cemetery a monument that is probably the most unique as well as one of the most notable in the country.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1894]  The monument to which the paper refers is the stone marking the grave of architect John Root.  Pointing out that the funeral service for the great architect, three years earlier, was of “the utmost simplicity,” the paper observes that “… it seemed fitting that the stone that should mark his earthly resting-place should express to the utmost the simplicity of art and its traditions.”  A Celtic cross, designed by Daniel Burnham, Charles Atwood and Jules Wegman, marks Root’s grave site.  The plans “called for red Scotch granite of even color and material, without a flaw, and the carving to have the true archaic weather-beaten appearance as seen on the old Celtic crosses in Scotland and Ireland.”  The design executed in Scotland as “It was deemed improbable that the peculiar character and feeling sought for in the design could be brought out by any stonecutter in the United States.”  In the center of the cross, surrounded by “the motif by which the Druids symbolized immortality” are the outlines of the entrance to the proposed art institute, “the drawings of which were probably the last which Mr. Root executed.”  It is a monument to a man “who builded his monuments in brick and stone in life, and who, now gone, has his place in the history of American architecture and the arts for all time, his grave marked by a simple cross, yet covered in time-defying granite.”

December 23, 1907 – The permit for a new La Salle Hotel that will stand at the northwest corner of LaSalle and Madison Streets, is taken out.  Estimated to cost $2,800,000, the permit for the hotel is the largest issued in 1907.  The permit itself cost $2,400.50.  Construction of the hotel is expected to begin sometime between March 1 and May 1 with an estimated 15 months required to complete the 22-story structure.  When finished, the new La Salle Hotel will be the largest hotel building in the world.  The hotel stood until 1976 when it was demolished to make room for the Two North LaSalle office building.

Governor William Stratton
December 23, 1954 – Illinois Governor William Stratton gives formal approval to the engineering report that will impact over 320 miles of high speed highways in northern Illinois, new “super highways” that may end up costing as much as $458,085,000.  Upon the governor’s approval preparations begin for the sale of $390,000,000 worth of revenue bonds covering the cost of two of the new highways and part of a third.  The proposed highways include:  (1) a “Tri-State” route, extending from near the Indiana border to a point just south of the Wisconsin state line; (2) a route heading from the Edens expressway, completed in 1951, as it begins in Chicago and continues northwesterly to an area near Rockford; and (3) the first section of an east-west route beginning at the proposed Tri-State route and continuing to Aurora.  It is hoped that the road-building projects will be finished by 1957.

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Saturday, December 22, 2018

December 22, 1933 -- Medinah Athletic Club Seeks New Lease Arrangement

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December 22, 1933 – Interested parties head to federal court, contesting a proposal by members of the Medinah-Michigan Avenue Club to lease the facility, which has been in receivership for 18 months, paying a monthly rental fee of $11,000 in order to run the building as a private club.  The proposal seeks court approval to increase the current membership of the club from 500 to 1,100 within 90 days with each member paying a $10 monthly fee.  Any money above the $11,000 rental fee would be divided – 80% going to the club’s creditors and the remainder going to the members.  Apparently, the plan has the approval of the Continental-Illinois National Bank, holder of $4,200,000 in first mortgage bonds.  “Strenuous opposition” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1933] is voiced by representatives of the Seneca Securities Corporation, holders of $800,000 in second mortgage bonds.  Seneca’s attorney points out, “The court would be turning this property back to the same crowd which originally wrecked it.  When the receiver took charge he found $201,000 overdue on house accounts and overdue installments of dues alone.  Even in those generally prosperous days, with a membership of 3,500, the club had never shown a profit … The original club spent $750,000 to get its 3,500 members.  How the present club expects to get 600 new members on the present setup is more than I can understand.”  Judge Charles E Woodward sets a date of January 8, 1934 for the next hearing.


December 22, 1917 – Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini dies of heart disease at Columbus Hospital.  Mother Cabrini, the founder of the order of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, was the founder of the hospital in which she took her last breath.  She was born on July 15, 1850 in the small Italian town of S’ant Angelo Lodigiano, the youngest of 13 children.  In her late 30’s, at the direction of Pope Leo VIII, she arrived in New York City, a place crying out for schools and orphanages to serve the huge population of Italian immigrants.  Her tireless work was so effective that she received requests for help from far-flung places across the globe, and she made 23 trans-Atlantic crossings, establishing 67 different schools, hospitals and orphanages.  In 1946 Mother Cabrini was canonized by Pope Pius XII.  When Columbus Hospital was demolished to make way for 2550 Lakeview, the chapel of the hospital was painstakingly preserved and today the place where Mother Cabrini worshipped, the National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, is open daily and has weekend Masses with opportunities for confession and hosts Eucharistic adoration on Fridays.  The sanctuary of the Shrine is pictured above.


December 22, 1954 – The president of the American Furniture Mart, Lawrence H. Whiting, confirms rumors that the Mart has obtained control of 333 North Michigan Avenue, an art deco tower on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.  Whiting says, “The American Furniture Mart accumulated this interest as a long term real estate investment in what we consider to be an exceptionally sound real estate enterprise.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1954]  Arthur M. Wirtz, the chairman of the American Furniture Mart, is also the president of the 333 Building Corporation.  333 North Michigan Avenue was completed in 1927 following a design by the firm of Holabird and Root.  The Art Deco design of its 25 stories is particularly striking because of the building’s location just south of the DuSable Bridge, directly across the river from Tribune Tower.

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Thursday, December 20, 2018

December 21, 1920 -- Rush Street Bridge Swings for Last Time

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December 21, 1920 –The Rush Street bridge is swung to the middle of the river for the last time.  It is anticipated that the lower section of the new Michigan Avenue bridge will absorb the traffic that the Rush Street bridge has carried since 1884, primarily heavy vehicles.  When the United States granted permission for the construction of a bridge across the river at Michigan Avenue, it stipulated that the center-pier Rush Street bridge had to be taken down within 90 days of the opening of the new bridge to full traffic.  For decades the Rush Street bridge, the third bridge in this location, was the main route across the river for traffic entering or leaving the Loop, especially large wagons in the early days and trucks, later on, carrying freight back and forth from river-side warehouses and railroad yards.  It was so busy that in July of 1911 Charles Wacker, the head of the Chicago Plan Commission, said it was the busiest bridge in the world. That same year a traffic census counted 9,725 vehicles of all descriptions crossing the bridge in a 24-hour period.


December 21, 1922 – Fire destroys much of the Dearborn Street station at Dearborn and Polk Streets as a crowd of thousands crowd the streets to watch.  The fire starts on the third floor of the station and “raged across the entire top floor and roared up the tower, which the watchers momentarily expected would fall into the street.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 22, 1922] Six hundred employees along with passengers waiting for trains evacuate the station with just one injury.  Mrs. Hazel Locker, the assistant chief auditor for the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, had to be carried from the structure after being trampled in the crowd escaping the burning building.  Three switchboard operators, Mamie Scully, Lillian Michnick and Betty Fennell, are among the last to leave as they work the phones directly under the floor where the fire started until they are commanded to leave.  The crowds surrounding the station watch a spectacular blaze.  As the Tribune reported, “When the fire reached the tower it roared up the long shaft, which was soon a blazing torch.  The clock in the tower stopped at 3:55 o’clock.  One by one the big hands on the three faces of the clock dropped into the furnace below.  Slowly the flagpole on the top of the tower bent at its base and the crowd which had waited for it to fall cheered when it crashed.”  Railroad and postal employees save tons of mail as the fire continues to burn, and officials of the eight railroads that use the station announce that service will continue from the train sheds to the south of the station itself.  The station, completed in 1884, was thought to be one of the finest in the nation when it opened.  The station came close to being razed over the years, but in 1986 it was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places even as its train sheds were demolished.  Today it offers over 120,000 square feet of leasable office and retail space, and it has acted as one of the important anchors that led to the resurgence of the Printers’ Row district and the creation of the Dearborn Station residential development to the south. 


December 21, 1915 – A banner headline in the Chicago Daily Tribune screams, “Weeghman Admits He Has Secured The Cubs”.  Charles H. Weeghman began his career in Chicago as a waiter making ten bucks a week and parlayed a small stake into a collection of 15 Chicago diners that served cold sandwiches.  Weeghman loved baseball even more than he liked cold sandwiches, and he wanted desperately to own a professional team.  After his attempt to buy the St. Louis Cardinals proved unsuccessful, he teamed up with a renegade group of owners controlling teams in the Federal League.  Weeghman gave his Chicago Federals a new concrete and steel stadium near the elevated tracks on the north side of the city on the former site of the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  After the Federals, renamed the Whales, barely won the championship in 1915, American and National League executives, tired of the Federal League raiding teams for their players, asked for negotiations before Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  The upshot was that the Federal League disappeared, but two owners were given opportunities to buy teams in the older, more established leagues.  Weeghman was one of those owners, and it was on this date back in 1915 that the news of his purchase of the Chicago Cubs was announced.  His first action as an owner was to hire Joe Tinker as the manager of the team.  His second was to move the Cubs from their west side location to Weeghman Field at the corner of Addison and Clark Streets.  A century and a year later Weeghman’s Cubs would win the World Series.  The above photo shows Weeghman Field in 1915.
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December 20, 1985 -- White Sox Get Word of New Stadium Initiative

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December 20, 1985 –Mayor Harold Washington designates two developers “to hammer out a deal that would land the Chicago White Sox in a $125 million domeless baseball stadium south of the Loop by 1989.” [Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1985] Daniel Shannon, the developer of the Presidential Towers apartment complex and Robert Wislow, a co-developer of One Financial Place in the South Loop, are named to find a way to build a new stadium along the east bank of the Chicago River south of Roosevelt Road.  Only six months earlier the city was looking to build a domed stadium that could accommodate the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bears and the Bulls.  The only team expressing an interest, however, was the White Sox, and the city, worried that the team, desperate to jettison its outdated ballpark, might take its bag of balls and head to the suburbs, changed direction.  The mayor’s senior fiscal policy adviser, Ira Edelson, says, “Initially we were looking at all-purpose stadiums, but the White Sox forced an economic issue on the city.” Underscoring that sentiment is the fact that White Sox owners have already purchased land in west suburban Addison suitable for a baseball stadium.  The city’s expectation is that it will end up purchasing 60 acres of riverfront rail yards under the control of three separate railroads.  The property would then be leased to the Wislow-Shannon group, and it would construct a 50,000-seat stadium to which a retractable dome could be added at a later date if another $35 million dropped from a high sky.  Edelson anticipates a $125 million price tag for the new stadium, $25 million of which would be contributed by the developers with another $100 million raised through the city’s sale of tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds.  The debt service on the bonds would be covered through lease payments to the city for 190 executive sky boxes, concession sales and parking fees.  Six years later the team got its new stadium in a different location – directly to the south of the old Comiskey Park.  Its construction cost was a little under $140 million.  The above rendering gives an interesting glimpse of what it might have been like to have every Chicago sports team clumped together in one location.


December 20, 1928 – The dedication and formal opening of the new LaSalle Street bridge takes place as Mayor William Hale Thompson cuts a ribbon at the south end of the structure, and his car is the first to pass over the bridge.  Before the hoopla a parade begins at Grant Park and moves down LaSalle Street, “witnessed by 1,000 officials, business men, and spectators who braved a chill wind.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1928] At a LaSalle Hotel luncheon the mayor outlines the history of the project and the benefits that the bridge will bring.


December 20, 1974 – Mayor Richard J. Daley announces plans for a new park on the south bank of the Chicago River between Wabash Avenue and Dearborn Street, a park that will be created with a donation from the IBM Corporation of $175,000.  The corporation’s headquarters, completed in 1971, sits directly across the river, and with a matching grant from other businesses in the vicinity it is hoped that the park will be completed within the year.  The IBM Vice-President in charge of western operations, J. E. Guth, says the park will measure about 25 feet by 600 feet with linden trees every 25 feet, a granite walkway, benches, and a sound barrier to muffle traffic noise from the lower level of Wacker Drive.  It was a good move.  Today the space has been beautifully transformed into Wabash Plaza, a memorial to Illinois veterans who served in Vietnam, 2900 of whom died in that war.
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