Connecting the Windy City

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Friday, July 3, 2020

July 3, 1933 -- Century of Progress Highlights

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July 3, 1933 – It is a B-I-G day at the Century of Progress World’s Fair on the eve of the Fourth of July. The Firestone exhibit is dedicated with 300 employees from Akron, Ohio rolling into town to take part in the festivities. A cat’s eye, “known as one of the rarest gems,” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 4, 1933]. Is added to the collection of precious and semi-precious stones on the second floor of the General Exhibits Group. The cat’s eye is used as the centerpiece of the jewel of head dresses for the maharajahs in India. And a bit of bad news … Dr. Frank Baylor, head of the emergency hospital at the fair, is called to give first aid treatment to Louis, one of the elephants in the show at the 101 Ranch. Apparently, poor Louis developed blisters on his feet from too much parading. Louis is equipped with a leather boot and told to take some weight off his feet.

July 3, 1976 – The Chicago Tribune reports that artist Marc Chagall has donated a set of windows, entitled “The American Windows,” to the Art Institute of Chicago as a Bicentennial gift. The windows will measure eight by thirty feet and will be installed in an area overlooking McKinlock Court, a space illuminated by natural light. Chagall holds the city in warm regard as a result of the experiences he had in 1973 and 1974 in the creation and dedication of his mosaic The Four Seasons, installed on the east side of the plaza of the First National Bank of Chicago, now Exelon Plaza.

July 3, 1946 –The International Harvester Company opens an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, providing “a complete Midwestern agricultural exhibit with mooing cows, cawing crows, and the latest in farm equipment.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 2, 1946] The exhibit includes a modern farm home, “lifelike” barnyard animals and natural sound effects. Part of the exhibit is a historical timeline of the development of farm machinery since the invention of the reaper by Cyrus McCormick in 1831. Mr. John L. McCaffrey, the International Harvester president, speaks at the dedication, saying that the model farm will illustrate “the close mechanical tie between urban and rural life.” Dr. George D. Sotddard, the new president of the University of Illinois, also speaks. The photo above shows workers readying the exhibit for the public in 1946.

chicagojewishhistory.org

July 3, 1933 – All available police reserves are called out as 125,000 members of the city’s Jewish population attend “The Romance of a People,” sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a pageant portraying the history of the Jewish race at Soldier Field. Five years has been spent in the planning of the spectacle. Writing for the Chicago Daily Tribune, James O’Donnell Bennett observes, “As I followed bright threads of fortitude, of tenacity, of abiding faith, and of stalwart racial consciousness and racial fidelity from which this fabric of drama was woven, I marveled that any Jew should ever be other than inordinately proud of his ethical and cultural inheritance, so rich and so ancient. ‘Tis the rest of us who are parvenus by compare.” At 9:00 p.m. twelve rabbis bear a gigantic scroll that is over twelve feet high to an altar in the center of the floor of the immense stadium. For two hours amplified voices read the story carried in the Torah as the drama unfolds. At various times there are 750 dancing girls spreading flowers around the altar of the Pentateuch, Roman legionaries and chariots, and 3,500 actors acting out parts of the drama as 2,500 choir members sing, “their voices being led out to the audience by the most nearly perfect system of amplification that has ever been set up on this continent.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 4, 1933]. Most of those attending the pageant had spent the Jewish Day at the grounds of the Century of Progress World’s Fair, and their movement from the grounds to Soldier Field, starting around 7:30 p.m., overwhelmed the 400 policemen originally posted to maintain an orderly flow into the pageant. Another 400 officers are called in, and 46 ticket windows, each with two cashiers are opened up. Michigan Avenue is closed between Monroe Street and Twenty-Third Street in order for the crowd to reach elevated and bus lines when the show ends with the prophecies of Isaiah, “’Neither shall they learn war any more’ … as a single voice, high and clear, wafts into the starry sky, ‘How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Lord!’” The pageant is repeated on the next evening after the Tribune offers to sponsor the reprise performance so that “rich and poor of all creeds might witness the gigantic spectacle.”

July 3, 1912 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that a new record for inheritance taxes in Illinois has been set with a tax of $329,131 assessed on the estimated $17,000,000 estate of the late R. T. Crane. Payment of the tax by July 8, 1912 will save the heirs of the estate more than $16,000 because of a five per cent allowance for prompt payment. The estate of Marshall Field had set the previous record, with a tax on his estate of $125,000. The Field estate, however, sheltered nearly a half-million dollars in tax liability by insuring that property in the estate did not pass on to heirs at the time of Field’s death. Richard T. Crane had the singular fortune of being born the nephew of Chicago lumber baron Martin Ryerson. At the age of 23, the young man moved to Chicago and began a partnership with his brother. Crane’s timing could not have been better. He had established himself as an astute businessman in the city years before the 1871 fire. After the fire his mill met the appetite of the city, supplying it with pipe, steam engines and even elevators as architecture moved from four- or five-story buildings to soaring towers. The company’s manufacture of enameled cast iron bathroom fixtures also synced up nicely with the demand for luxurious indoor sanitary facilities. In 1910 the Crane company factories in Chicago employed over 5,000 men. For more information on the Crane company and the son of its founder you can turn to this section of Connecting the Windy City.

Friday, May 22, 2020

May 22, 1933 -- Art Institute of Chicago Gets Approval to Tap Ferguson Fund for New Building

artic.edu

chuckmannostalgia.wordpress.com

May 22, 1933 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that a Circuit Court judge has arrived at a decision that will allow the Art Institute of Chicago to build a $400,000 addition to the east of the original 1893 building. Judge William V. Brothers interprets the will of B. F. Ferguson, a wealthy lumberman who created a $1,000,000 trust that could be used to build “statues and monuments commemorating national figures and historical events” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 22, 1933], finding that the word “monument” can include a building. The museum’s addition will be the twelfth “monument” that will be created through the funds in the Ferguson trust. It will be a long time before the judge’s decision led to a building. The Ferguson Wing on the north side of the original 1893 building was not opened until 1958. The black and white photo shows the corner on Monroe and Michigan before the Ferguson Wing was completed. The second photo shows the Ferguson Wing on the north side of the original building just after it opened.

May 22, 1963 – James H. Gately, Chicago Park District president, announces the details of a $60,000 dairy barn planned for the zoo in Lincoln Park. Donated by a Chicago affiliate of the National Dairy Council, it will be the second of six buildings projected for the area south of the present zoo that will demonstrate the working of a midwestern farm. Gately says that visitors will be able to watch cows being milked on a raised platform behind glass walls. The first building in the project, the main barn, was underwritten by Walter Erman, the chairman of the Luria Steel and Trading Company, and his wife, Ida.

May 22, 1960 – Mayor Richard J. Daley dedicates the new Stanley McCormick Court at the Art Institute of Chicago on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe Drive. Mrs. Stanley McCormick, the donor, sits “quietly in the front row and declined to step into the spotlight of attention to accept the plaudits of the 125 governing life members, trustees, staff members, and other guests who attended the dedication.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 23, 1960]. McCormick dedicates the new garden and courtyard in honor of her late husband, the son of Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the mechanical reaper. The court is a 42,000 square foot garden with an 80-foot by 30-foot pool and fountain. William McCormick Blair, president of the Art Institute’s Board of Trustees, calls the court “a significant addition to the landmarks of the city.” McCormick Court today holds three significant sculptures: "Large Interior Form" by Henry Moore; "Cubi VIII" by David Smith; and "Flying Dragon" by Alexander Calder.

May 22, 1956 – Mayor Richard J. Daley says it might be a fine idea to have gondolas, “operated by experts from Venice,” [Chicago Daily Tribune May 23, 1956] on the Chicago River. He added further that it would be great to see boys and girls fishing from the river banks. Behind the message lies a motive – the mayor adds that for such pastimes to occur the federal government would need to permit an increased diversion of Lake Michigan water into the river, something that cities and states on the Great Lakes have fought for over four decades.

May 22, 1934 – Disaster occurs at the Oakley building, 143 West Austin Avenue, when a 40,000 gallon water tank on the top of the building falls through the roof and smashes through the core of the building to the first floor. Five workers inside the building are killed and another half-dozen seriously injured. One of the injured, Clyde Otto, who was hurt in the stampede for the fire escapes describes the event: “The walls began to shake all of a sudden and we heard a series of crashes – I guess it was the tank hitting the various floors. The girls began to scream and every one rushed for the fire escape.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, June 2, 1934] The last inspector to examine the tank was Daniel Hartford, who had approved it in January. Appearing before an inquest on June 1, he was asked how much he knew about the work he was doing. Hartford answered, “I didn’t know anything about it . . . I’m just the same as you or anybody else who might inspect it.” A few days later the city’s building commissioner says that of the 3,000 water tanks on city roofs the building department only has records for two-thirds of them. At least a thousand such tanks were built before 1919 when the state required that blueprints of the tanks be filed with the building department.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

April 7, 1933 -- Prohibition Leads to a Chicago Full of Suds

Chicago Tribune Photo

April 7, 1933 – At 12:01 a.m. brewers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers begin distributing 3.2 percent beer to a very thirsty public. The Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “… the beer flood was carrying on the crest the greatest single day’s outpouring of cash that Chicago business had experienced since the collapse of the stock market at the end of 1929.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, April 8, 1933] City breweries have gone to triple shifts, and stores, groceries and restaurants are so busy that bookkeepers do not have time to calculate the day’s sales. The Dutch Room in the Bismarck Hotel schedules ad extra 40 employees just to handle the noontime lunch crowd. In Mandel’s department store detectives are called to preserve order. A and P, National Tea, and Kroger grocery stores are out of suds by noon. Hillman’s independent grocery goes through 2,300 cases. The editor of Brewery Age, Joseph Dubin, warns that the brewing industry soon will be threatened with a shortage of barley malt. He says, “Although brewers are protected to some extent by contracts, it is obvious that if the demand for beer approximates the pre-prohibition use there will not be enough domestic barley available.” Barley production will need to be tripled to meet demand, Dubin says. Oak Park and Highland Park are the only two suburbs that remain dry.

April 7, 1955 -- Walsh Brothers, Inc. is the low bidder at $334,995 on a contract to construct an arcade along the south side of the Auditorium building to clear the way for the Congress Street expressway's route to Grant Park. The 1889 building, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, is the last of six buildings along East Congress Street to be arcaded. A part of the building that will be lost is a bar on the southeast corner believed to have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright at the beginning of his career. The photo above shows the Auditorium as it existed in 1900.

historic bridges.org

April 7, 1919 -- The Chicago Daily Tribune details the progress that is being made on the new Michigan Avenue bridge, noting that “The roof is off one-third of the big Kirk soap factory that for thirty years has been one of the premier hideosities and unseemly barriers of this town. The walls are falling down from the fifth story downward.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, April 7, 1919] Within a few days, the paper reports, “… it will be possible to look northward form the south bank of the Chicago river and the site of Fort Dearborn and catch a glimpse of the trees of Lincoln parkway beyond the water tower.” Each day “hundreds of people” stop to watch the progress of the bridge, the long-awaited connection between the south and north districts of the city, “a colossal work that means the attainment of light, air, space, beauty, and convenience in a district which for a generation has been so squalid, so ugly and so inutile that it would have disgraced an Asiatic capital with 3,000 years of makeshift and short-sightedness and stupidity behind it.” The article looks breathlessly toward the changes in Michigan Avenue that the new bridge will bring … “Not since the London county council, at a cost of millions of pounds, opened up Kingway, has any capital offered builders of vision such an opportunity to convert visions into superb realities.” Even before the bridge is finished nearly 70 percent of the property owners on Michigan Avenue north of the river have signed an agreement to exclude from the street “all business establishments incompatible with the status of a show street … which – so real estate experts agree – will fix the destiny of the street and save it from the long period of transition from an outworn residence street to a high class business street …” The article concludes, “If you take that walk amid the derricks and the debris you will realize … how every dollar of the $13,000,000 you voted for North Michigan avenue development is going to come back tenfold to the community in convenience, beauty, and increased values … So take that walk.” The above photo shows the Michigan Avenue bridge, today's DuSable bridge, nearing completion in 1919.

April 7, 1910 – Chicago Police Chief LaRoy T. Steward tells managers of the city’s beaches that “Bizarre bathing costumes, whether for women or men, will be censored by the police” [Chicago Daily Tribune, April 8, 1910] at the city’s beaches in the coming summer. Uniformed police officers will be stationed at the doors of every beach dressing room and will inspect the bathing attire of patrons as they come out to the sand. “If they escape the initial inspection,” the Chicago Daily Tribune reports, “there will be other bluecoats along the shore to correct the oversight. The chief says that special attention will be given to the men’s costumes, but women will also be closely monitored “lest there be a too marked inclination to follow objectionable styles permitted at some ocean beaches near eastern cities.” Regarding the fashions of women bathers, the rules place “an official ban on the sheathe and directoire styles in feminine bathing costumes. Bloomers cut to hang loosely must be worn under the skirt and must reach to the knees. Sleeveless garments will not be allowed, although quarter length will be considered sufficient covering for the arms.” Men must follow these directives … “The vanity of men of athletic mold is to be restrained when they display chests or shoulders by a too low cut of their bathing suits. Also, the back must be well covered. Trunks alone or the one piece bathing suits for men are not to be considered and the trunks of the two piece suit must not be unduly abbreviated.” Chief Steward observes that his hope is that the city’s beaches will have the “reputation of being the best conducted in the country.” The above photo shows the Diversey Parkway beach five years later in 1915 with everyone playing by the rules.

April 7, 1893 – Huge waves crash into the mouth of the river from the lake, tearing ships from their moorings “as if the heavy hawsers with which they were fastened had been merely bits of twine.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, April 8, 1893] At 2:30 a.m. the first wave sweeps into the harbor, and four vessels are ripped from their moorings, damaged heavily, and swept toward the lake. A second wave follows the first, and The City of Venice is grounded at the life-saving station while the Mabel Wilson becomes stuck in the mud, broadside to the channel. The A. P. Wright strikes the pier and then becomes stuck fast in the middle of the channel, stopping just 20 feet from the grounded Mable Wilson. One lake captain says, “These sudden squalls in the lake cause a great movement of water in one direction. They soon spend themselves and a reaction takes place. Then a squall will come from an opposite direction to the first and make the swell larger. Such a swell striking the shore at the mouth of a river will force the water into a huge wave which will carry everything before it.” Boat owners from Lincoln Park to Racine, Wisconsin report their boats and boathouses are missing as the waves do damage all along the shore north of Chicago.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

October 3, 1933 -- Marconi Honored in Visit to Century of Progress

Chicago Tribune photo

October 3, 1933 – The Illinois Commission to A Century of Progress and the Dante Alighieri Society host a luncheon to honor the Marchese and Marchessa Guglielmo Marconi. After the luncheon and a visit to the Hall of Science, today’s Museum of Science and Industry, the Marconis are given a reception in the Italian pavilion at the World’s Fair site, which is closed to the public where Marconi, Italian Consul Castruccio and David Sarnoff, all make speeches that are broadcast to Italy. In the evening the president of the Century of Progress, Rufus C. Dawes, and his wife entertain 125 people at a dinner held in honor of the Marconi’s at the Federal building. President Walter Dill Scott of Northwestern University presents the Italian inventor with an honorary Doctor of Science degree. Although everyone in the entourage is exhausted, Marconi insists on traveling back to the fair grounds to visit the amateur radio station, W9USA. In the darkened Travel and Transport Building of the closed fair, he finds two operators on duty who do not seem to know their visitor, complimenting the men on their transmitting equipment. One responds, “But it was only built by an amateur,” to which the inventor replies, “Ah, but I am only an amateur myself.” [rfcafe,com], quite a modest reply, considering he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 and is credited today as being the inventor of radio. In the above Tribune photo Marconi and his wife meet with Cardinal George William Mundelein after attending services at Holy Name Cathedral during their stay in Chicago.

October 3, 1949 –The Chicago Daily Tribune praises the life and work of David Adler, who died on September 27. Adler was born in Milwaukee in 1882, studied at Princeton University, and, after a time in Europe, joined the office of architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1911. He failed the architect’s exam in 1918, and it wasn’t until 1928 that he was awarded an honorary license. At that point he had over 30 commissions to his name, all of them authenticated by architects who had a background in structural engineering. During the 1920’s, though, Adler designed some stunning residential homes, many of them on the North Shore. The Tribune observes, “Somebody once said that Adler’s houses had the quality of Mozart’s music and, indeed, they have Mozartean spontaneity, grace, and elegance in line and decoration. They are always fresh but never eccentric or startling.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, October 3, 1949] The paper points out a set of row houses near the Elks’ memorial in Lincoln Park as a particular achievement, pointing out that they “display his genius for dealing freshly with established styles and conventional forms.” The row houses are landmarked and have a fascinating history as can be seen in Chicago’s historic preservation report that can be found at the city site here. Adler designed them with a partner, Henry Corwith Dangler. In the past couple of years they have seen an impressive renovation effort, resulting in two city homes at Adler on the Park. According to the @properties website one unit, at 2700 North Lakeview, is listed at $6,600,000. The three photos above show the row houses as they looked in 1922 when they were completed, a few years back when they were serving as what appeared to be a halfway house, and as Adler on the Park.

October 3, 1906 – The Chicago Daily Tribune decrees in its lead on this date, “Chicago is the baseball center of the earth.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, October 4, 1906] “Since last night a combination pennant pole, marking the site of Chicago has served as the earth’s axis, and around it something less than 2,000,000 maddened baseball fans are dancing a carmagnole of victory, while in every other city in the American and National leagues there is woe.” After the New York Yankees lose to the Philadelphia Athletics, the city realizes that the magic number has been reached, and the White Sox have clinched the American League pennant. In one week the team will meet its crosstown rival, the Chicago Cubs, in the World Series. At the end of July the White Sox were mired in sixth place. The paper observes that, despite the hopelessness of the situation, “People who cannot understand how the White Sox can win pennants should have visited the American league park and seen Comiskey and Jones working with their bunch of mediocre material, trying to make them into a pennant winning team. Now Comiskey has a theory that team play will beat individual ability. He was teaching his team the points.” After finishing the season with a team batting average of .230, the worst in the American League, the White Sox defeat the Cubs in the World Series in six games.

October 3, 1885 – On this date the Chicago Daily Tribune reports on a letter that the Chief Librarian of the city has sent to the Chairman of the Council Committee on Buildings. The letter provides detail about the location of the city’s first library, housed in a converted water tank on Dearborn Street, just east of today's Rookery Building. Mr. Poole, the librarian, urges the temporary removal of the library to the new City Hall, just up the street on Washington Boulevard, citing the grave risk of the city’s entire collection of books being destroyed by fire. The present location of the library is "overcrowded already, many valuable books being in consequence stored in out-of-the-way corners for want of a place to put them.” The library has four floors and no elevator. On the fourth floor is a newspaper reading room of 3,292 square feet, a periodical reading room with 2,307 square feet, and a room for patent books and documents continuing 2,503 square feet. The floor below contains the main collection in 16,324 square feet of space. Since the collection of the library is increasing by 10,000 volumes a year and the threat of fire can not be ignored in a city that burned to the ground just 14 years earlier, Librarian Poole is a bit distressed that he has not received an answer from Alderman Mahony, to whom he had directed the letter. The book room of the "water tank library" can be seen in the engraving above.

Monday, September 23, 2019

September 23, 1933 -- Sally Rand Sentenced to Year in Jail

nverpleadguilty.blogspot.com

September 23, 1933 – Sally Rand is found guilty of “willfully performing an obscene and indecent dance in a public place” [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 24, 29133] by a jury of twelve men. This is the second time she has been tried on a charge that began with warrants sworn out on August 4 after Rand’s performances at the Chicago Theater. Before the jury adjourns the Assistant State’s Attorney proclaims, “Are you gentlemen, whether married or single, to permit the stamp of approval to be put on such a nude and indecent performance? I warn you that if you do you will revive the animalism of Greece, approve the lust of Rome, set the stamp of approval on the free love of the middle ages and condone the loves of the Borgias. You will return us to paganism.” Previously, the jurors watched the dancer, dressed in a skirt and a high-necked satin blouse go through her moves in the courtroom before they adjourned to the jury room, where they needed just one hour and fifteen minutes to render a verdict. The judge waits until Rand returns from a performance at the theater before he pronounces the maximum sentence under the law – one year in jail and a fine of $200. The judge denies a request from Rand’s attorney for a new trial although he does agree to a stay of 60 days to allow the attorney to file a motion and releases Rand on a bond of $2,000. Rand says, “If the jury is right, and the dance I do actually is indecent, and the court is right in sentencing me to a year in jail, all I can say is that every one who is engaged in sculpture, painting, music or dancing ought to quit.” Rand’s attorney reacts as well, saying, “It’s asinine for the law to permit us to view the life-size statue of a nude man in the Art Institute – and experts agree that a man is more ugly in the nude than a woman – and yet bring a criminal charge against a woman for dancing with her body covered with thick white cream.”

September 23, 1929 – Construction of the Wabash Avenue bridge begins, an event that, it is hoped, will usher in “the beginning of a new era of prosperity and business activity in the community …” [Chicago Daily Tribune, September 23, 1929] Projected completion date for the new span is anticipated to be December 1, 1930 as the contractor in charge of the construction of the bridge’s sub-structure has been given 11 months to complete the work. The bridge will connect the north end of Wabash Avenue at Wacker Drive with the south end of Cass Avenue on the north side of the river. A viaduct will also be constructed across the tracks of the Chicago and North Western Railroad at Kinzie Street with a gradual grade bringing the road down to grade level at Illinois Street. The $3,700,000 span will be a two-leaf, single deck bascule bridge, 232 feet long and 60 feet wide with sidewalks on each side of the bridge spanning 13 feet. Completing the project entailed coming to terms with the C and NW concerning the placing of piers, columns and easements. Before construction even begins, businessmen on Cass Street are planning improvements that they hope will bring shoppers, new businesses and residents to the area.

September 23, 1933 – Another mile of Lake Shore Drive is opened to traffic from Montrose to Foster Avenue. The road will only be open during the day as streetlights still need to be installed. This will be the first major thoroughfare to be opened as a result of $20,840,000 in gasoline and license taxes that the Illinois legislature had approved earlier. It is expected that 35,000 cars a day will be using the new road each day although there are still obstacles to be overcome. The junction with Sheridan Road at Foster Avenue will be a significant bottleneck. George Barton, an engineer for the Chicago Motor Club, says, “Unless every assistance is given to traffic at Sheridan road and Foster avenue the utility of the new mile of outer drive is seriously curtailed. This intersection will be the new bottleneck in the north side boulevard system, replacing the present bottlenecks at Montrose and Clarendon avenues and at Lawrence avenue and Sheridan road.” The junction of Sheridan and Foster is shown above several years after the Lake Shore Drive extension is opened. The second photo shows the same area today.

September 23, 1933 – Work begins on the final section of the Field building being erected between Clark and La Salle Streets on the east and west and Adams and Monroe Streets on the south and north. Steel workers begin erecting the first beams for the tower, which it is estimated will contain 4,000 tons of steel. Three of the four corner units of the Art Deco tower, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, are complete with placement of steel for each section taking between 35 and 57 days.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

July 24, 1933 -- Indiana Avenue Opened on South Side

googleimages

July 24, 1933 – A parade of automobiles forms at One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Street, making its way to Indiana Avenue, heading south through Riverdale, Dolton, South Holland and Harvey. The procession marks the opening of the new road on Indiana Avenue between One Hundred Thirtieth Street and One Hundred Thirty-Fourth Street. This will be the main road by which visitors to the Century of Progress World’s Fair will be routed from the southern parts of the city and suburbs. The new road will also be the main connection between Roseland and towns farther south. The road highlighted in red to the left of the above Google map image is the new Indiana Avenue, opened on this day in 1933.

July 24, 1940 –Armour Institute of Technology and Lewis Institute, which have operated as separate schools for more than 40 years, agree to join ranks, taking the Illinois Institute of Technology as the new name of the combined schools. Action comes at the Chicago Club in the first meeting of the new school’s Board of Trustees. The decision means that the city will have one of the largest technical institutions in the country with about 7,000 day and evening students, and to accommodate that number of students it is hoped that a completely new campus can be constructed in close proximity to the Loop. Henry T. Heald, a 35-year-old who for the preceding two years has served as the head of Armour Institute, is elected as the president of I.I.T. Heald is a graduate of the State College of Washington in 1923 and the University of Illinois in 1935. He joined the Armour faculty in 1927 as an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, also serving as a designer for the bridge department of the Illinois Central Railroad and as a structural engineer for the Chicago Board of Local Improvements. The Armour Institute was founded in 1892 by Philip D. Armour who gave more than $2,650,000 to the school during his lifetime. His son, J. Ogden Armour, gave several million dollars more. Lewis Institute was the creation of realtor Allan C. Lewis who, upon his death in 1877, left $550,000 for the founding of a polytechnical school.

July 24, 1992 – More than a thousand people celebrate the final birthday party for the military garrison at Fort Sheridan. The Chicago Tribune reports, “For Ft. Sheridan, Friday’s Organization Day was another in a series of lasts. May saw the closing of the Ft. Sheridan Museum. June saw the last Flag Day. July was, of course, the last 4th of July celebration … sadness seemed to be the feeling of the day, even though some were playing softball, volleyball and golf, and kids competed in games and races.” [Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1992] The Post Commander, Colonel Robert Frizzo, says, “It’s depressing to most people knowing there’s not going to be anybody here next year.” One attendee, John Lawler, who was born at the fort and “sneaked out for rides on officers’ horses,” said, “I’ve been here all my life. I don’t want to see it close up.” His wife, Millie, who worked at the base for 19 years, agreed with her husband, saying, “It’s beautiful grounds. It’s a gorgeous coast. And what are they going to do with it? Nobody knows.”

La Verne W. Noyes

July 24, 1918 – La Verne W. Noyes, President and founder of the Aermotor Company, announces the gift of $2,500,000 to the University of Chicago “to express his gratitude to those who ventured the supreme sacrifice.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 25, 1918] The gift will be used for the education of veterans of World War I and their children with 20 percent of the sum going toward the salaries of university staff teaching history. The scholarships are still in effect today. Noyes started out as a manufacturer of dictionary stands, but things changed in 1883 when he hired Thomas O. Perry, who had conducted over 5,000 experimental tests, searching for a modern and efficient windmill. By 1892 the Aermotor Windmill Corporation was selling over 20,000 of the new windmills, and within ten years the company was selling the devices at one-sixth the price of previous competition. [www.gasenginemagazine.com] Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago, designed by Shepley, Routan, and Coolidge as a women's dining hall and natatorium, was another gift of Noyes three years earlier in 1915. History is interesting. Exactly one year after he announces the scholarship in 1918, La Verne Noyes dies at the Presbyterian Hospital. With no immediate family the fortune of Noyes is distributed to 48 different colleges and universities as beneficiaries.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

July 3, 1933 -- Jewish Pageant "The Romance of a People" Packs Soldier Field

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July 3, 1933 – All available police reserves are called out as 125,000 members of the city’s Jewish population attend “The Romance of a People,” sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a pageant portraying the history of the Jewish race at Soldier Field. Five years had been spent in the planning of the spectacle. Writing for the Chicago Daily Tribune, James O’Donnell Bennett observes, “As I followed bright threads of fortitude, of tenacity, of abiding faith, and of stalwart racial consciousness and racial fidelity from which this fabric of drama was woven, I marveled that any Jew should ever be other than inordinately proud of his ethical and cultural inheritance, so rich and so ancient. ‘Tis the rest of us who are parvenus by compare.” At 9:00 p.m. twelve rabbis bear a gigantic scroll that is over twelve feet high to an altar in the center of the floor of the immense stadium. For two hours amplified voices read the story carried in the Torah as the drama unfolds. At various times there are 750 dancing girls spreading flowers around the altar of the Pentateuch, Roman legionaries and chariots, and 3,500 actors acting out parts of the drama as 2,500 choir members sing, “their voices being led out to the audience by the most nearly perfect system of amplification that has ever been set up on this continent.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 4, 1933]. Most of those attending the pageant had spent the Jewish Day at the grounds of the Century of Progress World’s Fair, and their movement from the grounds to Soldier Field, starting around 7:30 p.m., overwhelmed the 400 policemen originally posted to maintain an orderly flow into the pageant. Another 400 officers are called in, and 46 ticket windows, each with two cashiers are opened up. Michigan Avenue is closed between Monroe Street and Twenty-Third Street in order for the crowd to reach elevated and bus lines when the show ends with the prophecies of Isaiah, “’Neither shall they learn war any more’ … as a single voice, high and clear, wafts into the starry sky, ‘How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Lord!’” The pageant is repeated on the next evening after the Tribune offers to sponsor the reprise performance so that “rich and poor of all creeds might witness the gigantic spectacle.”

July 3, 1912 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that a new record for inheritance taxes in Illinois has been set with a tax of $329,131 assessed on the estimated $17,000,000 estate of the late R. T. Crane. Payment of the tax by July 8, 1912 will save the heirs of the estate more than $16,000 because of a five per cent allowance for prompt payment. The estate of Marshall Field had set the previous record, with a tax on his estate of $125,000. The Field estate, however, sheltered nearly a half-million dollars in tax liability by insuring that property in the estate did not pass on to heirs at the time of Field’s death. Richard T. Crane had the singular fortune of being born the nephew of Chicago lumber baron Martin Ryerson. At the age of 23, the young man moved to Chicago and began a partnership with his brother. Crane’s timing could not have been better. He had established himself as an astute businessman in the city for a years before the 1871 fire. After the fire his mill met the appetite of the city, supplying it with pipe, steam engines and even elevators as architecture moved from four- or five-story buildings to soaring towers. The company’s manufacture of enameled cast iron bathroom fixtures also synced up nicely with the demand for luxurious indoor sanitary facilities. In 1910 the Crane company factories in Chicago employed over 5,000 men. For more information on the Crane company and the son of its founder you can turn to this section of Connecting the Windy City.

Connecting the Windy City

Friday, July 3, 2020

July 3, 1933 -- Century of Progress Highlights

Friday, May 22, 2020

May 22, 1933 -- Art Institute of Chicago Gets Approval to Tap Ferguson Fund for New Building

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

April 7, 1933 -- Prohibition Leads to a Chicago Full of Suds

Thursday, October 3, 2019

October 3, 1933 -- Marconi Honored in Visit to Century of Progress

Monday, September 23, 2019

September 23, 1933 -- Sally Rand Sentenced to Year in Jail

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

July 24, 1933 -- Indiana Avenue Opened on South Side

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

July 3, 1933 -- Jewish Pageant "The Romance of a People" Packs Soldier Field

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