No, not simply houses that are at the back of the lot. There are hundreds of those. As the first post stated, these are houses with no street frontage, that are surrounded by alleys.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

More here: http://forgottenchicago.com/forum/1/4324
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I loved Trailside Museum growing up in the 1970's. It wasn't really a "museum" in the traditional sense - all the "exhibits" were live animals, mostly those native to Thatcher Woods that had been found in the woods injured and nursed back to health by the staff. It was/is located in an old late-19th Century brick house, painted yellow, with a cupola on top, at the southwest cor
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I think this is the Texaco described earlier, which is at 913 W. Willow, not 935. It is on the SE corner of Willow and Bissell, not the SW: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/913-W-Willow-St-Chicago-IL-60614/2142081159_zpid/ http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/14103608/913-W-Willow-Street-Chicago-IL/
Forum: General Discussion

I grew up near Harlem and Roosevelt in Oak Park and there was a knife sharpener who would come around in the summer. Whenever we would hear his bell my mom would give me some knives and scissors and tell me to go out to him and have them sharpened. This was in the 1970's. I remember him coming rarely after that, and then one time he came in the early 1990's, I want to say, or it may have been a di
Forum: General Discussion

Mr. Downtown - Great illustration of the development approach that I referred to. Incidentally, some of the houses date from the 1950's to the 1970's, but others appear to be from the 1920's or 1930's (e.g. bungalow just west of Edbrooke ROW on 124th) and still others appear to be frame houses from even earlier).
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Very interesting re: the Edbrooke ownership situation. There appear to be other blocks in the area with other "islands" of undeveloped land in the middle of otherwise developed blocks too. It seems as if the City took a haphazard approach to approving devleopment in that area. Does anyone else know the location of the Buhl farm/hedges that Paul mentions at the beginning of this thread
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Paul - That is fascinating about the hedges still being there! Where was the Buhl house located? Was it in disrepair when it was torn down? And where exactly did you find the hedges? I would love to check them out myself. Incidently, looking at that area on Google maps, it seems to have some really quirky details and you can see how the ancient and the modern can mix/coexist down there. One int
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Ruby Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife of Walter and the daughter-in-law of Lena Younger, played by Claudia McNeil. I also did not know that Hansberry was "out." Thanks to everyone for all the great information.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Thanks, Wardell. What is the LGBT connection to Raisin in the Sun? davey7, Ruby Dee did play Ruth Younger in the 1961 film.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Thanks so much for all the great replies. You solved a mystery that has been bothering me for many years. Wardell, what is the book, "Chicago Whispers" about?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

This was inspired by the post about the Belle Plaine filming location. I have always heard that the scenes of the new (white) neighborhood in "Clybourne Park" where the Younger family moves in the 1961 Sidney Poitier "A Raisin in the Sun" film were filmed in North Austin. However, I have never been able to find any documentation of this - no contemporary newspaper accounts o
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The Marigold gardens became the Marigold Ballroom, which hosted boxing and wrestling in the arena that is now the church on the site. The Marigold Bowl carried on the tradition of recreation/entertainment on the site. After the gardens were gone, my belief is that most of the parcel became the parking lots for the Ballroom/arena and bowling alley.
Forum: General Discussion

I went to school at St. Ignatius at 12th near Racine in the early '80's. A kid I knew there was from the SW side and his brother had graduated about 10 years earlier. His brother told him he could get home from school by taking the Throop Street bus down to Archer, and then the Archer bus home. Well, after school the first day of freshman year, he went over to Throop and Roosevelt, in the middle o
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Thanks so much to everyone for the detailed posts. I should have just suspected poor/absent city planning.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

PK - Thanks. Although its nearly the same distance north, the article in the weird jogs chain says the golf club's eastern boundary was Nagle. This post is about Strong Street between Pulaski and Avers, about 3 miles to the east.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Does anyone know why the north-south streets New England and Oak Park Avenue have weird jogs at about 5100 North? The streets essentially make 90-degree turns east into alleys for several yards, then make 90-degree turns north again and continue on. A block or so to the east, a one-block street named Busse does a similar thing, making a 90-degree turn east into an alley. But Busse does not continu
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

What is the deal with Strong Street, which runs about 4950 N. between Pulaski and Avers? It looks like an alley, essentially, but it is a named street. It also is in a weird place, even for an alley, as it runs mid-block. Also, it doesn't have garbage collection, like some small alley-like streets that run where there are no alleys. Strong Street doesn't have sidewalks or even any room on
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Wardell, thanks for the ID of the boathouse. Do you know why it was torn down? What army base are you talking about? Where was it located? Separately, does anyone know if any other bridges and/or any other infrastructure currently in Jackson Park is an actual remnant of the Fair, besides the Darrow Bridge itself? I never knew features like the Darrow bridge had actually survived the fair. W
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

What is the white rectangular structure visible at the water's edge southwest of the bridge in the pre-1972 aerials that is not there in the 1972 aerials? The elimination of the western approach road to the bridge seems to be connected with the demolition of this structure. It also looks like there was some landfill around the site of the former structure between 1962-1972. Anyone have any
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Two questions: (1) The photo that Wardell posted above is clearly of the SW corner, and not even really close to the corner, but about a half-block south of the corner. I have visited the site since the photo was posted and am confident about this. Why would someone dig up a huge concrete block time capsule, somehow move it a half-block north and across two streets, and then just leave it there
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Here's another link: http://yochicago.com/the-miracle-house-in-galewood/26273/ My mother grew up down the block, and she always said it was a prize in a contest, but that the family who won didn't want the house, so they sold it. She said it was called, "Miracle House." Also, this thread: http://forgottenchicago.com/forum/1/3898/3994/re__the_small_shop_at_6930_w_armitage#msg-
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Does anyone remember the interior of the old Chicago Academy of Sciences museum in Lincoln Park, east of Clark at the beginning of Lincoln Park West? I remember going there in the mid-to-late '70's and thinking it was the coolest museum of all - it was set up like you were actually in the ancient pre-development landscape of Chicago - the building columns were disguised as "trees" with b
Forum: General Discussion

Thanks Mr. Downtown. That makes sense. Where would 41 have run? North or South to Catalpa on Western from Peterson or Foster?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

This is really interesting - I always wondered about Sunnyside too. How about Catalpa between Western and Lincoln? Why is it so wide? I don't think it was a railroad in that case, but does anyone know?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I think you're thinking of Joe Harris Hardware, which is at 3301 S. Wallace.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Nelson Algren's short story "A Bottle of Milk for Mother," which was the basis for his novel Never Come Morning, is all set inside the Police station formerly located at Racine just south of Chicago Avenue (now the middle of the Kennedy). The incarcerated youth who is the protagonist of the story hears the bells of St. John Cantius from his cell. The crime he allegedly committed in the s
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Ronny's still exists, part of the State of Illinois building at the SW corner of Lake and Clark. The location near Randolph and State is now an Argo Tea. The Van Buren location is now a parking lot.
Forum: General Discussion

There was a knife sharpener with the three-wheeled cart and the bell who would come around my neighborhood in SW Oak Park well into the 1970's. My Mom would hear the bell and hand me the scissors and a couple knives and tell me to go out and get them sharpened. I don't remember what it cost but I think less than a dollar. There seemed to me to be no rhyme or reason when he would come around - some
Forum: General Discussion

One of my earliest memories is driving with my Dad late at night from our house near Laramie and Lake to pick up corned beef sandwiches to go from Braverman's. This would have been a few years before you, Bill, probably around 1970. I still remember the smell of the corned beef and the feeling that I was doing something pretty cool.
Forum: General Discussion