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63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
jonroth01
(---.columbus.res.rr.com)
Date: February 15, 2013 02:33PM
On the NE corner of 63rd and Halsted was a Sears with a Hillmans in the basement.On the SW corner a Kresge store. A block west on 63rd was Weibolt's.
In the 63rd and Halsted area was the Southtown theater.The el & Greyhound Bus station, by Hardy shoestore and Zale jewelers. Halsted street contained all kinds of various shopping stores along with the Englewood movie theater. It was a major shopping area of the time. We lived at 63rd and Racine and would walk on Saturdays to Halsted to shop. Stores closed at 5PM on Saturday and did nor reopen until Monday AM.
In the 63rd and Halsted area was the Southtown theater.The el & Greyhound Bus station, by Hardy shoestore and Zale jewelers. Halsted street contained all kinds of various shopping stores along with the Englewood movie theater. It was a major shopping area of the time. We lived at 63rd and Racine and would walk on Saturdays to Halsted to shop. Stores closed at 5PM on Saturday and did nor reopen until Monday AM.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
ambrosemario
(---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: February 15, 2013 05:02PM
In the early 70's, while attending Wilson Junior College, located at 71st and Stewart, I had a student-aid job with the school. One day the Athletic Director asked me and a couple of other guys to go with him to clean up an off-campus storage facility the athletic department maintained. The facility turned out to be a closed down bowling alley on the 2nd floor of a building located (as I remember, anyway) in the 6100 or 6200 block of Halsted. It was an amazing experience. Even in the early 70s this bowling alley was a time capsule from an earlier time. The lanes were full of athletic equipment, but the pins were still set and bowling balls and shoes remained in the racks. Many of the neon beer signs were for beers no longer available. Just about everything was still intact. Liquor bottles and glasses were still on the bar. Also on the bar was one of those gumball-machines that vended warm cashews - And it still contained cashews! It was an amazing experience. I know that area changed quickly in the late 60s/70s and the decline was evident then. But this place looked as if the owner just locked up one night and never returned.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
jak378
(---.hsd1.fl.comcast.net)
Date: February 15, 2013 07:04PM
There was also an Ace Department store, I believe on the wouthwest corner, or just off the corner. L. Fish furniture was on 63rd, maybe at about Green. Some of the movie theaters were the Stratford and the Empress, and several others that I just cannor recall. I know I took accordian lessons at the Music Center around 65th and Halsted. It was a thriving shopping center that easily rivaled downtown.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 16, 2013 01:44PM
[b]Engelwood was like going downtown until it changes racially then went into a slum.[/b]
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 16, 2013 01:44PM
[b]Engelwood was like going downtown until it changed racially then went into a slum.[/b]
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
geffertz
(---.albq.qwest.net)
Date: February 17, 2013 12:12AM
I also remember going to meet arriving relatives at Englewood Union Station, which was near there. My grandmother and aunt often arrived on the Peoria Rocket.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 17, 2013 11:01PM
[b]Where was the Peoria Rocket and the union staion in Engelwood? Not fimiliar with that.[/b]
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Chuck D
(12.104.103.---)
Date: February 18, 2013 12:40PM
New York Central,and Rock Island trains came from La Salle st station and stopped at Englewood. Also the Pennsylvania Broadway limited would stop at Englewood and race with the New York Central 20th Century Limited into Indiana every day.It was a great station with a lot of traffic going through it !
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
ambrosemario
(---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: February 18, 2013 06:38PM
In the late 50s we would drop off and pick up my grandmother at the Englewood Station where she boarded the Rock Island to visit her son in Davenport. I recall it as a busy place. Remnants of the station were visible up until around 10 years ago. The building itself was torn down at least 30 years ago, but remnants of the paver-brick platform remained until the Metra modernized the tracks. I took the Rock Island downtown for 30 years and watched it all gradually disappear....
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
rockislandfan
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: February 18, 2013 07:35PM
The Englewood Union Station was at 63rd near La Salle and Wentworth. Rode the Rock Island from downstate from 1963 until the trains came off in 1978. The station was a victim of arson in April 1975. The Peoria and Quad City Rocket both made positive stops outbound and stopped to discharge passengers only inbound. The last passengers I recall seeing get off were two very well dressed women back in the early 1970s.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
jak378
(---.hsd1.fl.comcast.net)
Date: February 18, 2013 08:37PM
rockislandfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Englewood Union Station was at 63rd near La
> Salle and Wentworth. Rode the Rock Island from
> downstate from 1963 until the trains came off in
> 1978. The station was a victim of arson in April
> 1975. The Peoria and Quad City Rocket both made
> positive stops outbound and stopped to discharge
> passengers only inbound. The last passengers I
> recall seeing get off were two very well dressed
> women back in the early 1970s.
To get to the station itself you had to drive up a fairly steep driveway. At the top there was plenty of parking. Back in the 50's I used to travel by train between Chicago and Buffalo NY. Englewood was a much more convenientplace to catch a train than La Salle St Station. At some point I discovered flying and then made my trips via Midway and American Airlines or Capitol Airways. The last time I drove up to the Englewood station around 15 years ago remnants were still there as was much of the track.
There was another station at around 63rd a Stewart, but I forget which lines stopped there.
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Englewood Union Station was at 63rd near La
> Salle and Wentworth. Rode the Rock Island from
> downstate from 1963 until the trains came off in
> 1978. The station was a victim of arson in April
> 1975. The Peoria and Quad City Rocket both made
> positive stops outbound and stopped to discharge
> passengers only inbound. The last passengers I
> recall seeing get off were two very well dressed
> women back in the early 1970s.
To get to the station itself you had to drive up a fairly steep driveway. At the top there was plenty of parking. Back in the 50's I used to travel by train between Chicago and Buffalo NY. Englewood was a much more convenientplace to catch a train than La Salle St Station. At some point I discovered flying and then made my trips via Midway and American Airlines or Capitol Airways. The last time I drove up to the Englewood station around 15 years ago remnants were still there as was much of the track.
There was another station at around 63rd a Stewart, but I forget which lines stopped there.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
ambrosemario
(---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: February 19, 2013 02:31PM
Earlier in this thread I mentioned an experience in a shuttered bowling alley in the 6100 or 6200 block of south Halsted. Does anyone out there remember this place or anything about its history?
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
querencia
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: February 25, 2013 01:02AM
To jonoth re Sears at 63rd and Halsted: I bought my first curtains at that Sears in 1953. About half a block north of there on the west side of Halsted there was a place that used to cut a pint block of ice cream in half and thread it on the straws of an ice cream soda.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
SouthSide41
(75.115.202.---)
Date: October 14, 2013 03:39PM
OMG: Just what I have been looking for. I was searching for a picture of Wieboldt's, my first job, in the grocery story. Had to get my Socail Security card for the job. I lived at 5509 South Green, in the Byrne's Building.
I am writing about my jobs, but I have just posted a story about the Byrne's Building and Visitation.
I am writing about my jobs, but I have just posted a story about the Byrne's Building and Visitation.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
oldgold32
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 23, 2013 02:06PM
Found this site while surfing around, brings back memories,lived at 61st and Peoria from late 30's to early 50's, went to Our Lady of Solace grammer school at 62nd and Sangamon. To fill in some questions on forum, Brucks was the bowling alley on 61st and halsted, bowled there almost weekly during winter months. There were 6 theaters near 63rd and halsted. On Halsted north of 63rd was the Ace and Empress theaters On 63rd East of Halsted was the Linden, Englewood, Stratford and Southtown theaters.
Remember the 5 cent white castles at 63rd and Union.
Remember the 5 cent white castles at 63rd and Union.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 24, 2013 09:23PM
[b]I believe there were more theaters than six. In the 50' my friends and I would go to the different shows to pick up girls. There was also the Kim as I remember.[/b]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2013 12:14AM by Richard Stachowski.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2013 12:14AM by Richard Stachowski.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
oldgold32
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 25, 2013 01:30PM
The Ace theater was renamed the Kim around 1950-1, and as I understand it was torn down. There was also a theater between 61st and 62nd,I think it was the Halsted theater we called it the hole in the wall. It closed in late 40's or early 50s, and became Greens Liquor store I think. The was the Harvard Theater at 63rd and Harvard and also the Lynn, I don't remember where the Lynn was I believe it was West of Morgan on 63rd.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Dunning1
(---.dhs.gov)
Date: November 25, 2013 05:37PM
While I never personally lived in the area, I heard a lot about the area from a friend of mine who lived there for years. Charlie was an usher at Moody Church, and he was actually an usher there before the present edifice was built. I believe he was there when the wooden tabernacle was still there in the early 1920's. He worked for Montgomery Ward, and later Commonwealth Edison, never married, and lived in the Englewood YMCA for years. A.W Tozer, the noted Christian writer, was a pastor in a church down in Englewood for years, and Charlie used to tell me that he would attend the morning services at Moody, and then go to the evening services at Tozer's church in the afternoon/evening. It's ironic to think that such a well known writer today was hardly known at all during his lifetime. I think Tozer left there in the early 1960's, and my friend Charlie passed away about ten years ago, at the age of 102. He had continued as an usher at Moody until about a year or so before he passed away. I believe Tozer's church was called the Englewood Alliance Church and was on Loomis St.
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 25, 2013 08:47PM
[b][Thanks for the informaton. I am a member at Moody and was Sunday school supt. for a while. Living in Oak Lawn I don't get to attend there often but hear Lutzer every morning on WMBI. Thanks aagin./b]
Re: 63rd and halsted in the 50's
Posted by:
world globes
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 28, 2013 10:19AM
LOOKING FOR PHOTOS OF THE 6500 BLOCK SOUTH HALSTED IN THE 1940'S AND 50'S
