Showing posts with label National Register of Historic Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Register of Historic Places. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Soulsby Shell Service Station, Mount Olive, Illinois, on Route 66.

The advent of the national road system in 1926 ushered in a golden age for mom-and-pop entrepreneurs. For Henry Soulsby of Mount Olive, it happened just in time. Mr. Soulsby followed his Irish immigrant father into mining, but in the mid-1920s, an injury forced him above ground. Understanding that a national highway would soon pass through Mount Olive, he invested most of his life savings in two lots at the corner of 1st Street, now called Old Route 66. With the balance, he built an automotive service station.
The Soulsby Station is an excellent example of a house with a canopy form. By the time Mr. Soulsby built his station in 1926, the leading oil companies had been hiring architects to design stations that would blend well with neighborhoods to minimize local opposition to the crudeness often associated with gas stations. Mr. Soulsby designed the building himself, considering these trends and blending well with the surrounding area.
Although the Great Depression soon began, the station thrived. America was broke, but it was still traveling. As Will Rogers would say, "We might be the first nation to drive to the poorhouse in an automobile."
When Henry Soulsby retired, his children Russell and Ola Soulsby took over the station, a partnership that would endure until Ola died in 1996. Each was as adept as the other at pumping gas, checking the oil, and looking under the hood or chassis to detect and fix problems. Russell always had an eye for technology. During World War II, he was a communications technician in the Pacific theater. He turned his experience into a radio and television repair business shortly after coming home. He used the antenna on the station's roof to test his work.
Route 66 was a great agent of progress and development, but its success helped spell its doom. In the late 1950s, Interstate 55 began supplanting it in Illinois, and the Soulsby Station ended up a mile from the new thoroughfare in Mount Olive. In 1991, the Soulsby Station stopped pumping gas but continued to check oil, sell soda pop ("pop" in northern Illinois), and greet the ever-growing legion of Route 66 tourists. Sending everyone off with a wink and a wave, Russell and Ola closed the doors for good in 1993 and sold the station in 1997 to a neighbor, Mike Dragovich. When Russell Soulsby died in 1999, his funeral procession took him under the canopy one last time; this time, it was his friends' turn to wink and wave.
The current owner, Mr. Dragovich, and the Soulsby Preservation Society began preservation efforts in 2003, removing vinyl siding, restoring the original doors and windows, and repainting the exterior. In 2004, the National Park Service provided grant support for restoration efforts. Today, the station looks essentially the same as it did during its post-World War II heyday. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
People worldwide drive by to imagine what Old Route 66 would have been like in its heyday.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Photos Copyright © 2014, Neil Gale.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. (B&O) Depot in the City of Flora, Illinois.

The Flora B&O Depot has been critical to the town’s history. In 1872, the first depot was built, and this building was funded by selling bonds to businesses and citizens. This depot was destroyed by a fire in 1916. 


When a new depot was completed in 1917, it contained three floors. The main floor was used for passengers, and it had a large waiting room with a baggage room and restrooms. The Western Union office, yard office, mailroom and ticket office were also located on this floor.

The second floor held the offices of essential depot members. Men who occupied these offices included the chief clerk, division engineer, superintendents, dispatchers, carpenters, signal supervisors, train masters and road foremen, railroad law enforcement officers, and the district’s physician.


The third floor contained large offices. Later, these offices became one social room. There, railroad employees and their families held potluck dinners and socials. Not only was the depot a hub of transportation and commerce, but it was also a center for much of the social life in the community.

The depot building was an enormous part of the economic life of the community during the early years of the 20th Century. In the 1920s, the railroad employed half the wage earners in Flora, and in 1924, three hundred employees worked at the local station.

In the 1950s, cars became the chief means of transportation as roads improved. Travelers no longer looked to trains as the primary source of transportation. The depot quickly became less important to the community. The days of 12-passenger trains stopping at Flora daily turned into a fond memory. 
In 1998, the Flora B&O Depot was named one of three sites in Clay County on the National Register of Historic Places. With this recognition and the interest of many community citizens, the Flora Community Development Corporation (FCDC) purchased the depot from CSX Railroad Company.

FCDC successfully obtained three federal grants to restore the building, matched by local donations from citizens. Today, the University of Illinois Extension Service rents the third floor, and the second floor is a rented community room for meetings and various activities. The first floor houses the Flora Chamber of Commerce office, a museum containing city and county historical artifacts and two unfinished rooms available for occupancy.

Flora Depot
Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Friday, February 10, 2023

The Drake Hotel, Chicago; A National Historic Place Since 1980.

"Aquila Non-Capit Muscas" literally means in Latin, "The Eagle Does Not Catch Flies," or in modern times, "A Noble or Important Person Does Not Deal with Insignificant Matters."
The Drake brothers were second-generation hoteliers. Their father, John Burroughs Drake, was one of America's most noteworthy hoteliers. A native of Lebanon, Ohio, he was born in 1826 and arrived in Chicago while not yet 30. He eventually became proprietor of the Tremont Hotel, which burnt in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Not one to wallow in his misfortune, he negotiated for the Michigan Avenue Hotel at Congress and Michigan while the fire was still burning. The panicked owner was only too happy to sell the hotel to Drake, who had the last laugh after correctly predicting that the fire would bypass the hotel. From this hotel, he re-christened the Tremont House. Drake then took control of the venerable Grand Pacific Hotel, where he presided for 20 years and gained an international reputation as a bon vivant, connoisseur, and popular host. Drake died in 1895, but his sons followed in his footsteps, establishing themselves as hoteliers and naming The Drake Hotel in their father's honor. 

Architect Benjamin Marshall conceptualized the Nation's first urban resort that came to fruition on the Magnificent Mile (Upper Michigan Avenue), financed by brothers John B. Drake and Tracy C. Drake in 1919. The Drake Hotel's location opposite Oak Street Beach at Lake Shore Drive & Upper Michigan Avenue allowed the hotel to be billed as one of the Nation's first urban resorts.

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The Drake's architect, Ben Marshall, inspired the hotel's design from the Italian palaces of High Renaissance Rome and Florence. Constructed of smooth limestone, the building is 14 stories high. It rises from a rectangular base, which changes at the third story to an H-shape. A distinctive feature of Italian Renaissance design found in The Drake is the "Piano Nobile," (the main story; the first floor of a large house containing the principal rooms). The base level of the hotel featured an arcade containing several services, such as a barber shop, beauty salon,  high-end  retailers,  and changing rooms so guests could freshen up from their journey to the hotel and look presentable before making their "grand entrance" onto the Piano Nobile.

Like Potter Palmer before the Marshall brothers and Earnest Stevens after them, the Drake brothers built upon their hotel knowledge to create a new structure that would inspire awe and emulation.

When Ben Marshall advanced the plans for The Drake in March 1919, The Economist, a real-estate trade journal of the period, reported that the structure would be "of unusual magnificence, nothing like it in appearance, arrangement or finishings having ever been attempted in this country." Marshall was so enthused about the project that he waved his architectural fees in exchange for an ownership share in the hotel. He remained involved in many aspects of the hotel after its construction, including interior design, entertainment, and the design of employee uniforms.

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Benjamin Marshall, the flamboyant self-taught architect of The Drake and many other notable Chicago structures, including the Blackstone Hotel, the Blackstone Theater, and the Edgewater Beach Hotel, Marshall was instrumental in all aspects of The Drake for 20 years. He initially served as vice president of The Drake's parent company, the Whitestone Company, and subsequently even served as the hotel's general manager and director of entertainment. A close friend of the legendary show business impresario Flo Ziegfield, Marshall had an appreciation of drama and theatrics that he put to excellent use in the events he orchestrated at The Drake.

The hotel cost $10 million ($172 million today), including land, building, and furnishings. Nine hundred employees served its original 800 guest rooms. The Drake opened officially on New Year's Eve 1920 with a gala dinner for 2,000 of Chicago's leading citizens.


Throughout the 1920s, the fame of The Drake spread first across the country and subsequently across the world. WGN's first radio station was perched on the top of The Drake, and it was from here where the famous "Amos and Andy" radio show originated and was broadcast live along with the big bands that performed at the hotel. In 1924, HRH the Prince of Wales (the Duke of Windsor) was a guest at The Drake, thus establishing the tradition of serving as the Chicago home to Britain's royal family. The Drake has always been their official headquarters in Chicago.
September 26, 1926.




The 1930s saw the parade of famous guests continue at The Drake. The onset of the decade, which coincided with the depths of the Great Depression (1929-1933), brought about a change in ownership at the hotel as the property was purchased by the Brashears family of Chicago, which formed a partnership with the ever-present Ben Marshall known as the National Reality and Investment Company.

The Coq d'Or bar (which means a Golden Cockerel or a Young Rooster) opened on December 6, 1933, following the repeal of Prohibition. The second establishment in Chicago to obtain a liquor license (the first being the Berghoff Restaurant). The patina of Coq d'Or blends rich wood paneling, leather accents, live weekend entertainment and a cozy glow to evoke a genuinely nostalgic vibe.

Here, pre-prohibition standbys, eight decades of iconic cocktails and new favorites are mixed, shaken or stirred to astonish the taste buds and amaze the eye. And for those who like it on the rocks or straight up, our branded Rye Whiskey, curated in conjunction with a few Spirits from an award-winning local distillery, is one of numerous batches and blends that will ignite and delight the palette of any whiskey connoisseur.

And the soup . . . is the perfect bowl of tradition. Bookbinders Red Snapper (replacing the snapping turtle meat) soup is named after the restaurant of its provenance, Bookbinders, which opened in 1865 in Philadelphia and has been served at The Drake since the 1930s. A tomato-and-roux-based soup with snapping turtle red snapper chunks and a crystal decanter of sherry for patrons to pour into the casserole became an authentic Chicago tradition among locals.

As the menu reads: "The lines were so long that our bartenders only had time to pour whiskey at 40¢ a glass. Along with the rest of the city, we were ready, however, with an excess of 200,000 gallons of whiskey for the celebration that lasted until dawn." Allegedly, bartenders started serving patrons before the official 8:30 PM repeal.

Coq d'Or transformed by installing one of the first televisions in a Chicago bar. By then, the bar was already a favorite haunt of the Streeterville neighborhood residents, reporters, politicians, and entertainers. The leather-backed chairs and warm wood paneling evoked the feeling of a bygone "gentleman's drinking pub."
The Drake Hotel's Main Entrance is at 140 East Walton Place.


In 1937, Edward L. Brashears Sr., then President of The Drake, leased the hotel to the Kirkeby Brother's Hotel Group, which ran the hotel for nearly a decade until Edwin L. Brashears Sr. returned from World War II military service in 1946

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The Drake Hotel's a-la-carte menu dates back to the 1940s. It is always interesting to note how culinary tastes have changed over the decades. The menu offered such favorites of the period as "Boned Pigs Feet in Jelly," "Tongue Sandwiches," "Sardine Sandwiches," "Mutton Chops," "Welsh Rarebit," "Clear Green Turtle Soup," "Beets in Butter," and a special of "Braised Larded Calf's Sweetbreads (the thymus; throat, gullet, or neck, or the pancreas; stomach, belly or gut, typically from a calf or lamb)," Needless to say these delicacies are long gone from restaurant menus.

In 1940, the larger Gold Coast/Silver Forest room was vacated in favor of the adjacent but smaller Camellia House. 

Here, more intimate shows, usually featuring a chanteuse (female nightclub singer of popular songs), were presented nightly among the fresh white camellias (flowers) and black banquettes (extended bench seating along a wall), and smaller orchestras were used for the floor shows and dancing. Blade had his own NBC radio talk and live music program from Chicago for eight years at The Drake Hotel's Camellia House supper club. 


The orchestra of the pianist-leader-arranger James "Jimmy" P. Blade holds the record for playing the longest engagement at the Camellia House: sixteen years, from 1951 to 1967. Blade died in August 1974. Bill Snyder, another Chicago pianist-leader famous for his 1950 hit record, "♫ Bewitched, ♪" succeeded Blade and remained until 1970, when the Camellia House ended its show policy.

The room went through several revivals, with the local bandleader Dick Judson playing for seven seasons. Paul Meeker and his group also played in the room. Then, in 1975, Victor Lombardo, Guy Lombardo's youngest brother, brought his small group into the room for the season to play for dancing and a small floor show.
Syracuse China dinnerware was designed by Dorothy Draper for the Camellia House restaurant in Chicago's Drake Hotel. First produced in 1940, this beautiful pattern was made with different color ring accents. Postcards of the Camellia House from the 1960s show this pattern on tables. The Drake Hotel retired Draper's China in the late 1960s.






By the mid-1940s, the skyline surrounding The Drake had changed markedly. The Drake Towers apartment building rose to the east of the hotel at 179 East Lake Shore Drive on the inter-drive. At this time, Drake's landmark sign was installed on the hotel's roof.



In the late 1940s, the Brashears family set out to re-establish The Drake as the premiere luxury hotel in Chicago. By 1950, it was the first hotel in Chicago to have air-conditioned guest rooms, and it was the first to have color televisions in all its guest rooms. 

But some seeming anachronisms remained at The Drake simply because it was believed they resulted in better guest service. For example, The Drake was the last Chicago hotel to go to direct dial telephones because it was thought that an operator could do more for the guest at the onset of the 1970s. The Drake was the only hotel in Chicago that still retained elevator operators. In addition, The Drake was the only hotel in Chicago that still made its own ice cubes until 1967, refusing to go to ice machines until the quality of the product that the ice machines produced was deemed comparable to the "handmade cubes."

The hotel's Cape Cod Room was one of the city's most famous themed restaurants that opened in 1933 for Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair. 
 The Cape Cod Room in the 1930s.


An early brochure highlighting the hotel's dining options describes the restaurant as follows: "When you step into the Cape Cod Room . . . you enter the atmosphere of the New England Coast. Here you find Chicago's finest, freshest and most unusual seafood restaurant." Upon its closing in 2016, little had changed. It was dimly lit, adorned with nautical paraphernalia, exposed wood beams, hanging copper pots, and stuffed sailfish, all tastefully done.
The Cape Cod Room is Fully illuminated. 2004.

Its Coq d'Or was one of Chicago's best-loved bars, and its private "Club International" enjoyed a waiting list for membership. But the decade of the 1960s saw many longtime Chicagoans and regular patrons of The Drake begin to leave the city for the suburbs. 

Noting this trend, the Brashears family, which owned The Drake, decided to build another Drake hotel in the burgeoning western suburb of Oak Brook in 1962, which resulted in the famous Drake Oak Brook.

The downtown Drake could easily afford the financial opportunity for a sister hotel in the suburbs. According to an October 1970 article in Hospitality magazine, between 1963 and 1966, while the average occupancy for Chicago hovered between 63 and 64 percent, The Drake ran an even 80 percent.

In the 1970s, The Drake's occupancy was aided by North Michigan Avenue overtaking State Street as the premier shopping street in Chicago. The "obscure" location for the hotel selected by Ben Marshall was reaping handsome dividends half a century later when the city's downtown indeed "caught up" to The Drake.
 
author's note
Saturday, January 13, 1973, was my Bar Mitzvah party catered by The Drake at the Drake Hotel. The 270 guests chose from fresh Walleyed Pike, Flounder, Chicken Kiev, or an aged 10-ounce Filet Mignon steak. For the adults, there was an open bar with hand-served appetizers, an extra large dessert table with an entire cake of Cashew Halva, and lots of dancing to live music until 1am. What made the evening so special, was my Mom's childhood friend's birthday was also on the 13th. We had the pastery chef make a special birthday cake and when it was brought out of the kitchen, the lights were dimmed and the band played "Happy Birthday" to Mrs. Kerstein. She was floored and cried tears of joy. When a gift-wrapped box (a pendant and gold chain imported from Israel) was delivered to Mrs. Kerstein, all she could muster was to place her head in her hands and cry. It was the pinnacle of my party!

After participating in the Friday night Shabbat service, in Hebrew, which signifies becoming a full-fledged member of the Jewish community with the responsibilities that come with it; in other words . . . at 13, I became a man. 

We had three adjoining rooms at The Drake, and mine was the corner entertainment suite with a sunken living room, a kitchenette/bar, a bedroom, a full-size soaking tub, and a north view up Lake Shore Drive at Oak Street Beach from the 12th floor. How gracious were my parents to give me the suite? Well, it was my Bar Mitzvah, after all. It was an affair so classy that I'll never forget it.

As such, the hotel continued to attract a host of world leaders in the 70s, including H.M. Emperor Hirohito of Japan in 1975 and H.R.H Prince Charles of the United Kingdom in 1977. In 1979, the prestige of The Drake was still such that John Cardinal Cody, head of the Chicago Archdioceses and official host to Pope John Paul II when he visited Chicago that year, requested that they cater the official dinners for Pope John Paul II, which were held at the Cardinal's residence. The Drake obliged, and the Pope was served the hotel's famous Bookbinders Soup, the club's international salad, the tail of whitefish, and California wines. Despite these notable successes, by the end of the 1970s, many venues in The Drake looked highly dated and needed considerable refurbishment. 

Sadly, the 1970s forced changes in dining preferences in menu offerings and was the beginning of the end for supper clubs (Comedy Clubs also served dinner but didn't fall out of favor). The Camellia House closed in 1977.

In 1979, the Brashears partnership created a ground lease for The Drake whereby the family would continue to own the land on which the hotel sits but would lease The Drake building itself to a "tenant" who would own the physical hotel for the duration of the lease. The new owners of the hotel were financiers Jerold Wexler and Edward Ross.

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The Drake Hotel was honored with the placement on the National Register of Historic Places List on May 8, 1980.

On January 1, 1981, United Kingdom-based Hilton International, then operating in the United States as Vista Hotels, was brought in as the management company for The Drake. Hilton International pledged to the City of Chicago to return the hotel to its previous splendor and embarked on a multi-year renovation that cost over $40 million. In May of 1981, the 61-year-old Drake Hotel was honored to be included on the National Register of Historic Places, joining other landmark structures in Chicago, such as the old Water Tower structure and Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott building.

With Hilton International restoring The Drake to its traditional grandeur, the hotel became a set for several popular movies, including The Blues Brothers, Risky Business, My Best Friends Wedding, and Hero, among others. 

In 1996, Hilton International acquired the lease interest on The Drake from a venture controlled by Edward Ross. Also in 1996, The Drake was front and center during one of the most high-profile visits ever bestowed on Chicago when the late Princess Diana came to the city for three memorable days in June to help raise money for cancer research. 
People Weekly Magazine, July 17, 1996, Cover: DI WOWS CHICAGO.


Like generations of British Royals and family before her, she made The Drake her residence in Chicago.

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Drake Hotel, Chicago, Restaurants: 
The Fountain Court (1920-1940) 
changed to The Palm Court (1940-)
The Cape Cod Room (1932-2016)
Coq d’Or (1933-)
The Camellia House (1940-1977)

Perhaps no other hotel in Chicago inspires more loyalty than The Drake, where different generations of the same family routinely come to continue the traditions their forefathers began so many decades ago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Contributor, The Drake Hotel

Friday, January 13, 2023

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle, Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup, Collinsville, IL.

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly on IL Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. You just can't miss it. 

This unique 170-foot water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant. Today's painted label is "Brooks Rich & Tangy Catsup."

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The Brooks brand name was retained by each new owner. Brooks product line earned a  surpeior reputation for quality and consistancy over many years.

It all started in 1891. A group of Collinsville businessmen raised $5,000 ($148,000 in 2023) and created the "Collinsville Canning and Packing Company." The struggling little plant went through a few different owner-operators until 1907, when the Brooks brothers, Everett and Elgin, purchased the business. They operated under the name of "Triumph Catsup and Pickle Company." Soon the name became "Brooks Tomato Products Company." 

By 1919 Brooks Tomato Products Company with its office in the Kneedler Building on Main Street in downtown Collinsville. Everett W. Brooks was the President.

In 1920, the brothers sold to the "American Cone and Pretzel Company" of Philadelphia. 

The G.S. Suppiger Company purchased the Collinsville processing plant. This move expanded the operations 3-fold. Suppiger also gained copyright ownership of the popular Brooks brand names and logos in June 1933.

Twelve-foot-high Brooks Catsup
Bottle adorned with neon slowly
rotates on a pole. c.1949
The catsup factory had great success, surviving the Great Depression and growing by leaps and bounds through the 1940s. The plant produced much more than catsup, including chili beans, spaghetti, hominy, soups, and other sauces. 

It was renamed the "Brooks Tabasco Flavor Catsup" and became extremely popular. So much so that the McIlhenny Tabasco Company threatened a lawsuit claiming the term "tabasco" was their copyrighted property. Not wanting to fight a costly legal battle, the Suppigers changed the name to "Brooks Old Original Tangy Catsup."

The company promoted its product well. In Belleville, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, Jumbo 12-foot high Brooks catsup bottles, adorned with neon, slowly rotated while perched on a sign pole. Brooks advertised in Sportsman's Park, home of the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns baseball teams. 
 
At one time, it was America's № 1 seller among tangy catsups and the best seller in Metro (includes the Belleville, Illinois area) St. Louis, Missouri. Brooks outsold all other brands combined, 2 to 1.

The G.S. Suppiger Company purchases the Collinsville processing plant. This move expands the operations 3-fold. Suppiger gained ownership of the popular Brooks brand names in June 1933.

In 1947, W.E. Caldwell Company of Louisville, Kentucky, was contracted to build a 100,000-gallon water tower. Final drawings were approved in 1948, and the World's Largest [Watertower] Catsup Bottle was completed in October 1949. 

A water tower was needed for plant operations and to supply water to the new fire protection sprinkler system. Gerhart S. Suppiger, then president of the company, suggested the tower be built in the distinctive tapered shape of their catsup bottles. Everybody was amused by the idea.

A 100,000-gallon water tower, 70 ft─1in high, made of a riveted steel tank. The tank shall sit atop 100-foot legs at the south edge of Collinsville, Illinois.

In 1959, Brooks Foods merged with P.J. Ritter Company, and the Suppigers sold their share of the company in 1960. Catsup bottling operations were moved to Summit, Indiana, in 1963, and the old factory was used as a warehouse. 

Old-timers mourned for the sweet smell of catsup that no longer wafted through town. 

Brooks Foods, Inc. became a division of Curtice-Burns, Inc. of Rochester, New York, in February 1967.
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile makes its first visit to the Brooks Catsup Bottle on June 18, 1987.



In 1993, Curtice-Burns, Inc., the then-parent company of Brooks Foods, decided to sell the property. The water tower's future was in jeopardy, and the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group was formed.  


Brooks was willing to deed the tower to the city of Collinsville, Illinois, but the city declined the offer citing the cost of repairing and repainting the structure was far too much for the city's budget. The Preservation Group started a nationwide "Paint It!" campaign and began to raise the needed funds. 

In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this landmark roadside attraction was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance.

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The water tower catsup bottle was inducted into the National Register of Historic Places in August 2002. The landmark had already been world-renowned for some time.

Recognized worldwide as an excellent example of 20th-century roadside Americana, the World's Largest Catsup Bottle regularly garners international attention and attracts visitors and tourists daily. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

The George Stickney Haunted House, McHenry County Illinois, in the Village of Bull Valley.

The tiny Village of Bull Valley, Illinois, has one of the strangest houses in northern Illinois. Initially located far off the beaten path, it remains secluded today along a quiet, primarily deserted country highway. George and Sylvia Stickney built this English country house in the middle 1800s. They chose such an isolated place for peace and quiet and for their spiritual activities. Both were said to be accomplished mediums and wanted to host parties and seances for their friends. The seclusion offered by the Illinois countryside made the perfect setting.
The George and Sylvia Stickney House.
The house itself was very unusual in its design. It rose to a full two stories, although the second floor was reserved for a ballroom that ran the entire building length. During the Civil War, the house served as quarters for Federal soldiers and was home to the first piano in McHenry County. But this was not why the place gained its fame or notoriety.

As devout practitioners of Spiritualism, the Stickneys insisted on adding distinctive features to the design of the house. These features, they assured the architect, would assist them when holding seances and gatherings at the property. Since the seances would be held quite often, they specified that the house should have no square corners in it. They explained that spirits tend to get stuck in corners, which could have dire results. It has also been suggested that the Stickney's believed that corners attracted the attention of evil spirits as well, a common belief in Spiritualist circles of the time.

According to legend, one corner of a room accidentally ended up with a 90° corner. How this could have happened is unknown. Perhaps the architect either forgot or could not complete the room with anything but a right angle. Maybe he thought that the Stickneys would never notice this one flaw. But they did see! And here, the legend takes an even stranger turn.

The stories say that it was in this corner that George Stickney was discovered one day slumped to the floor, dead from an apparent heart failure, although no visible signs suggested a cause of death. Was he right about square corners? Could a ghost, summoned by a seance, have been trapped in the corner?

After the death of her husband, Sylvia Stickney gained considerable fame as a spirit medium. The upstairs ballroom was converted into a large seance chamber. People came from far and wide to contact the spirit of their deceased loved ones and relatives. Sylvia also claimed to stay in contact with her unlucky husband and departed children.

Today the mansion is occupied by the Village of Bull Valley and its police department.

In 2005 Bull Valley Police Chief Norbert Sauers described his experiences with possible paranormal events in the Stickney Mansion. Sauers said village employees have heard numerous sounds that defy explanation. He heard footsteps in the second-floor ballroom, a room used today as storage for village records. The footstep sounds have extended out onto the stairwell at times. Other occurrences include hearing human-sounding voices and noises. Sometimes they hear toilets flushing when they are alone in the house.
The Village of Bull Valley and Bull Valley Police Department.


The Chief said he has personally experienced objects moving around on his desk, lights turning off, door knobs turning and a door opening seemingly by themselves, and voices from thin air. The Chief once heard a shout in his ear when no one was around him. Another police officer in Bull Valley claims to have come face to face with an apparition of Stickney's father-in-law.

According to a local news report, "over the years, two men who carry a badge and gun" have quit their jobs over supernatural events.

The Stickney house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is presumed to be haunted.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Monday, August 2, 2021

Chicago's Oldest House Debate.

The Noble-Seymour-Crippen House vs. The Henry Brown Clarke House; Which house is really the oldest in Chicago? Well, it all depends on what you mean by "the oldest house IN CHICAGO."

There appears to be no contest:

Mark Noble, an English immigrant, built his farmhouse in 1833 (today, 5622-24 North Newark Avenue).

Henry Clarke settled in what was then Jefferson Township from New York in 1836. Clarke's frame house was constructed on the 1600 block of South Michigan Boulevard. 

It seems to me like the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House wins because Henry Clarke built his farmhouse three years later. 

FACT: The nomadic Henry Brown Clarke House was moved twice, giving it three different Chicago addresses:
  • From 1836 to 1871 / Between 16th and 17th Streets on Michigan Boulevard
  • From 1871 to 1977 / 45th Street and Wabash Avenue
  • From 1977 to Present / 1827 South Indiana Avenue
Noble's farmhouse was originally built in an area called Norwood. When it was discovered that another town in Illinois was named Norwood, they chose Norwood Park. 

In 1874 Norwood Park was incorporated as the Village of Norwood Park, then Chicago annexed the village in 1893. 



THE HISTORY OF THE NOBLE-SEYMOUR-CRIPPEN HOUSE
Mark Noble was English by birth. Along with his family, he arrived at the little settlement near the mouth of the Chicago River in 1831. He operated a sawmill and helped organize a Methodist congregation. 

In 1833 Noble homesteaded on 150 acres of land, 12 miles northwest of downtown. He built a small frame house on Waukegan Road and moved into the life of a gentleman farmer. 

Mark Noble died in 1839. His widow Margaret sold the property in 1846. The house was sold several times. 

Thomas Seymour bought it in 1868. He worked for the company developing the area, which included the new village of Norwood Park. Mr. Seymour had a large family, thus a two-story addition. Seymour, a 'country farmer,' planted an orchard with over a thousand apple and cherry trees. He planted and nurtured a fairly large vineyard.

Chicago annexed Norwood Park in 1893. Waukegan Road became Newark Avenue. Thomas Seymour died in 1915. The northwestern one-quarter of the property was subdivided and sold. 

The house was sold again. The new owner was concert pianist Stuart Crippen. He added electricity and indoor plumbing, converting the house into a year-round residence. It remained in the Crippen family for over 70 years. As the children grew up and got married, the house was divided into separate flats.

In 1987 the Crippens put the old homestead up for sale. Developers had their eyes on the 1.7-acre property, but the Norwood Park Historical Society beat them out. The purchase price was $285,000.

During the restoration project, the original provenance was confirmed. It was confirmed that the southern section of the house dated from 1833, making it the oldest building within the Chicago city limits. 

The house was awarded Chicago Landmark status in 1988. In 2000 it was put on the National Register of Historic Places.

THE HISTORY OF THE HENRY BROWN CLARKE HOUSE
The Henry B. Clarke House is a Greek Revival-style house in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Henry Brown Clarke was a native of New York State who had come to Chicago in 1833 with his wife, Caroline Palmer Clarke, and his family. He entered into the hardware business with William Jones and Byram King, establishing King, Jones, and Company, and provided building materials to the growing Chicago populace. The house was built circa 1836 by a local contractor, probably John Rye, who later married the Clarkes' housemaid, Betsy.

Built initially near Michigan Avenue and 17th Street, it has been moved twice, most recently in 1977 to Indiana Avenue and 18th Street, near its original location. Its current location in a park and gardens is part of the Prairie Avenue Historic District in the Near South Side community area, and the house is now a museum.

OLDEST SURVIVING HOUSE IN CHICAGO
The Clarke house is often described as the oldest surviving house in Chicago, although the Mark Noble House, built-in 1833, is in today's Norwood Park community. However, Norwood Park's annexation by Chicago occurred in 1893. The Clarke House was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 14, 1970, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1971.

Clarke built a frame house on 20 acres of land. It was near Michigan Boulevard between 16th and 17th Streets (today 1827 South Indiana, near its original location). Clarke's decision to build south of the River made him the first wealthy Chicagoan to build there. Clarke suffered severe financial setbacks during the Panic of 1837 and used the surrounding land for farming and hunting. This setback resulted in a delay in the completion of the south rooms of his house.

WIDOW CLARKE'S HOUSE
Clarke died in 1849 after being stricken with cholera. Caroline Palmer Clarke lived there until 1860, and it was during this time that the house was known as the "Widow Clarke's House." After her husband's death, Caroline Clarke established "Clarke's addition to Chicago" by selling all but 3 acres of the house's original land. She used this money to support her family and renovate her house, adding an elaborate back portico with Doric columns, much like the original portico facing the lake. The new porch faced the newly gaslit Michigan Avenue. At the same time, she added an Italianate cupola and decorated her dining room and front parlor, which remained unfinished from the time of the family's financial setbacks.

THE FIRST MOVE
In 1871 John Chrimes, a prominent Chicago tailor, purchased the house and moved it farther south to 45th Street and Wabash Avenue into the township of Hyde Park. While the house was in transit, many old letters were discovered. Clarke buried it while building the house. The packet contained a memorial to President Martin Van Buren recommending Henry Clarke for a job, tax receipts, newspapers of the day, and a statement in Henry Clarke's handwriting, stating, "I, Henry B. Clarke, am an ardent Democrat." While on the new site, the building housed the St. Paul Church of God in Christ for more than thirty years. As the parsonage and community hall of this church, the Clarke House was Bishop Louis Henry Ford's working home, the man whom the Bishop Ford Freeway would be named.

THE SECOND MOVE
In 1977, the City of Chicago purchased the house and moved it to its current location, which included lifting the entire building over the L tracks on the Englewood-Jackson Park line. It was a cold December night, and the hydraulic equipment responsible for supporting the house froze. The house sat adjacent to the 'L' tracks for two weeks until they could move it to its current location at 1827 South Indiana.

CLARKE HOUSE MUSEUM
The Clarke House Museum manages this Historical Museum for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

The Prehistoric Old Stone Fort, Saline County, Illinois.

The Stone Forts of Illinois.
One of the unique prehistoric phenomena of Southern Illinois is the ruins of stone walls which have traditionally been known as "stone forts." They appear in the rough east-west alignment across the hill country and appear to form a broken chain between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. These ruins have similar geographic site characteristics. They are generally located on bluffs, which are often finger-like promontories of land with steep cliffs on three sides and a gradual incline on the fourth. It was across these inclines leading to the top of the bluff that these stone walls are most generally located, hence the theory of a pound or game trap, has been advanced.

Many of the walls have long been torn down and removed for building purposes. Early settlers, in most instances, removed the better slab-like stones for building foundations, leaving only the rubble. These early white pioneers saw the walls and thought of them in terms of their own experiences, particularly from the standpoint of defense against the Indians. Though they called them stone forts, these sites would be very poor places to carry on prolonged fights.

If a small band took refuge behind the wall, they might be pushed over the cliff by a larger attacking force. Or a larger force could lay siege to the place, and the band would be cut off from both food and water and soon starve to death. Although they called them "forts," many people did not accept such a theory, and speculation continued.

Archaeologists believe that particularly in Ohio, the Hopewellian Indians probably were responsible for some of the walls, but the identity is not known. These walls represent a major accomplishment for a people who had only primitive digging implements and methods of carrying or moving heavy stones. These unknown builders piled rock completely across summits, leaving inside enclosures sometimes as large as 50 acres, depending upon the size of the bluff.
The Old Stone Fort in Southern Illinois lies between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.




Another fort built almost exactly as the Makanda Fort is the fort that lies southwest of Carrier Mills in Saline County. The old fort site is found four miles east of the present town of Stonefort in Williamson County and seven miles east of Creal Springs, Illinois. Its area is almost the same as Makanda's Fort and research into the Archivo General de Indias at Seville, Spain (the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas) shows that such a fort was spoken of by DeSoto in 1542. 


This old fort is on top of a hill, which is almost inaccessible. The walls are constructed of large stones and the whole reminds one of the ruins of a once well-constructed fortification. It has gone to ruin more or less within the past one or two years. The first house in the vicinity was one built in 1831 by J. Robinson. The village of Stonefort is situated atop a ridge that rises above the South Fork Saline River valley to the north and the Little Saline River valley to the south. The village of Stonefort was established in late 1858 and was originally located about a mile to the southeast, near the edge of the bluff. There were houses there earlier. 
Some scholarly visitor named the ruins Cyclop Walls, but most people simply call it old Stone Fort.


When the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad was completed through the area in the 1870s, Stonefort's public buildings were dismantled and moved to the village's present location, which was adjacent to the railroad tracks. The former site of the village is now listed as "Oldtown" on maps which is 1.8 miles northwest of Stonefort.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

The Prehistoric Makanda Stone Fort, Jackson County, Illinois.

The Stone Forts of Illinois.
One of the unique prehistoric phenomena of Southern Illinois is the ruins of stone walls which have traditionally been known as "stone forts." They appear in the rough east-west alignment across the hill country and appear to form a broken chain between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. These ruins have similar geographic site characteristics. They are generally located on bluffs, which are often finger-like promontories of land with steep cliffs on three sides and a gradual incline on the fourth. It was across these inclines leading to the top of the bluff that these stone walls are most generally located, hence the theory of a pound or game trap, has been advanced.

Many of the walls have long been torn down and removed for building purposes. Early settlers, in most instances, removed the better slab-like stones for building foundations, leaving only the rubble. These early white pioneers saw the walls and thought of them in terms of their own experiences, particularly from the standpoint of defense against the Indians. Though they called them stone forts, these sites would be very poor places to carry on prolonged fights.

If a small band took refuge behind the wall, they might be pushed over the cliff by a larger attacking force. Or a larger force could lay siege to the place, and the band would be cut off from both food and water and soon starve to death. Although they called them "forts," many people did not accept such a theory, and speculation continued.

Archaeologists believe that particularly in Ohio, the Hopewellian Indians probably were responsible for some of the walls, but the identity is not known. These walls represent a major accomplishment for a people who had only primitive digging implements and methods of carrying or moving heavy stones. These unknown builders piled rock completely across summits, leaving inside enclosures sometimes as large as 50 acres, depending upon the size of the bluff.
The Makanda Township Stone Fort in Southern Illinois lies between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.











The Makanda Stone Fort is a quarter of a mile northeast of the village of Makanda, Jackson County, Illinois, and is a part of Giant City State Park.

About 1000 years ago, when Indian cultures were enjoying the area’s abundant resources (water, wildlife, nuts, berries, and roots) in the Shawnee National Forest, a stone fort was found. It is thought to have been built during the Late Woodland Period (1000 BC - 1000 AD), probably between 600 to 900 AD. 
A Shawnee National Forest Overlook.
These prehistoric forts were constructed on a raised mass of land known as a promontory (a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water), while some others were built on hilltops that provided an excellent overlook giving them a vantage point to see for miles across Illinois' premier forest.

The massive stone wall was at one time 285 feet long, six feet high, and nine feet thick on 1.4 acres of land. The appearance of a “stone fort” or stone wall located in Giant City State Park, which is part of the Shawnee National Forest, sits atop a sloped ridge
There are actually about ten of these old structures in the southern Illinois area, and they are believed to have been either a military fortification as a meeting place or a ceremonial temple.

Most of these sites were not habitation sites (villages) in the usual sense. There was only a modest amount of artifacts, which is common among places of sporadic use for short periods of time. Debris found on this site includes sherds of grit or grog-tempered cord-marked pottery and stone tools, like projectile points. Many Late Woodland tribes lived in large, intensively occupied villages located near major rivers and streams such as Cahokia and East St. Louis. They had a mixed economy of hunting, gathering, and cultivated a series of native plants like barley, sumpweed, maygrass, and squash.
For years archaeologists have wondered about the stone fort’s usage. Some say that these were “sacred spaces” reserved for periodic activity. Archaeological digs have located items that prove that the Indians of Southern Illinois were part of an extensive trading network. They believe the trading network followed the trails in Southern Illinois that became the early pioneer roads centuries later. Archaeologists suggest the possibility that stone forts were designated areas where different tribes or sub-tribes could meet, socialize, and trade on neutral ground.

The original wall was dismantled by European settlers, who used the stones in order to build their own structures; the stone base is all that remains of the original wall. It was reconstructed in 1934 by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) workforce gathered the scattered stone and rebuilt the wall in its original location, but has since fallen into ruins again.
The location of this wall leads one to believe it was built for a fortification of some kind and as the building must have required a great deal of time and labor. It was surely built for more than just temporary use. The distance to the edge of the bluff in front is over 500 feet, thus affording room for quite a party taking refuge therein. The bluffs that form three sides of the enclosures are unscalable without the use of ropes and ladders except in two places, and these are easily protected from above for they are just narrow crevices up which one could, with difficulty, climb and then only by the aid of the jagged edges of the protruding rocks. One man could lie behind boulders at either place and easily protect it against a number of his enemies with crude stone-age weapons, traces of which were found everywhere in the vicinity and all through this section. Several pieces of flint and arrowheads have been picked up on the top of the bluff. 

Another reason for believing that this fortification was built as a defense against tribesmen is that it is at the upper end of the valley where the opposite bluff is not over 200 yards distant, and is higher, though not so precipitous. From this bluff, one with a rifle could easily shoot into the fort, but with bows and arrows, very little damage could be done. In fact, it is by far the best location in the valley. Water is easily accessible and flows from a little stream within 100 feet of the cliff where it is scalable and at several places in the brooks are springs. 

Ancient features more closely related to a seasonal hunting camp where hunters would take advantage of game resources, then move on.

Other theories included the notion it was actually early European explorers, such as DeSoto, who created the rock fortresses while making inroads to conquer the land. No such evidence of European construction exists, of course.

The oldest settlers in Jackson County say that the area was covered with bushes when they first came here. No one knows the early history of the fort as a certainty and there is little likelihood of it ever coming to light. Parts of the wall of this fort were standing as late as 1870 and were torn down by a Doctor CalIon in hunting for relics. None were found which is more strong evidence that the fort was built by someone other than Indians. George W. Owens, still living in 1931, who came to Makanda in 1862, tells of a small, one-pounder cannon that was found in the wall of the old fort. It was used in Fourth-of-July celebrations around Makanda for 50 years and finally sold to a junk dealer. The French Lieutenant Aubrey, passed this way from Kaskaskia in 1720 with 30 French and 300 Indians on his way to Fort Massac on the Ohio River to thwart the English, who were reported to be on their way down the Ohio River toward Kaskaskia. Aubrey had three brass cannons of this description. This may have been one of them. 
The first professional archaeological investigation of the fort site was conducted in 1956 by archaeologists from Southern Illinois University. An explanation for the large hole in the front of the wall is unknown, although it most likely represents the work of treasure hunters. The hole was there when the site was officially recorded as an archaeological site in 1956.
In the fall of 2000, archaeologists from Southern Illinois University Carbondale conducted an investigation of the Stone Fort site. Of the 153 shovel tests executed south of the wall, all were positive for prehistoric artifacts. This led the scientists to nominate Giant City’s Stone Fort for the National Register of Historic Places. The Giant City Stone Fort Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 9, 2002
The Stone Fort Trail in Giant City State Park is a little-known path that leads to some truly intriguing ruins. It is less than half a mile in length and is a loop trail.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.