Wayback Wednesday: Greetings from Glencoe’s Past
If you haven’t traveled much lately — and you shouldn’t be traveling at all these days — you may not have noticed that postcards are becoming harder and harder to find. I’m one of those people who still sends postcards. They’re like Instagram in slow motion. Except with professional pictures, more privacy, and you can stick them to a refrigerator. Something currently not possible with an...
Photos Inside a Chicago Hospital Built For Pandemics
With Chicago coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen many stories about how the city’s medical professionals and institutions are fighting the threat head-on. One of those places on the front lines is Rush University Medical Center. Rush University Medical Center in December 2011 After weeks of preparation, Rush went into “surge mode” almost a month ago. Its hospital tower, perched on the edge of the...
Wayback Wednesday: Signs of the Times in Downtown Chicago
Today, we turn the calendar back not just ten years to March 11, 2010, but to an earlier period in Chicago, when every respectable woman had a corset, and every respectable man his wagon. Advertisement for Gossard’s corsets: They lace in front! The photographs of these two advertisements painted on Chicago buildings were taken downtown. Exactly where escapes our feeble minds and feebler record-keeping. The one above is an...
Wayback Wednesday: The Trump Sump
This Wednesday, we hit rewind on the reel-to-reel of time and find ourselves 15 years in the past, at March 4, 2005. The Trump International Hotel and Tower under construction in March 2005 (file) In the photograph above, we see construction on what would be the Trump International Hotel and Tower at 401 North Wabash Avenue. Previously this was the location of the Chicago Sun-Times building; a structure we still don’t miss. This...
Wayback Wednesday: Digging Streeterville
For today’s Wayback Wednesday, we cruise down Memory Expressway seven years to February 26, 2013. That’s where we find construction crews mucking about in the muck that passes for dirt in streeterville. Construction work at 465 North Park in February 2013. This patch of brown would become the Lowes Chicago Hotel in 2015. Ground would break on the residential skyscraper known as 465 North Park a year...
Wayback Wednesday: Connors Park Construction
Today we crank the Wayback Machine back seven years to February 19, 2013. Here we find ourselves at the triangle formed by East Chestnut Street, North Wabash Avenue, and North Rush Street. Better known as Connors Park. Connors Park rehabilitation, February 2013. (File) Or at least it was when these pictures were taken. Today it’s mostly known as the location of an Argo Tea house, which you can see in the early days of its...
Wayback Wednesday: Time Freezes on Chicago Avenue
This Wednesday we skate back in time ten years to February 12, 2010. The place is Chicago Avenue at Seneca Playground Park. Seneca Park clocktower, February 12, 2010 In the foreground we see the park’s clock tower, about which we could find exactly zero information in our usual sources or on the intarwebs. In the background, we can see Children’s Memorial Hospital still a little bit under construction. This parkling...
Wayback Wednesday: A Skyline Frozen in Time
A polar bear-style dip into the archive this week brings us to January 29, 2005: Fifteen years ago today. That’s the day we crunched through the snow-crusted grounds of Soldier Field to take this snap of the Chicago skyline. Soldier Field, January 29, 2005...
Wayback Wednesday: Pedal-Powered Public Puppet Performances
Today’s Wayback Wednesday brings us to ten years ago today: January 22, 2010. That was the day we took this photograph of a puppet bike. A puppet bike on the corner of Randolph and Michigan on January 22, 2010. (File) A puppet bike is a large tricycle with a puppet theater grafted onto the back of it. They would be seen intermittently in the busier areas of downtown Chicago, entertaining tourists and being largely ignored by the...
Wayback Wednesday: Winter Comes for Chicago’s Newspapers
This was the scene on January 15, 2010 — ten years ago today. One of Chicago’s multi-holed newspaper racks braving the cold on the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues. The corner of Chicago and Michigan January 10, 2010. Newspaper stands, and the racks that replace them, have a long history in Chicago. They proliferated in the early 20th century, in part because of new regulations on street vending in the...
