Saturday, July 28, 2018

The Chicago Beach Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

The Chicago Beach Hotel was a luxury resort hotel located at 53rd Boulevard on the lakeshore in the "Indian Village" neighborhood of the Kenwood community, Chicago, Illinois.
The hotel was built in 1892 by Warren Leland and was one of many speculative hotels built to accommodate the hordes of tourists drawn by the upcoming World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. It contained 450 rooms, with 175 bathrooms. The property included private access to Lake Michigan's beach front.
The building resembled the Hyde Park Hotel and probably shared architects. Many Chicagoans of high social standing became residents and members. The building had private access to the beach until 1915 when the city created an adjacent bathhouse. It lost its beach frontage entirely in 1920 when the shoreline was moved more than a block eastward with a landfill project that created South Lake Shore Drive.
In 1921 a huge 12 story, 545-room addition was constructed on the eastern portion of the property. The original structure, by now outdated, was then demolished in 1927. 
During World War II, the hotel served as a hospital for the army. After the war, the former hotel was used as apartment space before the entire structure was razed and the space became the location of the upscale Regents Park Apartments. The Algonquin Apartments, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were built on the site of the original wing in 1950.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

1960s & 70s Devon Avenue Bakeries in Chicago.

Devon Avenue in Chicago's West Ridge and Rogers Park communities was loaded with bakeries in the 1960s & 70s. If you know a bakery that belongs on this list, please leave the name and address in a comment below.
They are still open on Devon Avenue.
Tel-Aviv is still open on Devon Avenue.
DEVON AVENUE BAKERIES, EAST TO WEST.
Arfa Bakery, 1348 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Litberg's Bakery, 1519 W Devon Avenue, Chicago.
Nelson's Bakery, 2245 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Heinemann's Bakery, 2255 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Devon Bakery, 2301 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Burny Bros. Bakery, 2433 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Schlosser's Bakery, 2433 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Farber's Bakery, 2502 1/2 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Gross Bakery, 2546 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Leonard's Bakery, 2651 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Kuznitsky's Bakery, 2745 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Gitel's Kosher Pastry Shop, 2745 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Knopov's Bakery, 2815 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Levinson's Bakery, 2856 W Devon Avenue, Chicago
Tel-Aviv Kosher Bakery, 2944 W Devon Avenue, Chicago

Friday, July 27, 2018

Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass co-authored: "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition."

Ida B. Wells grew up in the post–Civil War South and became a fierce opponent of lynching. She came to Chicago in 1893 to protest the exclusion of Negroes from exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition. The Haitian building stood in as a center for Americans of color. Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist, and advocate for equal rights represented the Haitian government at the fair. Wells described Haiti's pavilion as “one of the gems of the World's Fair, and in it, Mr. Douglass held high court.
 
                             Ida B. Wells                                                Frederick Douglass


Wells and Douglass co-authored and published the book, "The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not In The World's Columbian Exposition." (in PDF Format)

As Wells described it, the booklet was a clear, plain statement of facts concerning the oppression put upon the colored people in this land of the free and home of the brave. We circulated ten thousand copies of this little book during the remaining three months of the fair. Every day I was on duty at the Haitian building, where Mr. Douglass gave me a desk and spent days putting this pamphlet in the hands of foreign visitors to the World's Fair.

Ultimately, the fair officials offered to sponsor a special day for Negroes. Wells and many other African Americans considered Negro Day little more than a gesture and were reluctant to participate. Frederick Douglass, however, took the opportunity to spotlight the problems that people of color faced in the United States. Douglass died in 1895, but Ida B. Wells moved permanently to Chicago and became involved in a wide range of civic and club activities like that of the Alpha [Woman's] Suffrage Club of Chicago. Wells was a Chicagoan until her death in 1931.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.