Showing posts with label 1980. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1980. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

July 8, 1980 -- Marina City Resident Sues C.H.A. Chairman Swibel


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July 8, 1980 – A class action lawsuit is filed in federal court, charging real estate developer Charles Swibel with improprieties in the conversion of Marina City to condominiums.  Also named in the suit are Tenth Ward Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, and Leonard R. Garmisa, “the beneficiary of a land trust created by Vrdolyak to acquire title to 50 units at Marina City.”  [Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1980].  The suit charges that a City Council ordinance which Vrdolyak proposed was passed “in record time,” allowing Swibel to amass a windfall in profits.  The suit further charges that Swibel sold the 50 units to Vrdolyak and four partners at the preferred tenant rate, rather than the rate offered to the general public, allowing the Vrdolyak group to save at least $200,000 over prices charged to the those who were not tenants.  The suit asks that the profits from those sales be returned to the city treasurer.  At the time Swibel also served as the chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, a position he would hold until he was forced out under federal pressure in 1982. 

July 8, 1965 –Mayor Richard J. Daley leads the opening ceremonies for the new 10.5-acre park at the filtration plant north of Navy Pier.  The mayor has just activated the five fountains in the park by pushing a button when seven kids, ranging in age from seven to ten years, barge into the ceremony and engage Daley in conversation.  “Mr. Mayor,” one little girl begins, “Why did you turn on that fountain?” [Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1965] “Well,” Daley answers, “it’s just like I was telling these fine people in the crowd here.  We want to show everybody in the country that Chicago is going to be the best city there is. That’s why we want to keep doing things that we think are important to the growth of our city.” Today the park is called Milton Lee Olive Park in honor of Milton L. Olive, III, a Chicago native who became the first African-American to receive the Medal of Honor during his service in Vietnam.  On October 22, 1965 Olive sacrificed himself by smothering a grenade with his body, saving the lives of three other soldiers.  The park was designed by Dan Kiley, who among other commissions, was the principal designer of the Chicago Botanic Garden, the South Garden of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Lincoln Center in New York City, and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.  The park consists of five circular fountains of various circumferences, representing the five great lakes.  The fountains no longer work … the pipes that supply them have failed, and replacing them has a low priority.  To walk down the park’s central tree-lined pathway, though, is to find one of the great vantage points from which to view the city north of Grand Avenue.  The above photo shows the Fifth Army band performing at the dedication ceremony.

July 8, 1950 – The Chicago Daily Tribune reports on four apartment building projects taking place on the lakefront, buildings projected to house 1,126 families.  The largest of the buildings is being constructed on the site of the former Potter Palmer mansion at 1350 Lake Shore Drive.  The $8,663,000 building will hold 740 apartments with only 192 of that number being built as efficiency apartments.  Rents are expected to begin at just over $40.00 a month.  Two floors of concrete a week are being poured, and completion of the towers is expected by April 1, 1951.  In the 860 Lake Shore Drive building the steel has been erected up to the twelfth floor.  Herbert S. Greenwald, the developer of the building, says that unit prices will range from $13,500 to $27,000.  At 1350 Astor a 51-unit building is rising toward its ultimate 15-story height with unit prices between $14,900 and $27,000.  Within the month a 16-story cooperative building on the same street where it meets Banks Street is expected to be completed with apartments projected to start at $18,200.  The nine-room penthouse in the building has already sold for $65,000.  860 and 880 North Lake Shore Drive rise in the photo above.

Earl Clark/Peter Ehrlich collections
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July 8, 1925 – Plans are announced for the extension of Roosevelt Road by way of a viaduct across the Illinois Central Railroad tracks on the south end of Grant Park.  South Parks Commission president Edward J. Kelly says that the viaduct will require the razing of a portion of the Illinois Central Railroad station that sits on the east side of the planned viaduct.  It is expected contracts for the $1,500,000 project will be ready for bids by the beginning of 1926.  Part of the cost will be borne by bus and trolley companies if their tracks use the viaduct.  The viaduct provided entry to the museum campus which had previously not existed.  Clearly, the tracks ended up a part of the project.  A far different place these days as can be seen by the contrast between the 1930's photo and the view looking east today.



July 8, 1858 – The police report in the Chicago Press and Tribune begins, “The docket at the Police Court was unusually light yesterday, whisky drinking having measurably subsided after the Glorious Fourth.”  Still, there was enough to keep the typesetters busy.  The following incidents are noted:

Timothy Conley, a drayman, got drunk and managed to run into every vehicle he met.  He also succeeded in inducing somebody to knock a hole in his head.  As he attributed all his misfortunes to the whisky he drank in honor of Independence Day, he was let off with a fine of $3.

George Dow was fined $3 for getting drunk and using insulting language to a woman.

James Jenkins, alias J. W. Hanneman, was brought up for getting beastly drunk.  The prisoner gave the following account of himself and his conduct:  He states that for a year past he has been lecturing about the country as a reformed drunkard, and that on the Fourth he met a friend and drank a glass of lemonade, which he now suspects had a chip in it; that some how or other he continued to imbibe lemonade with larger chips in them, until he got on a regular bender, and was found dead drunk in the streets . . . He started on his spree with $40, and had $15 left when arrested.  He was released on condition that he behaves better in the future.

Michael Connor, a drunken vagrant, was found sleeping on the sidewalk on the corner of Clark and Monroe streets.  He says he came from New York two days ago, and has no money or work.  He was fined $2 and sent to Bridewell to work it out.

E. Patrick Cagan was arrested upon complaint of one Ryan, who charged that Cagan had knocked him down.  As Ryan had hid to avoid giving testimony, Cagan was released.

Thomas Ready, brought up for being drunk, was not ready for trial, and his case was continued.

Jeremiah Nolan was fined $3 for a simple drunk.

Cornelius Casey went to visit his friend, James Dooley, when the latter got very drunk and made so much disturbance in the house that the police arrested them both.  Dooley was fined $5, and Casey was released.

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Monday, March 23, 2020

March 23, 1980 -- South Loop Property Sale

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March 23, 1980 – The Chicago Tribune reports that the Illinois Commerce Commission has approved the sale of land near the intersection of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue for $13.1 million to Park Development Associates of Northfield.  Park also has obtained an option to buy an additional 20 acres of railroad land south and east of that area for another $13 million.  Before any development can take place, however, plans must be approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and the Chicago City Council, in accordance with lakefront ordinances that go back to the late nineteenth century.  Not a bad investment.  Under a different developer, the Central Station Development Corporation, what had once been a grimy area of old warehouses is now a mixed-use development of residential high rises and luxury townhomes.  It sits on land which the old Illinois Central’s main passenger terminal once stood, which today is an attractive location across Lake Shore Drive from the city’s museum campus on the southern edge of Grant Park.  The top picture shows the area in the old days … note the Field Museum of Natural History off to the left.  The second photo shows the area today.  The museum, as one can see, still exists in a far more attractive setting.


March 23, 1963 – An estimated half-million people turn out “in sparkling spring weather” [Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1963] to greet President John F. Kennedy, jamming the route of his motorcade “wherever he traveled during his four hour stay.”  Secret Service agents and police officers scramble at one point as the president orders his limousine stopped on the Cumberland Avenue overpass, getting out to shake hands with members of a crowd of several hundred people who had gathered at that location.  Under the Lake Street viaduct on the expressway workers remove the plastic bubble top of the limousine and haul it away in a city truck.  “Then, with the warm spring breezes ruffling his hair, Mr. Kennedy begins his entry into the Loop, an entry made almost triumphant as the nation’s biggest Democratic organization turns all-out to greet the President and their mayoral candidate [Mayor Richard J. Daley] in the April 2 election.”  Another moment that took the motorcade by surprise occurs on Jackson Boulevard, which is “the domain of the various ward organization delegations.”  The bridge tender on Jackson gives the procession a salute by ringing the bridge’s bells and activating its flashing lights.  The bridge remains stationary, though, and where “Jackson boulevard slashes thru the city’s financial district, the air was filled with confetti and ticker tape.”  With temperatures near 60 degrees and bright sunshine throughout his short stay in the city, the president doubly felt the warmth of his Chicago welcome.


March 23, 1946 -- The United States Navy announces that the 265-foot U. S. S. Willmette will be sold, closing a chapter in Chicago history that began in 1903 when the ship was built as a freighter. It was almost immediately converted to a passenger ship that could hold as many as 2,000 people. The name of the ship was the Eastland, the ship that took 812 people to their graves when it capsized in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915. After she was raised, the Navy purchased the hulk and converted it to a training ship with a new name. Captain E. A. Evers, who lived in Willmette, and other interested citizens, were successful in having the ship named after that North Shore community. The Navy found no buyers for the ship, and it was decommissioned and broken up for scrap in that same year of 1946.

March 23, 1921 – Two gifts of $50,000 are unveiled, one from William Wrigley, Jr. and the other from the trustees of the Ferguson Fund, with the money underwriting a plan “to make the new Michigan avenue bridge with its approaches one of the show places of the world and a link between the Chicago of today and the village of the historic past.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, March 24, 1921] Charles H. Wacker, Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, says, “Not only for the direct result, but also for its influence toward the finest and better city of the future, do we value these public spirited benefactions.  They cannot fail to point the way to others who will be called upon to aid in embellishing the improved South Water street.  Decorative features and sculpture must be provided to make the Chicago river attractive like European water courses, and an object of beauty instead of ugliness.” The plan is to create bridge houses on each corner of the bridge that will present the history that has taken place in the location where the new bridge crosses the river.  The bridge house at the northeast corner stands approximately at the spot where the first non-native American settler, Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, built his home.  At the southwest corner stood the site of Fort Dearborn.  The sculptures that grace the bridge houses today are a direct result of the gifts of 1921.  Wrigley’s contribution made possible the work on the north side of the bridge. The Discoverers by James Earle Fraser shows four early discoverers who explored the area in the seventeenth century. The Pioneers depicts early settler John Kinzie leading a group through the wilderness.  The sculptures on the southern bridge houses were commissioned by the B. F. Ferguson Monument Fund and are the work of Henry Hering.  Defense depicts Ensign George Ronan in a scene from the 1812 Battle of Fort Dearborn, and Regeneration depicts workers rebuilding Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. As a kick sometime when you are passing by the Regeneration sculpture on the southeast bridge house, check out that funky salamander nipping at that stalwart female’s ankles.  Symbolism a-plenty.


March 23, 1910 – Trouble on Quincy Street as a police officer, one William Rourke, “a County Kerry man,” [Chicago Daily Tribune, March 24, 1910]  stops outside a saloon as he hears a six-member German band playing inside.  According to the Tribune’s report, "Rourke steps into the saloon and commands, 'In the name av the state av Illinois.  I command yez to stop this.  It’s gone far enough.'”  The band leader puts down his E flat coronet and asks the officer what the problem is. “Can ye play Th’ Wearin’ av th’ Green? No?  Well, then can ye play Th’ Wind that Shakes th’ Barley?  No?  Well, then, d’ ye know Tatter Jack Welch?  No?” With no answer forthcoming to his liking, the officer orders the band members to follow him to the station house, proclaiming, “I’ll not have this kind av a nuisance on my beat.”  At the First District police station Lieutenant Ben Reed asks the band members what they have to say for themselves.  Again, according to the Tribune, the leader answers, “This policeman he sait to me ‘Can you blay The Green Is Wearing Off?’  I sait no, we din’t had the music.  Then he ask me to blay The Vind Dot Shakes the Wheat. Once more alretty I sait to him dot ve didn’t blay dot kind of music.  The he sait 'Come with me to the station.’”  The lieutenant allows the musicians to leave, making them promise “that they would never invade the loop district again [or] he would put the whole bunch downstairs if they didn’t get back to the ‘nord seit.’”
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Friday, February 21, 2020

February 21, 1980 -- River City Get the Go-Ahead

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February 21, 1980 – The Chicago Plan Commission approves the River City residential development, projected to rise on the east bank of the Chicago River’s South Branch.  The proposal has been considerably down-sized from the original proposal of 6,000 living units in six 72-story towers, a plan that the commission had rejected four years earlier.  The new proposal calls for approximately 1,500 units in six- to eight-story buildings although as the project moved along only one building would be constructed with about 450 living units.  Project developers predict that condominium prices will range from $55,000 for a studio apartment to $125,000 for a four-bedroom unit.  There is mixed reaction concerning the project from local business and civic groups in the area.  Edward J. Martinez, president of the Eighteenth Street Development Corporation, a community group based in Pilsen, tells the commission, “This is one more reservation for the rich.”  Architect Bertrand Goldberg’s design includes a river walk, a marina, a health clinic, and day care centers. It was expected that approval of the project would be forthcoming after Mayor Jane Byrne endorsed it during the preceding week. For more information on the long unfolding plan of River City you can turn to this entry as well as this one in Connecting the Windy City.  The community made news at the beginning of 2018 when residents voted to convert the building from condominiums to rental apartments, a decision that created more furor when preservationists objected to a renovation plan that saw the concrete interior walls of the ten-story building painted white.  In the re-purposed building, one can expect to pay $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment and a bit under $3,500 for a three-bedroom unit.


February 21, 2007 – On this day 13 years ago Carson, Pirie, Scott closed its State Street store, and 84-year-old Virginia Connor, who has worked in the men’s department for 46 years, the last four of which were in “Men’s Basics,” bids farewell to her fellow clerks. “The mind of men is extremely interesting,” Connor says.  “Men are extremely vain.   Men always say they’re smaller than they really are, in the waist.  They don’t really mean to lie, they just believe it, in their minds.  And so, you have to be very patient with them.”  [Chicago Tribune, February 22, 2007] When Connor began her career at Carsons she was required to wear white gloves, a suit or a skirt and blouse and a jacket.  As of this day she will be dressing up to look for another job.  One of her last interactions with a customer is with a man who comes up to her, asking to exchange an item.  “Exchange what,” she asks him.  “There’s nothing in the department to exchange.  It’s gone."



February 21, 1947 – The Chicago Tribune Building Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tribune Company, completes purchase of approximately 39,000 square feet of land, running along the north bank of the Chicago River, land formerly owned by the New York Central Railroad Company.  Purchase of the land gives the Tribune Building Corporation 385 feet of frontage along the river, east of the bridge at Michigan Avenue, and west of the large warehouse of Hibbard Spencer Bartlett and Company. Today, the Gleacher Center, the downtown campus for the University of Chicago sits on the site.  The above photos show the property in 1926 and as it appears today.  401 North Michigan Avenue, the 1965 glassy tower designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, stands on property the company purchased four years earlier.


February 21, 1912 -- The worst February storm in 18 years brings business in Chicago to a standstill. Service on the Illinois Central suburban line is shut down at 1:30 p.m. after a northbound train crashes into the rear of a milk train, leaving stations crowded with passengers. The downtown hotels do a brisk business, taking in workers who are unable to find a train home. For the first time in the city's history the street cleaning bureau gives up the fight in the face of 52-m.p.h. winds that leave workers lost in white-out conditions and horses wandering around in Grant Park. Policemen at crossings in the Loop are kept busy picking up people who have fallen or been blown into drifts. Members of a funeral party for 12-year-old Rose Myrtle Drautzburg, with her schoolmates acting as pallbearers, start for the Grand Trunk station at Forty-Seventh Street at 9:30 in the morning and wait for a train until 4:30 p.n. when they are informed that the train is cancelled. The estimate is that over 30,000 men are temporarily thrown out of work because of the weather.

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February 21, 1890 – Property owners along West Lake Street hold a second meeting about the proposed Lake Street elevated line at Robu’s Hall.  It is a contentious gathering as an attorney, S. B. Foster, rises to speak against the plan.  Angry protests begin almost as soon as he begins as “several gentlemen demanded if the speaker owned property on Lake Street.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, February 22, 1890]  Another attorney, Frank Beard, then rises to a point of order, noting that the meeting is limited to Lake Street property owners.  The men begin to argue … “Beard declared that Foster was representing Mr. Yerkes’ West Side street-car railway, Foster stating that Beard had come to the meeting in the interest of the ‘L’ road.”  Beard twice called Foster a liar, “rising from his chair and threateningly waving his cane.”  Friends separate the two men before they come to blows. Opponents might as well have held their breath ... the line carried its first passengers on November 24, 1893.  The above photo shows the Lake Street line under construction near Washtenaw in the early 1890's.
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