Guest Book
The Original Guest Book has been transferred to this page. Please feel free to post any general messages or enquiries on this Page.
The Original Guest Book has been transferred to this page. Please feel free to post any general messages or enquiries on this Page.
Awsome web site. I have read
almost allof your stories.
I was very interested in each and every one. I currently have an original copy of the 1893 worls fair book. Great job.
I am so happy to finally see what the Wabash Ave Methodist Church looked like on a good day. Last time I looked at the corner of Wasbash and Harrison, it was a parking lot! My great-great-grandfather, William Haskell, a former professional gymnast and Union scout, climbed the northwest steeple of this church as the leader of a double line bucket brigade during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The church had been spared against the wishes of General Sheridan, whose plan it was to have it blown up & destroyed to create a fire break in an attempt to save the South Side. He had already sent for artillery to fire upon the five barrels of gunpowder which he had loaded into the basement. But the wooden steeple eventually caught fire, infuriating Sheridan. My grandfather heroically offered to climb up to the roof and, with soaked cloth wrapped around his head, descend into the burning tower with buckets of water scooped from Lake Michigan and handed off by two other volunteers on the roof. He emerged with singed hair, eyebrows & clothes after successfully extinguishing the flames, and is credited with saving the South Side of Chicago from destruction. I would love to get a copy of the print of this lovely church that has been a part of of family history passed down to each generation. Thank you for this website!
Gaye Stantis
Love this site. The content should be of intrest to anyone who lives in Chicago and loves our great city.
For Gaye S., follow the url below to see a litho print of the Wabash Ave. Methodist Church. It looks like you can purchase it. Thanks for sharing your story!
https://pps-west.com/product/jevne-almini-wabash-meth/
The first tv image I ever saw was on my way home from Hibbard public school back in 1946, I was 9 years old. It was in the window of Little Al’s Radio and Phonograph Store on Chicago’s Lawrence Avenue. A 10″ table model RCA Victor tv set. There was a baseball game on the screen, and the batter # 44, ( I knew at once it was Cubs 1st baseman Phil Caverretta ) and he grounded out to make the last out of the game the Cubs lost. In my 9 year old mind, I thought the game was over before I saw it, because it must of taken time for the picture to get to the tv station and then intoto the tv set.
About a year later, tv sets started to be in several of Albany Park’s taverns. I used to sneak into Steiner’s Bar, at Kedzie & Lawrence and sit on the foot rail of the bar to watch all kinds sports. During the summer, besides going to many Cubs games because I used to clean up the grandstands after a game and got a free pass to the next game.(sometimes a double header) However I spent a lot of time at Steiners when the Cubs were on tv.
I remember I was sitting on the steps in front of our house when my dad came home from work. He asked me to take a walk with him and we stopped at Little Al’s radio store(on their window was their slogan- Where the Customer is Always Wrong!” We went inside. My dad mentioned that he heard I was seen often watching tv at Steiner’s bar… and didn’t like that. So he ordered a RCA Victor wood cabinet consol 10″ tv set. He paid cash, $450. + $65 for the picture tube warrenty and $65. for an outdoor antenna and we wheeled home on a 2 wheel hand truck. Al put up a temporary inside antenna (this was before rabbit ears antennas were available). And the very first image on out set was a kids TV show making its debut called Junior Jamboree, later to be change to Kukla, Fran & Ollie it was October 13th, 1947. Our tv was the first in Albany Park that was not in a tavern.
I began going down to Chicago’s only tv station WBKB-4 to watch that show in person. There were few tv sets in Chicago and I truly was their oldest tv fan and became friends with Fran Allison and Burr Tillstrom. I even wound up on the Ernie Simon’s” Man on the Street” program before going inside to watch K.F.& O. On my way to the station on the ravenswood el, and each time I went I noticed more outdoor antennas going up on the roofs along the way downtown.
I recall bumping into Joe Wilson, WBKB sports announcer at the station befor the Cubs 1948 season. I asked him who was going to win the N.L. Pennant? I was very diappointed when he predicted it was going to be the Boston Braves. (Turned out he was right)He invited me to sit in the booth with him durring the summer, and I did. I leaned all the stories and tidbits he used during the game did not come right out of his head, he had notes in front of him. He also had a couple of Quiz questions. I remember Cubs power hitter Bill “Swish”Nicholson hitting a 2 run homer to right in the 6th inning and that was all the Cubs needed to beat the Phillies 2-1.
Our house became a box seats for all kinds of sports and entertainment. I watched WGN, WENR, WNBQ and WBBM go on the air. In 1949- 3 tv stations broadcast Cubs games. That all seems like a million light-years ago…