Pilsen Morticians


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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 10, 2010 04:57AM

For the heck of it, here is another real photo postcard from my collection that I use in my book to illustrate the migration of Czech's from Pilsen to Czech California. This image was taken from Blue Island Ave. looking east at the south side of the 1400 block of W. 19th St. featuring a Czech Sokol parade on August 29th, 1909 .



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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: 222psm (---.br.br.cox.net)
Date: March 10, 2010 12:07PM

Berwyn Frank thank you so much for history on Pilsen, it's so nice to know the rich Czech history of this place I frequented as a kid.

Heres a view from today:
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=19TH+ST,+CHICAGO,+IL&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=39.099308,56.513672&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=W+19th+St,+Chicago,+Cook,+Illinois&amp;ll=41.855787,-87.680835&amp;spn=0.001133,0.002747&amp;z=19&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=41.856032,-87.662435&amp;panoid=ggzQHd4MqQ6Q5Mxw_ILfBg&amp;cbp=12,114.01,,0,-4.76&amp;output=svembed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=19TH+ST,+CHICAGO,+IL&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=39.099308,56.513672&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=W+19th+St,+Chicago,+Cook,+Illinois&amp;ll=41.855787,-87.680835&amp;spn=0.001133,0.002747&amp;z=19&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=41.856032,-87.662435&amp;panoid=ggzQHd4MqQ6Q5Mxw_ILfBg&amp;cbp=12,114.01,,0,-4.76" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

Right across the street there was a large grocery store my aunt shopped in, I remember it burned down to the ground back in the late 70's. It looks like it was replaced with a strip mall.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: StrayKitten (66.28.242.---)
Date: March 10, 2010 01:56PM

Berwyn Frank Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the heck of it, here is another real photo
> postcard from my collection that I use in my book
> to illustrate the migration of Czech's from Pilsen
> to Czech California. This image was taken from
> Blue Island Ave. looking east at the south side of
> the 1400 block of W. 19th St. featuring a Czech
> Sokol parade on August 29th, 1909 .
>
>


What a wonderful postcard image! Those buildings are absolutely gorgeous! I wish they still built them like that.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Artista (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 10, 2010 03:53PM

I feel the same Kitten,,I ALWAYS drive past the buildings of old and think that every one of these buildings(even the 'mundane' ones) should be historical landmarks and protected. The building that i live at currently was built in 1926,, nothing fancy about it but very special none the less!

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 10, 2010 05:09PM

Here is one of Blue Island Ave. S. of 18th St. that belongs to a friend of mine. The hand written message on the top of the card translates to: Czech businesses in Chicago.

<a href="http://imgur.com/3gyF9Jw"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3gyF9Jw.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2014 11:14AM by Berwyn Frank.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: StrayKitten (66.28.242.---)
Date: March 11, 2010 12:28PM

Artista Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I feel the same Kitten,,I ALWAYS drive past the
> buildings of old and think that every one of these
> buildings(even the 'mundane' ones) should be
> historical landmarks and protected. The building
> that i live at currently was built in 1926,,
> nothing fancy about it but very special none the
> less!


Same with my apartment building. Built in 1919; nothing fancy but very special. I found a website with a reverse directory of Chicago from 1928-1929 and found the names of the people who lived in my building back then. I don't know anything more about them, but just knowing their names makes me feel even more special about my building.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Artista (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 11, 2010 02:16PM

Hi Kitten, id like to visit that site. Can you please share it with me?

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: StrayKitten (66.28.242.---)
Date: March 11, 2010 03:37PM

Artista Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Kitten, id like to visit that site. Can you
> please share it with me?

Sure! Here is the link:

http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/polk/Menus/PolkA.pdf

I hope you don't have a dial-up connection, or it will take forever to load. When it is done loading, there will be a list on the left side of letters. Just click on the first letter of the street name and then when that part loads, just page through until you get to the street you are looking for. I'm not sure if there are "number" streets listed. It generally does take a little while for it to load, even after the numbers on the bottom of the screen indicate that it is done loading. Just wait a minute or two and the alphabetic list should pop up. If not, try refreshing the screen.

I hope you like it.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 11, 2010 03:43PM

There are "number" streets listed but they ae listed under the alphabetical first letter of the number, example 18th St. is listed under E.

Also keep in mind that some street names were different in 1929 than they are now, example, Cermak Rd was 22nd St., Pulaski Rd. was Crawford Ave., Damen Ave. was Robey, etc.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: March 22, 2010 03:09AM

Captain54 and others, check out these vintage pictures I found on flickr of the buildings we discussed on the first page related to my Pilsen funeral postcard. Notice how gritty the whole area looks in general. These images were taken during a time when Pilsen was in racial transition from the Eastern Europeans to the Mexicans.

Here is the original subject of this thread, the Mortician building at 1125 W. 18th St.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22760798@N03/2203863867/in/photostream/

Here is the building across the street a couple of doors east from where the C.S.P.S. building was when it was a barber shop, 1118 W. 18th St.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22760798@N03/2203863845/in/photostream/

Here is the old Novak's Saloon building at 1132 W. 18th St.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22760798@N03/2203863879/in/photostream/

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: 222psm (---.br.br.cox.net)
Date: March 23, 2010 11:22AM

Thanks for the flickr link Berwyn Frank, that is the Pilsen I remember back in the 70's very gritty indeed. But I never felt unsafe in the area, even though the gangs and drugs where every place. I just avoided them, boy did the pictures bring back some memories.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: captain54 (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 23, 2010 07:21PM

the pictures from the 60's or 70's on the flickr page show those buildings with many many years of grime caked on them...you can see in the modern view they were either sandblasted during rehab, or simply painted over to eliminate the grime

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: June 18, 2010 05:04PM

Lazer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm looking for information on the "Morticians"
> buildling in Pilsen at 1125 W. 18th. Was it ever
> really a mortuary? Why is the word Morticians
> written in a pseudo-Chinese style?
>
> See photo link below.
>
> http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6083/morticians
> .jpg

The original poster in this thread asked why Morticians was written in a pseudo-Chinese style. I have a booklet in my collection that was put out for the 20th anniversary of the Chicago Bohemian Saloonkeepers Association in 1905. It is interesting that most of the text font in this book is written in this "psuedo-Chinese" style. So the question is, was it a Bohemian thing or a popular style of text font back in the day?



Also interesting is that in the same booklet there is a 1903 photo of delegates of the Chicago Bohemian Saloonkeepers Association in front of the C.S.P.S. building on 18th St. that is frequently discussed in this thread.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2010 05:06PM by Berwyn Frank.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: StrayKitten (66.28.242.---)
Date: June 18, 2010 06:28PM

Great find, Berwyn Frank!

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: 222psm (---.br.br.cox.net)
Date: June 20, 2010 05:02PM

Thanks for the update, Berwyn Frank.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: SalMedina (---.motorola.com)
Date: December 06, 2011 06:21PM

Berwyn Frank your my newest Pilsen archive buddy...did you get my PM message?

Sal

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: Berwyn Frank (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 06, 2011 07:31PM

Yes I did Sal. It was good to hear from you.

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Re: Pilsen Morticians
Posted by: jak378 (---.dhcp.embarqhsd.net)
Date: December 06, 2011 07:58PM

StrayKitten Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Artista Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hi Kitten, id like to visit that site. Can you
> > please share it with me?
>
> Sure! Here is the link:
>
> http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/polk/Menus/Po
> lkA.pdf
>
> I hope you don't have a dial-up connection, or it
> will take forever to load. When it is done
> loading, there will be a list on the left side of
> letters. Just click on the first letter of the
> street name and then when that part loads, just
> page through until you get to the street you are
> looking for. I'm not sure if there are "number"
> streets listed. It generally does take a little
> while for it to load, even after the numbers on
> the bottom of the screen indicate that it is done
> loading. Just wait a minute or two and the
> alphabetic list should pop up. If not, try
> refreshing the screen.
>
> I hope you like it.


I wonder if any of you know whather or not later directories of this type were published and if they are available online, and, if so, the site? Thanks in advance

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