Bugs Moran, the Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Buena Church, and the Green Mill: A Reader's Perspective

Editor's note: Thanks to Joe Ragont for sharing his memories of growing up in Uptown! He has kindly given his permission for us to post his recent e-mail to us.

I loved reading your blogs about Uptown. I was born at Ravenswood Hospital in 1939 and grew up in Uptown. In fact I lived at Montrose and Dayton (800 west) from birth until I got married in 1960.

My mother took me to Buena Church when I was four years old. I grew up going to Sunday school, DVBS (where I received Christ) Youth groups, etc. My wife and I were married there in 1960. Our four children were baptized there. I continued to teach Sunday school until we moved to the suburbs in 1969. Five years later we decided to attend Buena again. The minister, Dr. Larkin, asked me to be Director of Christian Education in 1974. We accomplished much the next year, but living so far away and working a full-time job proved too much and I had to
resign.

After the collapse of the building, my wife and I visited the rubble and just wept. Buena was and in many ways still is our church.

Incidentally your other blogs have also stirred great memories. Stewart School was where I went all eight years. And the Jesus People USA's headquarters at 937 Wilson Ave. was the very sight of my father's barber shop. I spent countless hours there after school and summers and
cleaned it on a weekly basis. Ironically, above the barber shop was a bookie joint, and next door was a strip joint called Backstage. As a youngster I used to amble out the back door of the shop and wonder what was going on in Backstage, where their back door was always open.

My father also owned the barber shop in the Sheridan Plaza Hotel in the late twenties and early thirties. Many of his "clients" were members of the Bugs Moran mob which had its headquarters at Lawrence and Broadway, across from the Green Mill and the Uptown Theater. After moving to the 937 Wilson shop, his clients became many Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears who lived at the Sheridan Plaza and played just down Sheridan Road at Wrigley Field.

During the summer I used to go to neighborhood movie theaters just about every day. In addition to the large theaters like the Uptown and Riviera, there were the smaller Pantheon and Lakeside. On Saturdays I would venture to the tiny Mode, just south of Irving Park, which always showed two cowboy pictures, three cartoons and a serial.

I really appreciate your blogs which have brought back so many great memories!

Joe Ragont

Sheridan Plaza Hotel

Walter W. Ahlschlager was the architect who designed the Sheridan Plaza Hotel at Wilson and Sheridan, as well as the Broadway Building at Broadway and Leland (now undergoing a restoration.) This image of the Sheridan Plaza hotel comes from a 1921 issue of American Builder magazine featuring Ahlschlager's work. A facsimile of the entire article is available as a free download from CompassRose.org.

Sheridan Plaza, Sheridan and Wilson, Uptown Chicago

A particularly nice postcard of the Sheridan Plaza Hotel currently available on eBay: Sheridan Plaza

Uptown Gem Restored and For Rent -- Sheridan Plaza, Uptown Chicago

One of my all-time favorite Uptown buildings has been restored and is currently for rent--the Sheridan Plaza.

See the article here.

Click the labels and links below to take you to more historic photos and histories of the Sheridan Plaza.

Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Wilson and Sheridan, 1959

The Sheridan Plaza Hotel, as seen in 1959. The corner retail spot once housed the Golden Lion Inn restaurant.

Hotel Sheridan Plaza, Wilson and Sheridan, Uptown Chicago

Text reads:

Uptown Chicago's Most Favored Hotel!

Why not this coming summer spend a few days or weeks on the famous North Shore—Chicago's vacation land? Come to the beautiful Sheridan Plaza. Bathing, boating, motoring, theater-going. Short ride to golf grounds and parks. Music and dancing every evening. Moderate rates in the restaurant and Narcissus Grill cafeteria. Eighteen minutes from downtown: elevated express and surface lines; motor busses to and from downtown through Lincoln Park stop at the door. European plan. Excellent rates with private bath. $3 a day and up. Reservations are advisable. Exceptional garage accommodation.

Image currently on eBay: http://bit.ly/183KQNy

Plank Room, Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

The Sheridan Plaza Hotel at Wilson and Sheridan in Uptown Chicago once housed the Plank Dining Room.

Sheridan Plaza Hotel, a Glimpse of Sheridan Road

In 1957, a Mrs. Long leapt to her death from the sixth floor of the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. The photo illustrating the story for the Chicago Tribune shows the west side of the hotel, and a glimpse further north up the street at some of the other buildings.

Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Street View, 1940s

I bought this one at auction not too long ago; it shows a small group of people in front of the Sheridan Plaza Hotel some time in the 1940s. The Chelsea Hotel, a.k.a. the Friendly Tours, can be seen in the background.

If you have similar photos to share, e-mail me at blog(a)compassrose.com.

Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Uptown, Chicago, circa 1960

We've featured images of the Sheridan Plaza Hotel before, but this is a later image and one that is interesting because it says "Uptown" on the front.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

Lions Club Parade Picture, Sheridan Plaza, Uptown Chicago

Love this image! The sign on the side reads: "Hotel Sheridan Plaza: The Home of the Uptown Lions Club." It's currently on eBay

Bank Files Foreclosure on Historic Sheridan Plaza Hotel

"(Crain’s) — A Dallas bank known for buying distressed loans is seeking to foreclose on an $8.2-million mortgage on a historic former hotel near Wrigley Field, where during the 1940s many Chicago Cubs lived during the baseball season..." Complete article can be found here.

A free PDF download of a 1921 article featuring this hotel and other work by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, with many historic images, can be found here.

For more articles and images on the Sheridan Plaza Hotel found on this site, go here.

Pantheon Theatre, 4642 N. Sheridan, Uptown, Chicago

The Uptown wasn't the only large movie house in Uptown. Before that, there was the Pantheon, located just north of Wilson on Sheridan. Designed by Walter Ahlschlager for the Lubliner and Trinz chain, it opened in 1918. Here's a great advertisement for Kewanee Smokeless boilers featuring the Pantheon Theatre.

According to Cinema Treasures:

"The Pantheon opened its doors in 1918 for the Lubliner & Trinz chain, located in the Uptown neighborhood on Sheridan Road at Eastwood Avenue. At the time it opened, it was said to have 3000 seats. It was the largest movie theater in the area until seven years later, when the nearby Uptown Theatre opened. The theater cost over $750,000 to build, and was decorated in the style of the Italian Renaissance, complete with a double organ and a 30-piece orchestra. Within a few years, the operation of the Pantheon was taken over by Essaness until, like so many other theaters in Chicago, it was added to the always-expanding Balaban and Katz chain. By the 50s, the Uptown neighborhood was no longer the entertainment mecca it was from the 1910s through WWII, and the Pantheon's fortunes rapidly declined, as did the rest of Uptown. The Pantheon remained in operation into the early 60s. It was demolished in 1962 and was replaced by a parking lot."

If Ahlschlager's name sounds familiar, it's because he designed a number of Uptown's most prominent buildings, including the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. Get a PDF download of some of his work here: Walter Ahlschlager.

The Cubs, the Bleachers, and Bert Wilson

Bill Matteson
Uptown Chicago History Correspondent


As kids, we would walk straight south on Sheridan Road, and it ran straight on to Sheffield Ave. We would enter the bleachers at Waveland Ave. I think it cost 30 cents for the bleachers, which were, at that time, long benches. Sometimes, if we were lucky enough, we would get to walk down Sheridan with the Cubs' left fielder Andy Pafko, who stayed at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. In the few times that we walked with Andy, we never once thought of asking him for his autograph.

 Original baseball card for sale on eBay.

I would come home from a game and my dad would mention the great plays that he heard on the radio and would ask me about them. I would tell Dad I didn't see any plays that were outstanding and could never figure out why he was asking me about spectacular plays.

Until one day, when I was listening to Bert Wilson call the ball game—wow, how exciting it sounded. It was then we realized that the radio announcer could basically say anything he wanted to. There was no TV at the time and it was the announcer's job to make it sound interesting.


Bert Wilson: "It's hit, there's a long fly ball going into deep center field. 'Peanuts Lowery' is racing back. He's climbing the vines, he leaps, and makes a one-handed stab. What a play, folks, I've never seen anything like it."

I was there that day—a blooper fly ball fell into Peanuts Lowery's glove.

That's when me and my friend Lionel decided to bring a portable radio with us. Now, in the mid-forties, portable radios were big bulky and very heavy. Lionel had a Trans-Oceanic short wave portable that was powered by big dry cell batteries; it was so heavy that we would take turns carrying it. We sat down on the bleachers and turned the radio on; it was the hit of the bleachers, listening to the way Bert Wilson described the game as opposed to what was actually happening.

On the way out, a big Andy Frain usher* told us never to bring the radio again.

Think maybe I was an original bleacher bum?

A couple of baseball expressions I haven't heard in a while are Texas Leaguer and the "old automatic." Sometime in the late 40's, my dad was listening to a Sox game (very rare in our house). Rudy York was at bat; Bob Elson the announcer said if he puts this one in the stands, I send everyone a turkey for thanksgiving. Rudy smacked out a homer, Sox won. My dad sent a letter to Bob Elson requesting the turkey. Around the first of November, we received a card, die-cut in the shape of a turkey, saying thanks. I always wondered how many they had to send out

*Editor's note. According to the Andy Frain website: Andy Frain Services was founded in 1924 by Andrew T. Frain who was certain that he could solve the perennial gate crashing problem at Chicago Stadium hockey games. After Andy and his small group of ushers showed the hockey promoter what honest gateman could do for his gate receipts and crowd control, Andy moved to Wrigley Field. William Wrigley, Jr. was so impressed with Andy's group, that he invested capital necessary to outfit Frain's men in their traditional blue and gold uniforms. The uniforms became a hallmark for professionalism and customer service, which still is demonstrated in Andy Frain Services today.

Wilson and Sheridan, Uptown Chicago, 1955

All told, I probably spend about an hour a day combing the Internet for pictures of Uptown back in the day, and sometimes hit real pay dirt, like with this image. It's a 1955 scene of Wilson Avenue, west of Sheridan (you can see the Sheridan Plaza Hotel, with its upright marquee, in the background). You can purchase the original here: Wilson Avenue, 1955

What I love about his image is the close-up detail of the buildings; most of the other images I've found of this stretch of Wilson are taken from much further back. Enjoy!

If you have any pictures of Uptown from decades past, drop us a line. We love hearing from our readers.

6200 Kenmore, Sovereign Hotel

The Sovereign Hotel, at 6200 Kenmore, as it looked in 1957. The Sovereign was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager. Ahlschlager was the architect who designed the elaborate terracotta Broadway Building, the Sheridan-Plaza Hotel at Wilson and Sheridan, and the Pantheon Theatre (torn down) on Sheridan, just north of Wilson.

To see the original floor plans of the Sovereign, go to Walter Ahlschlager PDF.

Hotel Grasmere, 4621 Sheridan, Uptown Chicago, 1962

 

Just north of the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. We featured an old postcard image of the Grasmere in 2008. See it here: Grasmere Postcard. 

Wilson Avenue, Circa 1921

The back of this postcard reads, "Wilson Avenue is one of the busiest thoroughfares outside of the Loop. This avenue leads to the Wilson and Municipal Bathing Beaches, where thousands of people enjoy the cool Lake Michigan. In the background of this view is shown the new Sheridan-Plaza Hotel, located at Wilson Ave. and Sheridan Road."

Interior Sheridan Plaza Hotel, Sheridan and Wilson, Uptown

My Team, the Chicago Bears, 1946

Bill Matteson
Uptown  Chicago History Correspondent

When I was a kid, we lived around the corner from the Sheridan Plaza Hotel where all the sports figures stayed when in town. My dad, being the drinker he was, got around and would drink with various sports celebrities, and they would usually end up at our place on Kenmore Ave.
.
One of the dirtiest football players of the era was Ed Sprinkle. He taught us kids how to play dirty and not get caught. Another was Joe Osmanski, who with his brother, "Bullet Bill" Osmanski, were on the Championship Chicago Bears.

I went to a Bears game only once. They played at Wrigley Field then, and I met most of the rest of the team. I got to say hello to Sid Luckman, which in the day was like talking to God.

I was ten years old then. After Bill retired from football, he became a dentist and actually  filled one of my teeth. I seem to remember he had an office in the Uptown Bank building. The tooth finally had to be pulled, but that was 60 years later,  At one point in time, Bill Osmanski ran for Cook County coroner at the same time Chuck Percy was running for senator. We were at a get acquainted dinner at a VFW hall in Norwood Park. I approached Bullet Bill and asked if he remembered me. He didn't, but he remembered my father.  Chuck Percy won,  Bill didn't.

Sid Luckman was the greatest Quarterback of all time (according to me) followed by Johnny Lujack. After that, So Long Bears

This was back in the day when footballers were tough. They played the whole game, there were no offense or defense teams. The quarterback played both sides and did all the kicking. Does anyone remember what a drop kick is?  That's how field goals were made back in the day.

Lets look at today's player:

Game time 1 hour

Lets say if it were divided equally, offense plays 30 mins and defense plays 30 min. With each play lasting only a few seconds and the balance of the time is used up before the next play, well, the player only averages about 10 minutes worth of playing time per game. With 18 games that's 180 minutes or 3 hours for several million dollars per year.