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/
Thank you so much for such an interesting web site.
I am Danish, but my gr-gr-grandfather’s brother left Denmark in 1866 and came to Chicago, where he in 1871 lived at 87 Kinzie Street at the time of the great fire of 1871. – He was John D. Klug (Johan David Gotfred Klug) born in 1831 in Horsens, Jutland, and died in 1890 in Chicago of consumption. In the 1860’ies he was twice president of the Danish club Dania.
So I was so glad to find information on the origins of the street name Kinzie – and -also the impressive collection on the amazing development of Chicago.
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…
whilst clearing the house of my late parents i have come across a very old paperweight souvenir of The Second Baptist Church Chicago !
not knowing how my parents have come to own it i just thought id like to mark its existence somehow. Typing this from Yorkshire England !
Great site. I thoroughly enjoy reading about the Chi’s great, rich history.
Love this site. I live at 2001 south calumet in Chicago and love the Prairie District.
I’ve lived in Chicago most of my life. About20years ago, my husbands job was relocating to Bismarck ND. Now every trip back to Chicahgo land finds us visiting family and friends making sure we haven’t missed anyone. It will add up to years before our next trip. So now 20yrs later I’m now doing my best to find out the history of that great city! I’ve added Chicago to our places to go for vacation, yes visit museums , art institute, I’ve found my children have not been to many downtown , things I saw on school field trips, historymuseum. Science and industry , art, and the she’d. Been so many years ago I’m excited to see it again I want to go down the coal mine, and in the sub! I of course my favorite thing the dollhouse, I always wanted to build one just like it so many things to show Themis will be a major trip me my husband our 2 children and5grandchildren, we can stay near Midway airport which has a history all it’s own, and take the L into the loop um we just might need to drive down just to hit it all or rely on the CTA? So many wonderful places dinner in Greek town, Italian village the drake, wonderful chocolate ice cream with a hard shell top this I found before magic shell good sines dinner and recommendation thank you mr grossman! As soon as the doctor allows me to travel Chicago vacation is on my bucket list.
Grew up in Chicago, birth to 8 yrs, returned at 9, left again at 11. Back at 17. South side & North side. Road bike all over, all the lakefront. Spent countless hours in the museums & the Zoo. Now the names and grid makes sense. One note. Chicago, in about 1967, was the only place in Illinois (and maybe the USA) where you could get a ticket for “driving a truck on a boulevard”. I was making deliveries in a Chevy Van, for my boss, and was on a street that had been a street when I was growing up. Crossed under the Elevated in rush hour traffic, and was stopped by the police. Wanted to give me a ticket. There were 3 or 4 cop cars just waiting on other side of the L. The street name changed – or had just been changed – to make it a boulevard south of the L, and the only sign, (I went back and looked), was up on the Elevated structure, in the dark. No way was a Chevy van 5 tons – but if a Chicago Policeman in the time of Mayor Richard J. Daily said it was a truck, it was a truck. My boss paid the ticket – but he was a tad disgruntled.
Been in Alaska since 1974 – and am not coming back. Go Cubs! (My mom’s last apartment was less than 2 blocks from Wrigley Field.)
Love this site.
My kind of town…Chicago is
Thanks for the outstanding website..
My greatgreatgreat grandfather Thomas Gibson worked there in 1835. My greatgreat grandfather Charles Gibson was one of the first white children born there. My greatgreatgreat grandmother was Anna Maria Gibson.
Magnificent website! I cannot imagine the work required to create it, so thank you for all you do!
My mom, Kathleen Krausman (Keelan) worked at Wilding in Chicago in the early 70s then was transferred to Detroit. She married a guy name Ron Anderson that she worked with and I remember a fella named Scott Kohlrust that worked there and John and Judy Grossman, and Bill and Veronica DeJohn.
I am 72 but I grew up on the South side of Chicago and I remember when the Prudential Building was the tallest building in Chicago!! still return in the summer but I retired after teaching Special Education for 38 years, o Florida because I dont like cold and snow….
I am 72, my father left school, at the age of 12, in 1929 and took a position as a bellboy with the Hotel Planters. He stayed wit the Hotel, becoming manager, until the early sixties when he left for a new position. I remember staying at the hotel Planters, seeing the movie “The Time Machine” at the Clark Theater and having lunch at Wimpy’s on the corner of Clark and Madison. These places are gone now but the memories will always remain.
I so much enjoyed the article on Englewood. I grew up there, lived on Garfield blvd., attended Englewood Presbyterian Church and worked at SS Kresge’s at 63rd and Halsted when in high school (for .70/hr and bought lunch at White Castle on 63rd St.–three sliders for .25 as I remember). Family all lived in Englewood–56th and Carpenter, 59th and Emerald, 57th and Peoria, etc. Dad was altar boy at St. Martin’s at 59th and Princeton, aunt married there; grandfather’s funeral there. Very deep roots. Loved seeing movies at the Southtown and shopping at 63rd and Halsted. It was all a long time ago, particularly since I am now 81 years old.
Was a resident of La Grange from 1952 to 1997; I definitely have a lot of Chicago in my soul, still and proudly, even though now living in Seattle. As a result, I really appreciate this site– as well as the couple others that focus on Chicago radio/TV history, and former area places and things that are now gone. Seeing the history of Chicagoland reinforces how special it was, and how much has changed across the decades… This website is very well-designed and curated indeed, and La Grange was profiled in your suburbs section as a personal bonus for me. Kudos!!