I don't mean to dominate this thread, but I Googled the store's address and learned some things about the demography of North Lawndale today. Much of this is obvious, but seeing the numbers is striking. Most striking is the fact that the area within one mile of the address lost nearly 19 percent of its population from 1990-2012. North Lawndale is emptying out. And WHO is the one person living with
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Oh, good, then I got it right. It's been a while since I looked it up.
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Thanks so much for sharing these photos and for the history. Especially for the picture of the building... I'd been thinking that the church down the street was the store! I appreciate you taking the time. If I come across any significant items from the store or attached to the neighborhood, I'll contact you.
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Marie is for sure my relative. I'm not in touch with her, but that is certainly my family. I'm pleased to hear that the items she sold you are in the hands of a collector who cares for them, partiularly one invested in the Chicago Bohemian-American community. Thanks for collecting these memories, particularly because, as Marie says, the folks from whom we learned about this place and time are leav
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Frank, Please tell me how to buy a copy of your book on North Lawndale. How I wish Dorothy had lived to see it. My aunt will be very excited. Alan
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Frank, I am very certain that she did! Wow, I would love to see pictures of that stuff, and my aunt and grandfather would, too. My grandmother passed in 2009. I still have a sheet-metal colander from the store I use every day. And I remember my brother having a 1/2-sheet newspaper insert from the old store with the 1940s prices on it, I'll see if we can't dig it up. Thanks for the post, I wi
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My grandmother bought a home at Norfolk and Congress in Westchester simply because it was within walking distance of the El stop. When they tore it out in 1951, she was devastated. Then, they put the Eisenhower though and cracked the plaster in her little bungalo, and that about broke her heart.
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My great-grandfather was named Stanley Stekly. He owned a hardware store in the 1500 block of South Crawford Ave., which was later renamed Pulaski Rd. My grandmother, Dorothy, annotated a Google Maps image of that block, recalling her memories of growing up in Lawndale during the Great Depression. She lived in an apartment over that store until after WW II, when her husband returned from the Navy.
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