Uptown Chicago History

From The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 27, 1933:

Acts to Rebuild Green Mill, Lost in $100,000 Fire
Six Firemen and Woman Spectator Injured

Plans were made yesterday to rebuild the Green Mill building, Broadway and Lawrence Avenue, which was destroyed in an early morning fire with an estimated damage of $100,000. Tom Chamales, owner of the two-story structure, announced that he planned to replace the building with one of similar proportions.

Six firemen were injured, one of them severely, and one woman was overcome with smoke in the blaze that started in a Walgreen Drug Store at 4800 Broadway. The fireman most seriously injured is Lt. James W. O'Malley of Engine 128, 5908 Leonard Street. His back was crushed and he suffered internal injuries.

Other Firemen Injured
The other firemen hurt are Oscar Stewart of Engine 128, 6124 Melrose Street; Fred Kinsler of Engine 128, 3007 Cullerton Street; Frank J. Kubik of Rescue Squad 4, 2508 North Menard Avenue, Lt. William Shay of Squad 4, 3230 Eastwood Avenue; Capt. Raymond J. Howe of Engine 70, 6419 North Albany Avenue.

Mrs. Ella Winters, 39 years old, 1001 Sunnyside Avenue, a spectator, was overcome by smoke and motor gas fumes and taken to the Lakeside Hospital for treatment.

Lt. O'Malley was injured when he went to the rescue of Fireman Kinsler, who was trapped beneath a pile of falling debris in the Green Mill Restaurant at 4806 Broadway. Lt. O'Malley was pinned to the floor as part of the roof gave way. Both men were carried to the street by rescue squads.

Half Dozen Shops Destroyed
The fire was discovered by workers in the drug store at 7 o'clock in the morning. It spread northward through the half block long structure, which extends to 4810 Broadway, and also damaged a Fannie May candy shop at 4812 Broadway. The Wolff Jewelry Shop, the Stop and Eat restaurant, the Excell Photo studio, and the Green Mill ballroom, all quartered in the building, were destroyed in the blaze. The fire was prevented from spreading to the Uptown Theatre, 4814 Broadway, firemen said, by the fire walls of the structure.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

It's a week for birthdays and memories. Today would have been my Grandmother Elsie's 89th birthday. We all called her Gramsy. She was quite the woman. She was one of three children born to Finnish parents, and my father's mother. She graduated from Lake View High School at 4015 Ashland, and almost immediately married my Grandpa Edwin. She was only 17.

This photo of her was taken at the Century of Progress Chicago World's Fair in 1934. She was standing in a cutout made to look like fan dancer Sally Rand (see 2nd image). Ms. Rand was quite the sensation of her day, dancing nude (or appearing to) with only her two fans to cover her. When my grandmother came home with this souvenir photo, she was nearly whupped by her own mother, who thought she really had bared her behind at the fair.

Gramsy had three children, my father being the youngest, and when my grandfather died in 1953 (I think it was), she became the sole provider for the family. The family lived in various apartments in and around Andersonville. I don't think any of them are still standing.

Eventually, when her children moved out to the suburbs with their own children, Elsie followed, getting an apartment in Wheaton, right on the train line, and continuing to commute to Chicago for her job. She was a key punch operator.


Gramsy died when I was very young, still in junior high. My favorite memories of her are when I got to stay overnight at her apartment by myself. There are eight of us grandchildren, and she always made the effort to spend one-on-one time with us. I have a pair of antique elephant knickknack that belonged to her, which I keep on top of one of my antique radios, and a turquoise ring. In every memory I have of her, her hands were covered in these large rings. Each of her granddaughters received one after her death.

I've always admired Gramsy's strength to be able to raise three young children on her own. She never remarried. She was a fun, slightly crazy, generous, warm person, who loved all of us. I only wish that she could have lived long enough for me to get to know her as an adult. The memories I have are a child's memories, and when she passed away, a great deal of family history was lost with her.

Yesterday would have been my grandfather's 84th birthday. He graduated from Robert A. Waller High School, named for the developer of Buena Park. (It's now known as Lincoln Park High School, located at 2001 North Orchard Street. You can read about its history on the official Web site.)

After high school, he entered the Navy, and was stationed in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was immediately shipped out, and was there a few days after the attack. He served most of his time in the Navy aboard the USS Trever.

When the war was over, he returned to Chicago. He had married my grandmother Emma, who also graduated from Waller, while on a brief leave. For a while, they lived in an apartment building owned by my great grandfather, and eventually ended up on Hermitage with their daughter. Mom graduated from Senn.

If any of you readers were living in Uptown in the sixties and seventies, you may have seen my grandfather at Sears. He was the display manager at the Lawrence store, in the days when individual stores could decorate and arrange the displays as they saw fit. (Nowadays, all decorating decisions are handled at corporate headquarters. There's little creativity left in the job. ) He also worked the art fair circuit, specializing in a style of painting that looked like stained glass. If anyone out there has his work, signed Lon Dawson or Pennilon, I'd love to see a photo of it.

My grandmother passed away in 1980. My grandfather remarried, and retired with his new wife to Southern Illinois, and there began a second career as a writer. In the 1990s, they sold their house and moved to the Veterans Home in Quincy. It was their last home. My grandfather died of cancer four years ago this coming January.

I was very little when my grandfather lived in the neighborhood; my parents had taken me out to the suburbs when I was just under four years old, and I moved here five years ago. I don't remember much about his apartment, or the first house he bought. But I've heard enough stories over the years, so that there are certain places in Uptown that I can't walk past without thinking of him—particularly the Sears store.

I know that a lot of us have lost our grandparents over the years, and some of us our parents. My grandfather was just an average guy, but he meant a lot to me, and I wanted to take a moment to share a few memories of him, and put a real face on some of the people who once called this neighborhood home.

Update
My grandfather had written a book chronicling his adventure during World War II about the USS Trever, which is now available through Amazon:

A reader wrote to tell us he attended a plaque dedication ceremony at the Abbott House at Wilson and Hermitage this past week. You can see his blog post about the experience at MySpace. (Thank you, P.M., I totally missed hearing about this.)

A press release from Abbott Labs of the event follows (the house is actually located in Uptown, the boundary stretches all the way to Ravenswood Ave.):

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Chicago will recognize the Ravenswood home of Abbott founder -- Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott -- as one of Chicago's outstanding historic landmarks. At a special dedication ceremony today, Abbott will receive a Preservation Excellence Award from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks for its restoration work on Dr. Abbott's home.

These awards honor outstanding projects that involve notable improvements to individual Chicago Landmarks or to buildings within Chicago Landmark Districts.

Built in 1891, Dr. Abbott's home, located at 4605 North Hermitage, was renovated and restored by Abbott and received historic landmark status in 2006. Abbott's founder lived in the Queen Anne-style home from 1891 to his death in 1921.

"The history of our company and our community are inextricably connected," said Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. "We are honored to continue to make and preserve history in Chicago."

Founded by Dr. Abbott in 1888, Abbott (NYSE: ABT) is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs 65,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.

Abbott's news releases and other information are available on the company's Web site at http://www.abbott.com.

SOURCE Abbott

/CONTACT: Matt Bedella of Abbott, +1-847-936-3394

/Web site: http://www.abbott.com

This probably dates to the 1940s. The address puts it between Wilson and Montrose, about where the Harris Bank is now.

Rice Bowl
4539 Broadway
Chicago, ILL.
Phone Lo-1-7129

This looks like a later plate from what is now the Green Mill Jazz Club then the one previously posted, as they dropped the "gardens" from the logo. It's very small, just under four inches across, and was probably used for lemon slices for cocktails or something like that.

I picked this up early last year. It is one of my favorite Uptown memorabilia pieces. It's a simple dinner plate from the early days of the Green Mill Jazz Club, when it boasted a rather extensive beer garden.

I am always interested in buying Uptown collectibles. If you have something of interest, please drop me a line.

Can anyone recognize exactly which north side L stop is in this vintage postcard? (It's not a quiz; I'm not entirely sure myself.)

I work from home, so riding the L to get somewhere in the City is always a bit of a novelty for me. As I write this, I can hear the recorded voice from the platform of the Argyle Stop. "Doors closing. This is a Red Line train to Howard." I don't really live that close to the tracks, but every once in a while there is a quiet moment with no other traffic or people chatting on the street, and I can hear the recordings.

It wasn't until 1993 that the Howard branch of the elevated was combined with the Dan Ryan branch via the State Street Subway to create the "Red Line" we all know and love. That was the year the CTA adopted color-coded names for all of its L routes.

The old Howard Line, also known as the North Side Main line, was a series of sections originally built by the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company. It stretched from Howard Street at the Border of Evanston all the way to the Loop. To learn more about the full history, visit Chicago-l.org This is a terrific site on the history of Chicago's train transportation. There is also a new book by Greg Borzo, published this past summer, called The Chicago "L" that has a ton of great photographs.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

The back of the card reads:

STELLA'S RANCHO STEAKS
Chicago's Newest and Most Unique Steak House, Blending the rugged atmosphere of "Rancho" with Western Hospitality. Food Skillfully Prepared and Cheerfully Served by Our Cow Hands. Complete Dinners Daily 5 P.M.—2 A.M. Sunday from 3 P.M. Air Conditioned—Telephone: LONgbeach 7569

The address puts it in the recently rehabbed building at the northwest corner of Leland and Winthrop. While (unsuccessfully) searching for more information on this steak house, I did find mention of an earlier establishment in the same location. Something called The Golden Spot, with live entertainment, occupied it in the thirties.

It's too bad that the new rehab didn't include ground level retail and dining; instead, the developers chose to add street-level condos that, in my opinion, look a bit awkward for that building.

From the Asian shops on Argyle Street to the Darlington Arms to the religious community living in an old Wilson Avenue hotel, Uptown residents will recognize the landscape that inspired The Beggars’ Shore

Publisher's description: Chicago’s notorious Uptown neighborhood is the last stop on the down elevator, a dumping ground for people who have run out of road and choices. Joseph Askew, raised in a rigid and insular religious commune, walks out one day, searching. He starts his journey where the world’s failures end theirs.

The “Word” on which Joseph was raised plays differently on the streets. The teenager learns a new set of rules from his teachers: transvestite prostitutes, small-change thieves, ex-pimps, and other denizens of a bleak shadowland where every occupant is constantly shape-shifting between predator and prey. The only exit sign is double-arrow neon: the jailhouse or the graveyard.

The Beggars’ Shore is a story of pilgrimage, a journey where the destination is only “not here.” Joseph tries to carve out a place for himself while working at a liquor store and squatting in a dilapidated flat with his girlfriend and her drug habit. Waiting for his big payday from the man known only as “the Printer,” he dreams of building a future of his own. As the boy seeking manhood tries to gather the pieces of his life, he learns how much of the world can fall away from him. Evocative, powerful, and compelling, The Beggars’ Shore is a masterful debut.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation will host a one-hour tour of Alta Vista Terrace on October 7th: "Known as the 'Street of 40 Doors,’ Alta Vista Terrace was built in 1904 to replicate the rowhouse style of London’s streets. This landmark block is unlike any other street in Chicago. It is an inviting curiosity with beautifully scaled homes. Learn the history of its cohesive design, decorative details, and unique doorways."

When: Sunday, October 7, 11:00 a.m.
Where: Meet at the northeast corner of Grace Street and Alta Vista Terrace (3800 N, 1050 W)
Cost: It's free to CAH members. $5 for non-members

Alta Vista Terrace is a Chicago Landmark. It was designed by J.C. Brompton for real estate developer Samuel Eberly Gross. Each house is duplicated, with minor variation, at the diagonal end of the block.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

My father was furious with me—and rightly so—when I snuck this photo out of the family album and took it to school for show-and-tell in the fifth grade, snapping it in half in the process. It is of my Great Aunt Lydia Alhsteadt Ranck, sister of Agnes Marta Alhsteadt, my great grandmother. Lydia is wearing a variation of the national costume of Finland, where my dad's family is from. (Unfortunately, I don't have a similar photo of my great grandmother.) This branch of the family was from Helsinki.

While Lydia stayed in Finland, my great grandmother made the journey here to Chicago by herself, at the age of seventeen, to live with another one of her sisters. It was 1913 or so when she arrived in Chicago. I'm not sure what year she found her way to the north side. She ended up marrying a nice Finnish boy and had three children, including my grandmother, Elsie, who would grow up to marry a nice Finnish-American boy of her own and have three children as well, including my father, Ron.

Every once in a while, I pull out this photograph of Aunt Lydia, and wonder what it would have been like if my great grandmother had stayed in Finland as well. I wouldn't be writing an Uptown Chicago blog, that's for certain. It's strange how the decisions we make—where we'll live, who we'll marry—have a lasting effect on those who come after.

Trivia: Before he moved to Park Ridge, and long before he went on to Hollywood to star in such films as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bladerunner, American Graffiti, and Patriot Games, Harrison Ford lived in Chicago and, along with his brother Terry, attended grade school at Graeme-Stewart Elementary.


Does anyone out there know if G-S has any other famous alumni or attendees?

A few days ago, I posted an image of the intersection of Sheridan/Montrose/Broadway. Here is another view, taken from further back, showing the same building. I don't have an exact date for it.

At one time, Broadway Avenue (off to the left in this image) was named Evanston Avenue because it went, well, up to Evanston. Sheridan Road goes off to the right in this photo.

I found this sketch a few years back, and one of these days I'll get around to framing it. Until then, I'll share it here.

It's a design sketch for a costume used in one of the floor shows at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. Every month would bring a new floor show featuring top national acts from across the country and a line of dancers. Through the ’40s and ’50s, the Dorothy Hild Dancers performed there, and I imagine it was designed for her dancers. You gotta love the bird hat!

The only identity as to the artist is the signature "Marilyn." The costume was to fit nine girls for the "Snowbird Ballet."

Many thanks to my friend Andy for finding this terrific historic postcard, postmarked 1910. With all the other rehabs going on in the neighborhood, wouldn't it be great to replicate the original ornamentation at the top of this building?

Removing graffiti from a building can be very expensive, in the tens of thousands for large buildings. That's why Chicago is lucky to have a program like Graffiti Blasters, which removes graffiti from private property at no cost to the property owner.

Unfortunately, the graffiti that was defacing the east facade of the Uptown Theatre was too high up for the city's Graffiti Blasters program to reach, and the fact that it is a historic building disqualifies it as well, as special techniques need to be used to ensure the integrity of the structure.

That's why it's so good to see that graffiti removal has begun this week on the Uptown. Thanks to those responsible!

Chicago Architecture Foundation has a tour of Uptown this Saturday:

"Uptown was once a playground for fashionable young Chicagoans with plenty of spending money. The crowds are gone, but many terra cotta treasures remain. Come explore the heart of this district and the buildings that stand in testament to the popular lifestyles and architectural styles of 1920s Chicago."

I took this tour in 2004, I think it was. So many people showed up that they split us into three groups. It was good to see clusters of people wandering around the historic district. Well worth $10.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

10:30 AM

Meet:	In front of Harry S. Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson Avenue (4600 N).
Cost:	Non-member $ 10.00 Senior $ 5.00 Student $ 5.00 CAF member FREE
Duration:	2 hours

Anatomically Correct Art in Alternative Spaces presents "All The World's a Stage" at the Apollo Theatre at 2540 N. Lincoln Avenue. Artists take a historical look at Chicago-area theatres, both past and present, and explore the theatrical journey from vaudeville stages, through silent pictures, to talking motion pictures, and back full circle to live performances. There are views of the Fine Arts Building, the Palace (now the Cadillac Palace), the Auditorium, the Esquire, the Nortown, the Coronado (up north in Rockford), the Rialto (Joliet), the Century (now a shopping mall), and the Uptown. The exhibit runs through November 11, with a reception and silent auction on October 5.

I took Al Walavich's tour of Uptown a few years ago. He knows more about the history of this neighborhood than almost anyone else I've met. He lives around the corner from the Uptown Theatre in a house his family has owned for a long time. The Uptown's artisans used the family's garage as a place to mold and create the decorative plaster for the theatre during construction, building a new garage for them when the job was done.

TimeOut Chicago gave him a great mention this week as one of three "unboring" city tour guides. I urge everyone to go on one of his tours if they get the chance.

Al Walavich

Tours
Chicago Neighborhood Tours and Chicago History Museum Tours

Alter ego
None—Walavich is a master of the art of tour guiding.

How they got their starts
Walavich’s grandmother believed they should visit deceased family members on Memorial Day, so young Al made an annual pilgrimage to six graveyards. Years later, he started giving Graceland Cemetery tours as a fund-raiser for Uptown Historical Society.

Why you’ll love each tour de force
With 25 years of tour experience, there’s nothing this man doesn’t know about the Windy City. He gives tours on the Great Fire, Devil in the White City, literary Chicago, the North Side, Chicago highlights, lake history...

Favorite sites
Little-known monuments in Graceland: the graves of John Dickey, the city’s first firefighter to die in the line of duty, and John Huck, the last person to die in the Great Fire and the father-in-law of Marshall Field’s daughter.

Best lines
“I’m a disgusting ham who can’t control myself! I love sharing things!”

How tourists react
Each year, 300 to 400 people vie for his tours, including repeat customers who’ve been loyal for seven years.

Catch their tour
Walavich will give five Graceland tours (his specialty) on October 27, 28 and 31. For tickets, go to www.chicagohs.org.

1201-1213 W. Leland Avenue, at Racine

The six-story Leland Hotel opened for business in 1927. It was designed by the firm Dubin & Eisenberg, who were also responsible for designing the beautiful synagogue for the Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation on Kenmore near Argyle. At the time, the Leland had 205 rooms with weekly rates of $15 per week. In the mid-1900s it was converted into apartments, and over the years fell into serious neglect and decay. By the end of the century, many units were completely uninhabitable and the Leland was at risk for demolition.

Heartland Housing purchased the building in 2000. Nearly $15 million was raised to restore the facade and renovate the interior, with funding coming from state and federal tax credits, grants, and TIF money. The renovation, completed by Joseph Freed and Associates, created 4000 square feet of commercial retail space and 137 units of affordable housing, including studios and one-bedroom apartments. Sixteen percent of the units are compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Leland Apartments are on the National Register of Historic Places.

From the May 23, 2007 installment of the Chicago Sun-Times Chicagopedia, a growing collection of Chicago-centric vocabulary words:

Uptown (up'town) noun. A once perennially downtrodden, now increasingly uptrodden section of the North Side roughly—sometimes quite roughly—around Broadway and Lawrence. A place, never a direction—one cannot grab a cab going "uptown" in Chicago.

"It is a crowded apartment in Uptown." —Studs Terkel, Hard Times.

The Via Lago Cafe—"The Beauty Spot of America"—was located at 837 Wilson Avenue. It featured "Uptown Chicago's Famous Illuminated Glass Dance Floor." The back of the card, which does not have a postmark, reads: "Good Food—Good Service. Refined Atmosphere for the Discriminating. Private Dining Room for Social Affairs and Private Parties. No Cover Charge at Any Time. Special Chicken and Steak Dinners served from 5 to 9 p.m., also a la carte. Dancing from 6:30 to Closing."

I think it's time for another jazz-era cocktail. This one is again from The Savoy Cocktail Book:

Chicago Cocktail

1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Curacao
2/3 glass Brandy

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Frost edge of glass with castor sugar and fill with Champagne.

Of course, I don't have any Champagne chilling at the ready, so it will have to wait for another evening. (Also, I suggest you sugar the rim of your glass before pouring anything in—I typed in the directions as the book listed them.)

Our very own Uptown Theatre is featured on the cover of The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz, written by David Balaban with a foreword by theatre historian Joseph DuciBella, who passed away earlier this summer.

From the cover:

"The Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation perfected the movie palace concept in Chicago, creating an extremely popular pastime that contributed greatly to Chicago’s cultural identity. The Balabans started in the movie theater business in 1908 by leasing the 100-seat Kedzie Nickelodeon on Kedzie Avenue. Balaban brothers Barney and A. J. dreamed of operating 5,000-seat movie palaces, so, in 1916, they joined family friends Sam and Morris Katz to form the Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation. Their mission was to offer an unrivaled theater-going experience with the finest live performances and service. They built ornate theaters, such as the Chicago, the Uptown, and the Congress Theaters, filling them with fine furnishings, antiques, and artwork. Balaban and Katz produced live stage shows between the movies with the likes of Bob Hope, Louis Armstrong, and Benny Goodman. Sadly, only a few of these gorgeous theaters still stand today.

"Author David Balaban was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was named after his grandfather, one of the five Balaban brothers who ran Balaban and Katz Theatres in Chicago. He grew up on stories of these grand movie palaces. David’s grandfather managed the Uptown, Riviera, and Norshore Theaters in the 1920’s and was Director of Theater Operations for Balaban and Katz when he died suddenly in 1949.

"A 1978 graduate of State University of New York at Buffalo, Balaban is currently employed as a teacher of television production and film at Gordon Parks Academy in East Orange, New Jersey, where he first got the idea of compiling and editing this photographic history of Balaban and Katz. While doing research for the book, he formed the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation in order to house the vast collection of historical artifacts he has acquired."

The book has photos of the Uptown from its heyday as well as other north side theatres, including the Granada and the Riviera.

I found this WWII series of photos one day while digging through the Library of Congress archives. They show a group of children from Block 8 Zone 2 donating scrap metal and other materials to the war effort. Block 8 Zone 2 was bordered by Sheridan, Montrose, Broadway, and Sunnyside.

The first image showing the little girl is captioned: "Jaqueline Halloran, 4424 North Sheridan Road, bringing in a load of tin cans for scrap to her block Office of Civilian Defense headquarters, 1942. Her father was a switchman on a railroad in Chicago." None of the other photos are labeled with the names of individuals, just the event.

What I particularly like is the photo showing the names of men who lived in the district who were off fighting in the war. It would be nice to have something like that in Uptown now. I have no idea which of my neighbors are in Iraq.

Click each image for a larger view.

Related Books (this will take you to Amazon):

Daddy's Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of Children

Wartime America: The World War II Homefront

The March 2007 neighborhood profile of Uptown found in The Chicago Reader contained an excellent survey by Lynn Becker on Uptown's unique residential and commercial buildings. Lynn has a fantastic blog that's well worth checking into if you like Chicago architecture: ArchitectureChicago Plus.

In March of 2007, The Chicago Reader launched its "neighborhoods project," profiling various neighborhoods across the Windy City. The very first neighborhood they selected to feature was Uptown, and they included a nice history:

MORE THAN MOST neighborhoods, Uptown is a microcosm of Chicago. Like Chicago, it’s a raging mix of elegant and scruffy that ends in a gilded lakefront. Like Chicago, it looks diverse from a distance and balkanized up close. And like Chicago it has not one history but a kaleidoscopeful. It’s home to peregrine falcons, Mr. Leather, the Aquitania, Jesus People USA, Lincoln Towing, the city’s last cage hotel, the American Indian Center, and what may be the world’s ugliest Buddhist temple. “It is hard to believe that such a compact area contains so much variety,” the late David Fremon wrote in 1990...

The rest of the article can be found at The Chicago Reader online.

The image shows Douglas Fairbanks, Charlotte Smith, Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin in 1918.

I don't know much about this image. A friend sent it to me a while back, and it's been sitting on my hard drive. It shows Malden looking south from Leland.

So what does this image of a dorm in Iowa City have to do with Uptown Chicago? Absolutely nothing, other than I bought it at an antique store in Edgewater. It's a 1910s image of the dorm that I lived in during my early years of undergrad at the University of Iowa. It was the first "historic" building I lived in, and does contribute, in some small part, to my interest in historic architecture.

There were newer, more modern facilities at the University of Iowa, but this turn-of-the-(twentieth)-century building appealed to me with its traditional architecture and history. That, and the fact that it was a co-ed dorm. (This was the late eighties, and it was still slightly risque.) The arrow points to my window on the top floor, obscured somewhat by the trees. My friends and I would climb out through the window and sit on the roof, drinking beer and smoking, well, let's just say smoking. It was college, after all, a time of exploration and self-discovery.

Currier is supposedly haunted by a few ghosts; a triple suicide occurred there when three women unfortunately fell in love with the same man, and couldn't think of a better way to resolve it. Sadly, I never did see the ghosts, although one of my roommates claimed to have seen one on her way to the showers one night.

(So there. I had to justify the purchase of this postcard in some way. Thank you for indulging me. Now, back to the history of Uptown.)

One of the five new banners flying over Uptown this fall features the Uptown Station as conceived and designed by architect Arthur Gerber. Surfing tonight when I should have otherwise been working on a client project, I came across this Web site that discusses other stations designed by Gerber: Arthur U. Gerber, Chicago's Transit Architect.

What I wasn't aware of is that Gerber was also the architect of the McJunkin Building across the street. Somewhere around here I have a photo of what that looked like back in the day; it's a nighttime image, all lit up with ornamental lights. That must have been a sight! I'll try to dig it up sometime soon.

The Lake View Pumping Station was located on the northeast corner of Clarendon and Montrose. It supplied a large portion of Chicago's water needs during the first half of the twentieth century, with a capacity to pump 25 million gallons of water a day.

The first photo dates to 1904, and shows the original station, which was built for the city of Lake View in 1875. Lake View was annexed to Chicago in 1889 and a new pumping station was built between 1907 and 1915.

The pumping station stopped supplying water to the city in 1964, and was torn down in 1978. The second image was taken that year, and is looking west down Montrose toward the station.

The news this past month of an innocent fisherman being randomly pushed into Montrose Harbor has been particularly disturbing. The lake front has always been a great place for families to hang out. This postcard image shows fishermen nearly a hundred years ago enjoying Lake Michigan on a summer's day.

My dad told me how, in the days before air conditioning units were common in homes, he and his siblings and friends would either sleep on the roof of their six-flat in hopes of catching a breeze or camp out on the beach with hundreds of other Uptown and Edgewater residents who were trying to escape the dog days of August. This would have been back in the 1950s.

While I can't quite picture myself ever feeling safe enough to sleep on the beach (disregarding, of course, the fact that you can't even do that anymore), and while I wouldn't go there at night alone, I have always felt comfortable walking along the lake in the daylight. It's events like this random homicide that make you think twice about your personal safety.

I was tidying up my office today, and I came across a stack of books I've been meaning to read: fictional accounts of life in Uptown. They span the decades, the first came out in 1921, the most recent one just last year. I'll post the titles and descriptions on the blog as I get the chance, but thought I'd start with this one first, which I actually did read: City Dogs by William Brashler. Here's the description from the cover:

Chicago’s seamy North Side—Uptown—is the setting for City Dogs, a powerful story of several weeks in the lives of a handful of petty thieves, derelicts, ne’er-do-wells, delinquints, con men, whores, salesmen, maniacs, gloms, and clergymen, all scratching to get by.

Its protagonist is Harry Lum, 57-year-old wino, welfare bum, and petty thief down on his luck, who falls in with two young punks, pimp Jimmy Del Corso and pill-popping hillbilly Donald Ray Burl. From simple purse-snatching Harry graduates to robbery and then breaking and entering. In the process he makes and breaks a deal with the police and moves in with his long-suffering step-sister, Helen, against her better judgment. Before the novel drives to its dramatic climax, the lives of all of them are altered—some violently.

In its uncanny ability to capture the language, rythms, smells—the very essence—of this special world and its polygot mix of people, City Dogs is a remarkable achievement. Author William Brashler was a police reporter on Chicago’s North Side for two years. “For months I met my characters,” he writes; “prostitutes who danced on station house tables, bums who played trumpets, cops who talked to Jesus and carried guns on their ankles.” His first novel, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, was made into a major motion picture.

City Dogs was published in 1976, about the time that Uptown was at its worst. It's well worth the read not only for the story line, but because it is in many ways a snapshot of how the neighborhood once looked.

No postmark on this one, but I think it dates to the 1930s. Sheridan Restaurant & Cocktail lounge was located at 3944 N. Sheridan, under the L tracks, where "Sheridan L Liquors" is now.

Of course, a 1930s cocktail lounge image deserves another 1930s cocktail. This is also from the Savoy Cocktail Book book:

Jabberwock Cocktail

This will make you gyre and gimble in the wabe until brillig, all right, all right. (Green Fairy's Note: I have no idea what that means.)

2 dashes Orange Bitters
1/3 part Dry Gin
1/3 part Dry Sherry
1/3 part Caperitif (GF: A defunct mixer, but you can substitute with Lillet Blanc.)

Stir well and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon peel on top.

The Lawrence House, located on the northeast corner of Kenmore and Lawrence, is for sale. Originally an upscale apartment hotel, it was designed by Ralph Huszagh and Boyd Hill, and built in 1928. The architectural team is also responsible for the Aragon Ballroom.

The New Lawrence Hotel was an art deco dream and had an indoor swimming pool, exercise room, rooftop garden, and all the modern conveniences of the day. Known as the Lawrence House today, the majority of its tenants are 55 or older, although it is not officially a senior building.

The pricetag is $19 million. Full details can be found at Crain's Chicago.

This image, postmarked 1910, was sent in by a reader. The caption indicates it was the Seventh Church of Christ Scientists, but I can't quite place the building. Does anyone out there recognize it?

This image was taken in August 2000, according to the Historic Architectural/Archaeological Resources Geographic Information System, although based on the cars, it looks a good decade or so older. My guess is it was taken in the late eighties or early nineties. The first Uptown Community Portrait, below, was taken in 2000, and the vertical marquee on the Uptown Theatre is missing. I'll have to double-check the date that was removed.

In any case, it's amazing how different this stretch of Broadway looks now with Annoyance, FatCat, Marigold, and other businesses opening up. Change always seems to happen slowly in Uptown, but when you compare what it looked like not too long ago, it's astounding.