There is one on Craigslist. W. Dickens Ave.-$195.00 Street Sign Also another one on e-bay, N. Sayre Av. N. Sayre Av. Another e-bay listing. This one is for a more modern green sign of W. Wilson Av. W. Wilson Av.
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I believe the google maps were taken in the summer of 2007. The modern pictures I took and posted were from the summer of 2008. Yes, google maps does make it look good. Take a drive there and see for yourself. I will post more old and new pics soon.
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I just drove through there yesterday on my way to Pilsen. Millard Ave. has held up well but it is still run down looking. Even more run down looking since the last time I was there. Like I mentioned before, the street is long and goes north until it ends where you can turn east or west on 16th Street. 16th Street is truly a war zone and was scary driving east. There were what seemed like hund
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Here is another interesting comparrison. This real photo postcard of the Millard Ave. Presbyterian Church dates to circa 1908. The church is located just north of Ogden on Millard Ave. at the south end of that very long block I described above. Here is a photo I took of it in 2008, 100 years later. It is now the Harmony Baptist Church.
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The above auction for the signs of N. State St & W. Madison Ave. ended at $380.00.
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Fran, I also read Satter's book. I knew a little about contract selling before I read her book but afterwards I really got a good handle of what it was truly about. I had a couple of complaints about the book though. One was that she kept calling the neighborhood where her fathers buildings were "Lawndale" but it was clearly West Garfield Park. One was on Congress and the other was o
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In the top postcard image of Millard Ave. you will see the largest mansion on the block with a big turret that is third from left. This is a current photo of that home which is located at 1862 S. Millard Ave. In the postcard image below the first, the two closest houses you can see are first (right) 1858 S. Millard and one in is 1862 S. Millard. Although it is to small to see in this image (I c
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No I have not. I think you mentioned this in another thread so I looked it up and it is at 2801 S. Hamlin. The place does not even look like a tavern. What type of pace is it?
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Back to North Lawndale....... Probably the most beautiful street in North Lawndale is the 1600-1800-1900 blocks of Millard Ave. which run as one consecutive street. I don't know how many streets are like this in Chicago, but there are no breaks in this street in that area, it is just one long block. Look at Google maps to seee what I mean. Millard Ave. In the beginning, this street wa
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222psm, yes the plant closed in 1990 I believe. There is some other company in the building. Dave, could the football facility have been Cicero Stadium at 19th & Laramie? Cicero Stadium
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222psm, good eye, I did take the pics from my car! Here is the Hotpoint sign in my basement. I have been meaning to clean it up a bit and take the steel support piece that surrounds it off.
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222psm, yeah the neighborhood looks VERY bad now, poverty sure has done a number on it. I would recommend some of the more adventurous to take a look at it, but BE CAREFUL! By the way 222psm, the Hotpoint plant employed many people back in the day. I was told by an older guy from Cicero that back in the 50s-60s you could not make it from 16th St. to Roosevelt Rd. on 54th Ave. and not find s
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Another surviving structure is the old Our Lady of Lourdes Bohemian Catholic church which was originally built in 1892 at the corner of 15th & Keeler. The structure was rebuilt and enlarged in the 1920s. Jews had become the overwhelming majority in the neighborhood by 1929, but according to the 1929 Polk directory online, the Merigold section of North Lawndale still had a sizable Bohemian po
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I don't know if there is much interest here in North Lawndale, but I find the area to be historically and architecturally fascinating. I particularly find the area between Roosevelt Rd to 16th & Pulaski to Kostner extra fascinating. Many do not know this, but that particular area was once a Bohemian settlement known as Merigold (named after the original developer W. A. Merigold) or Novy Tabo
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By the way, the E. 74th St. sign I linked above ended up selling for $168.48
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Here is an old yellow Chicago Street sign update. N. Seeley Ave.- $181.50 http://cgi.ebay.com/ORIGINAL-2-SIDED-PORCELAIN-CHICAGO-STREET-SIGN-CLEAN-NR_W0QQitemZ260574401037QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3cab71d20d S. State St.- $244.50 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120551982897&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT N. Wilmot Ave.- $146.50 http://cgi
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Mike, I am finally logging back on to this site after being off for a while due to my computer being infected with malware because of this site. Glad to see that the issue has been resolved. PLEASE put the neighborhood signs thread back up!
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I was bidding on this real photo postcard on e-bay this weekend but it went for $70.00 which was to much for me for an area that I really do not collect. The reason I was bidding on it was because of the painted advertising on the side of the building which was advertising Novak & Sebek Men's clothing store which was located in the heart of the Czech California Bohemian neighborhood at 22nd S
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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 buil
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

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.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

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>
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

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 .
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Captian54, There was not a designated area like a "Polish Broadway" so to speak, but if there was an area like that it was 18th St. Thalia Hall and Plzensky Sokol, both of which were on or right off of 18th St., played an integral role in entertaining the Czech people with theatrical productions and music. You have got to understand something though. Majority of the Czech's that lived
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Straykitten, Yes! The Pilsen neighborhood was the Czech epicenter of Chicago from about 1871 through the 1920s until many of them had moved westward to what is now Little Village, and also Cicero and Berwyn. The name Pilsen itself is the English translation of the City of Plzen in the Czech Republic where many of the areas residents immigrated from. The Czech's still had a large presence in the
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

By the way. The first postcard view probably dates to circa 1910. The second view is post marked in 1907, but the view was made in 1900. The very same view by the same publisher appears in the Chicago Bohemian Adresář, or directory, from the year 1900.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

222psm Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is the block my uncle and aunt lived on, see > the stairs lead to the 3rd floor? the street level > was below the lower windows. If you go down to the > lower level there is/was a door that lead to under > the sidewalk! > View Larger Map > > The building they lived in is a few door east b
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Wow! This thread is a lot of fun, let's keep it up! Capitan54 thank's for the great modern image! Here is another postcard from my collection. This is basically the same location but taken just a little bit farther to the east looking at the same side of the street. You can see the large C.S.P.S. building with the tower. In the first postcard I posted here you can see what looks like a vacant
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

The vaulted sidewalks of Pilsen are legendary to older residents. I have a surrogate grandmother in my neighborhood who's Bohemian family comes from Pilsen. Her daughter (who is now 62 years old), used to be taunted by her grand parents parents when she misbehaved. They told her if she kept up her shenanigans she would be put "nad sidewalce," or under the sidewalk in English. She sub
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Artista, actually it is Austin & Cermak in Cicero.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

No problem Artista. Here is a scan of the postcard. The scene is taken form the corner of 18th & May Streets. From the left where the first carriage sits is the J. Novak saloon at 1132 W. 18th St (The building still stands). The building to the right of Novak's Saloon with the arched windows and doors is the C.S.P.S. , or Česko Slovanských Podporujicick Spolků (Czech Benevolent Society)
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings