The History of the Lincoln Park Gun Club of Chicago, Illinois.

In 1912 Oscar F. Mayer, W. C. Peacock, P. K. Wrigley and other prominent Chicagoans built a remarkable shooting facility called the Lincoln Park Traps (LPT) on Chicago’s lakefront, where they had begun to play a new, unnamed sport. The club was located near Diversey Harbor at 2901 N. Lake Shore Drive.

By 1918, it was common to hear the pop, pop, pop of gun fire on the lakefront, the sound of which was muffled by the big lake that absorbed and deadened the explosive sound of firing.

The Chicagoans were enjoying a sport started by Charles E. Davies, an avid grouse hunter, who invented a shooting game in 1915 using live pigeons. In 1926, a contest was held to name the sport. Gertrude Hurlbutt won the contest with the name “Skeet,” which is derived from the Scandinavian word for shoot.

Lincoln Park Gun Club, Chicago, Illinois. 1929

There were two kinds of shooting at the club: trap and skeet. In trap, the target is thrown straight out over the water, so you are shooting as it moves away from you. With skeet shooting, the target goes from side to side, so you have to pan. In both cases, the target is a clay pigeon.

The Park District took over the property in 1934 and the club was open to the public.

The Lincoln Park Gun Club, Chicago, Illinois. 1948

The lakefront was dredged in 1947 to remove and gather the accumulated lead, with disputes taking place over who would benefit from the $150,000 for the sale of the recovered scrap metal. Five hundred tons of lead was recovered. Lead was then selling for $300 a ton.

By the 1940s, Skeet was used by the U.S. military to teach novice gunners the principle of leading and timing flying targets.

In February 1991, then Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris sued the club for allegedly polluting the lake with lead shot. The Chicago Park District immediately shut down the club until it could prove its activities were safe and also insisted it pay to have the lakefront dredged. Members charged that the shutdown was not due to pollution, but because of guns.

The gun club filed suit against the park district; however their suit was dismissed. The following summer, most of the club's buildings were demolished by the park district.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Opening of the Niles Center (Skokie) Train Service in 1925.

The opening festivities around the ‘L’ service being brought to Niles Center in 1925. Service on the North Shore Line’s Skokie Valley Route also passed through here, and the 'L’ shared track out to this location. (Niles Centre, Incorporated 1888; Americanized to Niles Center1910; Renamed to Skokie 1940)

The Niles Center route originally had several stops, but after 'L’ service had been discontinued along it in the 1940s (though, the North Shore Line continued to use it through 1963), the route was reopened with 'L’ service as the CTA Skokie Swift in 1964. The Swift was an experimental service to connect suburban drivers via Park & Ride to Chicago via high-speed rapid transit services. It was a successful experiment, and was kept as a regular CTA service. Today, it’s officially known as the Yellow Line, but many experienced riders still refer to it as the “Skokie Swift.”

The station building in the left of the photo, while moved a short distance, still survives today at the end of the Yellow Line as a retail/commercial property while trains serve a modest and modern, accessible facility in approximately this same location.

Panoramic view of Chicago taken from the roof of the Insurance Exchange Building. 1912

Panoramic view of Chicago taken from the roof of the Insurance Exchange Building. 1912
Click photo to see in full size.

The Cudahy Memorial Library, Loyola University of Chicago, Illinois.

Cudahy Memorial Library, Loyola University of Chicago, 1032 West Sheridan Road, Chicago, Illinois.

The Elizabeth M. Cudahy Memorial Library is the main library of Loyola University Chicago, and houses the university's fine arts, humanities, science and social sciences collections as well as the University Archives and government document depository collections.

The Cudahy physical collections comprise more than 900,000 volumes and 3,200 periodical subscriptions.

Dedicated on June 8, 1930, the Library was designed by Architect Andrew N. Rebori of the architectural firm of Rebori, Wentworth, Dewey and McCormick.

In contrast to the classical style of other buildings on the Loyola University Chicago Lake Shore campus, Rebori designed an Art Deco building. The library is constructed of concrete and structural steel with an exterior of limestone. The interior walls consist of Mankato stone. 

North Lake Shore Drive - from the Top of the John Hancock Building.

North Lake Shore Drive - from the Top of the John Hancock Building.