XX Century

Vintage: Chicago – South Water Street

9 February 2016 0

South Water Street was the city’s primary wholesale produce market until it was relocated in 1925 for the construction of Wacker Drive. Jammed all day long with oxcarts, wagons and horse-drawn carriages and weather-beaten men with rough hands and stained aprons and filled with the din of a cryptic language that few outsiders understood, the area, about 8 to 10…

Historic photos of The Chicago ’L ’

6 November 2015 0

The first ‘L’ began revenue service on June 6, 1892, when a small steam locomotive pulling four wooden coaches carrying a total of 27 men and 3 women departed the 39th Street station and arrived at the Congress Street Terminal 14 minutes later, over tracks that are still used by the Green Line. via Chicago Tribune

Vintage: Open-air bazaar in Chicago

7 August 2015 0

Maxwell Street first appears on a Chicago map in 1847. It was named for Dr. Philip Maxwell. It was originally a wooden plank road that ran from the south branch of the Chicago River west to Blue Island Avenue. The earliest housing was built by and for Irish immigrants who were brought to Chicago to construct the first railroads. It…