Connecting the Windy City

Friday, July 24, 2020

July 24, 1992 -- Fort Sheridan's Final Birthday Party

July 24, 1992 – More than a thousand people celebrate the final birthday party for the military garrison at Fort Sheridan.   The Chicago Tribune reports, “For Ft. Sheridan, Friday’s Organization Day was another in a series of lasts.  May saw the closing of the Ft. Sheridan Museum.  June saw the last Flag Day.  July was, of course, the last 4th of July celebration … sadness seemed to be the feeling of the day, even though some were playing softball, volleyball and golf, and kids competed in games and races.” [Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1992] The Post Commander, Colonel Robert Frizzo, says, “It’s depressing to most people knowing there’s not going to be anybody here next year.”  One attendee, John Lawler, who was born at the fort and “sneaked out for rides on officers’ horses,” said, “I’ve been here all my life.  I don’t want to see it close up.”  His wife, Millie, who worked at the base for 19 years, agreed with her husband, saying, “It’s beautiful grounds.  It’s a gorgeous coast.  And what are they going to do with it?  Nobody knows.”

July 24, 1940 – Armour Institute of Technology and Lewis Institute, which have operated as separate schools for more than 40 years, agree to join ranks, taking the Illinois Institute of Technology as the new name of the combined schools.  Action comes at the Chicago Club in the first meeting of the new school’s Board of Trustees.  The decision means that the city will have one of the largest technical institutions in the country with about 7,000 day and evening students, and to accommodate that number of students it is hoped that a completely new campus can be constructed in close proximity to the Loop.  Henry T. Heald, a 35-year-old who for the preceding two years has served as the head of Armour Institute, is elected as the president of I.I.T.  Heald is a graduate of the State College of Washington in 1923 and the University of Illinois in 1935. He joined the Armour faculty in 1927 as an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, also serving as a designer for the bridge department of the Illinois Central Railroad and as a structural engineer for the Chicago Board of Local Improvements.  The Armour Institute was founded in 1892 by Philip D. Armour who gave more than $2,650,000 to the school during his lifetime.  His son, J. Ogden Armour, gave several million dollars more.  Lewis Institute was the creation of realtor Allan C. Lewis who, upon his death in 1877, left $550,000 for the founding of a polytechnical school.

googleimages

July 24, 1933 – A parade of automobiles forms at One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Street, making its way to Indiana Avenue, heading south through Riverdale, Dolton, South Holland and Harvey.  The procession marks the opening of the new road on Indiana Avenue between One Hundred Thirtieth Street and One Hundred Thirty-Fourth Street.  This will be the main road by which visitors to the Century of Progress World’s Fair will be routed from the southern parts of the city and suburbs.  The new road will also be the main connection between Roseland and towns farther south.  The road highlighted in red to the left of the above Google map image is the new Indiana Avenue, opened on this day in 1933.  

La Verne W. Noyes

July 24, 1918 – La Verne W. Noyes, President and founder of the Aermotor Company, announces the gift of $2,500,000 to the University of Chicago “to express his gratitude to those who ventured the supreme sacrifice.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 25, 1918]  The gift will be used for the education of veterans of World War I and their children with 20 percent of the sum going toward the salaries of university staff teaching history.  The scholarships are still in effect today.  Noyes started out as a manufacturer of dictionary stands, but things changed in 1883 when he hired Thomas O. Perry, who had conducted over 5,000 experimental tests, searching for a modern and efficient windmill.  By 1892 the Aermotor Windmill Corporation was selling over 20,000 of the new windmills, and within ten years the company was selling the devices at one-sixth the price of previous competition. [www.gasenginemagazine.com] Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago, designed by Shepley, Routan, and Coolidge as a women's dining hall and natatorium, was another gift of Noyes three years earlier in 1915.  History is interesting.  Exactly one year after he announces the scholarship in 1918, La Verne Noyes dies at the Presbyterian Hospital.  With no immediate family the fortune of Noyes is distributed to 48 different colleges and universities as beneficiaries.   

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Labels: 1992, Chicago Event, Fort Sheridan

Thursday, July 23, 2020

July 23, 1931 -- Chicago Historical Society Moves into New Quarters

JBartholomew Photo

July 23, 1931 – The cornerstone of the new Chicago Historical Society building at North Avenue and Clark Street is laid with no formal ceremonies.  Articles placed in the cornerstone include photographs of the society’s trustees, a list of members and contributors to the building fund, booklets containing the history of the society, and copies of daily newspapers.  The new building, a red brick Georgian-style museum designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, is officially opened on October 9, 1932.  In 1986 a new wing and an underground storage facility, along with a new façade was added according to designs by the architectural firm of Holabird and Root.  It is the city’s oldest cultural institution.

July 23, 1978 – Forty years ago on this date the Chicago Tribune runs an article on Wells Street with the headline, “Can Wells St. be Turned Around?” [Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1978] with the lead, “It’s a ragtag street, North Wells Street – a place that has been trying to be a lot of things at once, a place that has been up and, more recently, down.”  In the words of one Old Town merchant, as the area between Goethe on the south and Lincoln Avenue on the north began to change in the 70’s to nude dancing establishments and adult book stores, “The families didn’t want to come.  Those places are what killed us, and too much dope around – that’s not good.  No businessman here is making any money now. At the end of the week we’re pulling money from our pockets to pay the bills.”  Two months before the article runs, though, a collection of community groups in Old Town forms the Near North Association, and Robert A. Begassat, the president of the new group, says, “What we want to do is make Old Town a place people will come to again, and at the same time a place for the people in the neighborhood.”  Already, bowing to community pressure and increased police surveillance of prostitution, three of six bars with nude dancing have closed.  Recently, Alderman Burton F. Natarus successfully has passed a zoning change for the east side of Wells between Burton Place and Schiller designed to keep new taverns out. Sam Glassman, the president of the Old Town Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Book Joynt in Old Town, is cautiously optimistic, saying, “This street will never be what it once was, but if we can do half what we did, it will be terrific.  I’ve been here 12 years and I’ve seen it at the top and I’ve seen it at the bottom.  There’s only one way to go now, because we’ve hit the bottom.  But it’ll come back.”  And come back it has as a stroll down Wells Street on a July afternoon or a salad and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc at Topo Gigio will clearly show.

choosechicago.com

July 23, 1975 – In Chicago as part of a 58-city tour, the Rolling Stones make a splash in the city that gave them the music that formed the heart of their act.  The group arrives at O’Hare with an entourage of 30 people, heading downtown to the Ambassador East in six limousines, arriving at 9:30 p.m.  Then come the suitcases with “a large truck depositing more than 130 pieces of luggage at the Ambassador’s doorstep.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1975]  The suitcases fill the entire lobby as “bellhops worked furiously until it disappeared like the stars and filled the 32 rooms Jagger had reserved.”  Then one of the guests on the fifteenth floor, Michael Benz, the assumed name of front man Mick Jagger, slips out the back door and heads to the Pump Room for dinner. From there he heads to Faces on Rush Street, where he “slumps in his seat, playing imaginary drums to the piped-in music, staring at the dance floor.”  Bumming a cigarette from a reporter, he remarks, “It can make you mad – the road.  No sleep, no regular food, a lot of drinking – crazy … very tired all the time.”  At 4:00 a.m. Faces closes down and Tribune reporter Rick Soll writes, “Mick Jagger goes out into the darkness, led to waiting cabs by his protectors … He turns, then stops to wave, then stops himself, shrugs, and climbs inside … They’re all strangers.”  Could this have REALLY been 45 years ago?  Whew .... THAT went by in a hurry.

July 23, 1925 – Chicago’s new Union Station is formally opened at 11:30 a. m.  The ceremonies begin with Mayor William Dever and other officials touring the structure that covers 35 acres just west of the river between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard.  After the tour is completed the guests are entertained at a luncheon served in the terminal's Fred Harvey restaurant.  The waiting rooms are finished in marble and cover an expanse as large as three baseball diamonds.   The terminal includes a jail for prisoners in transit, a hospital and a chapel.  Graham, Anderson, Probst and White are the architects of the complex.  The photo above shows the massive terminal as it appeared when it opened in 1925.

July 23, 1897 – Five thousand invitees come to the Art Institute of Chicago to honor the sculptor August St. Gaudens and the widow of General John A. Logan.  “For nearly two hours,” the Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “the throng filed in and out of the room known as the Henry Field gallery, where they were greeted by Mrs. Logan, Mr. St. Gaudens, and the members of the receiving party.  Charles H. Hutchinson, President of the Art Institute, stood at the head of the line, introducing the guests to Mrs. Logan, who offered her hand to each in a hearty grasp.  Scores of times during the evening did Mrs. Logan demonstrate her rare faculty for remembering the names and faces of those whom she had met only casually before.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 24, 1897]  The event is held just two days after the widow of the great Civil War general arrives in the city from New York for the dedication of her husband’s statue in Grant Park.  The sculptor, August St. Gaudens, spends the evening of the Art Institute reception in humility.  The Tribune reports that he “stood almost at the end of the line of those receiving the guests.  He who was most talked of among the thousands who thronged the galleries and promenaded the corridors, who was the cynosure of all eyes, was in mien and bearing the most unassuming man in the entire assemblage.  With quiet dignity he received the congratulations that were showered upon him, his clear, keen eyes lighting up now and again as some artist friend added a word of appreciative criticism to his friendly greeting and congratulation.”  For more information on the Logan statue you can turn to this link in Connecting the Windy City.

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Labels: 1931, Chicago Event, Chicago History, Clark Street, Museums

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

July 22, 1985 -- Friends of the Chicago River Urges River Parks

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July 22, 1985 – The Chairman of the Steering Committee for Friends of the Chicago River, Timothy J. Griffin, writes a letter to the Chicago Tribune in response to a question from the paper’s architecture critic, Paul Gapp, who had asked if anyone cares about the south bank of the Chicago river at Michigan Avenue.  Griffin notes that six weeks earlier a group of volunteers came together to clean up the site, filling an entire dumpster with trash and debris on a Saturday afternoon.  He goes on to propose that “the city should provide access to the riverbank from upper Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive and maintain the area as a park setting with benches and waste baskets.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1985].  He concludes, “The City of Chicago needs to know that people do care about their river and its adjacent banks.”  The area is a far, far different place today with Illinois Center and Lakeshore East sitting on a riverwalk, filled with trees, shrubs and flowers, providing an amenity-filled stroll from the lake all the way west to the Lake Street bridge.

July 22, 1985 -- TIshman Realty and Construction Company, Incorporated and Japan Air Lines Development announce plans to build a 450-room luxury hotel on the north side of the Chicago River.  Scheduled to open in June of 1987 on the northwest corner of Dearborn Street and the river, the hotel is expected to cost $70 million.  The firms of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, Inc. and Takyama and Associates, Inc. project a 350,000 square foot hotel with a 100-seat gourmet French restaurant, a 150-seat Japanese restaurant, and two lounges totaling 160 seats.  The hotel will also feature a 9,000 square-foot ballroom and a smaller 4,000 square-foot gathering hall.  The announcement of the new hotel follows the start of the 35-story Quaker Tower in the same area, a tower that will house the new headquarters for Quaker Oats Company, scheduled to move from the Merchandise Mart in early 1987.  In January of 1997 the Hotel Nikko became the Westin River North Chicago and away went Benkay, the Hotel Nikko's Japanese-style restaurant.

July 22, 1979 – Joliet Jake and Silent Elwood Blues, the Blues Brothers, are in Chicago to begin filming the movie that will make them international stars.  “Hundreds of onlookers hung over guard rails as the bluesmen’s ancient black-and-white squad car screamed south on Lake Shore Drive,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “Twenty-seven pairs of newer squads, their lights flashing, followed at close range.  An unmarked helicopter hovered above.” [Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1979] The squad cars are rented from the Chicago Police Department and driven by off-duty officers hired by the film crew.  One off-duty cop says, “I feel good that they’ve chosen to shoot it in Chicago. We have a beautiful city, and it hasn’t had its fair share of movies.”. Residents in high-rise buildings along Lake Shore Drive flood the newsroom of the Tribune with calls, thinking that a high-speed pursuit of a criminal is taking place.  The film looked as though it was doomed to failure when it opened on June 20, 1980 since it was released in less than half the theaters than a typical big film of that era.  In the first week the $27.5 million film brought in $4,858,152, second only to The Empire Strikes Back.  Ultimately, The Blues Brothers, brought in $115,229,890 in foreign and domestic markets.

JohnChuckmancollection

July 22, 1963 – Chicago Federal Savings and Loan Association announces the purchase of the Roosevelt Theater building at 110 North State Street for $660,000.  The New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, which has owned the building since 1947, originally purchased the property from the Balaban and Katz Corporation.  The president of Chicago Federal, Thomas F. Waldron, notes that his company’s purchase of the theater is “a long range investment in State street real estate.” [Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1963]. The Balaban and Katz organization will continue to lease the property at $33,000 a year with an option to extend the lease for another 21 years.  Waldron points out, though, that “Eventually, we foresee construction of a high-rise office building, annexed to our present 14-floor building, in which Chicago Federal Savings will occupy at least the ground, second, and third floors.”  The Roosevelt, designed by C. Howard Crane and H. Kenneth Franzeim, opened on April 25, 1921, directly across from the main entrance of Marshall Field’s.  After the Chicago Federal purchase, the theater lingered on for another 16 years before it was finally demolished in 1980.  The site of the Roosevelt Theater is today part of the Block 37 shopping center.

July 22, 1897:  The formal ceremonies dedicating the Logan Monument in Grant Park are held, beginning a 1 p.m.  After the two-hour dedication ceremony, guns sound on the shore and from ships on the lake, and a parade of 10,000 marchers begins at Twelfth Street and Michigan Avenue and moves north on Randolph, west to State, south to Adams, west to Dearborn, north to Washington, west to La Salle, south to Jackson, finally ending at Michigan Avenue.  Mrs. Logan, the general’s widow, is received that evening at the Coliseum with a fireworks display and band concert preceding that event.  Of Augustus St. Gaudens’ equestrian statue of General Logan, the Chicago Daily Tribune writes, “In the statue of General Logan St. Gaudens has chosen as the dominant idea the expression of courage, the martial courage, which is born of patriotism and indomitable will.”  The above photo shows the dedication ceremony on that July day in 1897.

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Labels: 1985, Chicago RIver

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

July 21, 1986 -- Page Brothers Building, Loops Oldest, Undergoing Renovation

glessnerhouse.blogspot.com

July 21, 1986 -- The Page Brothers building on the southeast corner of State and Lake Streets, a project that is being done in conjunction with the renovation of the Chicago Theater just to the south, a structure that wraps around the Page Brothers building on two sides.  The idea is to redevelop the Page Brothers building so that it can help subsidize the expense of operating the theater.  The commercial building was designed just after the Chicago fire of 1871 by John Mills Van Osdel as a tannery and warehouse.  It is one of only two buildings in the Loop to have a cast-iron front, which faces Lake Street, harkening back to a time when Lake Street, and not State Street, was the prominent high-end business address in the Loop.  Unfortunately, over a century after it was built, it is in bad shape.  The basement had an earthen floor, which conducted water into the theater next door.  Floors were sagging, timber framing was rotting, and years of neglect gave rehabilitation architect Coffey and Associates a real challenge.  The architects came up with a plan with 20,000 square feet of retail space on the first and second floors and 44,000 square feet of offices above, including 7,200 square feet in a penthouse to be constructed on the roof and set back so that it is not visible from the street.  If you are in mind to gaze at what is arguably the oldest building in the Loop, stand on the corner of Lake and State Streets and look up as the elevated trains go screeching and rattling past.  That cast iron façade is quite a thing.  The black and white photo above shows the Page Brothers building when it was relatively new. The second photo shows the building as it appears today.

July 21, 1963 – In a pictorial essay, the Chicago Tribune highlights the “building boom” that is under way in the city, highlighting five big projects: (1) Carl Sandburg Village on North La Salle Street; (2) the Outer Drive East apartment on Randolph Street near the lakefront; (3) the new federal office building (now the Dirksen Federal Courthouse) on Dearborn Street between Adams and Jackson; (4) the new Midwest headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States on Michigan Avenue between the river and Tribune Tower, and (5) the Civic Center (now the Richard J. Daley Center) just beginning to rise east of the City-County building on Clark Street.  These were heady days in the city, as bold new structures rose throughout the decade in the city that worked.  The model for Sandburg Village, minus the brick walls that hide everything from view, is shown in the above photo.

July 21, 1919 – The Chicago City Council passes two huge ordinances that will, together, have an immense impact on the future of the city.  One is the lake front development ordinance, adopted by a vote of 66 to 2.  This decision ratifies an agreement between the city, the South Park Commission, and the Illinois Central Railroad, restricting development on the lakefront from the Chicago River all the way to Forty-Seventh Street.  The other act submits bond issues for street improvements totaling $28,600,000 that will be on the ballot for approval in November.  Charles H. Wacker, head of the Chicago Plan Commission, says, “This is the greatest day, barring none, in Chicago’s history. It means more to the growth, development, and greatness of the city than anything which has heretofore happened . . . When these improvements are completed this city will have passed from the provincial town class to a real metropolitan city.”  The photo above shows the lake front five years later in 1924.

July 21, 1919 – The lead in today’s Chicago Daily Tribune packs a powerful punch, “Not since the disastrous fire of ’71 has the city council at any one meeting considered improvement ordinances of such far reaching effect.”  This is the day that the City Council votes on a budget package that will potentially lead to more than $195,000,000 in city improvements, including the completion of a bridge across the river at Michigan Avenue.  There is apparently no opposition to the plans.  “So anxious are the large majority of the aldermen to make Chicago go ahead that it is proposed now that plans be considered at once for initiation of improvements next year,” the Tribune reports.  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 21,1919]  Bond issues will lead to the widening of Ogden, Ashland, Western, Robey (now Damen), and South Water Streets.  Two million dollars will cover the cost of finishing Michigan Avenue.  Up to $30,000,000 will cover “reclaiming and improving submerged lands between Grant and Jackson parks.”  Aside from the money involved, the council will ask for an investigation of civic improvements in Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Paul because “Charles H. Wacker of the Chicago plan commission has repeatedly stated that these cities are attempting to become real rivals to Chicago in trade, commerce, manufacturing and municipal improvements.”  The above photo shows the proposal of the Chicago Plan Commission for eliminating the South Water Street markets and improving the area just south of the river.

industrial scenery.blogspot.com

July 21, 1861 – The longest train ever to enter the city arrives on the Illinois Central Railroad as 80 cars, stretching over a half-mile, bring nearly 900 tons of wheat to the Chicago market.  It would be three more years before the Chicago Board of Trade is organized as a means to establish standardized futures contracts in a setting where buyers and sellers could exchange commodities.  Given the size of the train that arrived on this day in 1861, and, considering the fact that over 180 more cars arrived during the two days that followed, it is not difficult to understand how quickly the power of the Board of Trade grew once it was established.  The above illustration shows the lakefront and the Illinois Central operation in the 1860's, looking north from what is today Roosevelt Road.

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Labels: 1986, Chicago Architecture, Merchants and Merchandising, Theaters

Monday, July 20, 2020

July 20, 1986 -- Michigan Avenue Bridge Rammed by Lumber Ship

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July 20, 1986 – A lumber boat rams the Michigan Avenue bridge, leaving the important link between the south and the north halves of the city half-raised for much of the afternoon.  The incident unfolds just after noon when an electrical failure occurs as the north leaf of the bridge is being raised.  The boat is unable to stop and hits the bridge.  It is yet another incident in the narrow river, one of hundreds that have occurred over the preceding dozen decades.  As the 1980’s drew to a close, large merchant ships would be seen less and less on the river … and by the mid-1990’s bridges would be allowed to open just a few hours during the week.

July 20, 1984 – Strolling through Millennium Park today, it is difficult to imagine what the area was like before the transformation began.  Back in 1984 Cindy Mitchell, the president of Friends of the Park, had this to say about the area east of Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, “This could be the premier spot of the downtown area, a real tourist attraction and a place for Loop workers to enjoy a lunch, but it needs a great deal of work and some creative thinking.  [Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1984] In a stroll through the garden with a Tribune reporter and photographer, Mitchell pointed out that “The flower beds have no flowers.  Benches are in need of paint.  Workmen were trying to start up the two large decorative and long-dry water fountains. When the water was turned on in the first fountain, a huge leak sprang through the deteriorated masonry.  The second fountain proved more of a challenge and refused to flow.”  That wasn’t the worst of it.  Grass along the Michigan Avenue sidewalk is nonexistent; what little grass there is in the “park” is parched.  Stairways are deteriorating at an alarming degree and most of the wiring in the park lights is so far gone that few of them work.  “Deeper in the park, the pigeons munch on piles of debris and share the lawn and benches with dozing derelicts, bag people and other itinerant-looking characters, some of whom frequent the back reaches of the park along the balustrade esplanade and dissuade visitors from using the area.” Commander Robert Casey of the First Police District says of the park that, although it is generally safe, “Office workers go there to smoke marijuana, and the bums sleep there during the night.  We run the wagons in there early in the morning to get rid of the rummies.” Mitchell asserts, ‘When you’ve got a problem, you can’t just throw up your hands and say, ‘It’s impossible.’ You have to say, ‘Let’s attack this problem. We can lick it.’ It takes some vision, some planning, some creative thinking. It takes determination. After all, Chicago’s motto is, ‘I will.’” Two decades later creative thinking paid off when Millennium Park opened and the city received a beautiful new front yard. The before and after pictures tell the story.

JBartholomew Photo

July 20, 1913 – The Chicago Daily Tribune’s art critic, Harriet Moore, writes an opinion piece in which she supports the City Club in its campaign against billboards.  Her argument begins with a single question, one she asked at a previous hearing in which a City Council committee was listening to testimony from both advocates and opponents of the signs, “Is it your opinion that beauty has neither health value nor financial value in a modern metropolis?”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1913]  She then answers the question with three separate responses:  that beauty is a health producer (“Hideous objects and harsh sounds, assaulting eyes and ears in a manner not to be escaped, destroy the harmony of life by introducing discords, and reduce the joy of life by insulting the senses with ugliness.”); that beauty is a commercial asset in any community (“Without beauty a city is merely a place to make money in and get away from.”); and, beauty is a great investment (“Why does the whole world flock to Italy, spending there millions every year?  Because, a few centuries ago a few hundred artists builded and carved and painted beautifully.”)  Moore concludes, “Chicago has the opportunity to become one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  The lake, the long stretch of park which is to border it, Michigan avenue widened to the river and adequately connected with the Lake Shore drive, the widened Twelfth street, the new railway terminals, the enlarged business district—these and other conditions and projects will create a beautiful metropolis.  Along with these large plans for civic beauty should go eternal vigilance against all kinds of defacement and in favor of all kinds of minor improvements.  The fight against billboards is an important detail of the general campaign.”

July 20, 1881 – The Directors of the Board of Trade receive assurances that an ordinance vacating a portion of La Salle Street between Jackson Boulevard and Van Buren Street will be valid and, based upon this information, vote to purchase the property for $10,000.  The next step will be to organize a Building Association since Illinois law prohibits the Board from erecting a building exceeding $100,000 in valuation.  It is anticipated that the new building will cost at least $800,000, but the matter of the building itself is left for another day.  The Chicago Daily Tribune summarizes the results of the meeting in this way, “The Board of Trade purchases the property for $10,000.  This it leases to a Building Association for a term of fifty or one hundred years at a fixed rental.  The Building Association erects the edifice, and leases to the Board of Trade what may be required at a certain rental, yet to be determined upon.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 21, 1881] This is a decision that will produce a huge impact on this area. According to Homer Hoyt in his One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago, "From 1881 to 1883 the value of land on Jackson, Van Buren, Wells, and La Salle streets near the Board of Trade advanced from $200 and $400 a front foot to from $1,500 to $2,000 a front foot .. the total increase in the value of land and buildings within half a mile from the Board of Trade from 1881 to 1885 was estimated by current observers at from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000."  The first Board of Trade building to stand on this site is pictured above.  Barely visible above the front entrance at the base of the tower are the two statues of Agriculture and Industry that still stand in the plaza outside the present day Board of Trade building.

jbartholomewphoto

July 20, 1863 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports of a gruesome accident at the lime quarry of Stearns and Company, about a half-mile west of Halsted Street.  At about 5:00 p.m. a foreman, Michael Gaven, makes preparations to blast a section of wall, calling workers away from the area and setting the fuse.  After waiting nearly ten minutes, he moves to the site of the intended blast to figure out what has gone wrong.  Just as he reaches the area, the explosion comes, “tearing Mr. Gaven’s body into fragments.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1863].  The 45-year-old leaves a wife and three children.  The 27-acre site was used as a limestone quarry from 1833 to 1969 by the Illinois Stone and Lime Company, after which it was used as a landfill for clean construction waste from 1969 to 1974.  During its run as a limestone quarry, enough rock was removed to carry the space 380 feet below the street level.  After the dump site was shut down the City of Chicago and landscape architecture firm Site Design Group began planning an “environmentally-sustainable design … inspired by the natural history of the site.” [www.chicagoparkdistrict.com]. The landfill was capped with more than 40,000 square feet of clean topsoil, culminating in a 33-foot hill that offers spectacular views of the city to the northeast.  The new park was named after Henry Palmisano, the owner of a bait shop at 3130 South Canal Street, who passed away in 2005 during construction of the park.

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Labels: 1984, Chicago Bridges, Chicago RIver

Sunday, July 19, 2020

July 19, 1984 -- Chicago Lighthouse Named to National Register

July 19, 1984 –The Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is named to the National Register of Historic Places.  The lighthouse originally came about as a part of a number of harbor improvements that the city undertook to prepare itself for the 27.5 million people that would attend the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.  Standing at the mouth of the Chicago River, the lighthouse replaced one that had stood at the end of the North Pier when it was completed in 1859, but with the addition of nearly a quarter mile of new pier, stood 1,200 feet from the outer limit of the pier.  Work had begun in the 1870’s on a mile-long breakwater to protect the harbor, and on September 1, 1893 the new lighthouse was completed 100 feet inside the southeast end of the breakwater. There it stood until 1917 when the breakwater was extended southward, and the United States Congress appropriated $88,000 to move the lighthouse onto the renovated breakwater off the harbor.  Two structures were added as a part of the move – a 28-square foot fog signal building and a boathouse.  The lighthouse was fully automated in 1979.  In 2005 the Coast Guard determined that the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse was excess and on February 24, 2009 it was transferred to the city.  The lighthouse is such a part of the city that there is a reference to it in a relief sculpture at City Hall where “The Spirit of the Waters” features the lighthouse in the background. 

July 19, 1966 – The Chicago Cubs put together an impressive display of offense as they put 24 runners on base through a combination of ten hits, 10 walks, two hit batters, and two errors.  Unfortunately, 18 of those runners do not cross home plate as the Cubs lose, 3-2, to the Cincinnati Reds in an 18-inning affair that lasts just seven minutes short of five hours before an official crowd of 6,941.  Robin Roberts, starting his second game for the Cubs, brings a 1 to 0 lead into the eighth inning when left fielder Billy Williams misjudges a ball by Reds pinch hitter Mel Queen, allowing a run to score, tying the game. Roberts, just six weeks shy of his fortieth birthday, continues through 11 innings.  He has retired 12 out of 13 batters when Reds third baseman Tommy Helms singles to start the eighth inning, setting the stage for pinch hitter Jimmy Coker who hits a ball that Williams apparently loses in the sun in left field.  Cubs reliever Bob Hendley handles innings 12 through 14 and Ferguson Jenkins comes into the game in the fifteenth inning after Hendley allows two walks. Jenkins cruises through another three innings, strikes out the first two batters in the eighteenth … and then disaster strikes as Don Pavletich, a journeyman catcher and first baseman, homers over the left field wall.  The two teams combine for a total of 115 times at bat with the Reds using 16 players and the Cubs 15. In the above photo Robin Roberts receives congratulations from catcher Randy Hundley, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks and Don Kissinger after an earlier 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

July 19, 1922 – Steam shovels begin excavation work in Grant Park, the first step in the construction of the new stadium south of the Field Museum.  The stadium, designed by Holabird and Roche in a neoclassical style, is the result of an architectural competition to build a stadium as a memorial to American soldiers who lost their lives in service to the country.  The stadium will be completed in three stages between 1922 and 1939, with its final capacity holding over 100,000 people. 

July 19, 1859 – The laying of the cornerstone of the new building for the Board of Trade takes place on the lot adjoining the Wells Street Bridge on South Water Street.  According to the Chicago Press and Tribune, “The accommodations the Board are to enjoy will be of the most complete and desirable character, giving them the entire second floor, in a noble hall of 95 feet by 50 feet – its area unbroken by pillar or column.  From this, at either end, open off such ante rooms as the convenience of officers or members require.”  [Chicago Press and Tribune, July 10, 1859]  During the ceremony the President of the Board of Trade, Julian S. Rumsey, places a sealed box in the cornerstone, the box containing the First Annual Report of the Board, copies of daily papers, a list of officers and members, the previous day’s telegraphic dispatches, coins in circulation at the time, and a broker’s ticket for 15,000 bushels of corn.  It is anticipated that the new headquarters for the Board of Trade will be completed by the fall.  President Rumsey is pictured above.

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Labels: 1984, Chicago Event, Chicago History, Lake Michigan, Lakefront

Saturday, July 18, 2020

July 18, 1977 -- River City Developers Propose Huge Residential Project

July 18, 1977 -- The developers of River City outline a proposal that they say will add $110 million to Chicago’s economy.  Robert McGowan, president of Chessie Resources, Inc., the owner of the site on the east side of the Chicago River south of the Loop and a partner in the development plan, predicts that the 11,000 people who will occupy the residential towers at River City will add that amount of money to the city’s downtown stores.  Bertrand Goldberg, the architect of the three 72-story towers projected for the site, says, “The beauty of the project is that no city money will be involved in the construction phase.  Everything – the schools, recreational facilities, sewers, streets, and sidewalks – will be provided with private capital.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1977]  Goldberg’s plans include three towers, each of which will have three separate sections connected every 18 floors by two-story service areas, containing schools, a day-care center, 24-hour nursing service, a gym, mail room, security center, laundry and convenience stores.

collections.carli.illinois.edu

July 18, 1971 – The Chicago Tribune reports that workmen have begun pouring concrete for the extension of South Water Street to Stetson Avenue one block east of Michigan Avenue in the proposed Illinois Center development project.  The new road will allow entry to the $1.5-billion development that will rise on a former Illinois Central Railroad freight yard.  The road will widen from 74 feet at Michigan Avenue to 92 feet at the east end, providing room for six lanes of traffic.  It will occupy the middle-level of a complex, multi-level design with the ground level handling trucks and service vehicles and two upper levels providing passage for pedestrians.  As the road is being constructed, work will continue on Two Illinois Center, a 30-story office building that will stand next to the nearly completed 111 East Wacker Drive.  The photo shows Two Illinois Center under construction with today's 111 East Wacker Drive, the home of the Chicago Architecture Center, standing to the north.  The far right tower is actually on the west side of the Michigan Avenue bridge.  It is today's AMA Plaza, the home of the IBM corporation when it opened in 1971.

July 18, 1966 –The first steel column, 35 feet long, weighing 30 tons, is set in place for the John Hancock building at Michigan Avenue and Delaware Place.  It is anticipated that in the following 16 months, 42,000 tons of steel are to be placed, forming the skeleton of a tower that will reach 1,105 feet above the ground.  As rosy as this day is, things quickly fall apart.  Under the load of a single steel column, one of the 57 caissons on the project slipped downwards approximately an inch in one 24-hour period. The structural engineer for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Fazlur Khan, called for a halt to construction so that all of the caissons could be tested.  He was right to do so, as 26 of the 57 caissons were found to be defective. Following the testing, it took four months and 11 million dollars to repair the foundation elements.  The tower topped out on May 6, 1968 and was at the time the second-tallest building in the world. It has been awarded the Distinguished Architects Twenty-Five Year Award and has been included in the World Federation of Great Towers. 

July 18, 1889 – The Chicago Daily Tribune surveys the field in the running for the World’s Fair of 1892 (that actually ended up being the World’s Fair of 1893) and concludes that Washington, D. C. is the “only place which is making an earnest effort.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 18, 1889]  That’s good news, according to the paper, because during the summer months that will form the heart of the fair, the nation’s capital “despite its broad avenues and its shade trees, is as hot as the ante-chamber of the infernal regions.”  But the heat isn’t the only problem that the nation’s capital faces in the competition for the fair.  Its railroad facilities are inadequate, and the Tribune proclaims, “Unable to deal with the small attendance at an inauguration how could Washington handle the far greater course at a world’s fair?”  Chicago is the only choice, and the article makes that clear, saying, “Here is a climate which is cool and delicious when in other cities men are dying by the score from sunstroke.  Here all can come for low rates, and be well cared for when they come” The article closes with a quote from the Omaha Bee, “expressing the sentiments of the West.”  Said the Bee, “As the youngest of the great metropolitan cities Chicago typifies more fully and fitly even than New York the vigorous and rapid march of American progress, and she represents more truly the best spirit, character, and aspirations of the American people.  Chicago could provide abundantly for all who would visit the exposition, and she has attractions far exceeding those of the Eastern metropolis …There can be no reasonable question that the exposition would be a great financial success if held at Chicago.”  Just look at the photo above.  All of that open space by the cool, cool lake ... ignoring the steam engines, of course.

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Labels: 1977, Chicago Development, Chicago Event, Chicago RIver