Chicago Tribune, December 6, 1953
The north-south streets of Chicago for a long time were of less importance than the east-west ones. Only with the reconstruction after the 1871 fire did one of them, State effectively challenge the preeminence of Lake st.
Wells named for the Billy Wells who had been brought up by the Miami Indians and who perished in the 1812 massacre, became a street of ill repute. For that reason the name of its southern segment was changed in 1870 to 5th av. Objections were raised to this name as being pointless and the original name was re stored to the whole street in 1918.
La Salle st. was the location of Chicago’s first jail, on the south-cast corner of Randolph st. The street acquired fame because the last bear seen loose within the corporate limits of Chicago was shot there near the corner of Adams st. on Oct 6, 1834. Credit for the exploit has been given to one Sam George, for whom George st. was named, and also to a John Sweeney.
Known to Financiers
The massive bulk of the Board of Trade building, which now blocks off the view to the south of La Sale main segment, is sufficient evidence of the street’s importance in national and inter national finance. The street’s tone today has been described as “suburban. Republican, and Princetonian.” It was slow to reach that position; Washington st. for a long time was better known as the “Wall street of Chicago.” Still, La Salle st. had Chicago’s first bank, a branch of the Illinois State bank, chartered on Dec. 5, 1835.
On La Salle at the corner of Washington, stood the first courthouse, of red brick, built in 1837, and the second one, built in 1857, from the steps of which Jules Lombard sang the Battle Cry of Freedom.”
La Salle st. became a main artery when its tunnel under the river was completed just before the great fire of 1871. It could accommodate 50,000 vehicles and 1,000,000 pedestrians a day. The great fire having burned all the bridges, the tunnel was the only available passage for three months between the north and south banks of the river. It has now been absorbed into the north-south underground railway.
Clark St. May Be Oldest
Clark often spelled Clarke, long seemed to outsiders the street most characteristic of Chicago. It was the terminus of an old trail from the south and hence may enter a claim to being the city’s oldest street. In its extension north of the river, it continued into another road, which linked up with the old Green Bay trail. It still gets distinction from the municipal buildings, some impressive hotels, and from the skyscraper and spire of the Chicago Temple, at the corner of Washington. But Clark st. early became known as a street of contrasts, alternating fine residences and substantial businesses with shanties and dives, and that character seems to cling to it.
On Clark at the corner of Water the community’s first newspaper, the Chicago Democrat, was published. (Chicago, in Its earliest days, was strongly Jacksonian.) The first Sherman House was built on Clark at the corner of Randolph. Mayor Carter Harrison’s house was on Clark, south of the corner of Van Buren, evidence that the street retained some of its prestige till the end of the century.
The Bank of Chicago was one of the curiosities of Clark st. It occupied a two story building near the corner of Randolph. It was founded in 1852 by Seth Paine, whose code was to make no loans to pay debts, no loans on real estate, (and none in any case where tobacco or alcoholic liquor was involved. For all important transactions Paine went into session in his rooms upstairs with a medium who invoked the spirit of Alexander Hamilton. Maybe Hamilton as a ghost had lost his financial cunning. In any case, the Bank of Chicago failed after a brief time.
From the beginning Clark st. had the reputation of being first gay, then wicked. In the 1850s citizens were noticing that “young sports,” sharp dressers in fancy waistcoats and lemon colored gloves, gathered on its corners. Scoffers that these were not “real sports,” but only well to do idlers who “mashed” (the past century’s equivalent of wolfed) the girls.
Realm of Racketeer
After the great fire, Clark st. became the realm of Mike McDonald, the boss racketeer and politician of his time. Gamblers’ alley, between Washington and Madison was supposed to be entirely consecrated to sin in the 1890s. After McDonald came the long reign of the “lords of the levee,” Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna, who had their cigar store on S. Clark st. and the “Workingmen’s Exchange,” where they swapped handouts to the impoverished for votes.
In 1903 a stretch of S. Clark st. was peopled by Italian immi grants, crowded into lodging houses which advertised rates of 20 cents a day, bath and two meals included.” This neighborhood long was Chicago’s Chinatown, but in 1924 only a few Chinese still lingered there.
North of the river, Clark st. had a separate life of its own. At the close of the last century, just after it had been lighted and paved, saloons and amusement halls began moving in among its conservative residents.
Fight Against Vice
The Tribune of Sept. 4, 1898, carried a story on “North Clark Street’s Fight Against Vice,” saying that it “may be another levee.” “A wave of indignation forced the saloons to take pictures of nudes out of their front windows.
The tendency of half a century ago has apparently continued. This segment of Clark st. is filled with pitfalls for the unwary at night. By daylight it seems just seedy.
Where N. Clark st. opens on Lincoln park, the substantial, old fashioned building of the Germania club is lingering evidence that this section of Chicago once was populated almost entirely by those of German descent. In this neighborhood is the building of the old Deutsches theater.
Veers at North Av.
At its junction with North N. Clark st. goes off on a bias, eventually to connect with Ridge rd. and the Green Bay trail. Thus at both ends of its enormous length, Clark st. was one of the main roads into Chicago.
Formerly the relation of the N. Clark st. deviation to the trail was more apparent. From the main branch of the river, the route followed Rush st. to Chicago then turned to the northwest for about a mile, to the junction of Clark st. and North av. All traces of this diagonal connecting Chicago and North ave. have disappeared.
Chicago Tribune, September 4, 1898
There is a fight going on in with Clark street. Fights are not uncommon in North (of the River) Clark street. Bu this is the biggest yet and one of standing. It is the fight of the street against the encroachment of vice.
It dates back a long way. North Clark street has always had a reasonably good opinion of itself as a thoroughfare. It has always considered itself a street of great possibilities. Since business-men first took a position there it has been “lifting” itself. Once it set out to be a thoroughfare of light, the “best-lighted street in Chicago,” and the property-owners banded together to put arc light before every store. The unused rods upon which these lights were to swing still decorate Clark street for block after block.
And there are other evidences of the “lifting” movement.
But North Clark street has suddenly awakened to the fact that the effect of the lifting has not been permanent.
Is North Clark street to descend to the level of the levee?
The Merchants’ association of the thoroughfare says that it shall not. It would seem that certain of the saloonkeepers and certain of Chicago’s criminal say that it shall.
One year ago the business-men of this commercial artery of Chicago felt that they were on a moral mountaintop, from which they could look with something like exultation upon the valley of vice to the south.
Now they are not so certain.
Fight Now Is On.
The “levee!” Not only to Chicagoans, but to all who live within reaching distance of the Chicago newspapers the word “levee” has embodied that is everything that is bad in human nature. There is now on a battle royal between the men engaged in legitimate business on North Clark street on the one hand and men who are engaged in illegitimate business on the other hand, the outcome of which will decide the saving of North Clark street for the ranks of respectability or its relegation to the control of the vicious.
North Clark street suffers undoubtedly from the fact that it is the outlet to the north of a street, South Clark street, which in certain portions contains much that law people call bad—very bad. For two years the North Side men of business have tried to check the tide that seemed bound to flow across the bridge. A degeneration of the street was to them a nightmare. They saw in its being placed upon a level with certain districts of the Harrison Street Police Station a danger to their interests. Then they went to work.
At the outset it was found that the chief element with which they had to deal was that composed entirely of the vicious class.The police were with them. Inspector Schaack, the “burgomaster,” was appealed to, and he promised that the street should be kept morally clean. The consensus of opinion of the men who started out to bring about the reform is that Schaack lived up to his word. The President of the North Side Business-Men’s association said after the answer of Captain Schaack had been received, that he believed that from that time North Clark street would be a place of pure and simple, and where women and children could go to do their shopping or make purchases without fear of annoyance.
Let In the Light.
After the appeal to the Inspector at East Chicago Avenue Station had been made, the business-men met once more and said: “We must help the Inspector in his, work. The way to do this is to raise some thousands of dollars, and to let some light in on the scene.”
Light did come in upon the scene. There was a pole erected at every corner for the purpose of electric lighting. Those who had taken advantage of the dark condition of Clark street to make It a second edition of the city’s shadier thoroughfares were driven away. Then, certain of the low saloonkeepers came in contact with the business-men. once more. The divekeeper said, if you illuminate the thoroughfares we will open our back rooms, and where the light of the street does not penetrate we will have the people whom you are trying to drive away.
The business-men of North Clark street had in view the conservation of trade for years they had been building up. Through their President they made an appeal to the Police department, asking that every saloon which harbored women and thieves in back rooms and stalls of the main saloons should be closed.
Then there was trouble.
Politics to Their Aid.
Every one of the divekeepers brought in his political friend. The Mayor was appealed to. He referred them all to Inspector Schaack. Schaack said that every back room which was divided off into partitions would be subject to police inspection; that if any notorious women or thieves were found there that partition should be knocked down and that the proprietor of the place who thenceforth attempted to shield any of the same classes should have his license revoked.
Under this rigorous rule the North Clark business-men breathed freely once
more and plied their occupations without fear. There was a lull in law-breaking for some months. Then, with the belief that the street had been entirely rehabilitated into respectability, the merchants came to together once more. They said: “Our pavement is in bad condition. We will have it paved with asphalt.”
Law Upholding Saloonkeepers.
At this meeting there were twenty saloonkeepers law, who were willing to obey the law. but said that if the irresponsible. law-breaker crowd was allowed to keep a open after midnight and cater to the vices of humanity in order to make money they in self-defense, must either do the same thing or go out of business. One of the most remarkable features of the North Clark street trouble is the fact that with the men who sell dry goods, groceries, meat, jewelry, and stationery are many men who keep saloons. As a matter of fact, the fight that these saloonkeepers are making against their degenerate brother, is as strong and is based on the same moral grounds as that of the tradesmen in other lines of business.
Once begun the regeneration of a thoroughfare seems to have had no end in the minds of the friends of regeneration. They may have had Utopian ideas, but they went on bravely and fought the fight. Not satisfied with pavement and light they said we will make this street a place they said which will be a pleasure for our patron to walk. Un the windows of many of the North Clark street stores there were reproductions of a famous French painting, mostly in the nude. These self-same reproductions were shown in the windows of all the downtown stores. But once started on North Clark street was bound to be a model. Charges were brought against one dealer, and as a result the offensive picture was taken from every window on the thoroughfare.
There were those who said that this was Puritanism run wild.
But the men who were instrumental in removing the offensive steel plates from the show windows were in nearly every instance those opposed to “blue laws” and in favor simply of doing that which would conduce to public morals.
Removed Sidewalk Signs.
After the objectionable pictures had been taken from the windows the Merchants’ association turned its attention in another direction. The members felt that North Clark street in one way looked too much like South Clark street below Jackson street. The store proprietors were in the habit of obstructing the sidewalk by signs placed near the curb, which called attention to the goods offered for sale inside. A reform in this respect was deemed necessary.
A committee was appointed to wait upon the Commissioner of Public Works, with a request that he give no notification at all but send wagons through North Clark street and gather up all signs which were farther from the building line than three feet. This to be done in accordance with the city ordinance which forbids the obstructing of sidewalks outside of thirty-six inches from the building line. The street was cleared of enough signs to make kindling wood for the City Hall for three years, and this without any notification whatsoever to the men who had committed the offense.
Murder of Shrosbee.
The street rehabilitated and quiet reignint, it was thought that the condition was to last forever. Then there came a shock.
In a place called “The Orpheus,” in North Clark street, in April last Al Shrosbee, a prize fighter, attempted to break up a performance. There were many people in the auditorium, on the stage of which a vaudeville was in progress. Shrosbee, fresh from a fight with another prize fighter, felt that he was able to whip not only the audience but the entire management of the place. He threw a chair at the spectators, and when L. Borderbugge. the manager, tried to quiet him. the prize fighter called to his aid three or four friends. A quiet, peaceful loving North Side physician, an old-time college football player by the way—one of those, who like a famous Western character, “would, have peace if he had to kill every one in the crowd to get it”—walked up to Shrosbee and knocked him down. The physician, not seeking notoriety, disappeared. Shrosbee’s friends tried to clear out the place. and as an incidental accompaniment tried to hold up the treasurer, William Schilling. The result of the fracas was: Shrosbee, prize fighter. dead with two bullet holes through his breast; Charles Fritz. serious scalp wound caused by being hit with a bottle: John Healy, “spinal complaint” from getting a blow with a chair across the back: August Radtke, scalp wound from a bottle.
This row in the “Orpheus” made the North Clark street business-men think that possibly. the end of their Utopian days was at hand, and subsequent events have to some extent borne out their conclusion.
Following the Orpheus shooting affair came the killing by J. F. Frawley. a saloonkeeper, of his bartender. Frawley’s saloon was within less than a stone’s toss of the East Chicago Avenue Station. he walked into his place of business at midnight, drew a revolver, and killed his bartender. The next day Frawley said he remembered nothing of the occurrence. Insanity and non-responsibility was the plea put in for this man with a short memory and murderous intentions.
Another Murderous Row.
The street was apparently fast going back to its old status. Another appeal was made to the police by the business-men; promises were made.
On top of the promises came the murderous row in the saloon of William Donahue. North Clark, near Indiana street. There a man known as “Kid” Murphy was killed. Martin Donahue was badly injured. The license of the saloon was ordered revoked, but influence sidetracked the order, and the place is open and doing business today.
The business-men said: “They are gaining on us. What can we do?”
“Perhaps,” they continued. “this thing is only spasmodic and it will stop now.”
Then one of the members got up in meeting and recalled to the others who were sitting there the fact that a murder and a suicide had been committed at the corner of North Clark and Indiana streets which had been to a certain extent covered up. It was a fact that some of the members of the gathered association had not heard that a railroad brakeman, maddened by jealousy, had gone it to a rear apartment of a saloon, and there, after a “few beers,” had shot and killed a woman and then turned the revolver upon himself.
It seems in all North Clark street chronicles that, no matter what the row, “a few beers” is always responsible.
The President of the association for the keeping of North Clark street morally clean says that “a few beers” means whisky, and an alleged irresponsibility for any crime, no matter how serious, that may be committed.
Within the last few days North Clark street has awakened, as it seldom has awakened before, to the realization of the o encroachment of vice. Yet, despite the efforts of many property-owners, it must be confessed that the last few nights have shown little improvement in the matter of the closing of the saloons at midnight and the removing of the possibility of crime. The place of Richard Rindsberger, 111½ North Clark street, is still open, though making a pretense of closing. It takes the initiated to secure an entrance. It was just outside this place that Tillie Faehnrich, known among her class on the North Side as Tillie Wolf, was murdered week before last by a jealous woman named Rosa Bernhardt. Rindsberger’s saloon was a resort for notorious women and men. A wordy row between the two women occurred inside the saloon, which in a few moments developed into blows. No one attempted to interfere. The women went to the street and there on the sidewalk Rosa Bernhard jabbed a steel umbrella point through the skull and into the brain of her rival, Tillie Wolf.
North Clark street people feel that the streets to the east, and west of them are feeders to their thoroughfare not only in a mercantile way but in a criminal way. The shooting of Fred Stevart in Henry Clay’s saloon, Dearborn avenue and Kinzie street, by Bartender Oliver Densby was felt by the North Side reformers as much as though it had occurred on Clark stet proper. On the top of this affray there was a stabbing affair at 45 North Clark street in which Mike Sheehan, a Market street gang man, was mixed up with a constable. Sheehan was stabbed, and may not get over the wound. Within the week that saw the Sheeran stabbing and the Stewart shooting there were five serious affrays within ai many blocks on the North Side.
These affairs have spurred to active work the men who are bent on keeping North Clark street as it was after they had spent thousands of dollars to make it a respectable thoroughfare.
The Executive committee will wait upon the Mayor when he returns, and ask him in the name of common decency and the business interests of Chicago to lend his influence and authority to the people who are standing for morality and decency, and who wish to keep from their street the stigma of being called the second edition of the “levee of Chicago.”
Clark Street and Chicago Avenue.
1927
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