Staring out the windows of a train is one of life's great pleasures. Some images that stick out in my mind are passing between the buildings of the Oscar Mayer plant and going under the crosswalk between them, circling the buildings in the loop and seeing the old business names painted on the second-story windows, the Mandarin Inn sign above the Jimmy Wong's marquee on Wabash that was only visible
Forum: General Discussion

Wow, what a time capsule!
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

The map that Nordsider posted shows two depots at that intersection; the Chicago & Northwestern depot is on the north side of Kinzie at Canal, and the Chicago & Milwaukee depot is across the street, on the SW corner of Kinzie and Canal. The C&MRR was eventually merged into the C&NWRR, which could explain why the C&NW would put a time capsule on the plot of a depot they didn'
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I found that before the Wabash building, Peter J Weber, who once worked for Burnham, oversaw the 1907 addition to the Fisher Building. So, apparently, he had a thing for aquatic forms in terra-cotta.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

The only reference I can find dates it to 1966, with Bleck & Bleck as the listed architects. The firm still exists, but their website doesn't show any of the work from their archives.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I passed by the old Central Wet Wash smokestack (Irving & Elston) today, and it made me think...when I was a kid, I remember quite a few smokestacks that had the company name inlaid in contrasting-color brick, usually a laundry service of some sort. They've disappeared so gradually I barely realized they were gone. I remember one was Albany Wet Wash, which was blonde brick with the inlay i
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Here's the Beehive in 1955: The Beehive, 1955 and across the street was the Cadillac Lounge (run by Cadillac Bob of the DuSable Hotel): Cadillac Lounge Just down the street from the Woodlawn Tap (where the fire station is now) stood the Compass Tavern (lots of Second City history) and at 52nd & Lake Park was the Nob Hill.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

No, that club predates me! There's a great book of photos by Raeburn Flerlage called 'Chicago Blues - Seen From The Inside' which covers all those places like Peppers, Theresa's, Famous Door, etc., along with the players including a teenage Mike Bloomfield.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The Manzo's Banquets is still open on Elmhurst Road. I did read that the owners of the Irving Park Manzo's opened a new place, this time east of Kedzie on Irving. I wonder if they messed with the pizza recipe.
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Frader's was at 834 E. 43rd, among that stretch of blues clubs along 43rd.
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It was designed by City Architect Charles W. Kallal. More info on him and his buildings here (but not much info about the building itself): Charles W Kallal
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Here ya go Tomcat! Schmerler Ford Ad Looking at it now, he was a pretty decent pitchman - a lot of the dealers who do their own spots are terrible.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I finally remembered to ask: How are streetlights numbered? I've seen what I assume are older streetlights that have numbers painted on them - saw some in Jackson Park today, on poles that were painted grey. The numbers were in yellow on a black background and seemed to correspond to the block number and a sequence. On Cornell Ave., for instance, they look like: 65 65 11 12, etc.
Forum: General Discussion

Mornac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyone remember the name of "Your singing Ford > dealer"? > > ("Rock-a-bye your babeeee!") That was Harry Schmerler Ford. My neighbor bought a car from them and he sang to her when handing her the keys. I do remember that in some of his ads he'd sing 'In The Good Old Summertime'.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I remember watching Beatles cartoons on WSNS, and my father yelling at Jimmy Piersall while watching Sox games. Our neighbor subscribed to ON TV when it first became available, and all the kids were impressed with the box on top of their set with one knob labeled OFF - ONTV. For some reason, they let us watch a movie about the life of Freddie Prinze, which was probably highly inappropriate for
Forum: General Discussion

Before it was the funeral home, the building housed the Washington Park National Bank until the bank built a new building across the street. Here's a photo from the LOC website of the building when it was still the bank: Washington Park National Bank, 63rd & Evans, 1916 The building was most likely demolished for the Woodlawn Gardens urban renewal project in the late '60s. However, t
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Found an aircraft crash history website that has the bomber vs. gas holder crash in lots of detail, with clippings and photos! B-24 Crashes Into Gas Holder, 1943
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Not sure where else they were located, but for a time at least, they were at 320 E. 21st St, near the Donnelly plant. Here's a photo of the railyard with the Revere building in the background: ICRR, 1962 In the mid-60s, Chess Records moved their operation from the famous Michigan Ave. building to the 21st St. building. I think the rooftop sign became a WVON billboard after that.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Good question - before the parking garage built at Clark and Lake, I remember there being a vacant lot blocked from view while they figured out if the second tower of the Chicago Title & Trust building was ever going to get completed. Maybe portions of the tunnel still remain?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

There were railroad tracks that passed between the coal silos and the ballpark at one time - don't know which railway owned it, but the old ROW at Irving is now Challenger Park.
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Holy cow, that's a lot of clips. I've barely scratched the surface at Fuzzy Memories and now this! Thanks!
Forum: General Discussion

A two-ton concrete cube just to hold some photos and newspapers? Well, hopefully, they've fared better than that buried Plymouth did in Tulsa...
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Check it out, I think I found another vantage point of the above photo! Time Capsule Gathering? So, it looks like they're on the southwest corner, and this photo is looking west across Canal. The track that's on the left would appear to be the one that continues east across the bridge and heads under Merchandise Mart. Historic Aerials doesn't show anything being built on that corner in sub
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

How about a FC archaeological dig? I'm in!
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Not having much luck finding a photo of the Dickinson plant - the Campbell Soup factory turns up more often. I did, however, find a rendering of the plant in a trade magazine: Dickinson Seed, 1915
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Hi Holly, You might get some search direction with the online version of the 1929 Polks Directory. Of course, that's dated forty years after the building was constructed, but it would at least indicate who lived there, how the building was used, and the ethnicity of the neigborhood in that year. I find that Google Books is sometimes helpful, as well, either searching by name or address; photos u
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Thanks BA! In doing some digging into Dickinson Seed, I found that the family was related to Susan B. Anthony, and that Charles Dickinson's problems in running an air mail route from Chicago to St. Paul played a role in the formation of Northwest Airlines years later.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The coverage of this week's warehouse fire reminded me of another enormous warehouse fire about fifteen years ago. It was just east of California and south of the Stevenson (35th St, maybe?), burned for several days and had to be demolished in order to put it out completely. Anyone know what building that was? The only thing I remember about it was the name 'Dickenson' in brick on the facad
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Fuuny you should ask, I was just thinking about this weirdness the other day. From what I've read, it was once the site of the Cornell Watch Factory, owned by Paul Cornell. Here's what the mention on Wikimapia says: In 1870, Paul Cornell, the founder of Hyde Park and landowner of most of the South Side of Chicago, built his Cornell Watch Company's factory here. At the time there were no s
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Inner Prop Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I grew up on Kostner and Montrose in the early > 70s. > > There was a drug store that we always went to. > Most of the store had regular drug store stuff but > the pharmacy had a very tall counter (taller than > my mom iirc) and the pharmacists always seemed > nice by very mysterious be
Forum: General Discussion