Adventureland (Amusement Park) in Medinah, Illinois (Addison, IL). (1961-1977)

Adventureland was a small amusement park enjoyed by Chicagoland kids from 1961 to 1977.

It was located at the northwest corner of Medinah Road and Lake Street in the Chicago suburb of Medinah, (an unincorporated community), in Bloomingdale Township, but all advertisements and the mailing address read "Addison, Illinois." You can see from the map above, Addison was on the southeast corner of Medinah Road and Lake Street catty-corner from Adventureland.

Today the property is in Bloomingdale, Illinois. The address would be approximately 383 East Lake Street.

At the main gate, visitors were greeted by three giant statues; a pirate, a cowboy, and an Indian.

The land that Storybook Park sat on was originally owned by Paul Werner and was known as "Paul's Grove," which sat on 24 acres with two buildings on the property. One building was the restaurant and tavern. The other was a big hall for banquets and dancing.

The Grove was purchased by John and Marie Spiezio in 1952 and they managed the park until 1958. Then sometime in 1958, the land was purchased by Richard Barrie. Storybook Park opened in 1958 (later the name was changed to "Storybook City, USA") as an attraction for families with young children. (Richard Barrie was the founder and owner of the private, corporate event amusement and picnic park called, "Hillcrest Park" in Woodridge [formerly Lemont], from 1952 to 2003.)

Barrie ran into financial difficulty, and the park was sold to Durell Everding in 1961. Everding renamed the park to "Adventureland Park" and expanded the focus of the park to include older children, teens, and young adults. The Storybook Park structures remained and the kiddie rides were grouped together in a section he called the "Kiddie Korral."

At some point in the early to mid-1960s, the name Adventure Land turned into a one-word name; Adventureland.

Everding died in 1970, and the park was run by his stepbrothers and a stepsister until it was purchased by Medinah Investors.

In the late 1960s and early 70s, the park held dances and featured a house band playing in the evenings. Local rock groups, such as the Cryan Shames and Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah (famous for the Chicago song: "Lake Shore Drive") also appeared there. In the mid-1970s, a disco opened on the site, complete with a certified disco dance instructor.

In 1967, Adventureland became the largest amusement park in Illinois, following the closure of the larger Riverview Park. It would retain this title until Marriott's Great America opened in 1976 (now Six Flags Great America since 1984).

Groups of inner-city children were bused to the park as part of a Chicago summer program. This, along with a general increase in minority attendance, caused some racial problems at the park to escalate.

Adventureland closed in 1977. It's possible that several factors were responsible for the closure, including racial tensions (security & insurance issues) and competition from other amusement parks like Great America.

VISIT OUR ADVENTURELAND SOUVENIR SHOP

The Original "Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" from Storybook Park can be seen at the miniature golf course at Green Valley Golf Range in Hanover Park, Illinois.

ALL-TIME ATTRACTIONS

ADOPTED FROM STORYBOOK PARK
Cinderella's Coach, Circus Express, Candy Cane Train, Prince Charming's Castle, Doll House, Firehouse, Humpty Dumpty, Lollipop Train, Old Woman in a Shoe, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, Windy Wilbur, Hungry Tiger.

RIDES THROUGHOUT THE PARKS LIFE
Adventureland Express Miniature Railroad, Italian Bobs, Super Italian Bobs, Kiddie Roller Coaster, Hydraulic Parashoots, Scrambler, Torpedo Tubs, Western Round-Up, Italian Super Bumper Cars, Helicopters, Giant Whip, Octopus, Caterpillar, Ferris Wheel, Fighter Planes, Paratroopers, Electric Cars, Tubs of Fun, Century Flyer, Rock-O-Plane, Rollo Plane, Tilt-a-Whirl, Super Himalaja, Yo-Yo Swings, Flying Bobs, Two Seater Go-Carts, Fast Go-Carts. Jet Ride, Flying Zepher, Carousel, Covered Wagon, Fire Engine, Live Animal Rides, Electric Whale Lake, New Orleans Street Car, Cable Cars.

KIDDIE RIDES
1890 Lollipop Train, Alligator Boats, Flying Swans, Fishing Boat Ride, Whale Paddle Boats, Cars, Motorcycles.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS
Hofbrau Fun House, Petting Zoo, Giant Slide, Tree House Slide, Picnic Area, Snack Bars, Souvenir Stands, Concession Stands, Skee Ball Arcade, Game Arcades, Slot Car Racing, Miniature Golf, Shooting Gallery.

VIDEO

Adventureland "A Look-Back."

CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR A FULL-SIZE VIEW

 









Visit our Souvenir Shop on your way out.

The Lunchtime Theater - Chicago in the 1940s. A Film by the Chicago Board Of Education.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

Chicago in the 1940s.

[Runtime: 0:32:00]

A Film by the Chicago Board Of Education.

Lost Towns of Illinois - Grosse Pointe and Ridgevill, Illinois.

The first known European visitors to what would become Chicago’s far Northside were French voyageurs. They referred to the area, encompassing what would become Rogers Park and Evanston, as 'Grosse Pointe (also spelled Gross Point),' after the large point of land now marked by the 'Grosse Point Lighthouse.' The French explored the shoreline but did not attempt colonization.

The six nations of the Iroquois Indians occupied the territory around Lake Michigan and up to Green Bay, Wisconsin which was occupied almost entirely by the Winnebago’s. Much of Illinois was occupied by the Algonquin tribe and the Evanston and Chicago area was occupied by the Potawatomi and Illiniwek.

In November of 1664, Marquette and a band of Potawatomi and Illinois Indians traveled from Green Bay to Jacques Marquette’s mission in what would become Evanston, but they did not stay. This mission was approximately where the Grosse Point Lighthouse in Evanston is presently located.

In September of 1673, the first white visitors came to this area, then in the Illinois Country, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, along the old Green Bay Trail.

After the War of 1812, the United States acquired the French lands around Lake Michigan, a part of the Illinois Territory, and Grosse Pointe was informally named Grosse Pointe Territory.

Antoine Ouilmette was the first settler of what would become Evanston and Wilmette in 1826.

A series of five treaties began in an effort to purchase the land. The fifth treaty, the 1833 Treaty of Chicago was the final treaty and was drawn up on September 26, 1833. The treaty provided for the resettlement of the Indians on lands west of the Mississippi River. Due to this treaty, the Potawatomi began moving further west. In 1833 the settlers began to move into the land formerly occupied by the Potawatomi, who lived in Grosse Pointe.

In 1832 the Black Hawk War took place and the Black Hawk treaty resulted. Then the Indians began a major exodus westward. After 1836 Grosse Pointe and the lands around Lake Michigan were opened up for new settlers.

The Green Bay Trail opened as a military road between Chicago and Green Bay in 1832 before coming into widespread use. Before 1832, it was an important trail to the Indians and after 1832, it became even more important to the settlers. Mail was carried on foot along the Green Bay Trail until 1836 when the Frink & Walker’s General Stage Coach established the Green Bay Trail. Mulford was very instrumental in furthering the use of this trail because of his Ten-Mile House and the Post Office he opened up.

In September of 1836, one of these first settlers arrived, traveling along the Green Bay Trail. His name was Mr. Edward Mulford who was to become one of Evanston’s permanent settlers. Mulford planned to continue further westward but as he stood on the ridge and looked down onto the beautiful land surrounding Lake Michigan he decided to settle on top of the “ridge”. Mulford foresaw that this area along the Green Bay Trail would soon be a bustling community and a gateway to land further west.

The Green Bay Trail started from what is now Rush Street and ran along the ridge (now known as Ridge Avenue in Evanston). There has been some dispute as to its exact path, but the closest estimate is that at high water the Green Bay Trail ran along Ridge Avenue, and at low water, it ran along what we now know as Clark Street in Chicago or Chicago Avenue in Evanston.

In 1854, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad was opened and ran along much the same lines as the Green Bay Trail to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Mulford built a log house on the west side of the ridge opposite of where Calvary Cemetery now stands - known as "No Man's Land." At that time, there was nothing located between these two areas; although, they were some distance away. Because of the Frogtown swamp, the cemetery was only visible from Mulford’s house when the water was at its lowest. Mr. Edward Mulford had come west at the age of 42 to engage in the jewelry business with his sons. Mulford bought his two full sections of government land at the usual price of $1.25 an acre and named this area Ridgevill [commonly spelled Ridgeville].

After a few years, the Mulford's built a larger house across the street on the east side where Saint Francis Hospital now stands.

The Ten-Mile House and Tavern (aka Mulford Tavern) got its name because it was located ten miles from the Chicago courthouse on the Green Bay Stagecoach route. The Ten-Mile House was a stage stop and it was there that Mulford started Ridgeville’s first Post Office. Later the Post Office was moved to approximately where the Main Evanston Post Office now stands.

Pioneers from all over stopped at Mulford’s Ten-Mile House. Mulford had the foresight to see that people would be attracted to the area he called Ridgeville and that it would become an important settlement and stopping place. Mulford would stand by his front door and point out to his neighbors the probable route of an iron horse that he felt would soon come to Ridgeville. People often laughed at his prediction because he had the iron horse located east of the ridge in “Frogtown”; yet this is almost precisely where the first railway was placed. The people of the ridge called everything east of the ridge and to Lake Michigan “Frogtown” because it was mainly marsh and swamp and at night when people would sit on their front porches they could barely hear each other talk for the croaking of the frogs. In the wet season, Frogtown expanded and after the first school was built on the corner of Ridge and Greenleaf in 1842, children often had to use rafts and boats to get to school during the wet parts of the year.

Ridgeville was the first name given to the Calvary station by the railway company. Mulford was Ridgeville’s first white settler, first postmaster, first justice of the peace, first Deacon of the Baptist Church, and the first to call the ridge “Ridgeville” and make the name stick. Mulford lived in his second house for ten years during which time he began construction of his third and final house. His third house was located on the west side of Ridge Avenue just slightly south of where he built his first house and it housed three generations of Mulfords. It was Evanston’s first two-story frame house.

James Kirk Mansion, Ridgeville, Illinois.

Mulford sold his Ten-Mile House to James Kirk and it later became the James Kirk Mansion, which became Saint Francis Hospital. On December 3, 1900, Monsignor Biermann bought the Old Kirk Homestead and grounds for $35,000. In 1867, John Kirk, founder of the Proctor and Gamble Company built the "Kirk Mansion" which later became Evanston's first hospital. The doors of Saint Francis Hospital opened on January 1, 1901.

The name Ridgeville first officially appeared in 1850. Ridgeville’s first election was held on April 2, 1850, with 93 votes being cast. Ridgeville’s first town assessment took place in 1853, estimating the value of the property at $6,000.00. Among the names of Ridgeville’s first residents were: General Huntoon, Eli Gaffield, William Foster, Paul Pratt, and his wife and O.A. Crain.

The 1850 census shows 443 settlers in this township (the population of Chicago at that time was about 28,000), which was approximately eleven persons per square mile. A post office with the name of Ridgeville was established at one of the taverns. However, no municipality existed yet.

On February 15, 1857, the General Assembly of Illinois, by special act, provided that the township of Evanston consists of all township 41, range 14 (Ridgeville) and one mile out of township 41, range 13 (Niles). Thus Grosse Pointe and Ridgevill became parts of Evanston and Wilmette. The Post Office was changed from Ridgeville to Evanston.

Evanston was named for Dr. John Evans, born in Waynesville, Ohio of Quaker ancestry on March 10, 1814. There are three towns named after John Evans, the other two being in Indiana and Ohio. John Evans, who was one of the seven Methodists that founded Northwestern University, and served on the Chicago City Council for a number of years. This was because the original person that the other six wanted to name the town for, Orrington Lunt, did not want his name on the town. Furthermore, neither Lunt nor his brother, Stephen Purrington Lunt lived in Evanston.

The land that became the City of Evanston was purchased by the University. On December 29, 1863, the territory south of Foster, east of Wesley and north of Crain and Hamilton Streets became an incorporated town under general law. This was the first municipality within the limits of the town of Evanston.

In March of 1869, an act was passed by the legislature which would have made Evanston a city; however, it was voted down by the people. On October 19, 1872, the voters adopted the village ordinances and it wasn’t until later that Evanston would adopt the ordinance for the city. When Ridgeville was first started it was started as a settlement and a name for an area. Even Ridgeville was incorporated it was incorporated as a township and it was called township 41. A township means an area of land that has been named; a town is a named conglomeration of people organized in a certain way.

Although in 1857 the law called for Ridgeville to become part of the town of Evanston there has long been confusion as to when and how Ridgeville became Evanston. This is probably due to two main factors:

First, there is evidence that as late as 1902, residents of the area known as Ridgeville still considered themselves Ridgeville residents and considered Evanston to be the land purchased by the Northwestern University.

The second major factor is that for a few years prior to 1914, the City of Evanston had compressed a portion of Evanston and Ridgeville and considered them a separate town under the name of Ridgeville. It caused a great deal of confusion when combined with the fact that there are very few clear records which explain the events that took place over this period of years.

Ridgeville Fountain Square, 1889

In July of 1916, a resolution was passed making three separate townships, or named areas of land, and that these townships, one of them being Ridgeville, become part of the township of the City of Evanston.

Mulford’s house at 250 Ridge Avenue stood until 1963. In 1963, this historic Evanston landmark was torn down by the Dunbar Builders Company to enable them to build Evanston’s first condominium. Parts of this house were saved and given to the Evanston Historical Society, but the house itself, Evanston’s first frame house and the home of Ridgeville’s, and subsequently Evanston’s, founder, was destroyed.

THE ROGERS PARK AND WEST RIDGE CHICAGO PART OF THE STORY
The original purchase of land in Grosse Pointe (the original name of the area), part of which was to become Rogers Park and West Ridge, was bought by 24-year-old Philip McGregor Rogers in 1836. Rogers, an Irishman who was raised on the frontier near Watertown, N.Y., came to the Town of Chicago in 1834; his brother, unimpressed with the area, moved a little further west. Philip stayed and married a widow, Mary Ward Masterson Hickey, who had extensive landholdings in what is now Edgewater. He bought the first 600 acres of what would grow to be 1,600 acres by the time of his death in 1856. He built a log cabin and established an orchard and vegetable farm that he sold to the Chicago market. He cleared the woodland, supplying lumber and fuel (charcoal) to the growing metropolis.

The next predominant group of settlers was families from the West Rhine area of Germany (now Rhineland-Palatinate). Many emigrated in the early 1840s, seeking relief from the repressive anti-revolutionary measures implemented by the newly formed German Confederation, after years of being on the front lines of the Napoleonic Wars.

These farmers from the fertile Rhine Valley shared a proud cultural history, dating from the Roman Empire. They were largely Roman Catholic, literate, with at least a basic education, and extremely loyal and diligent in service to their local community, and especially to their close-knit extended family community.

Taking advantage of a government sale of inexpensive land in the early 1840s that was largely cleared and offered access to a growing market, several families purchased modest tracts of land in Ridgeville. Initially, their farming of fruit and vegetable crops were restricted to the high ground on top of The Ridge (roughly from present-day Ridge Boulevard to Western Avenue), constrained by marshland to the east and seasonal flooding from the tributary of the Chicago River to the west.

In the late 1840s through the 1870s, another group of immigrants arrived from the independent Duchy of Luxembourg, which had been recently dramatically partitioned and faced economic strains from the years of war. Culturally similar, these early families intermarried and shared resources as they built the new community of Ridgeville.

Life was difficult for these early settlers; there were no water or sanitation services, only three unpaved roads, no direct access to Lake Michigan, and no local stores, church, or schools until St. Henry Church was founded in 1851. Many farmers, or often their wives, walked or drove a wagon the 9 miles each way to take their produce to the market in downtown Chicago.

The Northwest corner of Devon and Western Avenues in the West Ridge community of Chicago in 1913.

This is Devon Avenue in 1914 looking east from the east side of Western Avenue in the West Ridge community of Chicago. The people were walking from Angel Guardian's Church (steeple is barely visible in the background on the far right-hand side, just above the tree line) back to a truck farm on the SW corner of Rockwell and Devon.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Proposed Bridge of 11½ Miles from Downtown Chicago to Evanston, Illinois. 1955

Construction of an 11½ mile double deck bridge and causeway starting at Grant Park, then over Lake Michigan from Oak Street to Dempster Street in Evanston, Illinois, for automobile and monorail traffic was proposed by Mark D. Kalischer, architect and engineer.

Proposed 11½ mile double deck bridge and causeway by architect Mark D. Kalischer.

Kalischer said the project would cost approximately 175 million dollars ($1,593,427,960 today) but would permit autos to travel from Grant Park in Chicago to Dempster Street in about ten minutes.

Kalischer said that monorail cars, automatically operated, could provide even faster service at 80 to 85 miles per hour from a Grant Park terminal in eight minutes allowing for one stop at Montrose Avenue in Chicago and then on to Evanston.

The second phase of the multi-purpose lake highway would also be built southward towards Indiana.

The architect said the double decking would permit the lower four lane highway could be used as a bomb shelter. Kalischer proposed 100 foot bridge spans approximately 28 feet over the waterline. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Lunchtime Theater - World's Fair 1933.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

World's Fair 1933.

[runtime 35:00]

The Lunchtime Theater - Chicago Footage During the Great Depression. 1936

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

Chicago Footage During the Great Depression. 1936

The History of the Family Owned Ashkenaz Restaurants and Delis of Chicago, Illinois. (1910-2012)

The Ashkenaz restaurant, at 1432 W. Morse Avenue in Rogers Park, was one of the authentic delis, serving Vienna corned beef, Rosen's rye bread, Litberg bagels, and Vita lox.

1432 W. Morse Avenue in the Rogers Park community of Chicago, Illinois.

As you enter, there is a long delicatessen counter on the right filled with trays of amber smoked chubs, chopped chicken livers, potato salad, perogen (small baked pastries filled with chopped chicken livers and onion, etc.), gefilte fish, kishkes, and pickles. Gleaming red Vienna salamis hung from a rack on the wall.

One wall of the restaurant is somber brown; the other is a mosaic of green, blue, and yellow tiles, an imitation ─ intentional or not ─ of the colors used by Marc Chagall in his evocative paintings of Jewish life in the villages of old Russia.

Beyond the counter in front is an open kitchen manned by four cooks who prepare short orders and sandwiches. The waitresses were blonde buxom and inured to the constant chirping: "Sweetie, how about another cuppa?"

A steady hum of conversation is assertive, argumentative, and studded with friendly insults and retorts. "When are you going to retire?" a customer asks of a cook working at the meat slicer. "When I have your money!" the cook shoots back. A portly man with a Nikon camera says thru a mouthful of sauerkraut: "Was I busy? Today, I shot two weddings and a bar mitzvah."

Meanwhile, everybody eats. Orders were ample, with the potato salad partly hiding the smoked fish and moderate prices. The Ashkenaz menu lists over 100 dishes, and 35 dinners are served weekly. Not all the items are Jewish cuisine ─ beef stew is listed next to gefilte fish, and barbecued spareribs next to stuffed kishkes with brown sauce.

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Comedian Shecky Greene was a once-famous son of the Rogers Park neighborhood. We know the true nature of Shecky Greene’s attachment to Ashkenaz and of the Shecky Greene sandwich because long-time New York Times sports writer Ira Berkow is also a native of the Morse Avenue neighborhood and wrote about it for the Tribune.

Berkow wrote,  "The Shecky Greene sandwich was named in his honor at Ashkenaz as the neighborhood's ultimate tribute to a local boy made good. The sandwich consisted of a double-decker of corned beef and egg, lettuce, tomato and a generous dollop of potato salad spilling onto the plate. That and their barbecue beef sandwich with the special Ashkenaz hot sauce that made you cross-eyed with the first taste were favorites in the mid-1950s."

Shecky Greene Comedian, 1965.

Kishkes with Brown Sauce

At the counter's far end was an archway leading to a dining room served from a second kitchen in the rear. The atmosphere in the dining room is relaxed and casual, and the diners chat from table to table. The tone is that of a family gathering.

Sam Ashkenaz at the Deli Counter.

Sam Ashkenaz, the owner, had a gentle manner that masks his shrewd business ability. He looked and spoke somewhat like entertainer George Burns, with a raspy but soothing voice and a twinkling expression. It was often hard to tell whether he was serious. One of his favorite topics of conversation was the origin of the restaurant.

His parents, George and Ada Ashkenaz, immigrated from Russia early in the 1900s and first opened a small delicatessen store near Roosevelt and Karlov in 1910. 

When the Jewish population moved north and west to the suburbs, the Ashkenaz family moved to Rogers Park, opening their first deli on Morse Avenue. It was a 10 by 30 feet small restaurant in which Ada Ashkenaz cooked in a tiny kitchen at the rear. During the mid-30s, they acquired a space at 1432 West Morse Avenue and opened a new restaurant. It burned in 1939, and the couple had no insurance.

Noodle Kugel

Sam Ashkenaz graduated from Purdue that year with a degree in electrical engineering. He joined his parents to help recoup the loss, borrowed money from the restaurant's suppliers, fixed the restaurant and was back in business in 1940.

Potato Latkes

At Ashkenaz, a typical dinner may start with an appetizer such as chopped chicken livers, various kinds of herring, or a piece of small gefilte fish with red beet horseradish.

Gefilte Fish

Homemade Chicken Soup with Kreplach

Next is chicken soup with matzo balls made entirely of matzo-meal dough or kreplach (a meat-filled dumpling for chicken soup). Chicken soup was served daily, and then there were the day's soups, such as barley, potato, bean, or cabbage ─ thick, rich, with a minimum of liquid. "We don't serve a cup of soup," said Sam Ashkenaz with contempt. "Ten-ounce bowl with the dinner, 12-ounce bowl a la carte." 

The best-seller was Corned Beef and Pastrami sandwiches. They served up over a ½ ton (1,000 pounds) of Corned Beef per month. 

Corned Beef - Sandwiches Piled High!

The "Family Recipe" blintzes were a popular entree; a thin pancake rolled and filled with cheese topped with fresh fruit, meat-filled or fruit-filled blintzes were invariably served with a decent dollop of sour cream.

Cheese Blintz with Cherries.

Jewish cuisine reaches a hedonistic gastronomic status in its sweet and sour cooking of meats and fish, and one of Ashkenaz's specialties was sweet and sour pickled trout. Most pickled fish is cooked with lemon as the souring agent, but Ashkenaz has a secret souring ingredient that produces a more piquant flavor. Many housewives came to Ashkenaz and asked how the flavor of their pickled trout is derived, but did he tell?

The restaurant had a bakery with a line of pastries that included an excellent cheesecake. A large deli in New York City, Reuben's, makes a cherry cheesecake that some Chicagoans ordered by mail.

Ashkenaz admits freely that Reuben's cheesecake is delicious, but he points out that it is heavy and difficult to eat after a good meal, while his cheesecake is lighter. 

After sampling a slice, you'd have to agree with him. Ashkenaz's cheesecake was topped with a triumphal glace, the color of rubies, filled with fresh strawberries.

So, what is a deli? It's a restaurant serving a great variety of foods with exotic flavors. Although it is Jewish, the food is derived from many European cultures. It isn't haute cuisine such as that created by French chefs like Escoffier; it is humble food ─ Jews who came here from Europe were poor.

But the food is prepared with loving care; its Escoffier was a formidable matriarch, the Jewish mother, who believed "Nobody should go away hungry." Is it possible that this type of restaurant, with its superior menu and vivacious atmosphere, is on the way out? You should live so long.

Ashkenaz Restaurant and Delicatessen was an institution that presided over Morse Avenue for years, within the shadow of the "L" tracks, until the late 1970s when they sold the Morse location.

Though there are different versions of why and how Sam Ashkenaz left the Morse location, he purposely moved the restaurant directly to the then brand-new Northbrook Court in 1976. That news made the Daily News Beeline column in December 1975. In fact, the once humble neighborhood Jewish restaurant was considered a real draw by Northbrook Court and by what would be one of its more high-profile tenants.

So, how long did Ashkenaz last at Northbrook Court? The trail abruptly ends in newspapers and on the internet, so I have no idea. It probably wasn't long since several people from the Northbrook area only slightly remembered that Ashkenaz was ever there. Sam Ashkenaz's son, Steve, worked at the local Carnegie Deli in 1990 and briefly at another deli that made the paper in 1989. Steve would have been at the family business if it were still around, so we can assume that Sam Ashkenaz's restaurant in Northbrook Court lasted about ten years or less.

After Ashkenaz left Morse Street, a place called "Ashkey's" replaced it, also serving Jewish deli food—apparently run by new people pirating the old name. A fire destroyed the building in 1978, ending Ashkey's, whoever owned it.

In the late 1970s, an Ashkenaz location would temporarily pop up in the North Shore suburb Wilmette at 3223 West Lake Street. 

Sam Ashkenaz died on November 25, 1985, at 71 years old. 

Ashkenaz Delicatessen, 12 East Cedar Street, Chicago.

A short-lived location opened at 3223 West Lake Street; another place at 12 East Cedar operated from about 1978 until 2012. However, those locations are always mentioned in newspapers as belonging to a corporation, and it's unclear if the Ashkenaz family ever owned either spot. But the Cedar location was open long enough—almost 35 years—to be called a "neighborhood staple." 

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A Jewish resident in the Gold Coast neighborhood said that the first two calls you make when someone dies are to the decesed family and to Ashkenaz to order deli trays for shiva. That suggests both the overlooked deli’s importance to its neighborhood . . .  and why it closed, as its core clientele increasingly passed away.

Restauranteur Howard Cohan bought the business in 2005. It was so well known that, strangely, New York Magazine, of all places, noted its passing in 2012.

VISIT OUR ASHKENAZ DELI & RESTAURANT SOUVENIR SHOP

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

#JewishThemed #JewishLife

Daniel Hale Williams Completes First Open-Heart Surgery in Chicago in 1893.

Daniel Hale Williams was the son of a barber, founded the first negro-owned hospital in America, and performed the world's first successful heart surgery in 1893.

July 10, 1893

Williams was born in 1858 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the fifth of seven children. After his father died, his mother, Sara Price Williams, moved the family several times. Young Daniel started as a shoemaker but quickly knew he wanted more education. He completed secondary school in Wisconsin. At age 20, Williams became an apprentice to a former surgeon general for Wisconsin. Williams studied medicine at Chicago Medical College.

After his internship, he went into private practice in an integrated neighborhood on Chicago's south side. He soon began teaching anatomy at Chicago Medical College and served as surgeon to the City Railway Company. In 1889, the governor of Illinois appointed him to the state's board of health.

Determined that Chicago should have a hospital where negro and white doctors could study, and negro nurses could receive training, Williams rallied for a hospital open to all races. After months of hard work, he opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses on May 4, 1891, the country's first interracial hospital and nursing school.

1891-1893: 29th and Dearborn Streets, Chicago.

One hot summer night in 1893, a young Chicagoan named James Cornish was stabbed in the chest and rushed to Provident. When Cornish started to go into shock, Williams suspected a deeper wound near the heart. He asked six doctors (four white, two negro) to observe while he operated. In a cramped operating room with crude anesthesia, Williams inspected the wound between two ribs, exposing the breastbone. He cut the rib cartilage and created a small trapdoor to the heart.

1894-1908: 36th and South Dearborn Streets, Chicago.

Underneath, he found a damaged left internal mammary artery and sutured it. Then, inspecting the pericardium (the sac around the heart), he saw that the knife had left a gash near the right coronary artery. With the heart beating and transfusion impossible, Williams rinsed the wound with salt solution, held the edges of the palpitating wound with forceps, and sewed them together. Just 51 days after his apparently lethal wound, James Cornish walked out of the hospital. He lived for over 20 years after the surgery. The landmark operation was hailed in the press.

In 1894, Dr. Williams became chief surgeon of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., the most prestigious medical post available to Negros then. There, he made improvements that reduced the hospital's mortality rate. In 1895, he helped organize the National Medical Association for negro professionals barred from the American Medical Association. Williams returned to Chicago and continued as a surgeon. In 1913, he became the first negro to be inducted into the American College of Surgeons.

1908-1933: 1315 West Garfield Boulevard, Chicago.

As a sign of the esteem of the negro medical community, until this day, a "code blue" at the Howard University Hospital emergency room is called a "Dr. Dan." In words that could later be said of Vivien Thomas, a colleague wrote, "His greatest pride was that directly or indirectly, he had a hand in the making of most of the outstanding Negro surgeons of the current generation."

Provident Hospital began offering graduate education for Black medical school graduates in 1917.

Dr. Williams died in 1931. The Daniel Hale Williams Medical Reading Club in Washington, D.C., commemorates his achievements.

1891-1893: 29th and Dearborn Streets. The hospital's first location was a three-story brick house with 12 beds.

1894-1908: 36th and South Dearborn Streets. Designed for hospital use with 50 beds.

Both of the above locations were in the Douglas Community and in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, which was the center of the city's negro community at the time.

1908-1933: 1315 West Garfield Boulevard.

1933-1987: 426 East 51st Street, Chicago.

1993-Pres: 500 East 51st Street, Chicago.

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The Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine at DuSable (High School), 4934 South Wabash (Bronzeville neighborhood), Chicago, is a medical magnet school named in his honor when it opened in September 2005. Helping minority students get into medical school and become future members of the medical field is central to Daniel Hale Williams' mission and vision.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Lunchtime Theater - The History of the Illinois River.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

The History of the Illinois River.

The opening of the Illinois River Conference from October of 2011.

Kohlsaat and Company, Commercial Bakery and Lunch Establishment, Chicago, Illinois.

Herman Henry (H. H.) Kohlsaat was born March 22, 1853, in Albion, Edwards County, Illinois, one of six children of Reimer and Sarah (Hall) Kohlsaat. Reimer and Sarah Kohlsaat were abolitionists whose home was reportedly a station on the Underground Railroad. The Kohlsaat family moved to Galena, Illinois, in 1854, and they moved to Chicago in 1865.

He became a traveling salesman, eventually working for Blake, Shaw, and Company at Adams & Clinton, a wholesale bakery owned by R. Nelson Blake, who was to become Kohlsaat’s father-in-law. In 1880 Kohlsaat married Mabel E. Blake and became a junior partner of Blake, Shaw, and Company in charge of a bakery-lunch establishment in the city.

In 1883 he brought out Blake, Shaw, and Company’s interest in the establishment. He started H.H. Kohlsaat and Company, which was one of the largest baking establishments in Chicago for about thirty years.

CHICAGO WHITE PAGES, JUNE 1908:

H.H. Kohlstaat Resident Address: 186 Lincoln Park Boulevard, Chicago

H.H. Kohlstaat & Company (Wholesale Bakery): 1701 South Wabash, Chicago

H. H. Kohlsaat Bakery, east side of the 1700 block S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

He opened several lunch stores, which drew good patronage from the businessmen of the Loop district.

In 1888 Kohlsaat was an alternate delegate at the Republican national convention held in Chicago. He became an early supporter of William McKinley, then Governor of Ohio, working for his nomination and election to the presidency in 1896. Kohlsaat was a friend, confidant, and advisor of five United States Presidents: McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, and Harding.

In 1891, Kohlsaat purchased a half-interest in the Chicago newspaper Inter-Ocean. In 1894 Kohlsaat abandoned his interest in the Inter-Ocean and purchased the Chicago Times-Herald and the Evening Post. He converted the papers from Democratic to independent Republican organs.

His influence in the Republican Party helped draft the gold-standards plank during the 1896 convention in St. Louis. McKinley’s ensuing campaign for the presidency against free Silverite William Jennings Bryan was ultimately won on the gold standard issues.

In 1901 Kohlsaat purchased the Chicago Record from Victor F. Lawson and combined it with the Times-Herald, naming the new paper the Record-Herald. Kohlsaat resigned the editorship of the Record-Herald for a time to devote himself to his real estate interests but later regained control in 1910. He remained editor of the Record-Herald for two years, and then he returned to edit the Inter-Ocean. Kohlsaat left the Inter-Ocean after a year and became a member of the staff of the New York Times.

Kohlsaat died October 17, 1924, in Washington, D.C., at the home of Herbert Hoover.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Lunchtime Theater - The Chicago Gangsters Subterranean Secrets, Mysteries and Subterranean Worlds.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

The Chicago Gangsters Subterranean Secrets, Mysteries, and Subterranean Worlds

RUNTIME [1:10:00]

The Chicago Outfit (or simply the Outfit), also known as the Chicago Mafia, Chicago Mob, or Chicago Syndicate, is an Italian American crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois. Dating back to the 1910s, it is part of the American Mafia. Originating in South Side Chicago, the Outfit rose to power in the 1920s under the control of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. The period was marked by bloody gang wars for the distribution of illegal alcohol during Prohibition. Since then, the Outfit has been involved in a wide range of criminal activities including, loansharking, gambling, murder, prostitution, extortion, political corruption, and murder amongst others. Although the Outfit had no true monopoly on organized crime in Chicago they were by far the biggest criminal organization in the Midwestern United States. The Outfit's control at its peak reached throughout the western and eastern United States to places as far away as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and parts of Florida.

Higher law enforcement investigations and general attrition led to the Outfits gradual decline since the late 20th century. As of 2007, the Outfit's size is estimated to be 28 official members (composing its core group) and over 100 associates. The Old Neighborhood Italian American Club is considered to be the hangout of Old Timers, as they live out their golden years. The Club's founder was Angelo J. LaPietra "The Hook", who at the time of his death in 1999 was the main Council. The Chicago Outfit is currently believed to be led by John DiFronzo.

Severely injured in an assassination attempt by the North Side Mob in January 1925, the shaken Torrio returned to Italy and handed over control of the business to Capone. Capone was notorious during Prohibition for his control of the Chicago underworld and his bitter rivalries with gangsters such as George "Bugs" Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss. Raking in vast amounts of money (some estimates were that between 1925 and 1930 Capone was making $100 million a year), the Chicago kingpin was largely immune to prosecution because of witness intimidation and the bribing of city officials. The Chicago Outfit under Al Capone's leadership was certainly one of the most dangerous gangs in the world. In the 1930s, Al Capone and his successor, Frank Nitti, developed the Outfit rapidly in all the surrounding areas.

One of the prime areas of interest was in Canada, the main source of alcohol which the Outfit was smuggling into the States. This illicit alcohol was then distributed to all the "titty bars" (brothels) of Chicago. During prohibition, this was one of the greatest sources of income for the Outfit. The Outfit, as established by Capone, functioned on relationships with a high degree of trust between the gangsters and the "boss of bosses".

The Boss controlled the heads of various divisions of the outfit through a system of informants placed throughout the various levels of the organization. Anyone who betrayed the honor of the organization was executed. Among the most active representatives of the Al Capone Outfit was "Happy Memories" DeLuca (assets in Illinois and Wisconsin), Bob Calandra (Ontario), Vince DeLuca, Tom Ciampelletti (Montreal) and Frank Nitti, who acted as the intermediary between Al Capone, the Boss, and the other gangsters. Frankie La Porte and Ross Prio out of Chicago Heights carried some heavyweight with Capone organizing his gang into an empire. Frankie La Porte, being Sicilian and having the ability to work in confidence with New York gangsters Joe Bonanno and Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who was also Sicilian, is believed to have been Capone's connection to the Commission.

While Al Capone was in charge of the Chicago Outfit it has been reported that some members of the organization would take the train from Chicago to Wabash County, Illinois and stay at a remote hotel called the Grand Rapids Hotel on the Wabash River next to the Grand Rapids Dam. The hotel was only in existence for nine years but many residents of the area remember seeing men who claimed to be from the Chicago Outfit at the Grand Rapids Hotel. Suspiciously, the Grand Rapids Hotel was burned down by a man with one leg who dropped a blowtorch.