Historic Chicago - Page 20

Mr Downtown · #**381** Posted **Mar 6, 2012, 2:04 AM**

Three blogs that others may enjoy visiting:

Chicago Past Mostly from Library of Congress collections.

Calumet 412 A wide variety of images and ephemera.

History Chicago Primarily images being sold on eBay.

george · #**382** Posted **Mar 8, 2012, 3:56 AM**

Oh yeah, those Library of Congress collections are bad ass. Thanks!^

F1 Tommy · #**383** Posted **Mar 11, 2012, 4:01 PM**

Great stuff. One thing you notice is the quality of detail work. The new buildings are kind of boring and to simple. Look at the old train station interior on the last page. Not a flat panel in the place. The United terminal I guess could be a modern interpretation of that.

untitledreality · #**384** Posted **Apr 19, 2012, 7:18 PM**

...get ready for some serious pain. Everything shown below is gone.

All photographs are courtesy of Charles R. Childs and are all located in the near South side and Douglas neighborhoods from 1910~

20th and Prairie

29th and Michigan

29th and Prairie

31st and Calumet

31st and Cottage Grove

33rd and Cottage Grove

33rd and Michigan

35th and Indiana

Buckman821 · #**385** Posted **Apr 19, 2012, 7:35 PM**

A post like that can just ruin your whole day. Nice find though.

Mr Downtown · #**386** Posted **Apr 22, 2012, 1:09 AM**

Lake Shore Drive about 1928, looking north at Irving Park. This is a hand-colored lantern slide. Sorry for the size, but aerials deserve to be seen BIG. That institution in the center is the old U.S. Marine Hospital. It looks like Clarendon just plunges into the lake, but the 1929 topo map shows that the intersection with Lawrence just barely made it on dry land.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2hs6sf7.jpg
CARLI Digital Collections
Forest Preserve District of Cook County Records, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

ardecila · #**387** Posted **Apr 22, 2012, 2:17 AM**

So that's what landfill looks like before they plant the grass and trees...

I'm curious about where all the soil came from... lake dredging?

Mr Downtown · #**388** Posted **Apr 22, 2012, 2:28 AM**

^In the Plan of Chicago, Burnham noted that the city was annually disposing of one million cubic feet of "clean" fill by carrying it far out into the lake for dumping, and suggested that it could be used to create many acres of new parkland. Most of it was the spoil removed for new basements and ashes from the coal furnaces of the day, but some of it (particularly for Grant & Burnham Parks) came from the freight tunnels and I think some came from construction of the Sanitary & Ship Canal as well. The last chunk, from Foster to Hollywood, came from excavation for the Congress Superhighway. After the fill was generally in place, they would sluice sand and silt from the lake bottom to fill in the interstices. Being wet, it also helped pack down the landfill. Here's work about the same time on Burnham Park:

lawfin · #**389** Posted **Apr 22, 2012, 8:46 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Lake Shore Drive about 1928, looking north at Irving Park. This is a hand-colored lantern slide. Sorry for the size, but aerials deserve to be seen BIG. That institution in the center is the old U.S. Marine Hospital. It looks like Clarendon just plunges into the lake, but the 1929 topo map shows that the intersection with Lawrence just barely made it on dry land.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2hs6sf7.jpg
CARLI Digital Collections
Forest Preserve District of Cook County Records, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

Mr D. That is stupendously amazingly super incredibly awesome.....really I am dumb struck....

I know you and I have had our moments on this forum.....but that pic is just ......yeah

Great job and thank you.....

Nowhereman1280 · #**390** Posted **May 2, 2012, 7:40 PM**

Awesome picture Mr. DT.

Check this one out, a worker stands atop the Sears Tower derricks after it is topped out:

tumblr

The guys tumblr says it is "atop the antenna", but seeing as how the tower didn't have antenna immediately after it was constructed I'm willing to be that's the derick he's on. Tumblr here:

http://calumet412.tumblr.com/post/22...the-attenna-of

george · #**391** Posted **Jul 2, 2012, 5:23 PM**

Grand Ave & Kinzie St bridges 1944

http://chicagopast.com/

Rizzo · #**392** Posted **Jul 2, 2012, 5:54 PM**

Imagine if the Athletic Club didn't exist and this was a Riverfront Park (which will soon be lined with a highrise. That rail bridge would have been cool pedestrian access sweeping you into that space.

Oh well.

i_am_hydrogen · #**393** Posted **Jul 4, 2012, 2:45 AM**

I don't have a source for this photo. I saved it to my hard drive a few years ago:

Mr Downtown · #**394** Posted **Jul 5, 2012, 3:53 AM**

^That's from the LIFE archive. It's looking east on Augusta from Pulaski, April 1960. Ryan81 posted it in Dec. 2008.

bnk · #**395** Posted **Jul 5, 2012, 5:24 AM**

Now that is how you fit 3.4M plus in city limits with large families.

We will never see kind of population that again within city limits and do we even want to see that crushing kind of density anymore, other than new highrises?

Quality vs quanity IMO. Plus the schools will never be par enough for large families to live like that again, esp with so much vacant land, lots and vacant foreclosed housing.

george · #**396** Posted **Aug 8, 2012, 9:01 PM**

1968. Note that rickety wooden railing/ sidewalk.

http://chicagopast.com/

george · #**397** Posted **Aug 14, 2012, 8:35 PM**

It's hard to believe this actually existed in the 1930's.

http://chicagopast.com/

photoLith · #**398** Posted **Aug 15, 2012, 3:52 AM**

I grew up until the 4th grade in Chicago mostly and have fond memories of the Water Tower. I think seeing the Water Tower as a little kid was what really got me interested into architecture. I remember the first time me and my dad went downtown to see a Cubs game, since we lived in Batavia. I didnt want to see the cubs and I bugged him and after twenty minutes in the game I made him take me on the El around the city. I was much more interested being in like 1st grade in the architecture and the grandeur of the city then a silly baseball game. I love The Watertower. When I went back to Chicago in 2008, the first time Id been there in roughly 10 years, I went to the watertower and almost started crying because I had such fond memories of it as a little kid. Truly a wonderful building. Its so unique, Ive been all over the world, but never have I come across another building that looks like The Water Tower.

george · #**399** Posted **Aug 15, 2012, 6:10 PM**

Interesting, thanks for sharing.^ At 10 yrs old my first Cub game was in the hot sun in the Wrigley Field center field bleachers (now off limits) with nothing but salted peanuts. After 9 long innings the Cubs lost to the Mets 0-1. At the time it sucked, now a fond memory. My first visit downtown was to the Art Institute & Marina Towers. I remember getting a headache from all the traffic exhaust. Historic good times...

Mr Downtown · #**400** Posted **Sep 29, 2012, 1:00 AM**

If you haven't visited Chicago Past recently, take a look at some of the great Chicago building photos from the American Terra Cotta archives.