Author: lbchicago1@hotmail.com

The Eastland Disaster happened in Chicago on July 24, 1915. So, next Tuesday will mark 103 years since the disaster occurred. The Eastland was a passenger tour boat. On the day of the accident, the ship was headed to Michigan City Indiana transporting about 2,500 passengers/employees from Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero IL to a picnic. The employees were very excited about the trip, because they didn’t get vacations. Many of them were Czech immigrants. The ship was filled to capacity.

Unfortunately the Eastland never made it to the picnic area. In fact, it never left the port in Chicago. The Eastland overturned in the port at the bank of the Chicago river between Clark and LaSalle Streets. It’s believed it was due to the weight of the passengers and the fact that many of them suddenly shifted to one area on the upper deck of the ship. 844 passengers and 4 crew members died in this tragedy, many of whom were trapped inside the lower decks and crushed by heavy furniture. The Eastland Disaster ranks as one of the worst maritime disasters in American history.

Thalia Hall is a live music venue located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago at 1807 S. Allport Street (at the corner of Allport and 18th Street). It is a legendary landmark built/commissioned in 1892 by saloonkeeper John Dusek and designed by architects Faber and Pagels. It hosts live performance events such as concerts and shows, as well as community activities. The building also houses retail and restaurant space.

It was built in the Romanesque Revival style and was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 25, 1989. The building was named for Thalia (Greek muse of comedy and poetry). The building was modeled after the Old Opera House in Prague, Czechoslovakia (where most of the Czech population in Pilsen had emigrated from). It was completed and opened to the public around the time of the opening of the World’s Columbian Exhibition. It is a very large commercial building. It cost $145,000 to build. That was alot for the 1800s (when most such buildings cost $50,000).

Thalia Hall became both a community gathering place and center for the arts. Community Centers (or Halls as they were called) were an important fixture in immigrant communities. It was a way for them to connect with people of their own nationalities in a big city that could be quite unfriendly at times. The residents had mostly manual labor jobs in factories, but enjoyed the arts, such as music and theater on the weekends and after work as recreation. Halls were also a place where labor union organizers often gathered to fight for labor issues such as an 8 hour workday, Sundays off and for saloons to be open on Sundays. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was once a saloonkeeper at Thalia Hall!

I was able to see Thalia Hall in person during a bus tour of Pilsen. When I saw it a wave of emotion came over me, because I was able to see this beautiful and historically significant building preserved so accurately and beautifully. It was a place I only read about in history, but since it has been preserved so well, I can see it as it looked in 1892 (when it was built)! ……………..Amazing, and the same is true of Pilsen itself!

*Note – The first two photos are my own. The rest are from Google.

 

 

Harold Washington Library Center is the central/main library for the Chicago Public Library System. It is located at 400 S. State Street. It is a very large building that contains about 972,000 square feet of space. The structure was completed in October 1991. It was built by architects Hammond, Beeby and Babka and was designed in the Postmodern and Beaux Art styles. The library was cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest public library in the world.

The building is named after Harold Washington, the first African-American Mayor of Chicago. Mayor Washington supported and championed the building of the new library when he was elected in 1983. Unfortunately, Harold Washington passed away before the library was completed. Mayor Washington passed away in 1987 and the library was completed in 1991. Mayor Richard Daley named the library after Mayor Washington to commemorate his many accomplishments during his tenure (especially in his dedication to education and reading) and to recognize that he was highly instrumental in getting the library built.

The library is laid out as follows:

• Lower level: Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Multi-Purpose Room and Exhibit Hall.
• Central lobby:  two stories tall and includes the circulation and information desks; Popular Library and a YouMedia space for teens.
• Second floor:  Children’s library.
• Third floor: computers for public use, periodicals, interlibrary loan and general information services departments along with a maker space. The Maker Lab includes multiple 3d printers, CNC machines and Laser Cutters.
• Fourth floor: business, general sciences, and technology items.
• Fifth floor: government publications, Chicago municipal references, maps, and center for the blind, visually impaired and physically disabled.
• Sixth floor: social sciences and history resources.
• Seventh floor: literature and language resources.
• Eighth floor: visual and performing arts resources, music practice rooms, and audio/visual rooms.
• Ninth floor holds the winter garden, which can be used as a reading room, or be rented for social functions, also on this floor are exhibit halls, Special Collections, and the Harold Washington Archives and Collections.
• The tenth floor is not open to the public. It houses library offices and technical services.

Other highlights of the library center include the City of Chicago’s Public Art collection, which consists of over 50 works of art spread throughout every floor of the building. Also, the Special Collections section on the 9th floor contains archival collections of photographs, manuscripts, books and art items about Chicago history and culture, the life of Harold Washington and the Civil War.

If you’ve never (or rarely) been to the Harold Washington Library Center, I recommend taking the escalators and elevators to every floor of the building and exploring the many resources and treasures that are available (beyond just books)!

Last week I enjoyed a visit to the Washington D.C. area. While I enjoyed seeing the usual historic sites such as the White House, the Capital, the Pentagon and the Washington Monument (and taking photos); what interested me the most was the blend of different urban areas that make up the D.C. Metro Area. It’s not just D.C. itself, but other vibrant cities that are all accessible to D.C. by Metro trains. For example, we stayed in Pentagon City and visited Crystal City, Arlington and Dupont Circle (to name a few). I hope you enjoy the view too…………………………………!

Ronald Reagan International Airport – D.C.

The Washington Monument

The Whitehouse

Trump International Hotel Tower

Trump International Hotel Tower – Interior

The View from the top of Trump International Hotel and Tower

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

D.C. Protest

The Capital

Benjamin Franklin Statue

Smithsonian Castle

 

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka Kansas on June 7, 1917, but moved to Chicago as a young child. She made Chicago her home base and her true home in every sense of the word. As a child growing up on Chicago’s South Side she would sit on her porch and write poetry and stories, and as an African American woman living on Chicago’s South Side in the mid-20th century, she saw the struggles that African Americans endured and these struggles are what she wrote about.

Gwendolyn Brooks achieved a lot of firsts in her lifetime. She was the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize; the first to be a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, and she served as Illinois poet laureate for over 30 years. Some of her works include: “Annie Allen” – a collection of poetry about a black girl becoming a woman while encountering racism and other difficulties of urban life. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this collection; “A Street in Bronzeville”; “Maud Martha”; “In The Mecca”; “Riot”; and “Aloneness”. Through these works and many others, Brooks showed that poetry and writing could change the world and make it a better place.

Her legacy continues and she is still achieving firsts. Last Thursday (on what would have been her 101st birthday) Gwendolyn Brooks was honored with a statue and memorial at Brooks Park in North Kenwood on South Greenwood Avenue. She is the first Chicago African American poet honored with a statue and memorial in a Chicago public park. The statue was done by sculptor Margot McMahon. Ms. McMahon worked closely with Gwendolyn Brooks daughter to design a statue of Brooks that would meaningfully portray and preserve her legacy. It is a statue of the poet and the porch she wrote on as a child.

     

      

• Photos are from Wikipedia (unless otherwise specified)

Phillips Park is the largest park in the City of Aurora. It spans approximately 325 acres and contains a zoo, golf course, aquatic center, sunken garden, dog park, mastodon trail, boat dock, skate park and volleyball court.

Phillips Park was first designated as a park in 1899 and it was named Phillips Park in 1902. The park has undergone major renovations over the years to make it the “crown jewel” of parks that it is today!

I enjoyed a beautiful morning there this weekend. I went to the visitor center and the sunken garden, and a small part of the zoo. Below are some photos from my visit. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

The Paramount Theatre and Arts Center in Aurora Illinois first opened in 1931. It is located in Aurora downtown at 23 E. Galena Boulevard in the Stolp Island Historic District. The building was designed by architects Rapp and Rapp in the Art Deco style with some Venetian details and it was commissioned by J.J. Rubens for one million dollars. The Rapps were famous for designing theaters. The building underwent a restoration in 1978 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The building can hold approximately 1,885 people and was the first air conditioned building outside of Chicago. It’s owned and operated by the Aurora Civic Center Authority.

Paramount Pictures started establishing theaters to show their own films in the 1920s. Talkies had just started and Paramount predicted it would lead to high demand in the industry. The old theaters were primarily designed to show live theater, not films. The Paramount Theatre in Aurora opened in September 1931 with appearances by famous Paramount film stars: The Marx Brothers, Jack Benny and Burns and Allen.

Today, the Paramount Theatre and Arts Center features Broadway style live peformances, musical concerts and live comedy. Some upcoming performances include the 2018-19 Broadway Series, Once (the musical), Diana Krall, Judy Garland: Come Rain or Come Shine, Stayin’ Alive Bee Gees tribute band, Happy Together Tour 2018 and Classic Movie Mondays. It has more than 36,000 subscribers that enjoy the Paramount’s Broadway quality productions at affordable prices, making it the second largest subscription theatre in the nation.

• Note – Indoor photos are from Google and Wikipedia

El Centro is one of Northeastern’s four campuses in Chicago. It was founded in the 1960s. It all started with a storefront location called Aqui Estoy which served the West Town and Humboldt Park communities. The institution offered GED and ESL programs, counseling and tutoring to serve Hispanic students. College level courses were introduced in 1973 and the institution was renamed C.L.A.S.E.S. It moved to 2434 West North Avenue, but it never became operational.

In 1975 NEIU administration realized there was still a strong need for specialized academic programs to serve the needs of the Chicago Hispanic communities, and El Centro was established. From Spanish El Centro translates to English as “the center for the neighborhood.”

In 1991 El Centro moved to 3119 North Pulaski Road. To address the needs of the student body, El Centro went through major expansion and construction. By the Fall of 2009 El Centro had enrollment of more than 1,000 students.

Today, the new state-of-the-art El Centro campus is located at 3390 North Avondale in the Avondale community of Chicago. It was completed in 2014 and  is a 66,000 square foot building that is three stories tall. It is located next to the Kennedy expressway. The building was designed by Juan Gabriel Moreno of the Chicago architectural firm of JGMA.

 

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began operation on April 3, 1848. It is a futures and options exchange, and is one of the oldest in the world. It is currently owned by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group. It merged with the CME in 2007. Trading occurs on the floor of the exchange and is called “open outcry” trading. Since 2012, the CBOT also has electronic trading.

Open -outcry trading takes place in the pit. The pit is a raised octagon structure with steps up on the outside and steps down on the inside. It looks like an amphitheater and has acoustics that allow traders to hear the bids (buys) and offerings (sells).

The Chicago Board of Trade is located at 141 West Jackson in downtown Chicago. It has been there since 1930. The CBOT building was designed by architects Holabird & Root in the Art Deco style. It features sculptural work by Alvin Meyer and contains a 31 foot statue of the Roman Goddess Ceres created by sculptor John Storrs. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture, grain and crops. The building is 605 feet tall and was the tallest building in Chicago until 1965 when the Daley Center superseded it.

The Chicago Board of Trade building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4, 1977.

 

Monday was beautiful weather and a perfect day for a walk through a beautiful Chicago neighborhood – Avondale. The trip was even better, because I was with my good friend, Suzette!