Passed by the Rizal Center today near Irving and Southport and remembered that I was long curious about the empty blue squares on the facade of the building. I did some inquiring and found that it was originally the Orphei Singing Club, a Swedish social hall, and came across this on a restaurant ware collector website: The Orphei Singing Club was a Swedish-American social club that featured
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There's a great website via Northwestern that has homicide stats from 1870-1930 in a searchable database that might be of some help, as the police reports have been entered as they were originall written. I've poerd over this site for hours and hours. It would be interesting to see what would come up (and where) if you typed in something like 'heroin'. Homicide In Chicago, 1870-1930 In reg
Forum: General Discussion

davey7 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Aren't Marquette and 67th the same street at > points? Yeah, it gets confusing. It runs 6700 S., and then east of the Ryan at Eberhart (500 E.), it turns north and takes over Eberhart for a block, then heads east again along 66th and continues through Jackson Park, ending at South Shore Drive and 67th. So, ther
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There were two little-known but important attractions just off the Midway between the Fair and the First World War. First is Paul Boyton's Water Chutes, at 61st and Drexel, which is considered by many to be the first 'modern' amusement park (the first park to rely on purely mechanical attractions). He moved the chutes to Coney Island in 1895. Then, in 1907, Cap Anson built a ballpark at 60th
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The IC accounting office building and station at 63rd was demolished some time in the late '80s, although there are still some beams visible on the embankment side where the church parking lot is now. I read somewhere once that the Marquette & 67th St. commuter stations were closed by 1965. They still exist, boarded up, and I assume looked much like the one that still operates at 59th St.
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Too bad its only problem was not being designed by Jeanne Gang.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Speaking of the Rainbo - did they ever figure out the mystery of the human bones they found in the boiler room when it was being demolished?
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

There used to be a lot of mobbed-up hotels in that area following the war - the Caravelle, which Don Stephens bought from Giancana; Manny Skar's Sahara further south on Mannheim, the failure of which ultimately led to his murder in 1965. Gene Autry later owned a whole bunch of that land (including the Sahara itself). But you're correct; the stories of that area being a wide-open spot for vice go
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Dunning - great places you mentioned! My uncle and aunt used to take me to Olympic, and also over to a tiny diner just south of Burkley's in the TraveLodge parking lot that made the coffee shop in the Ohio House motel look palatial. Next to that, across the creek, there was an Uncle Charlie's on the corner where the McDonalds is now. There was also a place called the Shady Rest Inn where the
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^ ^ ^ Ha ha ha!!!
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Not sure she did live in Hyde Park as an adult, but Lorraine and her siblings bought the Pershing Hotel on Cottage Grove in 1960 and briefly ran it as the Nan-Carl Hotel (named after her parents). I don't know how long that lasted.
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Don't forget Wax Trax, on Lincoln! Wild Chicago did a segment there you might be able to dig up. One of the things I remember they had on the wall just above the section of Ministry albums was a Publishers Clearing House mailing to Al Jourgensen telling him he may have already won $1 million!
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It's mentioned in the book as a part of the section about Lorraine Hansberry's life as an 'out' writer. Interesting stuff.
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Eagerly awaiting your report! Be safe.
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It's about the history of LGBT Chicago from early days up through the 1969 Stonewall Riots in NYC. I've not read it but from the pieces online it looks pretty interesting.
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Mikey Wrote: > Way Out Wardell... I have a jazz LP of that title > by a tenor man named Wardell Gray. > Interesting. Yep, that's where it's from!
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Good question, Paul. I know Joe Segal put on his early Jazz Showcase presentations at the Happy Medium and I'd like to think they'd allow 'mixed tables'. I think you're correct on the Blue Note closing date, by the way. The inability to get served in a restaurant or book a hotel room led Herman Roberts (of Roberts Show Lounge) to open a number of motels where his performers could stay.
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Hi Jean, I have come across a pretty decent photo of the church taken in 1963. Enjoy! St. Anne's, 1963
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Mikey, there are some still photos of 'Fearless Frank' on the Chicago Screenshots website, and apparently it's available on Netflix. Hope it helps!
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OK, I did manage to dig up some more info: The book 'Chicago Whispers' mentions extensive coverage by the Defender at the time of filming, in part: 'Chicago's Northside was one of the principal locations for shots of the movie', the Defender wrote on July 11, 1960. 'In true Chicago fashion, the white residents were aghast and for the most part, against the idea.' The paper was referring to
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Good question. There's a promo photo from the film with the characters sitting in back yard of a newer-looking house that could be in Chicago, possibly North Austin, as you say. I am almost positive that none of the inner city scenes were actually shot in Woodlawn.
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It would seem they're on the same wavelength as you, Stew. Just a couple of weeks ago, both the apartment building at 60th and Woodlawn (1893) and the Ina Robertson house at 6042 S. Kimbark (where the Doomsday Clock was later born) were both demolished, leaving a nice square block of vacant land on the south end of campus.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Here's hoping at least some of the good ornament gets salvaged. I was really surprised to see that the U of C did that when they knocked down the block of houses at 56th & Maryland.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Meant to add...always funny when developers claim a building is beyond reuse and needs demolition, when it would somehow seem less patronizing if they just came out and said they wanted to tear it down without the extra justification. I drove by these buildings yesterday and they certainly seem in better condition that fully-occupied buildings in neighborhoods south and west of there.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

There are some questions about whether 'His First Ride' was actually filmed in Chicago - there was a recent post on the Chicago Screenshots website that mentions it being filmed in Colorado, and the book 'Hollywood on Lake Michigan' alludes to it being filmed elsewhere as well.
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I haven't been there in years, but it used to be a pretty cool market, with things you couldn't buy most other places. Apparently there has been a lot of owner turnover. The building on the other side of the parking lot (now Boston Market) used to house Gardiner's, a bed/bath store where you could buy fancy soap, etc.
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I was wondering what was going on with those. Thanks.
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> > Yes, of course. Today the plumbing venture is > owned by American Standard. The company has > morphed into a world leader in the pump, aerospace > and nuclear industries areas, among others. > Interesting. Google pulled up an EPA document from the 1980s talking about some concerns at the Kedzie facility because the company had done work for the Dept. of Defense lea
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Martin Ryerson's house still stands @ 48th & Drexel.
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Well now I know! Thanks everyone!
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