Chicago, Illinois, the Silent Movie Capital of the World. The Essanay and Selig Companies History.

The Essanay Film Company
During the early era of silent films, Chicago was the movie-making capital of the world.

One-fifth of the silent films produced in America were produced at the Essanay Film Company, an outfit that expanded from a one-room studio at 496 N. Wells Street (renumbered to the 1300 block of North Wells Street) to its final location at Western Avenue and Irving Park Road, Chicago.

The studio was founded in 1907 as the Peerless Film Company. On August 10, 1907, the name was changed to the Essanay Film Company, which reflected the initials of its founders, George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson (S&A).

The success of the studio allowed them to move to 1333-45 W. Argyle Street in 1908, where the 72,000 square foot building remains today. The Chicago studio produced about 200 films.

As the popularity of Essanay's movies increased, Spoor and Anderson undertook the construction of the large Argyle Street studio. 

The complex is comprised of several one- and two-story, common brick buildings housing the various activities necessary for film-making. The street elevations of the four buildings fronting on Argyle Street conform to designs for light manufacturing and warehouse buildings of the period. Each facade is divided into six structural bays articulated by brick piers and is capped by a simple parapet with a stone coping. 

With the exception of the two-story westernmost building, the structures are one story in height. Construction of the first of the buildings was begun in November 1908, and the erection of the other structures occurred intermittently through 1915.

The cast and crew of Chicago's Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.

The utilitarian character of the building designs is offset by the decorative entrance on the westernmost building. The doorway projects from the building and is formed of glazed white terra cotta. It has a pediment overhead with "ESSANAY" in the tympanum, and on the blocks flanking the entrance are two Indian head profiles. 

The Indian head, which was the Essanay trademark, was designed by Spoor's sister when she was a student at the School of the Art Institute. The trademark was visible in every frame of an Essany film. It was stuck under a chair or some other inconspicuous place. This was a common practice for the studios to help stop print piracy.

Essanay attracted a quality roster of stars including Ben Turpin, Francis Bushman, Wallace Berry, Charlie Chaplin, and Gloria Swanson. Mr. Anderson, himself, was an actor, known as "Bronco Billy." Charlie Chaplin's first and only movie made entirely in Chicago was His New Job. Spoor and Anderson seemed to lack the ability to spot talent. In 1908 a mother brought her young daughter, and out of work Broadway performer, to the studio, but left without a contract. Her name was Mary Pickford (1892-1979).

The stage door and fire escape on the rear of a building on the Essanay Studios.

Essanay made over 2,000 films, with most being produced in their west coast studio located in Niles, California. The 200-foot long studio opened on June 11, 1913. On February 16, 1916, the Essanay Film Company in Niles closed its doors. Changes in the movie industry, the defection of Chaplin as the company's star performer, and disputes between Anderson and his co-founder led to the collapse of the company in 1917.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

Filming Sets at the Essanay Studios.

 

The Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago General Office and Sales Rooms were located at 45-47-49 E. Randolph Street, Chicago, while the Laboratory and Works were located at 3900 N. Claremont (block bordered by Irving Park Road, Western Avenue, Byron Street, and Claremont Street), Chicago.

Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. The business gradually became a struggling zoo attraction in East Los Angeles, having ended film production in 1918. 

Described by one film historian as "not a Colonel of the U.S. Army, but a tent-showman colonel." Selig was born in Chicago in 1864 but moved west and founded a minstrel troupe in California. He returned to Chicago in the mid-1890s. Exposure to the Kinetoscope and similar devices apparently broadened Selig's interest in entertainment ventures, and he set up a film supply business on Peck Court. By the end of 1896, Selig was selling not only the Selig Standard Camera and the Selia Polyscope 9 projector but had gone a step further than Spoor by producing his own films.

The careers of two other prominent film executives had their beginnings in Chicago. George Kleine was perhaps the most influential movie executive of his day for his role in attempting to mediate the patent wars that entangled filmmakers at the turn of the century. Kleine's initial contact with the industry had been in the mid-1890s with the founding of the Kleine Optical Company, a movie and equipment supply business. He subsequently organized a large film distribution operation, and, with two other partners, founded the Kalem film studio. In 1906, Carl Laemmle, Sr., left his position with a clothing company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to come to Chicago where he opened a nickelodeon on Milwaukee Avenue near Ashland. Six years later, he formed Universal Pictures, supposedly in Chicago, though it never operated here, and with Irving Thalberg, he made that company into an industry giant.

One of the last two Selig films was Pioneer Days, based on the Fort Dearborn Massacre. It was filmed on location in Wilmette, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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A list of many of the movies filmed or made (in all or in part) in Chicago between 1896 and 1919. The companies that produced them are followed in parentheses.

1896
Tramp and the Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1897
Corner Madison and State Streets, Chicago (Edison Mfg)

1898
A Chicago Street (American Muroscope)
Illinois Central Terminal (American Muroscope)
Soldiers at Play (Selig Polyscope)

1900
Lincoln Park (American Muroscope & Biograph)

1901
Chicago Police Parade (Selig Polyscope)
Dewey Parade (Selig Polyscope)
Gans-McGovern Fight (Selig Polyscope)

1903

A Hottime on a Bathing Beach (Selig Polyscope)

Business Rivalry (Selig Polyscope)

Chicago Fire Run (Selig Polyscope)

Chicago Firecats on Parade (Selig Polyscope)

The Girl in Blue (Selig Polyscope)

Trip Around the Union Loop (Selig Polyscope)

View of State Street (Selig Polyscope)

1904
Humpty Dumpty (Selig Polyscope)
The Tramp Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1906
The Tramp and the Dog (Selig Polyscope)

1907
An Awful Skate or The Hobo on Rollers (Essanay)
The Dancing Nig (Essanay)

The Grafter (Selig)

1908
Gotch-Hackenschmidt Wrestling Match (W.W. Wittig)

The Baseball Fan (Essanay)

The Confession (Essanay)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Selig)

1909
Hunting Big Game in Africa (Selig Polyscope)
Ten Nights in a Barroom (Essanay)
The Magic Melody (Essanay)

1910

A Voice from the Fireplace (Essanay)

C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken (Essanay)

Gotch-Zyyszko World's Championship Wrestling Match (Essanay)

Hank and Lack: Lifesavers (Essanay)

Henry's Package (Essanay)

Levi's Dilemma (Essanay)

The Squaw and the Man (American Film Mfg.)

The Wizard of Oz (Selig Polyscope)

World's Championship Series (Essanay) (Cubs vs. Phil Athletics)

1911
The Coming of Columbus (Selig Polyscope)
Winning an Heiress (Essanay)

1912
Brotherhood of Man (Selig Polyscope)

Nebata the Greek Singer (Essanay)
The Starbucks (American Film Mfg.)

1913
Famous Illinois Canyons and Starved Rock (American Film Mfg.)

1914

Chicago Herald Movies (Chicago Herald News)

Golf Champion 'Chick' Evans Links with Sweede (Essanay)

Joliet Prison, Joliet, IL (Industrial Moving Picture, Abo Feature Film)

The Adventures of Kathlyn (Serial from Selig Polyscope)

The Jungle (All Star Feature Co.)

The Pit (Wm. A. Brady Picture Plays, World Film)

1915

A Black Sheep (Selig Polyscope)

Dreamy Dud: A Visit to Uncle Dudley's Farm (Essanay

Dreamy Dud: At the Old Swimmin' Hole (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Cowboy (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Dud Visits the Zoo (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: He Goes Bear Hunting (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: He Sees Charlie Chaplin (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: His New Job (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In King Koo Koo's Kingdom (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In Lost in the Jungle (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Resolves Not to Smoke (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Up in the Air (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Visits the Zoo (Essanay)

Graustark (Essanay)

In the Palace of the King (Essanay)

Should a Woman Divorce (Ivan Film Productions)

The Crimson Wing (Essanay)

The End of the Road (American Film Mfg.)

The House of a Thousand Candles (Selig Polyscope)

The Whirl of Life (Cort Film Corp.)

1916

Cousin Jim (Van Dee Producing Co. of Chicago)

Dreamy Dud: Has a Laugh on the Boss (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: In the African War Zone (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Joyriding with Princess Zlim (Essanay)

Dreamy Dud: Lost at Sea (Essanay)

Power (Essanay)

The Little Girl Next Door (Essanay/State Rights)

The Misleading Lady (Essanay)

The Right to Live (United Photo Plays)

The Sting of Victory (Essanay)

The Truant Soul (Essanay)

Three Pals (American Film Co./Mutual Films)

Two Knights in Vaudeville (Ebony Pictures)

Uncle Sam Awake (Laurence Rubel/Imperial Film Mfg.)

Vernon Howard Bailey's Sketch Book of Chicago (Essanay)

1917

Cracked Ice (Essanay)

Ghosts (Ebony Pictures)

Some Baby (Ebony Pictures)

The Baseball Revue of 1917 (Athletic Feature Films)

The Frozen Warning (Commonwealth Pictures)

The Penny Philanthropist (Wholesome Films)

The Porters (Ebony Pictures)

The Small Town Guy (Essanay/Perfection Pictures)

Wrong All Around (Ebony Pictures)

1918

A Busted Romance (Ebony Pictures)

A Milk Fed Hero (Ebony Pictures)

A Reckless Rover (Ebony Pictures)

And the Children Play (Veritas Photoplay)

Are Working Girls Safe? (Ebony Pictures)

Barnacle Bill (Ebony Pictures)

Billy the Janitor (Ebony Pictures)

Black Sherlock Holmes (Ebony Pictures)

Fixing the Faker (Ebony Pictures)

Good Luck in Old Clothes (Ebony Pictures)

Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (Ebony Pictures)

Movie Marionettes (Essanay/General Film)

Spooks (Ebony Pictures)

Spying the Spy (Ebony Pictures)

The Birth of a Race (Photoplay)

The Bully (Ebony Pictures)

The City of Purple Dreams (Selig Polyscope)

The Comeback of Barnacle Bill (Ebony Pictures)

The Painters (Ebony Pictures)

When You Hit, Hit Hard (Ebony Pictures)

When You're Scared, Run (Ebony Pictures)

1919

Breed of Men (Wm. S. Hart Productions/Artcraft)

The Challenge of Chance (Continental Pictures)

The Homesteader (Micheaux Film Corp.)

Through Hell and Back With the Men of Illinois (U.S. War Dept.)

Where Mary? (Essanay/Syndicate)

The Impact of World War I on the German Residence of Chicago and Illinois.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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World War I (1914–1918) profoundly impacted Chicago both before and after the American war declaration on April 6, 1917. Illinois provided more than 300,000 recruits for the United States military during the war. Several thousand recruits from Chicago and elsewhere were trained at the officers’ training camp at Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, located north of Chicago along Lake Michigan.

Children standing in front of an anti-German sign posted in the Edison Park neighborhood, 1917.

The war inflamed and altered Chicago’s ethnic landscape. The city’s large German and Irish communities tended to sympathize with the Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, or at least favored American neutrality. Chicago’s Germans, the city’s largest immigrant group, vociferously opposed Washington’s growing sympathy for the Entente powers: Great Britain, France, and Russia. Prominent Chicago German Americans, such as meat-packer Oscar Mayer, city plan commission member Charles Wacker, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra director Frederick Stock, as well as the Germanophile Irish American congressman Fred Britten, were well-placed, and vocal opponents of an American alliance with the Entente.

German Americans, however, failed to keep the United States neutral. German attacks on American shipping and revelations of a German initiative to secure a Mexican alliance in return for a promise of returned territory in the Southwest silenced many opponents to war with Germany. Once the United States entered the war, German Americans, as well as their culture, fell under growing suspicion. German-sounding foods were renamed: sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and frankfurters became “hot dogs.” Chicago institutions were anglicized as well, with the Germania Club becoming the Lincoln Club and the Bismarck Hotel the Hotel Randolph. Frederick Stock took a brief leave of absence from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to apply for naturalization. Zealous to ensure domestic security, private organizations such as the American Protective League monitored Chicago’s Germans and detained draft dodgers in occasional “slacker” drives.

The war also insinuated itself into Chicago politics. Mayor William Thompson plied German and Irish voters by advocating American neutrality and courted Chicago antiwar Progressives such as settlement house worker Jane Addams and University of Chicago professor Charles Merriam. Following the declaration of war, Thompson allowed antiwar groups such as the People’s Council of America for Democracy and Terms of Peace to meet in the city. The mayor drew further attention by spurning the visiting Marshal Joseph Joffre of the Entente forces and by his cold reception of Liberty Bond salesmen at the beginning of the first war loan drive. Thompson’s dubious patriotism was a factor in his 1918 loss to Congressman Medill McCormick in the Illinois Republican primary for the United States Senate. The same election also witnessed future mayor Anton Cermak’s defeat in the race for Cook County Sheriff after he ran on a stoutly anti-German platform in a county dominated by heavily German Chicago.

WWI’s most significant long-term impact on Chicago involved economic adjustments, especially in the labor force. The war shut off immigration and siphoned native-born labor into the war effort. Many Chicago employers turned to women and African Americans, hiring them for jobs previously reserved for white men. These new opportunities, mainly in heavy industry, stimulated the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Chicago and other northern cities. Some German Americans reacted by overtly defending their loyalty to the United States. Others changed the names of their businesses, and sometimes even their own, to conceal German ties and disappear into mainstream America. Ironically, and contrary to Wilson's opinion about divided loyalties, thousands of German Americans fought to defend America in World War I, led by German American John J. Pershing, whose family had long before changed their name from Pfoerschin.

Billboard sign at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in North Chicago that reads: "Damn the Torpedoes - Go Ahead!" Camp Farragut, 1917. The sign features an American flag and a flag with four stars.

Anti-German sentiment was prevalent across the Midwest, places where Germans had come in great numbers starting in the middle of the 19th century. Similar stories may be found concerning St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and elsewhere. In southwestern Illinois, a particularly popular place for immigrants from German-speaking Europe, the culture created by these immigrants faded fast with the onset of WWI. One example is in Belleville (St. Clair County), all three German-language newspapers folded within months of the outbreak of war in 1914. The public schools stopped teaching German. Plenty of names changed: Brauns became Brown, Muellers became Miller, and so on. One thing, however, that didn't change was the Belleville Turnverein. Renamed the Belleville Turners, this organization continued its cultural and athletic activities into the 1950s.

Fifteen years later, the shadows of a new war brought another surge in immigration. When Germany's Nazi party came to power in 1933, it triggered a significant exodus of artists, scholars, and scientists as Germans and other Europeans fled the coming storm. Most eminent among this group was a pacifist Jewish scientist named Albert Einstein.

Anti-German feelings arose again during World War II, but they were not as powerful as they had been during the First World War. The loyalty of German Americans was not questioned as virulently. Dwight Eisenhower, a descendant of the Pennsylvania Dutch and future president of the United States, commanded U.S. troops in Europe. Two other German Americans, Admiral Chester Nimitz of the United States Navy and General Carl Spaatz of the Army Air Corps, were by Eisenhower's side and played key roles in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

World War II, industrial expansion, and Americanization efforts reinforced the cultural assimilation of many German Americans. After the war, one more surge of German immigrants arrived in the United States as survivors of the conflict sought to escape its grim aftermath. These new arrivals were extremely diverse in their political viewpoints, financial status, and religious beliefs and settled throughout the U.S.

German immigration to the United States continues to this day, though at a slower pace than in the past, carrying on a tradition of cultural enrichment over 400 years old—a tradition that has helped shape much of what we today consider to be quintessentially American.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Towns of Illinois - Half Day, Illinois.

Half Day was an unincorporated town in Lake County, Illinois, in the northeastern region. It was about 30 miles northwest of Chicago.

The historic town of Half Day claims many firsts in the annals of Lake County history - the first post office (1836), the first school (1836) was taught by Laura Sprague in her family's log cabin, and the county's first non-native settler, Captain Daniel Wright.

Wright's wife and seven children arrived from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, their former home; a son died, and three days later, his wife died, presumably from the hardships of the trip. Local historians have concluded that Captain Wright was from Mt. Vernon, so he suggested the township be named Vernon.

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Contrary to modern urban legend, Half Day was not named because it took one-half day to get there from Chicago by horse or stagecoach. The 30-mile trip would have taken about 6 hours, at a 5 mile-per-hour average, depending upon trail and weather conditions.

The town's actual name was Halfda or Hafda in honor of the Indian Chief whose name Aptakisic's [pronounced: Op-ta-gu-shick] (also spelled Aptegizhek) was translated to English as "Center of the Sky," "Sun at Meridian," or "Sun at Half Day." An early cartographer misspelled "Halfda" as "Half Day," so it remained.

Aptakisic was known to the settlers as Half Day. Both Daniel Wright (1778-1873) and Henry Blodgett (1821-1905), who knew Aptakisic, documented that he was "known as Half Day." Wright went on to say that the village took its name from Aptakisic. Blodgett had met Aptakisic in 1832, during the Black Hawk War, when Aptakisic protected the settlers in Downers Grove from an impending attack. Wright became acquainted with Aptakisic and his tribe of Potawatomi in 1833, and he lived with them until he built a log cabin near the Des Plaines River.

The Wright's daughter, Carolina, became Lake County's first bride, marrying another "first settler," William Wigham. Hiram Kennicott officiated. He, along with Wigham, came to Lake County in 1834. The Wighams had two children. William Wigham, Jr. resided on the Wright farm for many years.

Union Church, Half Day, IL. (1910)

1834 saw the arrival of William Cooley and Theron Parson. They settled in the Wright neighborhood; Parson opened a tavern in Half Day, and Cooley dealt in cattle buying and selling, but tired of pioneer life, he left the area.

Hiram Kennicott built a sawmill and grist mill near the Luther Bridge, which spanned the Des Plaines River. He opened a store in Half Day and later one in Libertyville. He had studied law and was the first Justice of the Peace in Lake County. John Kennicott was a riding circuit doctor and was highly respected.

In 1835, more settlers came to Lake County, and among those settling in Vernon Township were Matthias Mason, William Easton, Moses Putnery, B.F. Washburn, Ashabel Talcott, Henry Wells, John Gridley, sons John A. Mills, James Chambers, Erastus Bailey, Matthew Hoffman, and Thomas Bradwell.

Seth Washburn was the first postmaster in Lake County, appointed in 1836. He built the first sawmill near Wright's homestead. His family later donated the land for Washburn Congregational Church and the Half Day School. Matthias Mason opened a blacksmith shop. He was appointed the first county treasurer.

Wright remembered: "When I stuck my stake in the banks of the Aux Plain River, I was surrounded by the native tribes of Potawatomi. They helped me raise my first rude cabin, the first house built in the county." These native people also assisted Wright in planting crops and tending to his family when they became ill.

Wagon Bridge over Indian Creek, Half Day, Illinois - 1904

According to James A. Clifton in his book, The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture 1665-1965, Aptakisic was present at the negotiations for the Treaty of Chicago, which took place in September of 1833. "Apparently wearing Meteya's [Mettawa's] moccasins, Aptegizhek stood and informed Commissioners Porter and Owen that the Potawatomi had no wish to consider moving west of the Mississippi until they had been allowed to inspect the country. He insisted the Potawatomi had assembled merely to enjoy their Great Father's beneficence and liberality. Could the annuities due to the Potawatomi be distributed quickly so they might return to their villages to tend their gardens?"

Ultimately, the treaty was signed by Aptakisic (twice!) and other leaders of the United Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Indian Tribes on September 26, 1833.

General Store, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

In 1918, the students of Half Day School wrote a history of their school and community. In it, they recounted that "Half Day was named so in honor of an Indian chief, Hefda, who some people say is buried in this locality." They said Half Day was a "halfway station" between Chicago and the northern part of Lake County.

Half Day Hotel, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

Interior view of Chief's Tavern in Erickson Home, Half Day, Illinois - 1915

The confusion may have been started by visitors to Half Day, possibly as early as the 1840s. The Half Day Inn was established on Chicago and Milwaukee Road (today's Route 21) as a Frink & Walker's General Stage Coach stop In 1843. The rutted and muddy road would have made for slow travel, leading travelers to surmise the town's name came from its distance from Chicago.

The Stagecoach wasn't as glamorous as the movies made them out to be.

In 1886, train service was available on the Wisconsin Central Railroad to Prairie View, several miles west of Half Day. That trip would have taken at least two hours and then a buggy ride over to Half Day, again leaving visitors to believe the name was a matter of travel time. Even with the advent of the automobile, travel was slow until roads were paved in the 1930s. Travelers who do not know the true origin of the name have adopted a new meaning. As the people who knew Aptakisic died and generations passed, the connection to Aptakisic faded, and the new tradition took root with no one around to contradict it.

In a letter written late in his life, Henry Blodgett once again recalled his friend, Aptakisic: "In the fall of 1837, Aptakisic's band was removed to a reservation on the west side of the Missouri River near the mouth of the Platte and later were moved into what is now a portion of the state of Kansas, south of the Kansas River. I well remember the sad face of the old chief as he came to bid our family goodbye. We all shed tears of genuine sorrow... his generous kindness to my parents has given me a higher idea of the red man's genuine worth." Henry Blodgett was a young man in 1850.

Aptakisic's legacy continued in the names of Aptakisic Road, Aptakisic Creek, and the former community of Aptakisic located in today's Buffalo Grove. Aptakisic was a railroad stop on the Wisconsin Central line at Aptakisic Road (west of Route 21) and had its own post office from 1889-1904.

Public School, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

Road House, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

Solomon Brothers, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

Vernon Cemetery, Half Day, Illinois - 1910

The town was forcibly annexed by the village of Vernon Hills in 1993. The following month, the village of Lincolnshire also attempted to annex a portion of Half Day. The two villages entered a legal battle, filing lawsuits against each other. Eventually, this resulted in the Vernon Hills annexation being approved and Lincolnshire's being denied.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Contributor: Diana Dretske | Lake County Discovery Museum

Wayne County Illinois Courthouses located in Fairfield, the county seat.

Wayne County Illinois Courthouses located in the city of Fairfield, the county seat since the founding of the county in 1819.

The first courthouse was built in 1821. It was a log building, 18 feet square, with planked floors. It is believed that the county jail was a separate building.

The second courthouse was a large two-story brick building, square in shape, with Federal-style doorways and a central cupola on the roof. It was built in 1836 to replace the previous log structure. This was the courthouse that Abraham Lincoln visited and, on at least one occasion, plead a legal case.

On the evening of November 17, 1886 a Fairfield resident decided he would like a new courthouse and thus set fire to the courthouse building assuring a new building would be built. Besides destroying all of the legal documents and records of Wayne County in storage at in the building, the residence of the county had their taxes raised to pay for the new construction.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

1933 Chicago Surface Lines Century of Progress World's Fair Ticket.

1933 Chicago Surface Lines Ticket (pre-CTA) to/from the Century of Progress World's Fair.
From the private collection of Neil Gale, Ph.D.

State and Adams Streets, Chicago, Illinois. 1893

State and Adams Streets, Chicago, Illinois. 1893

The Facts About Four-Plus-One (4+1) Mid Century, Mid Rise Apartment Buildings in Chicago, Illinois.

There are a few factors that differentiate a Four-Plus-One from a generic apartment building; the building materials, the relationship to the lot, exposed parking, and the term “Four-Plus-One” itself.

Lakeview is the Chicago neighborhood with the most 4+1 Mid Century, Mid Rise Apartment Buildings.

546 West Deming Place, Park West Neighborhood, Chicago

The four floors containing the apartment units are of wood-frame and masonry construction. They sit on a poured concrete slab which is supported by concrete pillars. The parking lot is located under the concrete slab, slightly below grade. The height of the ceiling in the parking lot is no more than seven feet above grade, a technicality of Chicago’s building code that allows the parking lot to be considered a basement. Because the resulting structure is only considered four stories, it could be built in areas zoned R5 and higher. The bulk of the area zoned R5 [1] and higher exists near the lakefront within roughly one mile from Lake Shore Drive.

Four-Plus-One's are built on either single or double lots. The common Chicago lot is 125 feet deep and 25 feet wide. Four-Plus-Ones built early on in 1961 or 1962 are often on single lots, while later examples and the majority of the type are built on double lots. Because Four-Plus-One's were designed to be economically expedient money generators, it follows that nearly every example occupies as much of the lot as possible. This is always done in the same way. The building straddles the sides of the lot but is set back about fifteen feet, the minimum, from the sidewalk. These buildings are squeezed into lots, fulfilling the minimum requirements of zoning and building code while maximizing the number of units.

Sub-surface parking lots have been required in high-density apartment buildings since the 1920s. During this period, automobile ownership and apartment living became available and fashionable to members of the rising middle and upper classes. They hid their parking underground at great expense. The Four-Plus-One takes the concept of the underground parking lot to a logical economic conclusion. The cheapest possible way to include parking without resorting to the space-wasting surface lot is to simply elevate the structure on pillars.

Four-Plus-One apartments are often described as exploiting a loophole in the Chicago zoning code.  It's more accurate to say that they were simply a residential building type which was allowed by the Chicago code … until it was actively disallowed in 1971, a city council measure requiring that all developers provide one parking spot per dwelling unit in zones R4 and higher.

The term “Four-Plus-One” is unique to Chicago. In other cities with five-story apartment buildings with underground parking, it is very likely that people refer to them as “apartment buildings” or “condos,” whichever they may be. Four-Plus-One refers to two things; the height of the building and a separation of functions (the parking lot). This implies that the elements of height and functionality are the ones that define the Four-Plus-One. As these elements are among the reasons that these buildings are so reviled, we can further deduce that “Four-Plus-One” is not a neutral term. It is a pejorative term that more accurately describes a period in the history of Chicago’s Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods, rather than a building type.

Four-Plus-One's were met with resistance in the form of community activism in Lincoln Park and Lakeview in the late 1960s. Many arguments were made against them, some reasonable, some being nimby [2]. Arguments against the Four-Plus-One into three categories; Traffic Congestion, Public Safety, and Community Character.

Traffic Congestion is at the reasonable end of the spectrum. It was argued that because Four-Plus-One did not provide adequate parking for their residents, parking spilled on-street, thus greatly increasing competition for parking. There is truth to this; the 1957 zoning code required buildings zoned RM-5 and higher to provide parking for 75% of units.

On one hand, Four-Plus-One provides an elegant solution to the issue of parking. What could be simpler and more efficient than simply elevating the structure? However, Four-Plus-One's are comprised of studio and one-bedroom apartments and are also very efficient when it comes to packing many of these units into a small space. These two efficiencies are incompatible if every occupant owns a car or two.

The Public Safety concerns were strawman [3] arguments that are aesthetic concerns in disguise. The argument that Four-Plus-One's are fire hazards is a particularly absurd one. The use of wood in construction does not automatically qualify the building as a fire hazard. By this logic, the entire Back of the Yards neighborhood is a fire hazard. It is more likely the case that any building with objectionable aesthetics is considered by some a ‘fire hazard'.

The most common arguments against the Four-Plus-One dealt with Community Character, including issues such as neighborhood charm, population density, and family-friendliness. The gentrifiers were more often not young parents looking for a good place to raise their children. Four-Plus-One caters to a market that is marginalized by an influx of single families. Young couples, single people, and the elderly were the common tenants of Four-Plus-One's.

The gentrifiers, by their very presence, inadvertently created a favorable socio-economic climate to build Four-Plus-One's. With increased desirability and property values, the two outcomes are building up or out. In areas that were already relatively high-density, building higher was the only choice.

Community Character arguments, such as “these buildings replace beautiful homes and are ugly, cheap, and tawdry,” are nothing more than class-based conflict veiled as aesthetic value judgments. Four-Plus-One's can most commonly be found along the lakefront north from Lincoln Park to Rogers Park and south between Hyde Park and South Shore. It is a very important and telling detail that the only resistance and complaint toward Four-Plus-One occurred in Lakeview and Lincoln Park. These areas were among the first to gentrify, and the new residents were keen to preserve their investment and lifestyle through exclusion.

There are two types of Four-Plus-One's, differentiated by the visibility of parking. If the parking lot is visible from the sidewalk, the more likely it is to be considered an ‘eyesore’ by the passerby. If the parking is hidden – it's out of sight and out of mind. It is very difficult to determine why the sight of parked cars is so greatly disliked. Of course, it is a matter of aesthetics, but any deeper reasons are hard to quantify.

In contrast to the Courtyard Apartment (with its stairwells serving 3 stacked pairs of units), Four-Plus-One apartments use a double-loaded corridor – an interior hallway with doors to units on both sides and typically with an elevator access point per level and a fire access stairway on each end.  This means every unit on every floor is accessible to people who can’t use stairs, but it also means that corridors are airless and bland with no access to natural light.

While the outsides of Four-Plus-One buildings are brick and the separation between the parking level and residential floors is concrete, the only separation between units is a wood-framed wall or floor. This can often result in terrible acoustic privacy between units.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Chicago zoning codes explained: SecondCityZoning.org/zones

[2] 'Nimby' is a person who objects to the siting of something perceived as unpleasant or potentially dangerous in their own neighborhood, such as a landfill or hazardous waste facility, especially while raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere.

[3] 'StrawMan' is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument while actually refuting an argument that was not advanced by that opponent. The so-called typical argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition and then refuting or defeating that false argument instead of the original proposition. 

Future City, Illinois, the Town that Washed Away.

In 1913 Future City was a newly developed town just north of Cairo, IL and located on a jut of land between the Mississippi River to the west and the Ohio River to the east. Nearly all of the citizens of this small town were African Americans who worked in neighboring Cairo. The community had schools, stores, churches, lodges, and yet they had no organized administration or local authorities. The Mississippi flood of 1912 devastated this small community leading to a “tent city” for most of that year.

Future City, Illinois after the 1913 Flood.

The community had managed to complete much of the reconstruction by the winter of 1912-1913. Two separate and distinct floods passed Future City in 1913, the first was caused by the waters of the Ohio River, and the second, in April, caused by the combined waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first rise culminated in a crest of 48.9 feet at Cairo on January 28. A second rise crested at Cairo on April 7 at 54.7 feet, exceeding in height all previous records.

Future City, Illinois after the 1913 Flood.

The floods of the Ohio Valley in March were so intense that government officials sent warning to those downstream of the incoming flood wave. At this same time the Mississippi River had risen upstream of Future City from recent rains. The announcement that the flood waters of the Mississippi and the Ohio River made it clear to residents that they had to seek higher ground.

Unfortunately, most residents from Future City were needed to reinforce the levees in Cairo which were damaged in the 1912 Mississippi River flood. This was a daunting task which had residents working day and night to protect the business and industrial districts of Cairo from the flood. These efforts were not in vain; most of the city of Cairo was saved. The same cannot be said for Future City, which many suggest was affected negatively by all the flood control measures in Cairo.

On April 6th the river rose at a rate of two feet an hour. The tireless efforts by the citizens sandbagging and working on the levees left little time for citizens to protect their own property. The Ohio River soon cut a path right through Future City. Of the 214 homes and buildings in this small town, none remained in their original location when the flood water receded.

When the flood was ongoing, a team led by the Mayor of Cairo and Illinois National Guard manned a fleet of motorboats. The boat crews with ropes in hand were able to hook onto the houses and drag them back into town, anchoring them to trees. Of the 214 houses, 168 were rescued. Though thought a success, once the flood water receded, none of the homes were on their respective properties. This required a company to come in afterwards and move the homes to their appointed lots.

Currently, only six houses are inhabited in this unincorporated community on a grid of eleven streets.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Rush Hour Traffic on the Michigan Avenue Bridge, Chicago, Illinois. circa 1947

Rush Hour Traffic on the Michigan Avenue Bridge, Chicago, Illinois. circa 1947

The Keeley Institute, Dwight, Illinois & Keeley Day at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Dr. Leslie Keeley

The Keeley Institute, known for its Keeley Cure or Gold Cure, was a commercial medical operation that offered treatment to alcoholics from 1879 to 1965. Though, at one time, there were more than 200 branches in the United States and Europe, the original Institute was founded by Leslie Keeley in Dwight, Illinois. The Keeley Institute's location in Dwight significantly influenced the development of Dwight as a village, though only a few indications of its significance remain in the village.

Treatment at the Keeley Institute has been referred to as pioneering and humane. The Institute maintained a philosophy of open, homelike care throughout its history. Little is known of what exactly went on in the many branches or franchises of the Keeley Institute around the world, but it is thought that many were modeled after the Dwight Institute.

New patients who arrived at the Dwight Institute were introduced into an open, informal environment where they were first offered as much alcohol as they could imbibe. Initially, patients were boarded in nearby hotels, such as the Dwight Livingston Hotel or the homes of private residents. Later patients stayed in the converted John R. Oughton House.

The Institute operated out of homes and hotels using a spa-like atmosphere of peace and comfort. All patients received injections of bichloride of gold four times daily. There were other tonics given as well. The medical profession continued criticizing the method, and many tried to identify the mysterious ingredients. Strychnine, alcohol, apomorphine, willow bark, ammonia, and atropine were claimed to have been identified in the injections. The injections were dissolved in red, white and blue liquids, and the amounts varied. In addition, patients would receive individually prescribed tonics every two hours throughout the day. Treatments lasted for four weeks.

Patients at Dwight were free to stroll the grounds of the Institute as well as the streets of the village. It has been called an early therapeutic community.

After Keeley's death, the Institute began a slow decline but remained in operation under John R. Oughton and, later, his son. The Institute offered the internationally known Keeley Cure, a cure that drew sharp criticism from mainstream medical professionals. It was wildly popular in the late 1890s. Thousands of people came to Dwight to be cured of alcoholism; thousands more were sent for the mail-order oral liquid form they took in their homes' privacy.

The Keeley Institute profoundly influenced Dwight's development as a village. As the Institute gained national and international acclaim, Dwight became a "model" village. Eight hundred passengers per week were arriving in Dwight at the height of the Keeley Institute. Other developments followed the influx of people: modern paved roads replaced older dirt roads, electric lighting was installed in place of older gas lamps and water, and sewage systems were replaced and improved. New homes, businesses, and a railroad depot were all constructed, and Dwight became the "most famous village of its size in America."

There are a few examples of structures associated with the Keeley Institute still extant in Dwight, Illinois:

The Livingston Hotel once provided housing for hundreds of Keeley patients. A Keeley office building, known as the Keeley Building, was first used by the Institute in 1920 and now houses private commercial offices. 

The John R. Oughton House and its two outbuildings remain. With the closing of the Keeley Institute in 1965, the home was transformed into "The Lodge Restaurant."  In 1977, it was purchased by the Ohlendorfs, remodeled and reopened as "The Country Mansion," The carriage house is a public library, and the windmill has been restored and is owned by the Village of Dwight.

The Keeley Institute solidified its place in American culture throughout its prominence as several generations of Americans joked about people, especially the rich and famous, who were "taking the Keeley Cure" or had "gone to Dwight." Dr. Keeley is remembered as the first to treat alcoholism as a medical disease rather than a social vice.

The Effectiveness of the Keeley Cure

The effectiveness of the Keeley Cure was a matter of much debate at the time, and there was no clear consensus on its efficacy. Some studies have shown that the Keeley Cure may have been effective in some cases, but others have found that it was no more effective than other treatments for alcoholism.

One of the most famous studies of the Keeley Cure was conducted by Nellie Bly, a journalist who went undercover to receive treatment at the Keeley Institute in White Plains, New York. Bly's account of her experience, published in the New York World, was highly critical of the Keeley Institute and its treatment methods. She alleged that the Institute was making fraudulent claims about the cure's effectiveness and that the treatment was dangerous.

Other studies of the Keeley Cure have found that it may have been effective in some cases. For example, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1893 found that 60% of patients who received the Keeley Cure remained sober for at least one year after treatment. However, this study was not without its critics, who argued that the study's methodology was flawed.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of the Keeley Cure is challenging to assess. There is some evidence to suggest that it may have been effective in some cases, but other studies have found that it was no more effective than other treatments for alcoholism. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Keeley Day, September 15th, at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Twenty thousand copies of the call for the third international convention of the Dr. Leslie E. Keeley Institute, to be held in Central Music Hall, Chicago, in September, and seven thousand copies of a call for the convention of the Women's Auxiliary Keeley league, to be held in the Temperance temple on the same date, have been sent out from the national headquarters in Dwight, Illinois. Secretary John M. Kelly was deluged with responses from clubs throughout the United States.

Kelly said that the convention would be the largest of its kind ever held. Temperance organizations of all kinds have been invited, and many have already accepted. The Keeley movement embraced 800 organizations representing 500,000 people.

From some localities, entire Keeler clubs will attend the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Colorado delegates have chartered a special train from Denver, picking up other delegates throughout Kansas, including the Soldiers' Home delegates, a band of Fort Leavenworth, and the Kansas City and St. Joseph contingents.

Some 400 enthusiastic Keeleyites, accompanied by 2,000 of their friends, celebrated Keeley Day at the World's Fair with parades and speeches.

At 9 a.m., the delegates, alternatives and visitors will march to the Administration building, led by the national officers and the brass band accompanying the delegations from the soldiers' homes. Director-General Davis will make the address to welcome, after which the line will march to the Illinois State Building, which will be the headquarters.

At 10 o'clock, a procession of gold-cure graduates numbering between 400 and 500 formed at the Terminal Station and marched to the plaza at the east front of the Administration Building, where the graduates were given a welcome to the grounds by National Commissioner Towsley of Minnesota. Gov. A. J. Smith, President of the National Association of Keeley Leagues, presided and Introduced Judge Charles E. Hamilton of Maine, who responded in an eloquent address. In closing, he said it was an eminently fitting thing for the men who had been rescued almost from the gates of perdition to hold a reunion within the precincts of this White City.

After these exercises, the procession again formed and up to the Illinois State Building, where Benjamin Funk, Chairman of the Board, received it. While there, the principal address of the day was delivered by Lyonel Adams of New Orleans. He was followed by Dr. Leslie E. Keeley, after which the party visited the Colorado Building, where there were more speeches.

At 2 o'clock, the Woman's Auxiliary held a session in the assembly hall of the Woman's Building, which was presided over by Mrs. Helen S. Barber. She read a short paper Mrs. M. Kate Reed prepared and then introduced Mrs. Elizabeth L. Saxon of New Orleans. Mrs. Mary Louise Perrine sang a solo, and Dr. Keeley made a short talk. He said 40,000 drunkards had been cured at Dwight, Illinois, and 160,000 in the United States. He predicts that twenty-five years from this time, seeing a drunken man will be rare.

The remainder of the day was spent sightseeing. 

By Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The U.S. Post Office in Shawneetown, Illinois. circa 1940s

The U.S. Post Office in Shawneetown, Illinois. circa 1940s

Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes, Chicago, Illinois.

The Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located at 1450 North Sedgwick in Chicago, is a large non-governmental subsidized housing project in the Old Town neighborhood.

Construction of the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located on the block bounded by West Blackhawk Street, North Sedgwick Street, West Siegel Street, and North Hudson Avenue. 1928

The project occupies two square city blocks (6 acres) and was the largest moderate-income housing development in the U.S. at the time of construction in 1929.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments has 628 units within 10 buildings. Construction was financed by Marshall Field III.

This "experiment" aimed not only to provide housing at a reasonable cost but also to provide a catalyst for the renewal of the surrounding area. Marshall Field Garden Apartments was at the time of construction one of two large philanthropic housing developments in Chicago.

The other was Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th and Michigan. Both were built in 1929 and both were modeled after the Dunbar Apartments built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1926 in Harlem, New York City.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments was meant to be the first of three or four similar projects, but the Great Depression kept those plans from coming to fruition. Marshall Field had hoped to provide low-cost housing but land acquisition and construction cost overruns pushed the rent into the moderate range.

In 1991, the apartments were deteriorated and were sold to private investors with a clause that specified that they would remain available only to low income tenants for 25 years.

In 2016, the apartments were sold to Related Midwest. A public-private partnership agreement was made to keep the units affordable until 2045. 

All 628 Marshall Field Garden apartments are currently Section-8 assisted living units. 

MARSHALL FIELD AND COMPANY ARTICLES

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The First Courthouse in Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois. (1834-1839)

The first term of court in the first courthouse in Pittsfield, Illinois, opened on Monday morning March 24, 1834 with the Honorable Samuel D Lockwood [3rd Illinois Attorney General (1821-22), Illinois Supreme Court Justice (1824-48)] of Jacksonville upon the bench.

The north side of the Pittsfield Public Square in 1870. The white frame building at the extreme right was the first courthouse to be erected in Pittsfield. At the time this photograph was taken it had become the bake shop and confectionery store of Joseph Heck. 

Alpheus Wheeler, eccentric preacher and lawyer, represented John Lyster at the first court term in a case involving a cow. Wheeler prided himself on his bursts of eloquence, his lofty flights of oratory in addresses to the jury being among Pike County's courts rarest classics. In 1838 and 1840 Alpheus Wheeler was elected to the Illinois State Legislature from Pike County Illinois.

The first courthouse in Pittsfield was built 1833-34. The courthouse was two stories and built largely of walnut. The edifice was built by Israel N. Burt to whom the contract was let June 4, 1833 and he built it for $1,095. The courthouse was razed in 1881 to make room for a new brick building George Heck built.

After the second courthouse in Pittsfield was occupied for court purposes in 1839 the previous courthouse served as a public hall; dances and frolics were held there. Its walls that once echoed to impassioned pleas of justice were now resounding with joy to tunes like "Money Musk" and "Old Rosin the Beau." 

For a time the old courthouse building also served as a post office for the town.

In 1855 Joseph Heck and his wife Regina of Hannibal occupied the first courthouse opening a bakeshop and the first lunch and ice cream parlor in town. The popular lunch in those 'olden days' comprised of gingerbread with cider, cheese and crackers, rusks (a sweet or plain bread baked, sliced, and baked again until dry and crisp; i.e. biscotti), dried herrings (called blind robins) and sausage links. 

Mr. Heck built another room at the rear of the old courthouse for a kitchen and dining room. The family lived upstairs where court had been held in early times. Across the front of the store was hoisted the sign "J. Heck, Baker". In 1937 George Heck had found the sign still legible in the basement of his store. The Heck’s who had been in business at the site for 82 years turned over their place to the Pittsfield Hardware company in 1937.

On October 1, 1858, Abraham Lincoln came to Pittsfield from Springfield joined by John Nicolay. Nicolay and Attorney Dick Gilmer  took Lincoln around the square introducing him to folks. The three entered the Heck bakery with Nicolay telling Lincoln "We are stopping here for a while for some of Mother Heck's gingerbread and Father Heck's sweet cider."

Across the alley to the west of the first courthouse is shown the early three story building that preceded the Shaw Building. At the time of the picture the three story building was occupied by Burt the druggist in the east part and Talcott & Hodgen general store in the west part. The building would later burn. 

Next west is shown a two story frame that was variously occupied until finally taken by John Field the jeweler. West from this shows a vacant lot with a board fence in front usually plastered with show bills. 

The next building west is where the Pittsfield Hotel would be built in 1871.The building shown in the picture was occupied by Chapman, Kellogg, & Hull who ran a general store. The first floor was high above the street level and steps led from the sidewalk up to the store. 

Across the street beginning on the corner is a row of little frame shops that stood on stilts or posts on the marsh. At the northwest corner of the square was then an expanse of low marsh land where water stood and which in winter was used as a skating pond. The little business houses shown in the picture stood high above the flood on posts with steps leading up to the shops. One of these was a marble shop. 

The church seen in the distance is the early Congregational Church built by Colonel Ross which was on the site of the Congregational Church built in 1881 and torn down in 2003. 

Across the street where the Pittsfield Public Library was is now a vacant lot.

by Lisa Ruble

The Evanston Avenue Steam-Dummy Locomotive, Chicago, Illinois.

As of 1861, rail tracks for public transportation - streetcars were planned along Green Bay Road (Clark Street) and Evanston Avenue (now Broadway). The residents along Evanston Avenue would have a hate/love relationship with the new technology of its day. The residents loved their horses and did not like private companies telling them what they needed.

A steam engine called the 'dummy' train was used along Evanston Avenue from Fullerton Avenue (the north boundary of Chicago) to Graceland Cemetery (at Montrose) during the 1870s. The first car of this steamed-powered train was designed for the engine. 

The engine was enclosed to look like a passenger car, hence the name 'dummy.' The story goes that if the horses saw the engine, they would get spooked. It was thought that the more familiar appearance of a coach presented by a steam dummy compared to a conventional engine would be less likely to frighten horses when these trains had to operate in city streets. 

Later, it was discovered that it was actually the noise and motion of the operating gear of a steam engine that frightened horses rather than the unfamiliar outlines of a steam engine.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.