Connecting the Windy City

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

May 20, 1930 -- Lake Shore Drive Improvements Announced

May 20, 1930 – The Lincoln Park Commissioners begin a one-million-dollar improvement project in which three-quarters of that sum will be spent on projecting jetties along the outer drive and the other quarter-million spent on resurfacing and repairing all of the roads in the Lincoln Park system.  The Great Lakes Dock and Dredge Company will construct jetties between North and Fullerton Avenues.  The jetties are an especially important project since the outer drive has been closed for months as a result of its being undermined by waves in a winter that was stormier than usual.  Although no beach will be purposely constructed as part of the project, engineers believe that the new jetties will create a naturally forming beach in the three blocks between North Avenue and Fullerton.  Included in the work will be widening the outer drive in Lincoln Park so that it is ready when the bridge across the Chicago River’s mouth is completed.  The jetties did their work … in a normal summer the North Avenue Beach is packed on hot days, and volleyball players choke the beaches to the area north with dozens of games going on.  The above photo shows the Outer Drive, as it was called back in those days, as it moves toward Fullerton Avenue and Diversey Harbor at the top of the photo.  

May 20, 1965 – The Plaza of the Americas on the north side of the Wrigley building is opened, extending from the lot line on Michigan Avenue almost to Rush Street. This is the first of two great public spaces on Michigan avenue to be developed by private interests. Pioneer Court, jointly developed by the Tribune Company and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, will open on the east side of the avenue in the upcoming month. The Plaza of the Americas is a joint undertaking of the Wrigley company and Apollo Savings and Loan Association of Chicago, which occupies the building just to the north of the Wrigley Building. That building is now the Realtor Building at 430 North Michigan Avenue. On this day in 1965 at 11:45 the flags of Chicago and the United States are raised, followed by the flags representing the nations of the Organization of American States. There is to be a pole set aside for the Cuban flag, but no flag will be raised. “It was decided that until Cuba becomes free, its flag would not be flown,” Edward P. Kelly, the chairman of Apollo Savings, says. [Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1965]

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May 20, 1925 – The Chicago City Council passes ordinances authorizing the Nickel Plate Railroad to begin construction of the first part of a $6,000,000 industrial harbor in Lake Calumet. The ordinance allows the railroad to build a belt line around the harbor, providing additional land for terminal purposes.  In return, the Nickel Plate is obligated to spend at least $600,000 to dredge a channel 200 feet wide with two turning basins in Lake Calumet.  The material dredged from this part of the operation will be used to build up additional land, which will then be leased or sold to industries seeking space near the harbor.  It is anticipated that the revenue that results will “provide the city with ample funds to complete other phases of the project.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 21, 1925]. The council session is prolonged by two controversies.  One involves the number of votes needed to pass the ordinances. Those in favor of the plans maintain that only a two-thirds majority, or 33 votes, is required.  Opponents maintain that State statutes governing the sale or lease of public property must be approved by a three-fourths vote, or 37 votes.  The bill passes 36-9.  The second issue involves several amendments offered to the bill by Thirty-Seventh Ward Alderman Wiley W. Mills.  The first amendment would delete from the ordinance provisions that exempted the railroad from special assessments for the construction of a 100-foot street around the harbor.  The second amendment calls for the railroad to bear the cost of carrying One Hundred Third Street over the railroad's main line.  The original bill stipulated that the city would pay half the cost.  The third amendment eliminates language which entitles the Nickel Plate reimbursement of its entire investment if it fails to complete the work according to contract terms and the city steps in to complete the project.  Mills says, “Something is being put over here that makes other things in recent years pale into insignificance.”  As can be seen in the above aerial view, the railroad maintains a presence in the area. Although the Nickel Plate is long gone, the Norfolk Southern Railroad uses its Calumet Yard as a classification facility with some intermodal business as well.  The bridge running across the top of the photo is that One Hundred Third Street Bridge Alderman Mills was referencing.  Neat to see the city’s skyline way back there on the horizon.

May 20, 1914 – The board of the South Park Commissioners authorizes its superintendent, J. F. Foster, to begin “at once” the first phase of Grant Park improvement by beautifying a strip of land west of the Illinois Central tracks between Jackson Boulevard and Randolph Street.  Foster says, “These plans will be worked out by our landscape architects and gardeners from the original complete Grant park plan submitted by Olmstead brothers of Boston.  The park will be beautified in units.  The second portion to be improved will be that west of the Illinois Central tracks and running south from Jackson boulevard to the proposed new Illinois Central terminal to be built south of Twelfth Street extended.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 21, 1914] The above photo, taken in July of 1914, shows Monroe Street as it crosses the Illinois Central tracks.  The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago sits on the right side of the street today on the lake side of the railroad tracks.

May 20, 1895 – The City Council takes another step in an effort to establish a lakefront park with the following order: “Whereas. The Second Regiment Armory and Battery D, located on the Lake-Front, between Madison and Washington streets, are being used for the benefit of private parties; and Whereas, It is important that these buildings be removed without delay; therefore, be it Ordered. That the Commissioner of Public Works is hereby directed to see that such buildings are removed at once.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 21, 1895] In debate over the resolution Alderman Madden observes that “the buildings were only used for dances, prize fights, dog shows, and bicycle races.” Alderman Coughlin counters that the city is using one of the buildings as a police station and a fire engine house and that “It was all very well to talk in time of peace, but when soldiers were wanted the Council gladly would accommodate the regiments controlling the armories.”  The bill passes by a vote of 51 to 10.  The armory can be seen in the above rendering on the far side of the massive Industrial Exposition Building, which was torn down to make way for the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Labels: 1930, Chicago Park District, Lake Michigan, Lake Shore Drive, Lakefront, Lincoln Park

Friday, December 20, 2019

December 20, 1930 -- Wabash Avenue Bridge Dedicated

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December 20, 1930 -- The Wabash Avenue bridge over the Chicago River is formally opened on the same day that the newly widened La Salle Street, between the river and Lincoln Park, is opened to traffic.  After a parade south on La Salle Street from Lincoln Park to Wacker Drive and then east to the Wabash Avenue bridge, Mayor Bill Thompson cuts a ribbon to open the bridge.  The new bridge will connect the former end of Wabash Avenue on the south side of the river to Cass Street on the north side, a street that has been renamed as North Wabash Avenue by the City Council.  Controversy hangs in the air as the Commissioner of Public Works, Richard W. Wolfe, is facing charges of “irregularities in the letting of the contracts” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1930]  for the construction of the north approach to the bridge.  Forty-Third Ward Alderman Arthur F. Albert charges that Wolfe’s failure to accept the offer of the lowest bidder on the project has cost the city $161,000 more than it would have cost if the lowest bidder’s proposal had been accepted.  Politics aside, though, in June the bridge is named by the American Institute of Steel Construction as the most beautiful span costing more than $1,000,000 built during 1930 in the United States and Canada.  The above photo shows the bridge, the middle span of the three shown in the photograph, and the northern viaduct that angles Wabash Avenue north of the river, carrying the streets across railroad tracks, to link up with the former Cass Street.

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December 20, 1985 – Mayor Harold Washington designates two developers “to hammer out a deal that would land the Chicago White Sox in a $125 million domeless baseball stadium south of the Loop by 1989.” [Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1985] Daniel Shannon, the developer of the Presidential Towers apartment complex and Robert Wislow, a co-developer of One Financial Place in the South Loop, are named to find a way to build a new stadium along the east bank of the Chicago River south of Roosevelt Road.  Only six months earlier the city was looking to build a domed stadium that could accommodate the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bears and the Bulls.  The only team expressing an interest, however, was the White Sox, and the city, worried that the team, desperate to jettison its outdated ballpark, might take its bag of balls and head to the suburbs, changed direction.  The mayor’s senior fiscal policy adviser, Ira Edelson, says, “Initially we were looking at all-purpose stadiums, but the White Sox forced an economic issue on the city.” Underscoring that sentiment is the fact that White Sox owners have already purchased land in west suburban Addison suitable for a baseball stadium.  The city’s expectation is that it will end up purchasing 60 acres of riverfront rail yards under the control of three separate railroads.  The property would then be leased to the Wislow-Shannon group, and it would construct a 50,000-seat stadium to which a retractable dome could be added at a later date if another $35 million dropped from a high sky.  Edelson anticipates a $125 million price tag for the new stadium, $25 million of which would be contributed by the developers with another $100 million raised through the city’s sale of tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds.  The debt service on the bonds would be covered through lease payments to the city for 190 executive sky boxes, concession sales and parking fees.  Six years later the team got its new stadium in a different location – directly to the south of the old Comiskey Park.  Its construction cost was a little under $140 million.  The above rendering gives an interesting glimpse of what it might have been like to have every Chicago sports team clumped together in one location.

December 20, 1928 – The dedication and formal opening of the new LaSalle Street bridge takes place as Mayor William Hale Thompson cuts a ribbon at the south end of the structure, and his car is the first to pass over the bridge.  Before the hoopla a parade begins at Grant Park and moves down LaSalle Street, “witnessed by 1,000 officials, business men, and spectators who braved a chill wind.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1928] At a LaSalle Hotel luncheon the mayor outlines the history of the project and the benefits that the bridge will bring.

December 20, 1974 – Mayor Richard J. Daley announces plans for a new park on the south bank of the Chicago River between Wabash Avenue and Dearborn Street, a park that will be created with a donation from the IBM Corporation of $175,000.  The corporation’s headquarters, completed in 1971, sits directly across the river, and with a matching grant from other businesses in the vicinity it is hoped that the park will be completed within the year.  The IBM Vice-President in charge of western operations, J. E. Guth, says the park will measure about 25 feet by 600 feet with linden trees every 25 feet, a granite walkway, benches, and a sound barrier to muffle traffic noise from the lower level of Wacker Drive.  It was a good move.  Today the space has been beautifully transformed into Wabash Plaza, a memorial to Illinois veterans who served in Vietnam, 2900 of whom died in that war.

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Labels: 1930, Chicago Bridges, Chicago Politics, Chicago RIver, Wabash Avenue

Saturday, June 15, 2019

June 15, 1930 -- Little Company of Mary Hospital Dedicated

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June 15, 1930 – Cardinal George William Mundelein officiates as 3,000 people stand in a downpour to observe the dedication of the first unit of the Little Company of Mary Hospital at Ninety-Fifth Street and California Avenue.  According to the Little Company of Mary Hospital website, three Sisters of the Little Company of Mary came to the United States in 1893 at the request of Thomas Mair, a Chicago civic leader whose wife had been cared for by the Sisters in Rome.  [www.lcmh.org]  Mair built a convent for the Sisters at 4130 South Indiana Avenue; today the convent is the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, and its original stained-glass windows are part of the Regional Cancer Center at the hospital.  Since opening in 1930 the hospital has seen the delivery of 200,000 babies.  In 1950 Drs. Richard Lawler, James West and Raymond Murphy performed the first human organ transplant in the world when they transplanted a kidney in a patient, prolonging a 44-year-old woman’s life by close to five years.  Today, in addition to the 298-bed hospital, Little Company of Mary operates a dozen other facilities, under the direction of a 601-person professional staff.  Altogether the hospital and related facilities employ over 2,000 people.

June 15, 1891 – The Kenwood Physical Observatory, “one of the best equipped astronomical stations in the country,” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 16, 1891] is dedicated at 4545 Drexel Boulevard, near Grand Avenue (today’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive) and Forty-Sixth Street.  The observatory is the gift of W. E. Hale to his son, George, a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The two-story building costs $20,000 and has a 12-inch refracting telescope that is twenty-two and a-half feet long.  The rotating dome at the top of the building is twenty-six and one-half feet in diameter.  A number of short speeches are made during the ceremony, expressing a feeling that “Chicago was an intensely commercial city, yet the artistic and scientific spirt was fast becoming aroused, and that eventually the great metropolis would outstrip all its rivals in its art and science as it has done commercially.” When George Hale was hired as a professor of astronomy at the University of Chicago, advanced astronomy students used the observatory until the Yerkes observatory was established in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, an observatory that was founded in 1897 by Hale and financed by Charles Tyson Yerkes.

June 15, 1907 – William Le Baron Jenney dies at 7:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, California at the age of 74.  Although still a partner in the firm of Jenney, Mundie and Jensen, he has not been active in design work for two years.  Jenney was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in 1832 and at the age of 26 entered the Ecole des Arts et Manufactures in Paris after earning a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The Civil War called him back to the United States where after a time in the Union Army he was made the Chief Engineer of the Fifteenth Army Corp, supporting the rapid movements of General Sherman’s and, later, General Logan’s advance, a role that required the design of bridges built strongly and in a hurry.  Out of uniform, Jenney came to Chicago in May of 1868.  Fifteen years later Jenney made a name for himself that would last as long as a tall building moves from concept to construction when he designed the Home Insurance Building on the northeast corner of Adams and LaSalle Streets.  The Chicago Daily Tribune in his obituary states, “It was in 1883 that Mr. Jenney was appointed architect for the Home Insurance company of New York, with instructions to prepare designs for a tall-fireproof office building … The order further called for a maximum number of well lighted small offices above the second story which, as Mr. Jenney knew, would necessitate small piers – smaller probably than were admissible if of ordinary masonry construction … Architects had before been obliged to inclose an iron column within a masonry pier, and the greater use of this idea, together with another -- making each story a unit in itself – marked the solution of the problem. Thus the Home Insurance building, designed by Mr. Jenney, was not only the first of the steel construction buildings of the world but it opened the way for a long list of requirements in fine office buildings, such as wind bracing, thorough fire proofing, rapid safe elevators, light and well ventilated rooms, modern plumbing and tile vaults.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 16, 1907] The Home Insurance Building is shown in the above photograph.

June 15, 1931 – The American Institute of Steel Construction selects the new Wabash Avenue Bridge as the most beautiful span costing more than one million dollars constructed in the United States or Canada during 1930.  The jury observes that the bridge over the Chicago River was “a most pleasing solution of a most difficult bridge design problem.”  [Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1931]  City Bridge Engineer Thomas G. Pihfeldt drew the plans for the bridge, which was fabricated by the Ketler Elliott Company and cost $1,750,000 to build.  Because the bridge is adjacent to a bend in the river, the government refused to allow the pits for the counterweight and trunnion to intrude on the river beyond the dock lines.  As a result the bridge was placed diagonally to Wabash Avenue, complicating the planning for the structure.  This is the first bridge ever to be built at this location.  It helped to relieve the traffic burden placed on Michigan Avenue, connecting Wabash Avenue south of the river to Cass Street on the north side  Today Cass Street is called Wabash Avenue as well.

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Labels: 1930, Chicago Events

Saturday, June 8, 2019

June 8, 1930 -- Loyola University Dedicates New Cudahy Library

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June 8, 1930 --  The beginning of the sixtieth annual commencement week at Loyola University gets off to an impressive start as the school’s $300,000 library building is dedicated.  It is the gift of Edward A. Cudahy in honor of his wife, who is present at the ceremony, watching as her husband unveils the bronze plaque at the new building. During the ceremony, held in the school’s gymnasium, an announcement is made that Cudahy has pledged an additional $100,000 that will be used to maintain and endow the library.  The Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library was designed by Chicago architect Andrew N. Rebori in the art deco style.  Its main reading room is 101 feet long by 44 feet wide with a ceiling height of 40 feet.  When the new library moved from its old quarters to the new building at 1032 Sheridan Road, it held 150,000 volumes. Today 681,320 volumes are housed there. [www.luc.edu]. Two additions have increased space in the original building, in 1969 a $3 million addition increased book capacity by 170 percent, and in 2008 the Klarcheck Information Commons opened.

June 8, 1916 –The last surviving white child born in Fort Dearborn, Captain Asiel Z. Blodgett, dies in Waukegan at the age of 84.  In 1858 Blodgett was made a station agent of the Chicago and North Western railroad in Waukegan.  His time there was interrupted when he “with the cooperation of leading citizens and business men, undertook the work of enrolling a sufficient number of men to form a Company.” [http://lakecountyhistory.blogspot.com] In the Battle of Chickamauga, on September 18, 1863, he was shot in the right shoulder.  He stayed with his command and led his men for two more days until a tree branch, blown down by artillery fire, finally felled him.  Returning to civilian life, he resumed his career with the railroad while running a stock farm outside of Waukegan where he bred Clydesdale horses and cattle.  Blodgett also served as the Mayor of Waukegan for two terms.

June 8, 1933 – Sometimes what DOESN”T get done in a city is way more interesting than what DOES.  Alderman Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna long ago observed that “Chicago ain’t no sissy town,” and with this city’s particular form of politics and the constant grappling between commercial, cultural, and environmental factions, a lot of projects that get proposed die before they get very far.  So it was back in 1933 when on this date followers of Dr. Arne L. Suominen, a “nature cure specialist,” submit a petition signed by 10,000 people to the Lincoln Park Board, requesting a space for nude sun bathing.  The reaction of Board President Alfred D. Plamondon?  “I doubt that a fence could be built high enough.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 8, 1933]  It only takes two days for the board to come to a decision, and the explanation for refusing to act on the petition is a perfectly logical one.  Plamondon said, “The exact reason we turned down the petition was the cost of the stockade.  It would have had to be of lumber absolutely free from knotholes, the most expensive grade.  Furthermore, to prevent an epidemic of peeping Toms on the skyscraper apartments bordering the park the stockade itself would have had to be a skyline affair.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1933]  Another member of the board observed, “I’m against it on esthetic grounds, especially now that everybody is drinking 3.2 beer.  Now you take some of these 200 pound papas with aldermanic fronts.  Start parading them around in their birthday clothes and you’ll make the bull mandrill over here in the zoo blush with shame.”

June 8, 1948 – As the city’s second major airport nears completion, the Chicago Daily Tribune uses its editorial page to suggest a new name for Douglas Field.  “… it would be fitting if Chicago would honor one of its greatest naval air heroes by renaming the terminal for the late Cmdr. Edward H. (Butch) O”Hare,” the editorial suggests.  On February 20, 1942 O’Hare’s plane was the only American plane in the path of a Japanese formation of nine bombers on their way to attack the U. S. S. Lexington off New Britain.  He won the congressional Medal of Honor for shooting down five of the enemy planes and scoring hits on three others. On the night of November 26, 1943 O’Hare and two other pilots took off from the U. S. S. Enterprise to intercept a group of Japanese bombers harassing a U. S. Navy task group northeast of Tarawa.  At about 7:30 p.m. a Japanese fighter opened fire on O’Hare’s Hellcat, and it was last seen fading into the night.  He was presented posthumously with the Navy Cross for which the citation read in part, “Lieutenant Commander O’Hare’s outstanding courage, daring airmanship and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.  He gallantly gave his life for his country.” 

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Labels: 1930, Chicago Architecture, Chicago Events, Chicago Places

Thursday, May 16, 2019

May 16, 1930 -- Marquette and Joliet Monument Dedicated

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May 16, 1930 – Charles B. Pike, the president of the Chicago Historical Society, presides over a ceremony at which a monument is unveiled on the bank of Portage Creek near Stickney, the site at which Father Marquette and Louis Joliet came into the vicinity of the Des Plaines River. In the 1670's Portage Creek would have been to the west of Mud Lake, through which the two French explorers had to portage after leaving the Chicago River   In his remarks Pike credits two Chicagoans, Dr. Lucius Zeuch and Robert Knight, whose research led to the establishment of the historical site. The Reverend Joseph Reiner, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University, provides a narrative of the development of Chicago, a process that begins with Marquette’s and Joliet’s discovery of the possibility that a route might exist between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River by way of the modest Chicago River and the interior waters of Illinois.  Bertha Lerman, secretary of the Junior Citizens’ Club, pulls a canvas covering from a granite boulder that was set by the Chicago Historical Society on the old trail.  Today there is a much more elaborate work of art at the site. Located in the Chicago Portage National Historic Site in Lyons, it is on the west side of Harlem Avenue on a line with Forty-Eighth street.  The sculpture at the site, shown above, is by Guido Rebechini.

May 16, 2009 –The Nichols Bridgeway, a 625-foot pedestrian bridge connecting Millennium Park to the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, opens.  Designed by the Pritzker prize-winning architect of the Modern Wing of the museum, Renzo Piano, it gradually rises from the Great Lawn southwest of the Pritzker Pavilion to a height of 60 feet as it meets up with the Bluhm Family Terrace on the third level of the Modern Wing.  As walkers move along the 450 tons of steel that make up the bridge, they are treated to spectacular views, west down Monroe Street toward the South Branch of the river, east to the open space of Grant Park and Lake Michigan, south to the spectacular new addition to the museum (and the railroad tracks that once occupied the entire area), and, north to Millennium Park and its lush Lurie Garden.  The bridge, built by Industrial Steel, Construction, Inc., is named after its benefactors, John D. and Alexandra Nichols.  

May 16, 1910 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that James A. Pugh, the largest stockholder in the Chicago Canal and Dock Company, has confirmed that the company will build piers into the lake at the mouth of the river without permission of the city – if the United States War Department renews the permit that it granted the company 18 months earlier.  A member of the City Council’s committee on harbors, wharves, and bridges says, “If Pugh gets his permit and goes ahead without a city franchise to build his piers he will get into a fight.  We’ll tie the thing up in the courts, if necessary, until we can get a bill through the legislature.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 16, 1910] Good luck, Mr. City Council Guy.  The terminal got built – it’s the long light-colored structure to the left of Ogden Slip, extending toward the brand new Lake Point Tower, nearing completion in 1968.  

May 16, 2000 – The Chicago Tribune editorializes about cost overruns at Millennium Park. “Private-sector corporations generally prefer the design-build method of contracting for new facilities,” the editorial observes. “They hire a unified team of architects and builders that can deliver an agreed-to building for an agreed-to price. Then there’s the method Mayor Richard Daley is using on the Millennium Project . . . you might call it the design-as-you-build method.” At issue is a Frank Gehry-design that, as originally proposed, was supposed to cost 150 million dollars and which had by this time risen to $270 million. “And crews are still building the support structure,” the editorial sniped. “What happens when they start adding the fancy stuff?” In a stinging conclusion, the editorial asks, “And one last question for the planners: After you’ve made your last change and gotten your elegant little culture park just the way you like, where are the hoi polloi going to go for the Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Taste concerts that are too big for Millennium Park? Or is that just another small, hanging detail?” A space of over 17 years is probably time enough to judge whether the “little culture park” was worth the investment. Judging from the crowds at what is now the most popular tourist destination in the midwest, it feels as if the “small, hanging details” worked out. The photo above shows the park as it started to take shape in 2001.

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Labels: 1930, Chicago Events, Chicago RIver, Lake Michigan