^Car 1812.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

As built in the late 1930s (opened 1943), the State Street subway emerged into an open cut at the south sidewalk of 13th Street, then curved eastward 100 feet or so and up a structure to join the Alley L at 17th St. Tower and Interlocking. The apartment building at 1255 S. State is set back from State Street to avoid the subway tunnel. The subway was built with a single tail track just south of R
Forum: General Discussion

CVS isn't visible from any L line.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Merrimac doesn't intersect Belmont.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

the_mogra Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the extra-track (right-of-way) provisions(s) when > the Congress was under construction turned out to > be a considerable embarrassment ... the CTA looks bad enough > without drawing named attention to it You're draping your own interpretation of history—-with the benefit of hindsight-—onto historica
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I'm not disputing that more median space was left than would be needed for a two-track rapid transit line: the plans specify 97 feet wide from Central to Kedzie, 120 feet from California to Paulina, 150 feet from Paulina to Racine. But what I've never found (in lots and lots of research) is any indication that the highway planners specifically were providing for the CA&E. Instead, the city s
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

the_mogra Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > - the congress line was built with provisions > (albeit incomplete) for a single line CA&E track. It was? From where to where? What's the source of this information?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

A Feb. 12, 1952, Tribune story puts it pretty explicitly: "Beginning in 1947 a group of Kansas farmers and financiers began buying stock until they obtained about 80 per cent of it. They now have paper profits ranging upward of 100 per cent or higher. If the road were junked, the salvage value of its real estate and equipment would give the Kansans an even greater profit." It's one
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

CTA apparently did look into running some of the CA&E service beyond Desplaines Avenue, using PCC cars that were being surplused (and traded in on new 6000s for the L). But most of the profitable CA&E territory was beyond the area CTA is authorized to serve, and nothing came of the idea. Remember that up north, CTA had to retain half the Skokie Swift route just for access to its own shop
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

If the CA&E were to come in on the Paulina Connector and run around the Loop, they wouldn't need a terminal at all, though for operational reasons they might like to arrange for a trainmen's room, a dispatcher, and a place to lay up a couple of midday trains. There are a number of places that could have been done without needing new trackage on the Near West Side. The CA&E was merely a
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I think you're forgetting that the Met's main stem, from Marshfield Junction east to Halsted, also had to be removed for the superhighway and new Circle Interchange. In addition, the Wacker Drive Extension required reconstruction of the east approach to the Met's Scherzer bridge. With CTA having no further need of the bridge or the connection to the Loop, that's a lot to expect the CA&E to t
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The extra portals at Halsted were to allow Douglas Park trains to access a future subway that would have been built under Clinton Street. Remember that the city, not CTA, was building the "open-air subway" in the Congress Superhighway. The extra space in the median near UIC makes some think that room was left for CA&E. Documented plans are hard to come by, but my recent research
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Has anyone ever heard of a "neighborhood name" specifically for the Italian settlement along Grand Avenue in this area?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The question of "what was the plan" for where to put CA&E is hard to answer, and probably changed year to year, in part because expressway construction was so slow and no one knew if CA&E would still be around.  As early as 1952, CA&E was petitioning to substitute bus service and the county held up expressway planning for months, worried that it would be building new tracks
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

^Right; it's not much different than the stops on the Congress line that have long ramps coming down from streets a quarter-mile apart, equally inconvenient to both streets.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The 1896 Sanborn's map shows 134 Johnston Ave. as a vacant lot (south side of Lyndale, third lot west of Sacramento Ave.) There also was a Johnston St., now Marshfield Ave.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

After the On Leong tong moved its followers en masse to 22nd & Princeton, various property owners began to replace the little wooden structures that had served the predecessor vice district with more substantial buildings. I think the tong itself commissioned Michaelson & Rognstad to design the several "business block" buildings along the south side of 22nd with dragon terra-cot
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Finally got the chance to ask a friend who's lived in that area (same house) since 1932. He remembers the cookie factory, and is pretty sure it was Maurice Lenell.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The last edition in my collection is dated 2001. The last one in WorldCat is 2004.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Nearly all the buildings were "central offices," home to switching equipment (and back-up batteries) that served an area a couple of miles in radius around the building. In the early days of telephony, these exchanges were localized switchboards, so to make a phone call across town you'd tell your local operator to connect you to "Norwood 6118." By the 1920s, you could dial N
Forum: General Discussion

^Those are just "rear houses," very common in Old Town and Pilsen. They have regular street access and addresses via the gangway.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Several wholesale grocer operations on the east side of State St. around 77th make it look like that was once a wholesale market area, a bit like South Water Market—but perhaps more focused on prepackaged groceries than produce or meat. My best guess is that it primarily served independent "corner groceries" all over the old South Side, and that there were additional operations on the
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The Woolworth store at Washington & State had a lunch counter on the mezzanine. A stairway on the south wall of the store led from the State Street door up to the counter.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

rjmachon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Does anyone recall the name of the website . . .with the numbers 404 in > the name maybe? You probably mean http://calumet412.com/ The blogger went on his honeymoon in October and has posted nothing since.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I've read dozens of "well researched histories of Chicago" and have never encountered the term "Second City" in reference to the post-Fire city. Perhaps you could give a specific citation?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I've put together a site that will lead you to all the historic Chicago maps I can found on the web: Chicago in Maps
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Yes, it amazes me the number of people who conflate Burnham and Ward and think they worked together to save the lakefront, when of course they were completely at odds over what should be permitted in Grant Park. Ward saved Grant Park from being filled with buildings, while Burnham had a vision of new parkland along the rest of the lakefront—which could be dotted with buildings.
Forum: General Discussion

I think it's mostly just the Jack Delano photos for the Office of War Information, easily viewed online.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

b.a.hoarder Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > your old exchange would have been Prescott or > Prospect. In Chicago, PRescott only had 9 as the third digit; PRospect only had 6 and 8. SPaulding 2 was on the North Side.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

No, but they might have benefited from the favorable tax incentives offered just after World War II to investors to build apartments. A number of large complexes, such as Granville Gardens and Winchester-Hood Garden Homes, were developed at that time in Rogers Park by big institutional investors.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)