Windy City Ribfest, Uptown Chicago, and a Historic View of Uptown Square

windy city ribfest
Originally uploaded by kevin_byrne

It's great to see Uptown's streets full of people enjoying themselves! The top image was taken last weekend at Windy City Ribfest 2010 by Flickr user Kevin Byrne, shared here through the site's "Blog This" feature. It's been about 15 or 20 years since Uptown has hosted a similar street festival.

Uptown Square used to be a frequent gathering place for the neighborhood's residents. The vintage photo below, from the Chicago Daily News negatives collection, shows a similar scene in Uptown Square as residents await the election results in 1920.

Here's the original caption:

View of a crowd at North Broadway and West Lawrence Avenue in the Uptown community area of Chicago, Illinois, watching election returns on the night of Nov. 4, 1920. The returns are projected on a large screen stretched above the crowd. DN-0009882, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society, Library of Congress