Richard's Lunch Room, Libertyville, Illinois.

Regina Kraemer owned Richard's Lunch Room in Libertyville, Illinois from 1946-1950. Photo date unknown.

Note the sign in the window: Keeley Half & Half was a Blend of Beer and Ale from the Keeley Brewing Company of Chicago.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Boston Oyster House in the First Morrison Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

Colonel John S. Wilson began his restaurant in Chicago in 1873, establishing Wilson’s Oyster House in the basement of the Morrison Hotel at 21 South Clark Street. He was the first and only caterer in Chicago to have live lobsters shipped to the Chicago market. In 1875, the name was changed to the Boston Oyster House. 

The first Morrison Hotel at the corner of Clark and Madison Streets in Chicago. 1907

The cashier was a young man of a likable personality. His name was Charles E. Rector. Later he became manager of the establishment. Then he gave up his connection with Colonel Wilson to accept a position as the head caterer for a railroad. Later opened the Rector Oyster House Company restaurant at Clark and Monroe Streets. His restaurant soon eclipsed the Boston Oyster House in popularity and became the Mecca of Chicago's nightlife. Seeking new worlds to conquer, Rector opened a restaurant in New York City that became equally celebrated.

Boston Oyster House Restaurant, Chicago. 1908

Then, in 1899, Harry C. Moir became manager of the Boston Oyster House and the old eight-story Morrison Hotel that rose above it. Prominent citizens continued to gather there. Writers came. That old Kentucky philosopher, Opie Read, sat here and talked with friends in the days when he was a newspaperman and before he became famous as a novelist. Senator James Hamilton Lewis dined there frequently, whiskers and all, and Edward F. Dunne before becoming governor of Illinois. Finley Peter Dunne, creator of "Mr. Dooley," and the late Fred A. Chappell, writer and philosopher, were other frequenters. And many recall the International Live Stock shows of those days when the stockmen and cowboys from the wild west would wind up a night amid the bright lights of the Loop with a 6 AM. breakfast at the Boston, consisting of two dozen oysters on the half shell.

This place continued through the years in its basement location. In 1925 a new Boston Oyster House blossomed forth under the auspices of Gus and Fred Mann, well-known Chicago restaurateurs. It was decorated to look like a ship's cabin — at the cost of $200,000. But alas, the Mann brothers were unable to return on their investment, and the Boston Oyster House once more fell back into the hands of Harry Moir.

The Boston Oyster House Restaurant Menu Cover.

The Boston Oyster House offered no fewer than 42 oyster selections, divided among "select," "New York counts," and "shell oysters." In 1893, a dozen raw oysters were 25¢. If you ordered the same dozen fried, the price doubled to 50¢. The most expensive was broiled oysters (60¢ a dozen with celery sauce, or 75¢ with mushrooms).

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The Boston survived several ownership changes and locations until it floundered during the great depression and shut its doors. 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MORRISON HOTEL IN CHICAGO

The Morrison Hotel was named for Orsemus Morrison, the first coroner in Chicago, who bought the site in 1838 and in 1860 built a three-story hotel with 21 rooms on the southeast corner of Clark and Madison Streets. Destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, this was replaced by an eight-story building. 

In 1911 Harry C. Moir, who had bought the property from Morrison's nephew, built a 21-floor, 500-room hotel. The hotel was expanded by 650 rooms in 1918. In 1925 it was further expanded, adding a 46-story tower. The hotel had 1,800 rooms in 1931. A fourth, 21-story section was then added, bringing the number of rooms to 2,210, but was sold in 1937, becoming the Hotel Chicagoan.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Chicago's Oyster History.

New Englanders settle in Chicago, bringing with them a taste for oysters. Chicago had become a huge oyster town, with large multilevel oyster houses. These houses would have a dance hall, lunchroom, formal dining, and taprooms in one huge building. 

Delivered by sleigh from New Haven, Connecticut, the first fresh oysters in Chicago were served in 1835 at the Lake House Hotel on Kinzie Street. The Lake House Hotel establishment was our city’s first foray into (5-Star) fine dining and offered these East Coast imports to their well-heeled clientele. It was the first restaurant to use white tablecloths, napkins, menu cards, and toothpicks. 

This spurred Chicago’s earliest love affair with the oyster. By 1857, there were seven "Oyster Depots" and four "Oyster Saloons" in the city. Chicago's population in 1860 was 109,000. Peaking in the Gilded Age of the 1890s, with a population of 1,001,000, and waning with Prohibition, oyster consumption was plentiful in old Chicago. 

Believe it or not, Ice cream parlors also served oysters because they had all that ice.

NOTE: The oysters were kept alive on ice while being transported. If an oyster's shell opens, they die. Dead oysters carry some very dangerous bacterias for humans.

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry 18-Foot Walk-Through Heart Display.

The Museum of Science and Industry announced on May 31, 1950, that visitors would soon be able to walk through an 18-foot heart, part of a 3,000-square-foot exhibit sponsored by the Chicago Heart Association. As part of the experience, a human pulse will be audible inside the heart. In another part of the exhibit, the circulation of blood will be illustrated.

Installed in 1950, the heart is so big that it would fit into the chest of a 28-story human.

By 2009, the museum had replaced it with a new high-tech heart with digital projections but no walk-through.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Lost Towns of Illinois - Brush Hill, then Fullersburg, Illinois (now Hinsdale).

Fullersburg was a settlement in Downers Grove Township and York Township, DuPage County, Illinois near the Cook County border. The area was originally called Brush Hill and was claimed by Orente Grant when the Indian land in Illinois was ceded to the United States in 1833. 

Benjamin Fuller is known as the founder of Fullersburg. He arrived in 1835, returned east to Broome County, New York, and brought his entire family back with him with the exception of one married sister. There were 13 in the family and it took 17 weeks to travel from New York. The oldest daughters came by boat through the Great Lakes and the rest by covered wagon. Benjamin Fuller served as the postmaster, innkeeper, and storekeeper.

Fuller built his Greek Revival-style farmhouse about 1840. The farmhouse was originally located at 948 North York Road. The house was built using a new technique invented in Chicago called "balloon frame" construction. The Fuller house is probably the oldest remaining example of balloon frame construction in the world.

Graue Mill is Located on Salt Creek in Hinsdale, Illinois.

Fuller started several businesses in the area and owned most of the land in the center of town. One of his early enterprises was "The Farmer's House", a grocery, which is the pioneer word for a bar or saloon. Today, the structure is known as the York Tavern and is privately owned. 

The center of old Fullersburg, located at what is the present-day intersection of Ogden Avenue and York Road, was situated at the crossroads of two Indian trails. Ben Fuller platted this area around the crossroads in 1851. This location, as well as its one day's distance from Chicago, meant that it served as both a trading center for area settlers and a way station for travelers. 

In 1832, the town was a stagecoach destination from Chicago with regular service established by the Frink & Walker Stage Lines by 1834. Wagon and coach traffic became so heavy that a plank road was privately built from Chicago to Naperville, reaching Fullersburg in 1850. A toll house was erected at the eastern edge of Fullersburg near the Cook County line. At this time over 500 horse and oxen teams passed by each day. Many herds of cattle were also driven to market over the road to Chicago.

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

Many notable people passed through Fullersburg including Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Lincoln spoke from a hotel porch in 1858 on his way west to Ottawa. By 1860, Fullersburg had become one of the leading communities of DuPage County. Its buildings included 15 to 20 houses, two hotels, three taverns, a post office, a blacksmith shop, a school, a cemetery, and a grist mill. 

Though never incorporated in its own name, the area is historically important to the development of Hinsdale and Oak Brook, Illinois. 

To save the farmhouse from demolition by encroaching commercial development, the structure was relocated to land owned by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County from its original location in 1980.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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NOTE:
Because the Naperville Road (Ogden Avenue) was the main trail west from Chicago, it was the first road to be covered with wooden planks by the South Western Plank Road Company, and consequently called the Southwestern Plank Road. The road was completed in 1850 and extended from Bull's Head Tavern at Ogden and Madison in Chicago, to Brush Hill (later Fullersburg, Illinois). 

The Southwestern Plank Road was a one-lane road, eight feet wide and constructed of planks three inches thick. A tollgate was located at Joliet and Ogden Avenues and charged the following tolls: 

37¢ - Carriage pulled by two horses.
25¢ - Carriage, cart, or buggy pulled by one horse. 
10¢ - Horse and rider. 
 4¢ - Head of cattle. 
 3¢ - Sheep. 

The plank road was later connected to another plank road at Fullersburg. This was the Oswego Plank Road that reached Naperville.

Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue at Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois. (1872-1892)

The Interstate Exposition Building, the city's first convention center, was constructed by William W. Boyington in 1872.

Michigan Avenue looking north from Jackson Street. The Interstate Industrial Exposition Building is on the right, 1891.

The glass and metal building with ornamental domes was based on exposition buildings in London and New York and was designed to house annual displays of industrial manufacturers.

Ground Plan of the Great Industrial Exposition Building Showing Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue.

The Exposition was opened to the public in September of 1872, and the receipts from the sales of tickets and other sources that year was $175,402. The total expenditures on account of building and running the building were $345,927, leaving a deficit of $170,525 for the first year.

Inside Boyington’s Interstate Industrial Exposition Building.

Interior of the Building, Looking North From a Central Point Under the Dome. (1873)

The promoters of the enterprise were not discouraged and proceeded to improve the building and prepare for an exposition the next year.

In order to make it the utmost value for exhibitors to display their manufactures and devices to the public, they originally adopted a policy of offering free space and power, which was adhered to.

The Exposition became self-sustaining in 1877. It was the only Exposition of the kind in the country that was self-sustaining, with the possible exception of the American Mechanics Institute of New York.

Interstate Industrial Exposition Building. (1873)

It served a variety of other functions, as an Illinois National Guard armory, the first home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the site of national political conventions in 1880 and 1884.

Looking north on Michigan Avenue towards Adams Street, Chicago. (1878)

Looking east on Adams Street from State Street, Chicago (1887). The domed building visible at the end of Adams Street is the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue.

Sheet Music Cover "Grand Exposition March" by Louis Falk

The Interstate Exposition Building was razed in 1892 to build the Art Institute (the World Congress Auxiliary) of the World's Columbian Exposition, which occupied the new building from May 1 to October 31, 1893, after which the Art Institute took possession on November 1, 1893. The Art Institute was officially opened to the public on December 8, 1893.

Are you interested in the Art Institutes Lions' History? They each have a name and were only moved twice since 1893.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.