The 1864 Civil War Soldier's Home at 739 East 35th Street in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago's last surviving building with a direct association to the Civil War (1861-1865).

Soldier’s Home; illustration by Louis Kurz, August 1866.
View of shelter for Civil War veterans, presenting a lively scene with a passing train on the IC tracks, and a crew of four with steersman rowing a boat, and a sailboat at the lakefront. The building still exists, its south side location saving it from the Great Fire. 

The Soldier's Home was constructed at the edge of the Camp Douglas prison camp through the efforts of a women's group. During the war, it was a hospital for convalescent soldiers; following the war, it served as a home for disabled Union Army veterans. The building's earliest sections were designed in an Italianate style by William W. Boyington, the architect of the Chicago Water Tower. The structure has had several additions since then, most of them surrounding a common light well.

Designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.

A Description from the 1860s.
The "Soldier's Home" is located near the south-eastern limits of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Chicago University and of the Douglas Monument. Its history is honorable to the noble ladies who protected it, and to whose labors its successful maintenance is alone to be attributed. The history of the great Sanitary Commission will live while men have hearts to remember deeds of love and mercy.

But in the spring of 1863, the number of poor, weary, dIsabled and sick soldiers returning from the Civil War field suggested the necessity of some united effort in their behalf. A meeting of ladies was held at Bryan HaIl in June of that year, and it was resolved to hold a strawberry festival to raise funds. This was successful, and the building, No. 45 Randolph street, was rented as a Home for sick and disabled soldiers. The ladies then resorted to seeking subscriptions from door to door, and their appeal met a liberal response. The site of the present Home was then purchased and the buildings thereon used for the time. The house on Randolph street was used to receive the soldiers, who were then transferred to the “Home.” The building is four stories high, and is built of brick, with basement and attic, and has ample accommodations for two hundred inmates. As soon as the Home was first organized, an auxiliary institution was put in operation, known as the “Soldier’s Rest.” The Government furnished the buildings and rations, the ladies managed all the rest.

The operations of the two branches of the Home for the first year were: Number of arrivals, 46,384; meals furnished, 96,909; lodgings, 26,481; medically treated, 2,557. The second year furnished the following figures : Number of arrivals, 60,003; number of meals, 167,263. During the year ending June 1, 1865, there had been 767 inmates of the Home received; many of them were provided with clothing, and all were fed. Since then the average number of inmates always exceeded 100. There are now one hundred and more sick and disabled men who are given the comforts of a home, which, to the destitute, is a boon beyond value.

In 1865, the Home received $80,000, part of the proceeds of the Fair of that year held in Chicago. All else has been the result of voluntary contributions in response to personal applications and appeals by the ladies.

Soldiers' Home, now owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Built in phases, between 1864 and 1923, by William W. Boyington. Designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Illustration of the Junction of the Chicago River. July 1866 (Artist: Louis Kurz)

Chicago River — This view is of that portion of the river where the two branches unite and form the main river. The drawing is taken from a point on West Water Street, north of the approach to Lake Street Bridge.

It presents a scene hardly equal in animation to what is generally to be seen at that point. On the right are the protections to Lake Street Bridge. On the left is a vessel in tow of a tug coming from the north branch, and in the extreme distance is Wells Street Bridge over the main river. On the north side of the river are the Iowa and other Elevators, and on the south the row of warehouses lying between South Water Street and the river. At the front of the picture may be seen the upper portion of a locomotive upon the track which connects along this line the various Northern and Western with the Southern and Eastern Railways.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Chicago as a Hunting Post.

"It has often been said that Chicago was nothing more than a hunting post in its earliest days. Yet the average Chicagoan has little idea of the type of animals whose habitat was around Chicago and whose skins formed a profitable source of livelihood for many hardy trappers. In fact, nothing could attract pioneers to the bleak and cold Northwest in those days unless it was hunting."

A Wolf Hunt in Chicago in the Early Days.

There are several of these veteran trappers alive today [1897], and they delight in telling stories of their experiences. Jon Phillips, a messenger at the Sheffield Avenue Station, the oldest policeman in the Chicago department, was one of these early trappers. He was a professional huntsman employed by Eastern houses to secure the skins of various animals, which at that time brought even a higher price.

The Chicago Academy of Science, the Matthew Laflin Memorial Building. Businessman and philanthropist Laflin was the primary funder for a new building in Lincoln Park on October 31, 1894.

The Chicago Academy of Science has made some effort to secure the complete list of the animals that found their homes in Northern Illinois.

An Illinois Home Where the Buffalo Roam.

People don't realize that the American buffalo was once among the common animals which could be hunted about Chicago. A curious error prevailed with the early explorers in connection with the buffalo. In the voyages of Père Marquette (Père Marquette, Jacques Marquette or Father Marquette (1637–1675) was a French Jesuit missionary), written by a Frenchman and published in 1681, it appears that Marquette spoke of one district as inhabited by “nations qui ont des chevaux et des chameaux,” or translated means “nations who have horses and camels.” The peculiar appearance of the buffalo undoubtedly gave origin to this error.

The river is also said to have contained what is now known as the American beaver, and many of them were caught in the Calumet region. There were also otters, and black bears were not uncommon. Deer were killed as late as the 1870s in Chicago. Among the other smaller animals were the shot-tailed shrew, the silvery mole, the star-nosed mole, the white and grey wolf, the red and grey fox, brown and black minks, the common skunk, raccoon, opossum, Western fox squirrel, gophers striped and grey, woodchuck or groundhog, the ground rat, and common mouse, prairie mouse, meadow mouse, muskrats, and grey rabbit.

Yea, Yea... I'm a Titmouse!
Small size ● Big attitude

Of the songbirds, there were nine species of thrushes, one specie of bluebirds, three warblers, and one kind of titmouse and chickadees.

Of reptiles, there was a large and various assortment. There were rattlesnakes, copper heads or cottonmouths, spotted adders, king snakes, black snakes, garter snakes, spotted snakes, leather snakes, pilot snakes, grass snakes, hog-nosed snakes, spreading adders, and water snakes galore.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.