Telegraph History of Chicago, Illinois, Began in 1848.

THE TELEGRAPH STARTED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF SAMUEL MORSE'S CODE
The idea of using electricity to communicate over distance is said to have occurred to Samuel F.B. Morse during a conversation aboard the ship when he returned from Europe in 1832. The U.S. Government wanted a communication system along its entire Atlantic coast and offered a prize of $30,000 ($767,000 today) for a workable proposal.

By December 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for the federal government's appropriation. He conducted demonstrations of his Telegraph in New York and Washington the following year.

However, when the economic disaster known as the Panic of 1837 took hold of the nation and caused a long depression, Morse was forced to wait for better times. During this period, Morse revisited Europe, tried to secure patent protection overseas, and examined competing telegraph systems in England. After meeting Charles Wheatstone, the inventor of one such electric telegraph system, Morse realized that although his main competitor had built an ingenious mechanism, his design was far simpler, more efficient, and easier to use.

Morse had hired the ingenious construction engineer Ezra Cornell to lay the pipe carrying the wire. Although Cornell did his job superbly, one of Morse's partners, Congressman F.O.J. Smith, had purchased wire with defective insulation. Too much time had been wasted laying bad wire, and with the project on a rigid deadline, something had to be done quickly. Cornell suggested that the fastest and cheapest way of connecting Washington and Baltimore was to string wires overhead on trees and poles. The desperate Morse gave the go-ahead, and the line was completed in time for the dramatic and spectacularly successful link between the Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol building and the railroad station in Baltimore.

Morse electrically transmitted his famous message "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844.

An 1844 Telegraph Key by Alfred Vail was used to tap out Morse Code for messages.

Soon, the overhead wires connected cities up and down the Atlantic coast. The dots-and-dashes method that recorded messages on a long-moving strip of paper was replaced. The operator interprets the code in real time and transcribes it into English letters as he hears it. The Telegraph soon extended westward. Within Morse's lifetime, the Telegraph wires connected the continents of Europe and America.

THE TELEGRAPH CAME TO CHICAGO IN 1848
The Telegraph, which received its first practical demonstration in 1844, came to Chicago in 1848. Telegraphy made possible instant communication with the East Coast and eventually with the entire country.

Daily newspapers began publishing next-day accounts of speeches, elections, and battles furnished by the Telegraph. During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a telegram from the mayor brought fire-fighting equipment from Milwaukee; when it was over, citizens lined up at a makeshift Western Union office to inform alarmed friends and relatives that they had survived.

July 25, 1850 - A Telegraph Communication

Chicago quickly became the eastern terminus of "western" communication and, by the 1880s, was the nation's second city in the sheer volume of messages. The Telegraph, in turn, promoted Chicago's economic growth. It proved critical in managing the long-distance railroad routes, which made Chicago a vital link between the Midwest and the East Coast.

Each telegraph company ran its own wires directly to each subscriber. Depending upon the area, a dozen telegraph companies could lay lines from the same poles.

Chicago companies, serving far-flung markets by rail, could coordinate their operations by Telegraph. Small-town storekeepers could obtain price information or place orders with their Chicago suppliers. In 1858 the Chicago Board of Trade began receiving market news from New York City by Telegraph. Now telegraphically disseminated, the board's grain and commodity prices propelled it to national prominence as a grain market. Traders could complete deals by Telegraph.

Telegraph Poles; Looking East from Clark Street, Chicago. May 10, 1869.
Completion of the Transcontinental Railway Celebration.

Chicago's resources and importance as a center of national telegraphic activity made it the home of the Western Union's central division. The city attracted and fostered a wealth of engineering and entrepreneurial talent. Chicago became a center for manufacturing telegraphic (and later telephonic) equipment when the predecessor of the Western Electric Company relocated from Cleveland in 1870.

State and Lake, pre-1871 Chicago Fire.

Most railroad stations served as telegraph offices, so residents of most neighborhoods and suburbs could send important messages anywhere in the metropolis. For instance, George Pullman instantly proposed sending a telegram to contact a group of employees near suburban Riverside. On the other hand, Evanstonians seeking information on the Great Chicago Fire were frustrated because the local telegraph office was closed.

70-foot telegraph poles were part of the cityscape in the early days.

In 1865, the Chicago Fire Department contracted to build fire alarm boxes employing telegraphic signals. Located throughout the city, they allowed citizens to report fires quickly.

The period from 1866 through 1900 was the apex of Western Union's telegraph power. Yearly messages sent over its lines nationally increased from 5.8 million in 1867 to 63.2 million in 1900. Over the same period, transmission rates fell from an average of $1.09 to 30¢ per message. Even with these lower prices, roughly 30¢ to 40¢ of every dollar revenue was net profit for the company. Western Union faced three threats during this period: increased government regulation, new entrants into the field of telegraphy, and new competition from the telephone.

In 1869 private line service became available in Chicago. The American District Telegraph Company soon offered affluent Chicagoans a home service, allowing them to summon a firefighter, private policeman, or messenger. Telegraphic communication with other Chicagoans was facilitated by the company's network of neighborhood offices and messengers.

In 1880 the Chicago Police Department began using call boxes on the streets. Citizens could report crimes only after obtaining keys to the boxes, which were selectively distributed; relatively few crime reports were made. More importantly, the boxes facilitated official communication among the police. Patrolmen were obliged to make hourly "duty calls" and were thus subject to stricter supervision. They could also summon a paddy wagon if they made an arrest. The call boxes used an innovative combination of telegraphic signaling for periodic messages and the telephone for unusual messages, a design adopted by police departments nationwide.

Telegraph operators with Barclay telegraph instruments, 1908.

The Telegraph flourished into the 1920s, but the Great Depression hit the industry hard and never recovered to its previous position. Additionally, the Telegraph diminished in relative importance as telephony grew more widespread. 

By 1940 Chicago had more than one million telephones in use, and 90 percent of fire alarms were telephoned to the Fire Department. Portable two-way radios finally rendered police call boxes obsolete, while other forms of telegraphy were largely superseded by more advanced electronic communications.

Additional Reading: Chicago and Evanston Telephone Exchange History, including name code meanings.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Crosby's Opera House and his lottery scheme, Chicago, Illinois (1865-1871)

The need for an opera house in Chicago had become more and more apparent as the population of the city got larger, and its wealth and taste had also increased. Chicago had always been a liberal patron of music, and its local celebrities, as well as foreign artists, found a public always willing to greet them and to make that greeting substantial.

In 1863, Uranus H. Crosby of Chicago, a gentleman of means and of great enterprise, conceived the idea of building in this city an edifice of this kind, which, while designed to be of personal profit to its projector, should also be a credit and an ornament to the city, and give stability to the growing interest of the fine arts. Filled with this most honorable ambition, he, in company with W. W. Boyington, Esq., an architect of Chicago, visited the other cities of the country, examining with care all the buildings erected for like purposes, profiting alike by the practical excellencies and the practical defects which they witnessed.

The opera house was built on Washington Street between Dearborn and State Streets on Chicago's Block 37.

Kinsley's Restaurant, next door to Crosby Opera House, was one of the best known

and most popular places of its kind in the city.

Crosby Opera House Main Entrance on Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois.

The result of this careful and deliberate examination was the plan of the present building, which, without exception, is generally acknowledged as the best-designed structure of the kind in America. It embraces all the conveniences and excellencies of the various similar establishments and a few of their deficiencies as possible. The front of the building combines simplicity with massiveness, and the ornamental designs are sufficiently elaborate and yet do not, as is too often the case, spoil the general effect.

In the center is a projection that is twenty-three feet wide, through which is an arched entrance to the building. Upon the parapet above this entrance are placed four statues representing respectively Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Commerce. These were designed and executed by L. W. Volk, a sculpture of Chicago. Higher in this same central projection are two large figures, also designed by Volk, representing Music and Drama. These are placed on each side of an elaborate dormer window (see illustration above).

Looking West on Washington Street from Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois.

Looking West on Washington Street from Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois.

On the ground floor are four large halls or stores, each thirty feet front by one hundred and eighty feet deep, and sixteen feet high.

Looking East on Washington Street from State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

These are occupied respectively by Root and Cady, J. Bauer and Company, and W. W. Kimball, like music and piano stores, and by H. M. Kinsley’s celebrated and elegant confectionery, ice cream and dining establishment.

The second floor of the main building is occupied by the offices of real estate, insurance, millinery, and others. The third floor is similarly occupied. The fourth floor is devoted to the studios of artists, the following persons being now there: George P. A. Healy, J. H. Drury, C. Highwood, J. R. Sloan, Mrs. S. H. St. John, P. F. Reed, J. H. Reed, H. C. Ford, John Antrobus, E. Seibert, and D. F. Bigelow. On this same floor is a very fine Art Gallery, thirty feet wide by sixty feet long and eighteen feet high. It is admirably arranged for the purposes to which it is devoted. It is filled with the works of the artists of this and other cities and is one of the most attractive exhibitions of Chicago.

Looking East on Washington Street from State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

In the rear of the building is the Opera House, from which the whole edifice takes its name. Passing through the main entrance, already described, to the next floor, a spacious corridor is reached, which is richly ornamented with frescoes, mirrors, and statues. From this corridor, open to the right two most spacious and richly furnished toilet rooms for ladies and gentlemen. On the left of the corridor are three large doorways through which the visitor enters the auditorium of the Opera House. The effect which is produced by the appearance of the hall, upon opera night, when filled by an audience is very fine. There are seats for 3,000 people. It is, in all its parts and appointments, the finest theater in the country and has been so pronounced by all the artists who have seen it. It must, in fact, be seen to be greatly justly appreciated. No description, no matter how elaborate, will convey that sufficient idea of it that is once obtained by a personal view. It has that rare advantage that a person in any part of the hall, whether in the topmost seat of the gallery or on either side or in the most remote part of the lobby, can see and hear everything that passes on the stage. The view is wholly unobstructed.

The dimensions of the auditorium were eighty-six feet by ninety-five feet and sixty-five feet high. The ceiling is a triumph of art. It is crowned by a central dome, some twenty-eight feet in diameter. This dome is encircled by panels bearing portraits of Beethoven, Mozart, Auber, Weber, Verdi, Wagner, Gounod, Gluck, Bellini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, and Rossini, and the other parts of the ceiling are richly frescoed and molded-in gilt. Directly in front of the stage and over the orchestra is a painting forty feet long. from the “Aurora” of Guido Reni, the panels on either side of which are filled with allegorical representations of Tragedy and Comedy.

The stage is extensive and convenient and supplied with every facility. There are six proscenium boxes. The main floor is apportioned to the orchestra, the parquette, and the dress circle, the parquette rising from the orchestra to nearly the height of the circle. The second floor is the balcony circle, the center of which is divided into fifty-six private boxes; these immediately front the stage. On the next floor is the family circle, which, though elevated, is none the less convenient. It is comfortable and admirably adapted to hearing and seeing what passes on the stage. The gallery fronts are protected and, at the same time, handsomely ornamented with open wire-work, painted in white and gold, and cushioned with blue silk.

The arrangements for heating and lighting this building are complete and have proved most successful. The entire number of burners is lighted by one operation of a gas apparatus. The means of exit from the Opera House are various and so arranged that in case of an alarm or of actual danger, the audience may get out of the building without confusion, easily, expeditiously, and safely. In addition, there has been added to the building another wing, fronting on State street, and containing a fine music or concert hall, fifty by ninety feet, with galleries on three sides.

This magnificent edifice was built in 1864-5 and was ready for occupancy in March of 1865. The cost of the entire building and site was nearly, if not quite, $700,000 ($13,028,000 today), a sum that financially ruined Crosby.

The inauguration of the Opera House was intended to have taken place on the night of Monday, April 17th, 1865. The death of President Abraham Lincoln, which took place on the previous Saturday, caused it to be postponed until Thursday, April 20th, when it was opened by Gran’s Italian Opera troupe, the opera is “Il Trovatore.”

Giuseppe Verdi'a "IL TROVATORE"

The Complete Opera.

Previous to the opera, and as soon as the orchestra had taken their seats, there was a universal call by the densely packed audience for Mr. Crosby. That gentleman appeared, and as soon as the applause which had greeted him had subsided, he made a brief and excellent address in acknowledgment of the compliment. He declined to make a speech, preferring, as he said, to let the building speak for itself. His personal object, as a businessman of Chicago, had been to use every effort in his power to promote the interests, elevate the tastes, and conduce to the happiness of the great city in which he had cast his lot. He introduced to the audience the Honorable George C. Bates, who read a poem written for the occasion by W. H. C. Hostner, the “Bard of Avon.” The audience assembled on that evening was undoubtedly the most numerous and brilliant ever assembled on a like occasion in this city.

The opera house and Crosby had trouble turning a profit, so in 1866, Crosby's backers proposed a lottery to raise money. The Crosby Opera House Art Association was formed to conduct the lottery.

Advertisement in the 1866 Harper's Weekly.

Crosby Opera House $5 Lottery Ticket (today: $90 per ticket), a large sum of money for the time.

The prizes weren't small; in fact, the grand prize was the building itself. 210,000 tickets were sold at $5 each, with Crosby having been given 25,593 tickets, so he had a chance to win the building and its contents back.

Rather than think they were gambling, patrons were encouraged to believe they were promoting culture. For a $5 donation, you received an engraving of a famous painting, a lottery ticket and an illustrated catalog of prizes.

The drawing was scheduled for October 11, 1866. Then Crosby announced it would be delayed two months. He said the demand for tickets made him extend the deadline. More likely, he simply hadn’t sold enough of them. In the meantime, the public was invited to visit the Opera House to examine the treasures they might soon possess.

Crosby finally sold a total of 210,000 tickets. The public had bought over $1,000,000 in chances on a $700,000 building.

Lottery Drawing - January 21, 1867.

The drawing, a major event, was held on January 21, 1867. The city came to a halt so that people could see who the big winners were. Crosby had enlisted distinguished citizens to perform the drawing. At precisely 11am, the first ticket-number was pulled out of a drum on stage. Then a prize ticket was pulled out of a second drum and matched with the winner. This went on until 112 pieces of art had been awarded.

Then it was time for the big prize—the Opera House itself. Ticket #58,600 was pulled, but the winner was not present.

The winner of the building was Abraham Hagermann Lee of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. There was no telegraph office in Prairie du Rocher, so a messenger had to be sent on horseback. When the news arrived with Lee, he was at home caring for his sick wife. He soon made the trip to Chicago to meet with Crosby. Lee told Crosby that he had no interest in leaving his wife to come to Chicago to take possession of the opera house. The two men struck a deal; Lee relinquished his claim to Crosby for the sum of $200,000. 

Subtracting the $200,000 given to Lee, Crosby paid off the construction costs, pocketed a $100,000 profit, and still owned the Opera House. Of course, there were questions about whether Abraham Lee even existed.

When Lee returned to Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, he made plans to build a grand residence. He chose a spot below the bluffs and had a house built for him and his wife. Lee died in 1869, and the house was bought by F.W. Brickey, Lee's partner in Prairie du Rocher's grain mill. The house then became known as the Brickey house.

Historic Abraham Hagermann Lee Mansion in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. (1868-1970)

The Brickeys lived there for many decades, but the house was eventually abandoned, furnishings and all. It began to decay and was eventually destroyed by fire in 1970.

Crosby's Opera House, meanwhile, began to turn a profit. It hosted major performances and the 1868 Republican National Convention. In 1870, Crosby spent $80,000 to have it renovated. The Crosby Opera House turned on its gaslights for the first time since it began it’s summer-long renovation just a few hours before the Great Chicago Fire hit. It was scheduled to open with a performance on October 9, 1871, but as we all know, something else happened on October 8, 1871. The Chicago Fire destroyed the opera house. It was never rebuilt. 

Shortly afterward, Uranus Crosby left Chicago and settled in Massachusetts. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Chicago Philanthropist, Anita McCormick Blaine, (1866-1954)

Innovations in educational thought matched those made in science on campus in the early decades of the twentieth century. Educational reformer John Dewey's appointment to the faculty in 1894 signaled a substantial commitment by the University of Chicago to test new teaching practices and to implement new pedagogical theories. Indeed, creating the Laboratory School under Dewey's leadership immediately put the University on the national educational map. But to sustain Dewey's high ambitions, University administrators needed the financial resources that only a major philanthropist could provide.

Into the breach stepped Anita McCormick Blaine (Mrs. Emmons Blaine). The daughter of industrialist Cyrus Hall McCormick and his wife Nettie, Blaine, made a substantial gift for a building to house the University Elementary School and University High School on campus—Emmons Blaine Hall.

Moreover, Blaine also provided funds to subsidize the University's programmatic work in education, a welcome expansion of the horizon of philanthropy beyond that of the first cohort of Chicago donors, whose gifts had been mainly directed to building construction.

The cause of improving primary and secondary education deeply interested Anita McCormick Blaine, perhaps a reflection of the minimal education she received as a child. Believing that the existing methods of primary instruction were ineffective, Blaine searched for the right person to be her standard bearer, and she found him in Colonel Francis Wayland Parker. Since the 1870s, Parker had experimented with new teaching methods, rejecting the idea that students learned best by rote memorization. Parker's unconventional opinions (e.g., his rejection of the traditional division of subjects, his emphasis on parental involvement, and his insistence on practical learning) attracted much criticism. Blaine became an ardent and enthusiastic supporter. In 1899, she urged Parker to establish a unique private school on the city's North Side, in which she could enroll her son, Emmons, offering to fund the plan herself.

With Blaine's patronage, Parker opened the Chicago Institute in 1900 in a rented German Turngemeinde, or athletic club, on North Wells Street. Plans had been developed for an impressive new building and elaborate curriculum for the Institute, but when expenses skyrocketed, Blaine and Parker began to consider alternate possibilities. They found a resolution to their dilemma in a plan by William Rainey Harper to incorporate the school within the University of Chicago as a part of its educational program. Blaine then announced that she would transfer her pledged investment of $700,000 in the Chicago Institute to the University of Chicago.

University of Chicago, Blaine Hall from Scammon Court.

By 1901, Blaine and Parker's enterprise had been merged with Dewey's experimental school, laying the foundations for the University's School of Education and the modern Laboratory Schools of today. All that remained was for the new entities to receive a worthy and permanent home, which they acquired in 1904 with the completion of Emmons Blaine Hall. At the building's dedication ceremony, Blaine clarified her role in establishing the School of Education. "I did not found it," she affirmed. "I simply found it."

Anita McCormick Blaine, daughter of Cyrus McCormick,
and her son Emmons Blaine, with their dog, Chicago. 1898

Ever a political, social, and religious non-conformist, Blaine supported a profit-sharing system for her family's reaper business, instituted an eight-hour day for her household staff, became interested in spiritualism, and supported leftist politicians. Her endorsement of progressive Henry Wallace for President of the United States in 1948 perplexed even her closest friends and drew harsh criticism from right-wing commentators. But Anita McCormick Blaine became an avid proponent of world government and international accord and remained committed to the cause for the rest of her life.

Anita McCormick Blaine died on February 12, 1954, and is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Gayety Theater and Soda Shop, 9205 South Commercial Avenue, Chicago.

The Gayety Theatre opened in 1908 as a vaudeville and a one screen motion picture theatre with 823 seats. The Gayety Theatre was located in Chicago's South neighborhood’s main retail district.

Next door to the theatre was the equally-popular Gayety Soda Shop.

The theatre was remodelled in 1937 to the plans of Chicago based architect Lawrence Monberg of architectural firm Monberg & Wagner.

In 1957, the Gayety Theatre switched from first-run features to Spanish-language films, reflecting the change in the populace of the neighborhood from heavily Eastern European to mainly Latino. It was from then on called the Teatro Gayety.

A fire gutted the Teatro Gayety in May of 1982, and the theatre was demolished not long after, replaced by a restaurant.

 

Looking south-east on Milwaukee Avenue from Chicago Avenue, Chicago. 1910

Looking south-east on Milwaukee Avenue from Chicago Avenue, Chicago. 1910