What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?


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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: drummer13 ()
Date: April 02, 2010 01:57PM

Boy, You all got me thinking. Grew up and played around those tracks on the northwest side and went to Lane Tech so I am trying to remember what California and Addison looked like back then.... There used to be a patch of land we played in behind the west side of Neenah between Roscoe and Cornelius that we called "the woods" and the tracks ran along side of that. There was an abandoned car in there that attracted kids like a magnet. They built apartments there in the seventies, I think, which perhaps took out the tracks??? Yes, I think that stretch of track was paved over by a driveway in to the complex. Hmmmm. If I think of something more I will post my thoughts.... Looks like it's time for a road trip to refresh my memory, although I only need to come from Hoffman Estates... LOL

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: April 04, 2010 05:44PM

I remember a place called the Addison Snack Shop on the northwest corner of California and Addison and also remember the time before Gordon Tech and Lane went coed! The kids in my neighborhood also called the area along those abandoned tracks "the woods" and we called the empty block (filled in with houses since the 80's) between Roscoe and School, Natoma and Normandy, "the prairie."

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: April 04, 2010 11:42PM

I remember the A$$ at least that's what we called it at Gordon Tech, went there my freshmen year before transferring to Roosevelt. So GT is now co-ed?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2010 11:16PM by 222psm.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: April 06, 2010 07:11PM

222 -- I was going to mention the abbreviation for the Addison Snack Shop but was too afraid to! You gave a very tactful one! Yes, Gordon is now coed. So is my old high school, although it happened the other way around, an all girls school changing a co-ed school. Holy Cross HS closed its doors and Mother Guerin HS became coed and they changed the name to Guerin Prep.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: tomcat630 ()
Date: August 13, 2010 12:12AM

GT absorbed many girls from closed all female Catholic HS's. I think Resurection is only one on North side now.

I remember jokes about 'you belong in Dunning' as a kid. Also, at least in 1970, at Irving there was still a RR Xing sign.

My older brother visited after being away in 1992 and laughed at the 'Dunning Shopping Center' signs in its place.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 15, 2010 06:51PM

Here are a few photos I found on the web of the old Dunning spur tracks. Also my apologies for the misspelling of the Kimbell Candy Company in another post here. Oops!

[url=http://chicagoswitching.com/v6/articles/article.asp?articleid=127&locationname=Dunning+Line&print=1]Copyright © 2010 The Milwaukee Road (captions by Tom Burke). All Rights Reserved.[/url]

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 15, 2010 07:21PM

And here is a photo I took of the very end of the track back in March of this year.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/shekaago/5180072874/in/set-72157623932234092/]Present End of the Dunning Spur Track[/url]

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: November 15, 2010 08:03PM

Thanks shekaago! Great find! I have that site book marked, but had not visited in a while. That is the type of old time photos I was looking for.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 16, 2010 12:46PM

Glad you liked the photos, 222psm! And, like you, I hadn't visited the "Chicago Switching" site in a long time so was pleasantly surprised to see photos of the old Dunning spur track circa 1980.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: November 16, 2010 01:59PM

Now if we could find pics of the tracks when they were still in use north of Belmont, or at the Dunning hospital. That would be the final piece of the puzzle!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 16, 2010 09:24PM

That would definitely make my day! My week! My year! A couple of weeks ago I stopped in to talk with one of the managers at Mount Olive Cemetery because I'm also working on a family genealogy project and a few of my relatives are interred there. The tracks once ran through that cemetery. The manager did at one time have some information on those tracks and also a few photos. However, he gave all those documents to someone who was supposed to create a website for the cemetery and that person just disappeared with all those historical documents and never completed the website. I won't give up the search though!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: November 16, 2010 11:31PM

Man, that is so frustrating! All that history just gone! It's such a shame all those documents just disappearing. Well I'll end my rant now, LOL. Good luck on your family genealogy project.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 17, 2010 03:28AM

It is just so sad and I imagine a lot of historical documents are lost this way. Thanks 222!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 18, 2010 07:31PM

The Dunning spur track looking south from Diversey.




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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: StrayKitten ()
Date: November 19, 2010 12:31PM

shekaago Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That would definitely make my day! My week! My
> year! A couple of weeks ago I stopped in to talk
> with one of the managers at Mount Olive Cemetery
> because I'm also working on a family genealogy
> project and a few of my relatives are interred
> there. The tracks once ran through that cemetery.
> The manager did at one time have some information
> on those tracks and also a few photos. However, he
> gave all those documents to someone who was
> supposed to create a website for the cemetery and
> that person just disappeared with all those
> historical documents and never completed the
> website. I won't give up the search though!


That is such a shame! That would have been a great website! This is a really pretty cemetery. I've heard a few interesting stories about it.

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: November 19, 2010 12:41PM

StrayKitten Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> That is such a shame! That would have been a
> great website! This is a really pretty cemetery.
> I've heard a few interesting stories about it.

Please tell!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 19, 2010 01:45PM

I've stared a new thread on Mount Olive as I thought the topic might get overlooked on this thread. I would love to find out all I can about this cemetery. It really is a lovely, place!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: November 20, 2010 03:42PM

Here's a link to a story by Jacob Kaplan on FC's site about disued transit turnarounds that has a 1960's era photo of the old Dunning Asylum buildings in the background.


[url=http://forgottenchicago.com/features/chicago-infrastructure/disused-turnarounds/]Glimpse of Dunning Buildings[/url]

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: July 07, 2011 02:35PM

Found this site with more pictures of the old Dunning Asylum, and a interesting article.

http://www.abandonedasylum.com/dunning1.html

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: shekaago ()
Date: August 06, 2011 02:06AM

Thanks, 222! Very interesting article and pictures. I haven't been on FC in a while and am catching up on reading the Forums. Many thanks for the great find!

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Re: What was at Montrose and Narragansett prior to Wright college?
Posted by: 222psm ()
Date: August 06, 2011 11:22AM

Your welcome! The part about the wolf man was interesting.

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