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Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
joy hebert
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 05, 2008 12:45PM
Exterior light fixtures along the Wabash Ave side of the former men's store are from the Stortorget (sp?), the main shopping street of Copenhagen, Denmark. Carson's imported the fixtures when the store began carrying Danish modern furniture.
Re: Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
JonnyOYeah
(---.sac-1.depaul.edu)
Date: March 14, 2008 03:49PM
Nice one, Joy. Know of any other cool Wabash points of interest?
I love the Fields store's Wabash side a few blocks north and a lot of people don't catch that the south east corner of the store is a completely different architectural style from the rest of the structure. Burhman and Co came up with this design prior to the 1893 world's fair, and it is a wild pile of different stylistic registers, more inline with the old city hall (Egan, prior to 1906), than the rest of the neoclassical facade.
What happened, it seems, ties back to how Louis Sullivan claimed the fair set architecture for the time back by a century. Field and Burnham approved the original designs, built this section of the store, then saw the impact the neoclassical "White City" had on the public and redesigned the rest of the store to what you see now. Guess Fields never got around to replacing the first corner that they finished!
Look at it when you go by on the trains -- the weight of the masonry is actually causing this part of the structure to sag!
I love the Fields store's Wabash side a few blocks north and a lot of people don't catch that the south east corner of the store is a completely different architectural style from the rest of the structure. Burhman and Co came up with this design prior to the 1893 world's fair, and it is a wild pile of different stylistic registers, more inline with the old city hall (Egan, prior to 1906), than the rest of the neoclassical facade.
What happened, it seems, ties back to how Louis Sullivan claimed the fair set architecture for the time back by a century. Field and Burnham approved the original designs, built this section of the store, then saw the impact the neoclassical "White City" had on the public and redesigned the rest of the store to what you see now. Guess Fields never got around to replacing the first corner that they finished!
Look at it when you go by on the trains -- the weight of the masonry is actually causing this part of the structure to sag!
Re: Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
nancybc
(---.va.shawcable.net)
Date: March 02, 2011 02:43PM
The Maller's building on Wabash and Madison has an interesting history.
During the 30's it was ( and still may be) the central location of the jewelers in Chicago.It had wholesale jewelers, manufacturing jewelers and some retail stores as well. The building had an old elevator with the folding metal gates on each floor. ON the sixth floor, I believe was Ehrens or Arrons's( spelling may be off) Jewelry. It was located right in front of the elevator. Al Capone used to shop there and have his purchases delivered to his home. My father was just starting out in the jewelery business and, as the youngest employee was the one to make those deliveries.
Eventually he formed his own manufacturing and sales company, Acme Jewelers which was located on the 10th floor during the 40's.
Nancy
During the 30's it was ( and still may be) the central location of the jewelers in Chicago.It had wholesale jewelers, manufacturing jewelers and some retail stores as well. The building had an old elevator with the folding metal gates on each floor. ON the sixth floor, I believe was Ehrens or Arrons's( spelling may be off) Jewelry. It was located right in front of the elevator. Al Capone used to shop there and have his purchases delivered to his home. My father was just starting out in the jewelery business and, as the youngest employee was the one to make those deliveries.
Eventually he formed his own manufacturing and sales company, Acme Jewelers which was located on the 10th floor during the 40's.
Nancy
Re: Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
shekaago
(---.sub-75-211-161.myvzw.com)
Date: March 02, 2011 04:52PM
Nancy, Thanks for mentioning the Maller's Building! My father also worked in the Maller's building back in the 1960's and the old elevator was still in operation then. And, yes, the building currently houses a large number jewelry companies. My dad always came home from work with stories of robberies that occurred in the building which was nicknamed "Den of Thieves."
Re: Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
Dan Hogan
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: March 02, 2011 05:07PM
I used to work right around the block from there and would eat at Maller's Diner on the third floor. I haven't been there in a couple of years. I thought it closed at one point. Hopefully I'm wrong. Pretty decent place for a quick meal.
Re: Wabash side of Carson's
Posted by:
davey7
(---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: March 02, 2011 06:41PM
Joy, I think you mean Strøget - Stortorget is the main square of Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm (Torg is square in Swedish, Torv in Danish and Norwegian). Strøget is the main pedestrian zone/shopping district of Copenhagen.
There are some great photos of Carson's interiors department from the 50's - very chic and high style. I'm going to walk that way tonight to look at them. Carson's used to even sell home improvement services like sears - I grew up with their....storm windows.
All this Wabash thought makes me think of the restaurant we used to go to when I was a kid which had Brady Bunch Stairs/Partridge Family Bus stained glass wall and a skylight.
There are some great photos of Carson's interiors department from the 50's - very chic and high style. I'm going to walk that way tonight to look at them. Carson's used to even sell home improvement services like sears - I grew up with their....storm windows.
All this Wabash thought makes me think of the restaurant we used to go to when I was a kid which had Brady Bunch Stairs/Partridge Family Bus stained glass wall and a skylight.
