The latest issue of First & Fastest magazine has some fantastic restored photos of that old line to Logan Square, taken when it was virtually brand new in the 1890s. A friend found the (very faded) photo book on eBay and spent a lot of time digitally restoring the pictures. Lots of empty space next to the "L" then...but back then it was because the area was virtually undeveloped!
Forum: General Discussion

Braun Bottles was a former Pennsylvania Railroad freight house. A strange location for a Pennsy facility, until noting that there used to be a lively freight transfer service along the easternmost track through Union Station and the Pennsy facility was one of several in that area that served the transfer runs.
Forum: General Discussion

The US Army's Fifth Army Headquarters was in the industrial district during and after WW2, as was a major Westinghouse Electric warehouse and service center. A friend of mine, a retired tool-and-die maker by trade, worked for Herbst-Lazar in the 1960s and 70s as a maker of prototype models for consumer goods. He did a lot of work for Popiel and had saved prototypes of the Pocket Fisherman and
Forum: General Discussion

It was the old alignment for the Logan Square "L". They hadn't been used in passenger service since December 1951 (when the Dearborn Subway opened) and were used only for periodic training and shop moves after that. I think they were finally razed around 1964.
Forum: General Discussion

wordguy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Garfield Park Hospital was located in the 3800 > block of Washington Blvd. on the south side of > the street. It was shuttered either in the late > '60 or early '70s, if my memory serves me. I'm > not sure if the building still exists. I'm inclined to doubt it...I'm out that way every once in a whi
Forum: General Discussion

That's what used to be known as a gasholder. It was a big reservoir that telescoped up and down as the volume changed. It served the same purpose for natural gas as a water tower...besides holding a large volume of gas, it also served to maintain constant pressure in the lines. There was another big one on Kedzie between Pratt and Devon, and a couple of others at Oakton and McCormick. I beli
Forum: General Discussion

I know that the nuclear warheads were developed, and deployed in some overseas installations, but I'm not sure that they were actually deployed within the continental US.
Forum: General Discussion

I believe the city was finally forced to back down in the Jefferson Park case. The ultimate tragedy of the USSC's Kelo decision is that it's the ultimate incentive to NOT invest in real estate. And what happens to a city when nobody's willing to own property therein?
Forum: General Discussion

They did indeed house water tanks (to maintain standpipe pressure for fire protection), but also the clocks were there for a very important reason: in an age when many people lived within walking distance of their jobs (or at least a streetcar ride away), not everybody could afford a watch.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Along the west side of the IC Electric (aka Metra Electric) tracks, down by Kensington Junction (about 115th St), there is a terra cotta horse head on the facade of a building facing the tracks.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

There was a huge (but faded) "house sign" for the Nortown on its north wall, that probably dated back to the opening of the theater. There are surviving pictures of the sign in better days, and I remember seeing the faded remnants right up to the demolition.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Are you sure? Out in the unincorporated areas of the 'burbs they were an old boundary marker for the "Fire Protection District", the boundaries of the service territories for municipal fire departments. If you paid for fire protection from a nearby municipality, you were covered. If you didn't, you were beyond the boundaries and on your own.
Forum: General Discussion

Pictures of the movable platform do exist--I've seen them. There's at least one in existence of the platform deployed and then one of it retracted. Try the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society--does anybody here have their email address? There was one column footing for the old North Water Stub in place for years, visible from the northbound Mart platform down in what had become an alley.
Forum: General Discussion

I think I remember what you're talking about...my father knew all the good secondary streets in the city and sometimes used Oak Park Ave. as a shortcut to Oak Park instead of Harlem. Around Fullerton he pointed out a concrete structure near the Milwaukee Road tracks and said it was an old dumping platoform for coal, like a coal yard would use. Could that be the structure in question? A brickyar
Forum: General Discussion

There was a missile site at Montrose Point; also there were radar towers in Lincoln Park. The Jackson Park site was called site C-41, IIRC. Part of the Skokie Lagoons up around Dundee Road, next to the Edens, and part of Fort Sheridan also contained Nike Hercules missile silos. The control center for the Chicago defensive missile network was in Arlington Heights; my father worked on its const
Forum: General Discussion