Questions and Answers (Q&A) Forgotten Chicago Forum
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Green Mill Tunnel?
Posted by:
querencia
()
Date: April 11, 2013 11:01PM
Does anyone know whether it's truth or fiction that the Green Mill jazz club, N Broadway at Lawrence, has an underground tunnel running to the lake that was built for bringing in bootleg liquor from Canada during Prohibition?
Re: Green Mill Tunnel?
Posted by:
b.a.hoarder
()
Date: April 12, 2013 12:29AM
Strictly conjecture on my part but I must ask why would anyone do that? With a bagman in every police precinct and crooked pols all over it surely seems like it would not be necessary. What would a tunnel like that have been, about five blocks long?
Re: Green Mill Tunnel?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: April 12, 2013 12:37AM
It's pretty hard to prove a negative, but just from a practicality standpoint I've got to call that [b]extraordinarily[/b] unlikely. You'd be talking about millions of dollars even in 1920 money, and where would the lake end of such a tunnel come out? Hundreds of acres of new parkland were being added out in the lake in the 1920s, which would have either led to discovery or pointlessness. Any boat big enough to cross Lake Michigan would have attracted Coast Guard attention and been too large to get close to shore. Much easier to make quick runs across the Detroit River and then drive the stuff to Chicago.
[url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1938060/Lake%20Shore%20Dr%20at%20Irving%20Park%2020s.jpg]Here's an amazing colorized aerial photo[/url] looking north from Irving Park about 1928.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2013 12:38AM by Mr Downtown.
[url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1938060/Lake%20Shore%20Dr%20at%20Irving%20Park%2020s.jpg]Here's an amazing colorized aerial photo[/url] looking north from Irving Park about 1928.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2013 12:38AM by Mr Downtown.
Re: Green Mill Tunnel?
Posted by:
jvp55
()
Date: April 12, 2013 08:17PM
I delivered beer to the mill in the early 80's. the coolers were in the basement, there were corridors that led under all the bldgs including the uptown theater. but no tunnels leading to the lake. talked to one of the bartenders that knew a few stories about the place. Capone used to have meetings in the underground rooms that were there. there were even bathrooms in the underground. this was also the bar they blew up in the James Caan movie "Thief" from 1981.
Re: Green Mill Tunnel?
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
()
Date: April 12, 2013 10:32PM
[b]There was a thing on chanell 11 that showed the entrance of the tunnels underground. They still are there but to the lake?[/b]
