Lill & Diversy’s Chicago Brewery

Lill & Diversy’s Chicago Brewery
Life Span: 1841-1871
Location: Chicago Avenue and Pine Street
Architect: Unknown

Norris’ Chicago Directory for the Year of 1844

Lill, Wm. of L. & Diversy

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory for the Year 1859-60
Lill & Diversy, (William Lill and Michael Diversy), brewers, cor Chicago av and Pine

Halpin & Bailey’s City Directory for the Year 1863-64
Lill & Diversy, (William Lill and Michael Diversy,) ale brewers, Chicago Brewery, Chicago av., cor. Pine. (See adv’t. p. 280)

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Lill’s Chicago Brewery Co. (William Lill, pres. James Bromfield, se.), Pine, cor. Chicago av

INTRODUCTION
The year 1833 marks not only the incorporation of Chicago as a town, but also the establishment of Chicago’s first commercial brewery. German immigrant William Haas and Swiss immigrant Konrad (Andrew) Sulzer came to Chicago from Watertown, New York. They brought with them one hundred and fifty barrels of ale, a load of malt, brewery equipment and $3,000. The Haas & Sulzer brewery was an immediate success, producing approximately 18,600 gallons of ale for town of 200 (presumably thirsty) soldiers, traders, and adventurers.

In 1841, Michael Diversey and William Lill bought the first commercial brewery in Chicago (Haas & Sulzer Brewery) and changed the name to the Lill & Diversey Brewery, also known as the Chicago Brewery. The two men saw huge success and by 1861 were producing 45,000 barrels of beer a year and employing over 75 men. Famous for “Lill’s Cream Ale,” by 1866 the brewery had sprawled to over two acres and four stories high. The Water Tower Pumping Station, which still stands today, was put in directly across the street.

Chicago Tribune, October 27, 1860

Disastrous Fire at Lill & Diversey’s Brewery.¹
About 6 o’clock P. M. yesterday afternoon, a fire was discovered in the malt house of the extensive Brewery establishment of Messrs. Lill & Diversey, in the North Division, at the the foot of Superior street, and immediately adjoining the Chicago Water Works.

From the location of the fire it gave but slight exterior signs without the building, and so conveyed no alarm, but Mr. Lill conceiving readily the danger, dispatched a man on horseback to the Court House, and the signal was sounded for the Sixth District. The Fire Department were promptly on the spot, the messenger conveying the intelligence to several of the steamers and guiding them to the spot.

The fire broke out in the vicinity of one of fourteen large grain kilns in the malt house, a massive four-story brick structure, fronting on Sands street, and the foremost of the long range of substantial structures extending in a line nearly to the Lake Shore, a distance of over four hundred feet. The fire spread rapidly through the close beams of the long ranges of floors, the depth of the building render the task of reaching it with the streams of water no slight one, and the labors of the firemen for several hours were extremely arduous, Chief Engineer Harris was everywhere, and used admirable discretion and judgement in guiding the attack.

It is such fires as this that most strikingly evidence the gain to the Fire Department in calling Steam to “man the brakes.” The fire last night would have worn out hundreds of men at the old hand machines, with far less effective results than were attained. By dint of hard exertions the flames were confined to to the front of the premises and gradually got under, with a loss confined to the malt house.

It is impossible to estimate the loss, but it must be quite heavy, there being in the building from $8,000 to $10,000 worth of malt and barley. The exterior walls of the building were, as was believed, preserved in a good condition. The entire loss must be from $10,000 to $12,000; insured. The fire was occasioned by too high a firing of the kiln in question

History of Chicago; Its Commercial and Manufacturing Interests and Industry, I. D. Guyer, 1862

THE MANUFACTURE OF ALE, BEER AND PORTER.
One of the great things of our Republic is, that it opens to every citizen all the paths that lead to wealth and honor. Here there is freedom for glory, as well as struggle; wealth as well as toil. We shall reckon no Norman conquest in our history; for where we conquer a nation her territory is divided among all our people. We rummage no musty libraries for titles of nobility; but in the United States, every true, brave, daring man is the Rudolph de Hapsburgh of his race. If such institutions, and the universal prevalence of such a spirit, do not make us a great nation, then civilization itself, with all the appliances of political and religious liberty, cannot do it. England has given the world all the grand and bright ideas she had for ages, until the Anglo-Saxons began to develop themselves on this side the Atlantic, in unfettered liberty. The world is astonished at our progress; and we should be ourselves if we could stop long enough to see how rapid it has been. Other countries trace their fortunes to a few men; we do it, comparatively, to many. It is to the concurrent energies, genius, and patriotism of a multitude of men, that we owe what we’ now are. To illustrate—turn to the frontispiece of this elegant commercial volume (right), and behold a view of Chicago of 1820 then to the next page and see Chicago of 1862; a city of only about forty years growth the admiration of travelers from every part of our own continent—the marvel of those from the other hemisphere. And yet, only a faint conception of the secret of the unexampled progress this city has made in life and power, can be gained by the contemplation of its more imposing palaces, churches, public buildings and hotels. In these we see only surface indications—they are but the saloons and surface decorations of the gorgeous steamer. To understand the power that moves her, we must go below and look at the gigantic machinery which impels her along her way. Behold her manufactories—her men of business: these are the architects whose genius and enterprise have reared this proud structure of commercial greatness on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Oneof the most interesting spots to visit in this great and growing city of the West, is Messrs. Lill & Diversy’s extensive Brewery, situated in the northern part of the city, on the shore of the lake, whose crystal waters forms so important an item in their article of manufacture.

Ale is a beverage of great antiquity in Great Britain and Ireland. But the Ale of those periods, and until the sixteenth century, contained no hops. Ale is mentioned in the laws of Ina, King of Wessex, who ascended the throne about the year 689. It was one of the articles of a royal banquet, provided for Edward the Confessor, about the middle of the eleventh century.

Some centuries since, ale and wine were as certainly a part of a breakfast, in England, as tea and coffee are at present, and even for ladies. The Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Henry VIII., lived in the following manner:

On flesh days through the year, breakfast for my lord and lady was a loaf of bread, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, half a chine of mutton, or a chine of beef, boiled. On meagre days, a loaf of bread, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, a dish of butter, a piece of salt fish, or a dish of buttered eggs.

Hume relates that the Earl of Leicester gave Queen Elizabeth an entertainment, in Kenilworth Castle, which was extraordinary for expense and magnificence. Among other particulars, we are told that three hundred and sixty-five hogsheads of beer were drank at it. Now in this quantity there are twenty-three thousand gallons; and if there were twenty-three thousand persons present, which is not possible, it would still be an allowance of a gallon to each.

Ale, a fermented liquor, prepared from an infusion of malt and barley. It is called ale or beer; in some places, as in Wilts and Dorset, in England, the terms are used indifferently. In others a distinction is made; Ale being a light colored liquor, prepared from slightly roasted malt, and which gives off more froth or bead. Beer is probably the generic name, hence brewing. Though a German word, its connection with the Latin bibere is obvious. Ale is Anglo-Saxon. It is a common beverage in almost all countries in which the climate prohibits the cultivation of the vine; and here it may be observed that the use of some fermented beverage is universal throughout the ancient and modern, civilized and savage world, from Noah to the South-Sea Islanders. Beer or Ale, cerevisia, from Ceres the goddess of corn, is said by Tacitus to have been drank in his time by the Germans, the root from which the great beer drinkers of modern times derive their origin. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians prepared it from the barley for which the valley of the Nile is still famous. Diodorus Siculus speaks of two different liquors, one the pure infusion, Zythos, the other Kourmirmi, prepared with honey. Some, even for the nations which could take their wine, did not despise John Barleycorn; the Spaniards, Gauls and Greeks liked beer; the Gauls in particular had their corma and cerevisea, a barley beer, and a wheat beer, while the Britons imbibed a thin potation, which would hardly pass the lips of their descendants, which they prepared from wheat sweetened with honey. The Chinese, among whom every new-fangled idea has been in use for centuries, have a drink made of barley or wheat, and the Japanese take a rice beer at every hour of the day. Benighted Nubia and Abyssinia claim kindred with Europe, in this one touch of nature—they prepare a drink from various grains. As for the Danes and Northmen they placed their hopes of eternal happiness, among other pleasures, in an unlimited supply of beer. The bitter infusion of hops is of less respectable antiquity. Their use does not seem to date earlier than the eleventh century; before that time the Scandinavians are reputed to have used oak bark. What effect the preservative virtues of tannin had on their bodies and health, is not recorded. Boot beer, pleasant to Teutons but an abomination to Britons, was invented after the twelfth century; probably first devised as a substitute by some unfortunates during a time of famine ; just as sailors who are out of tobacco take to chewing oakum. Hans Kenne, of Nuremberg, (1541) was the father of white Beer, dear to the patriotic Prussian. Ale and Beer was once accounted, beyond dispute, one of the necessities of life, and equally with bread, was subject to an assize of price and quality. Municipal officers, whose duty it was to taste the Ale served out to the public and report defaulters, were appointed by various English statutes. The duty was probably not unpleasant, seeing that the brewers were not likely to submit a bad brew for inspection. The venders of an adulterated tap had to stand in the public dung cart. Beer, though accounted less respectable than wine, perhaps, because the Komans, who served out a ration of parched corn and vinegar to their hungry legions, thought but little of it, has furnished matter to literature and art. Beer riots in Bavaria, malt-tax riots in England, on account of the rise in the price of these beverages, help to teach statesmen that the great food question is at the bottom of all real popular discontent. Hogarth in his Beer Alley and Gin Lane, shows us the infinite superiority of wholesome, sound-bodied Beer, over the detestable alcohol, just beginning to be popular in his day. Every one remembers “JohnBarleycorn” as a picture of burly strength and substantial solidity. Burns’ “happy ale” is the symbol of good fellowship; and to what a depth of contempt does Iago assign “small beer.” The government of Bavaria paternally interested in the welfare of of its people, gives considerable attention to the supply of its people with a good and wholesome drink; and although the Bock Beer, so called from the saltatory movements similar to those of a bock (goat), which it induces in its too partial admirers, may bring the beverage into some disrepute with serious people, the excellence of Bavarian Beer cannot be denied.

About the year 1620 some doctors and surgeons, during their attendance on an English gentleman, who was diseased at Paris, discoursed on wines and other beverages; and one physician, who had been in England, said:

The English had a drink which they called Ale, and which he thought the wholesomest liquor that could be drank; for whereas the bdy of man is supported by natural heat and radical moisture, there is no drink conduceth more to the preservation of the one, and the increase of the other, than Ale; for, while the Englishmen drank only Ale, they were strong, brawny, able men, and could draw an arrow an ell long; but when they fell to wine, they are found to be much impaired in their strength and age.

Wherever a people make Ale a common beverage, spirituous liquors, drunkenness and vice decrease in proportion. A few years ago, in the State of Illinois, the common drink was whisky, or rather a compound of fiery poisons, called whisky. Now Ale is becoming the universal beverage. There are about three hundred and fifty thousand barrels of Ale brewed annually in the State of Illinois, and about two hundred and fifty thousand of Lager. Among the most extensive and popular Breweries in the Mississippi valley is that of Messrs. Lill & Diversy. A visit to this Brewery is full of interest, the gigantic character of business operations, the scrupulous cleanliness which pervades everything is gratifying to the lover of fine Ale. This immense establishment has grown to its present gigantic proportions since 1835, when it was established by W. Haas & Co. The firm was composed of William Haas and Andrew Sulzar, whose combined capital invested amounted to about $3000, giving employment to four men.

These pioneers emigrated to this then far Western Territory, from Watertown, in the State of NewYork. They brought with them a small brew-apparatus, a lot of malt and about one hundred and fifty barrels of Ale. Soon after their arrival they purchased of Wm. B. Ogden, a lot one hundred by two hundred feet in Kinzie’s addition, for two hundred dollars, upon which they erected a frame building, forty by eighty feet, with small additions, where they commenced brewing the finest Ale made in Chicago. Upon that very site now stands the Chicago Brewery, of Lill & Diversy, whose humble origin dates back twenty-seven years ago, when six hundred barrels of Ale per annum (the amount manufactured by Haas & Co.) supplied the Chicago market, which now requires ninety-three, thousand barrels per annum.

About 1836 Mr. Sulzar sold his one-half interest to Wm. B. Ogden, and in 1839, Mr. Haas sold his to Mr. William Lill, the present active partner, through whose indefatigable business capacity, and knowledge of the Brewing interest, the Chicago Brewery has attained its present wide-extended reputation, and extensive sales throughout this great valley, from the frozen regions of the—north the rock-girt shores of Lake Superior—to New Orleans, the Naples of the South—from the Falls of Niagara to the newly discovered gold regions of Pike’s Peak. Every where over this wide extended territory, Lill & Diversy’s Ale is favorably known and sought for.

The progress of the Americans in brewing of malt and hop liquors, is not less than that made in manufactures and inventions, and we seem to be overtaking John Bull in Ale making, aye, and in Ale drinking. Even temperance men have rejoiced in this, as they look upon the rise of Ale as the downfall of poisonous liquor. But a few years ago, alcoholic liquors were the almost universal drink, and the Ale then made was as “swipes.”That day has passed, and the most fastidious Britisher and epicurean Teuton quaffs the ripe and sparkling Ale, and the lively, cheering Lager, with a gusto equal to what either could in their own country, and the American who used to ridicule the Englishman and the German, now sits down and takes his Lill’s Ale with a zest, and protests it is the richest tonic he ever imbibed; while in the homes of American families, we find the barrel and the half-barrel standing ready tapped all the while; and Yankees find that Ale is a cure for dyspepsia, and a capital thing to take and enjoy.

This Brewery occupies two entire blocks, on which there are three large brick buildings, measuring four hundred and thirty by one hundred feet, and four or five stories high, while the rest is devoted to out-buildings, yards, shops, stabling and storage. It was erected at an expense of $125,000, and frequent additions have been made from time to time; the vats, machinery, appurtenances, live stock and wagons, are worth about $80,000; while the value of barley, malt and hops on hand, is always about $110,000. Thus there is a capital of about $300,000 employed in the business, which is far ahead of any similar establishment in the West. They send Ale as far east as Buffalo, north, to Lake Superior and St. Paul, west, to St. Joseph, Mo., and previous to our National troubles, to New Orleans. They also have agents in all the principal cities of the West.

In brewing, the barley is first elevated to the lofts of the main building, each of which measures one hundred by one hundred and forty feet, and is capable of storing one hundred thousand bushels of grain. The barley is raised to the lofts by the elevators, and then passes into a peculiar looking vehicle, called a screening machine, which cleanses it. The first operation is malting. This is the process by which certain of the component parts of barley are converted into a species of saccharine matter, through the agency of an artificial or forced vegetation; and to this are devoted four floors of the entire building, which are as remarkable for their cleanliness and order as for their size, being one hundred by one hundred and forty feet. They have also a Malt House at Janesville, where they malt twenty thousand bushels per annum, also, another, not connected with the Brewery, malting eighteen thousand bushels per annum, and soon they purpose the erection of another building, with facilities for malting one hundred thousand bushels per annum. There are seven immense steeping tubs, capable of holding nine hundred and eighty bushels, and seven drying kilns. Into these tubs the grain is turned, along with water, and remains soaking for many hours—for Ale, it remains twenty-six to forty hours.

There are always four thousand five hundred bushels of grain in process of malting. When sufficiently soaked, the contents of the steeping tubs are emptied upon smooth cemented floors, of which there are two, seventy-eight by two hundred feet in extent. Here the steeped barley remains to grow from seven to ten days; it is then thrown into the drying kilns, and is heated over a coal fire for three days ; after this, the barley is again elevated to another floor by the elevators, and falls from thence into the huge mill, where it is completely crushed between ponderous cylindrical iron rollers, which break every corn; then it passes into the malt-bin, and so on to the mash-tun, where the boiling water is added, and is mixed up by a mashing machine capable of mashing one thousand and ten bushels, or more, at a time. This tun is a round wooden vessel, with a movable perforated bottom, and when the barley is thoroughly mixed, it passes through this into a great copper boiler. The hops, at this stage, are added, and the boiling progresses. This is continued vintil the liquid, or wort, as it is called, is brought to the condition required, and which demands the nicest discrimination on the part of the brewer. The contents of the boilers now pass into the hop-jack, which, having a bottom like the mash-tun, the liquor passes off, leaving the hops at the bottom of the jack. The liquid is then pumped, by steam, into the coolers, which are large shallow vessels, more like boxes, in a separate apartment at the top of the building. As it is essential that the cooling should be rapid, the apartment is almost all windows, overlooking the lake, while over the coolers are fans, which, revolving, keep up a breeze which soon chills the liquor, which passes, subsequently, through pipes to the great fermenting tuns, or tubs, below, (of these there are six for Ale, with a capacity of two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty barrels each, and fourteen for Lager, of seventy barrels each,) every tun being furnished with a refrigerator. Fermentation is a process which is the most difficult of all to conduct properly—the most precarious in its results; but, at the same time, of the greatest importance to the operator. For although he has been successful in all the preceding stages, yet should he fail in this, the advantages which he has already obtained will be of little avail, and complete disappointment must ensue, inasmuch as the produce will be wanting in every requisite property in spirituosity, flavor and transparency. The yeast is added, and the Beer gradually rises in foam, until the tun, which was half full at first, soon brims over. The yeast works out at the top of the Ale, and is skimmed; while it works to the bottom of Lager, and the liquor is drawn off, leaving the yeast as a sediment. The process of fermentation takes from three to ten days. From these tuns the Ale or Beer is drawn into puncheons, or hogsheads, of about ten barrels each, situated in the working cellar. When the working has ceased, the liquid passes into the racking vats, where it rests for about six hours, and is then racked into packages for shipment. But it is of course not sold until the article has ripened, which occupies many months, the longer the better; and no brewers but the most extensive can afford their brewing to remain so long on hand. In this respect, Messrs. Lill & Diversy possess facilities beyond that of any other establishment of a similar nature in the North-West—a large capital and extensive capacity for storage, enable them to keep their Ale and Beer longer than the other firms, and this places their productions pre-eminently ahead of their competitors.

In the manufacture of Porter and Brown Stoiit, the barley, in malting, is roasted, or burned. Stock Ale, which is made in the winter, takes twenty days longer than light Ale in making.

At this Brewery, four thousand seven hundred barrels of Ale are always in process of brewing, and there is always ready stored in the immense ice houses, eleven thou- sand to twelve thousand barrels of Stock and Bitter Pale Ale, Porter, and Brown Stout, in tuns holding from thirty to two hundred and ten barrels each.

There are two Ice Houses, one of which was recently erected, measuring two hundred and ten by seventy feet. The ice is in the middle of the ice house, in two bodies, one measuring sixty by thirty and twenty-five feet high, and the other sixty by sixty and twenty-five feet high, packed in tanbark, and encased in wood, by which means a temperature of forty degrees is kept up during the year. The absence of cellars has been the greatest drawback to Chicago as a brewing point, but these ice houses overcome all that, and the fame which Milwaukee Lager Beer gamed through its cellarage, no longer obtains to the depreciation of Chicago Ale. Messrs. Lill & Diversy, last year, bought one hundred and twelve thousand bushels of barley and sold, in the same period, forty-four thousand seven hundred and barrels of Ale, Stout, and Porter, while their facilities will enable them to increase their manufactures at least thirty per cent, when the supply shall fall short demand, as soon it must do.

In this Brewery they have a force of seventy-five men, thirty-five horses, a steam engine of twenty-five-horse power, and a boiler of fifty-horse power, which heats the water for boiling and mashing, and warms the entire building. Added to tins, ther are Malt Vinegar Rectifying Works, which turn out twenty-five barrels per die, They require two carpenter shops and twelve men to attend to repairs, and making boxes and signs. They have two cooper shops, which employ from five to twenty men, according to the season; while the stables, in neatness and order, are unsurpassed,

Within a few years, Ale of the first quality has been brewed by this establishment, and justly appreciated, until it is now the table drink of nearly every family in easy circumstances—being light, sprightly, and free from the bitterness which distinguishes Porter-no other ingredients entering into the composition than malt hops, and pure water. The qualities which most distinguish this Ale, are purity, brilliancy of color, richness of flavor, and non-liability to deterioration in warm weather qualities, the result of the peculiar characteristics of Lake Michigan water, the high intelligence, care, and experience of their brewers, conjoined to the use of apparatus possessing all the modern improvements, of European and American manufacture.

Lager Beer.-The manufacture of Lager Beer was introduced into this country about seventy years ago, from Bavaria. The process of brewing it was kept a secret for a long period. Its reception was not a welcome one; and about twelve years elapsed before its use became at all general. Within the last few years, however, the consumption has increased so enormously, not merely among the German, but among our native population, that its manufacture forms an important item of productive industry. The superior quality of that made by Messrs.Lil & Diversy, has, no doubt, increased the demand, and diminished, to a great extent, the use of spirituous liquors. Lager, signifies “kept,” or “on hand;” and Lager Beer is equivalent to “beer in store.” It e made from the same cereals from which other malt liquors are made; but barley is the grain usually used in this country. The process resembles that of brewing Ale and Porter, with some points of difference, and the brewing generally forms a separate and distinct business.

The Beer used in winter is lighter, and may be drawn five or six weeks after brewing; but the real Lager is made in cold weather, has a greater body-that is, more malt and hops are used and is first drawn about the first of May. It is much improved by age and by keeping in a cool place.

There are about twenty Brewers of Lager Beer in Chicago, employing a capital of about $300,000.

The statistics of the entire Brewing business of Chicago for 1861, are as follows:

The Capital invested in Ale, Porter, and Lager Beer Brewing, including Malting, is about $1,070,720.

Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1862

PURE ALE. -The wretched condition of the water which has been furnished to the people of Chicago for some months past, has induced large numbers of our citizens to substitute other articles as a beverage, the cheapest and by far the best of which is good ale. But as many of our citizens have misgivings in regard to Chicago ale, under the supposition that in drinking it they are only drinking Chicago water in disguise, we can assure them that they run no risk whatever in drinking the celebrated ale brewed by Lill & Diversy. The proprietors of this well known brewery having found it impossible, many months since, to make good ale from the water furnished by the Chicago water works, they, at great expense, caused an artesian well to be sunk 70 feet, from which they draw the entire supply of water for their brewery.

Chicago Evening Post, December 13, 1869

Col. Michael Diversey, of the well known firm of Lill & Diversey, brewers, died in this city, yesterday. Deceased came here in 1857, and was at one time an Alderman. He contributed liberally toward the German Catholic institutions of the city, and was highly respected among the German population.

Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1875

Mr. William Lill’s friends received late last night a telegram from Denver, Col., confirming the report of his death (from paralysis). He died at 9 o’clock a.m. Wednesday (11th). Notice of the funeral will be given hereafter.

Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1875

WILLIAM LILL.
The Funeral Services.
The obsequies of the late William Lill were held in St. James Episcopal Church, corner of Huron and Cass streets, yesterday afternoon, and were very largely attended by all classes of our citizens. About sixty carriages formed the funeral procession, which moved from the late residence of the deceased, corner of Chicago avenue and Pine street, at 2 o’clock, and reached the church fifteen minutes later. The casket was beautifully decorated with flowers, the monogram of Mr. Lill being wrought in floral characters, and his age, 67 years, recorded in the same ephemeral but graceful manner. From the hearse the coffin was borne into the sacred edifice by the following pall-bearers:

Mayor Colvin, A. H. Blanchard, Robert Law, A. Booth, Edward Martin, Edward Meadowcraft, Henry Cady, and Judge R. S. Wilson, all of whom were intimate and life-long friends of the departed.

The Rev. Dr. C. V. Kelley read the funeral services, at the conclusion of which the lid of the casket was partially removed so as to reveal the face of the dead man, who appeared to have, so far, escaped “decay’s effecting fingers,” for the features were as natural and as free from sign of decomposition as when their owner was among the living. The visitors, one by one, passed the coffin, and took a last look at the mortal remains of one whom the people of Chicago had learned to honor through an upright and successful business career extending over twenty years.

When the last of the mourners had passed, the body was once more placed in the hearse, and the mournful cottege started for Rosehill, where the remains were interred in the family vault.

Competing Saloons

Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1870

At twenty minutes of 11 o’clock last night, fire broke out in the rear part of the two-story frame building, No. 167 State, owned by Potter Palmer, Esq., and owned by Mrs. (Catherine) Tierney. The rear part of No. 165, adjoining, also owned by Mr. Palmer, was slightly burned. The damage to both buildings will not exceed $500; fully insured. Mrs. Tierney lost about $1,000 in the Chicago and $1,000 in the State. The rear part of No. 165 was occupied by Pierce Newton, as a wood office. Loss minimal. Next door, or No. 50 Monroe street, was the meat shop of Mr. Robbins, whose loss will be about $50. The place was evidently set on fire, as the rear of both buildings, as well as the sidewalk on Monroe street, was saturated with kerosene. Box No. 14 was turned in.

Frank Cahill’s and Mrs. Catherine Tierney’s saloons were typical saloons selling Lill’s and other ales.

Chicago Tribune, January 5, 1869

Chicago Evening Mail, October 3, 1870

Operations will commence in a few days for the construction of a portion of the Lake Shore Drive in the North Division, from Diversey street, two and a half miles north.

Chicago Directory, 1880

New Streets and Names of Streets Changed Since Last Year.
Diversey av. (N.D.) fr. the Lake to the River, 6 blocks n. of City Limits.

NOTES:

¹The original family name spelling is “Diversy,” and has been used officially in all references and advertising. This 1860 article is one of the rare times the name is spelled “Diversey” until after his death in 1869. The advertisement on the right was from the 1858-1859 Chicago Business Directory.

Competing Saloons

NOTES:

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