Advertisement for the Green Mill Gardens, Uptown Chicago, 1917

When most people thinks of the Green Mill, they picture the intimate little jazz club on Broadway. Few realize how massive--and I mean massive--the club once was.

A few weeks ago I won at auction this advertisement for the Green Mill Sunken Gardens from 1917, and the postal carrier brought it today, much to my delight. (It was otherwise a day for bills. Ugh.)

The fact that you can get a southern chicken dinner for a buck and a quarter is amazing enough...but check out the seating. Two thousands seats in the garden section, and that's just the outdoor portion of the club, open only during the warmer months.

I went ahead and scanned this one at high res, so feel free to use it for your graphics applications. However, if you're going to put it on your Web site or use it commercially, please credit our Web site.

Still can't quite picture how the Green Mill accommodated 2000 people? Well, here's an image we posted in early 2009:

The garden section is approximately where the auditorium portion of the Uptown Theatre now stands.