The Chicago Pedway is a network of tunnels, ground-level concourses, and bridges connecting skyscrapers, retail stores, hotels and train stations throughout the central business district of Chicago, Illinois. With a length of more than 40 downtown blocks, it contains shops, restaurants, and public art and helps pedestrians in inclement weather. Most connections to the pedway are commercial or government buildings, including hotels. Columbus Plaza, The Heritage at Millennium Park, the Park Millennium, 200 North Dearborn Apartments, and Aqua are the only residential buildings connected to the pedway. The oldest portions of the Pedway, aside from the interiors of some included buildings, are the corridors between State and Dearborn Streets, linking Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line and Blue Line stations at Washington and Lake Streets and at Jackson Street. These were constructed with the subways; while the completion and outfitting of the Blue Line under Dearborn Street were interrupted by rationing in World War II, the two mezzanine connector tunnels were opened and linked the Red Line under State Street to the sidewalks of Dearborn Street.
Construction on the pedway proper began in 1951 and has continued since then, especially after the expansion was included in both 1968's Transit Planning Study: Chicago Central Area and the Chicago 21 Plan introduced in 1973.
The smaller but more elaborate eastern section of the pedway connecting the Illinois Center buildings, Hyatt Regency, Fairmont Hotel, Swissôtel and (later) Aqua, was not directly accessible from the main (Loop-centric) pedway network, although each linked to one end of the Metra Electric Line rail platforms, controlled by turnstiles and inaccessible without paying the fare. Since the Regional Transportation Authority's removal of the turnstiles in November 2003, the two large pedway sections have been united by the platforms.
Entrance from the North-South (Red Line) subway to the Pedway and Marshall Field's.
The southern reach of the main network was reduced when the 2nd-floor passage across Madison Street, linking Three First National Plaza with Bank One Plaza (now Chase Tower), was removed after the two buildings restricted public access to upper levels. The tunnels between Chase Tower and Two First National Plaza remain but are closed to the general public. Chase Tower is still connected to the Blue Line subway and to the restaurant structure in the south-west corner of the adjoining Exelon Plaza, and public access is permitted during workday hours. Numerous smaller pedways throughout the central business district are not connected to the main network. These include the tunnel below Quincy Street and the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, connecting the Red and Blue Lines' Jackson Street stations; within and between the Ogilvie Transportation Center and 2 North Riverside Plaza; within and between the Merchandise Mart and Apparel Center; and the passageways under Chase Tower's Exelon Plaza. Points of entry and exit for the Pedway include:
One North Dearborn Street
One North State Street
2 North Riverside Plaza
One Prudential Plaza (130 East Randolph Street)
Two First National Plaza
Two Prudential Plaza (180 North Stetson Avenue)
Three First National Plaza (70 West Madison Street)
25 East Washington Street
77 West Wacker Drive
120 North LaSalle
139 North Wabash Avenue
150 North Michigan Avenue
200 North Dearborn Apartments
201 North Clark Street
203 North LaSalle Street
303 East Wacker Drive
Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street)
Aqua
Block 37 shopping mall at 108 North State Street
Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower (300 East Randolph Street)
Boulevard Towers
Chase Tower
City Hall/County Building
Chicago Cultural Center (formerly main library & GAR memorial)
Chicago Title and Trust Center (181 North Clark Street)
Columbus Plaza
Richard J. Daley Bicentennial Plaza
Richard J. Daley Center (50 West Washington Street)
Front of Dirksen Federal Building (interior not connected) (219 South Dearborn St.)
George W. Dunne Cook County Administration Building (69 West Washington Street)
Fairmont Hotel Chicago
Grant Park underground parking garages
The Heritage at Millennium Park (130 North Garland Court)
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Illinois Center
Lake CTA Red Line station
Leo Burnett Building (35 West Wacker Drive)
Macy's in the Marshall Field and Company Building
Millennium Park
Ogilvie Transportation Center (500 West Madison Street)
Millennium Station (formerly Randolph Street Terminal)
Park Millennium
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel (formerly Stouffer Riviere)
The Jackknife bridge, designed by William Scherzer and built in 1895, spanned the South Branch of the Chicago River between Jackson and Van Buren Streets. It had two side-by-side double railroad tracks used by Chicago elevated 'L' trains until the late 1950s.
The two halves resembled a pair of gigantic steel face-to-face rocking chairs, which rocked back and away from each other when opening. The bridge no longer exists. Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
In 1906 the Chicago Automobile Trade Association with the Chicago Motor Club and Chicago Automobile club decided it was about time to field test the many models of cars being made available to the public. Using the hill climbing contests would be an additional marketing approach to entice prospective automobile buyers into purchasing "the best in the field" for their own personal use. Power, endurance and speed were major selling points for the automobile maker.
Automobiles involved in the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest lining a road.
The association and Motor Club started searching the Chicago area for hills and steep roads. Hills and roads were found in Algonquin, Illinois; a sleepy little town on the Fox River met their criteria need to qualify for hill climb contests, close to Chicago, steep hills, good roads from Chicago, a railroad, and hotel accommodations for drivers and spectators, two large towns nearby to cater to the overflow. What more could the club wish for when planning this regional event? So began the first organized auto hill climb contest west of the east coast.
Crowds sitting in and standing next to s parked behind a wire fence on a field during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
The year 1909 was the zenith of all the seven hill climb contests with 85 cars entering representing 26 different manufacturers. (Note: Up until this time, there were no road signs showing the way to Algonquin. The Chicago Automobile Club completed an association project to create road signs to help expected auto traffic to find their way to the Hill Climb competitions.) Due to the expected large number of spectators attending the 1909 Hill Climbs that could result in injuries and mishaps, the Auto Club petitioned and was granted by the Governor of Illinois to release Company E of the 3rd Illinois Infantry stationed in Elgin to help crowd control during the practice and competition.
Driver Edgar Apperson sitting in the driver's seat of an Apperson Automobile during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
Driver J C Vaughn sitting in an at the starting line on a road during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
Over 20,000 spectators descended upon this little village on Auto Day. The Chicago Northwestern ran special trains from Chicago to Elgin to bring spectators into the Algonquin area. The Morton House and Riverview Hotels as well as the hotels in Elgin and Crystal Lake were filled to overflowing. Several villagers opened their homes also to accommodate the overflow. Villagers rented their barns to these men and their dust throwing machines.
Driver George Salzman driving an Thomas-Flyer Automobile during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
In 1910 The American Auto Association designated the Algonquin Hill Climb as a National Event sanctioned by the Automobile Association of America. Only two other events bore this badge -- The Glidden Tour and the Elgin National Stock Chassis Road Races.
Driver J H Seek driving a National up a dirt road on a hill during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
The hill climb took place on two hills, i.e., Perry Hill one mile south of Algonquin and Phillips Hill (Route 31 North). Later after a dispute with Dundee Township in 1909, the use of Perry Hill was discontinued and replaced with a new hill, the Algonquin Hill (Huntington Drive or Jayne's Hill).
Driver Moukmier driving a Staver Automobile up a hill during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
The use of hill climbs began to decline in 1911 when they outlived their usefulness and purpose. As automobiles became faster and more powerful, the hills no longer afforded much of a challenge to the newer vehicles. In 1913 the last contest was cancelled with 20 entries and the Algonquin Hill Climb association surrendered its charter and disappeared into history.
Crowds standing in front of the Morton House during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
However, in those few short years, Algonquin made a name for itself in the annals of automobile history. One of the Algonquin trophies can still be seen at the Ford Museum display in Dearborn, Michigan.
Driver Walter White driving a White Steamer Automobile during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
The Algonquin Historic Commission was fortunate in being able to acquire the 1908 divisional trophy, which can be viewed in the Commission's display case at the Historic Village Hall. Arthur W. Greiner of Elgin won the trophy.
Crowds standing in front of the Morton House during the Algonquin Hill Climbing Contest.
After John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincolnon April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and his passing on Saturday, April 15, 1865, Mary Lincoln departed Washington by train to Chicago with her son Thomas 'Tad.' They moved into the Tremont House [Hotel].
Tremont House at the Southeast corner of Lake and Dearborn Streets in Chicago. Circa 1865
Later, Mary and Tad moved into the Hyde Park Hotel with Robert Todd Lincoln. Robert moved into his own residence by the end of 1865 at 653 South Wabash Avenue (today's address on the 1200 block of South Wabash Avenue), Chicago. In 1866, Mary purchased a house for $17,000 ($300,700 today) at 375 West Washington Boulevard (today's address is 1238 West Washington Boulevard) in Chicago, located between Willard Court (Ann Street) and Elizabeth Street.
In May of 1867, Mary rented out her house, and they moved into the Clifton House Hotel at the southeast corner of Wabash and Madison. Later that year, they moved back to her old neighborhood and lived at 460 West Washington (today's address is 1407 West Washington Boulevard), across the street from Union Park at Ogden Avenue. Again in 1868, Mary and Tad moved back to the Clifton House Hotel. Mary Lincoln and Tad, then 15 years old, took a trip to Europe departing Baltimore aboard the steamer "City of Baltimore" on October 1, 1868. The ship arrived at Southampton, England, on October 15th. Two weeks later, Mary and Tad arrived in Bremen, Germany, and from there, they traveled to Frankfurt. Mother and son lived in the Hotel d'Angleterre (five-star accommodations), which was located in the center of the town.
Splendid New First Rate Hotel Building.
While in Frankfurt, Tad attended school and boarded at Dr. Johann Heinrich Hohagen's Institute. For a time, Mary moved to Nice, but she returned to Frankfurt. This time, she avoided the expensive Hotel d'Angleterre and stayed in the more modest Hotel de Holland and was more frugal in her spending habits. In the summer of 1869, Mary and Tad spent seven weeks touring Scotland during Tad's vacation from Dr. Hohagen's school. They traveled from one end of Scotland to the other, exploring Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Highlands near Balmoral. They returned to the United States in May of 1871. The return trip from Liverpool to New York was made aboard the "Russia," which held the transatlantic record of 8 days and 25 minutes for the Liverpool to New York run, but Mary's trip took a couple of days longer because of poor weather. On May 11th, Mary and Tad arrived in port, and on May 15th they left for Chicago. It seems Tad had caught a cold during the ocean voyage and was not well when he arrived in Chicago. By late May, Tad developed difficulty breathing when lying down and had to sleep sitting up in a chair. By early June, he was dangerously ill. He then rallied for a short time. As July approached, he weakened again. Tad's pain and agony worsened as his face grew thinner. On Saturday morning, July 15, 1871, Tad passed away at the age of 18. The cause of death was most likely tuberculosis. Tad's death occurred in the Clifton House Hotel in Chicago. Thomas Lincoln was buried at the Lincoln Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery at 1500 Monument Avenue in Springfield, Illinois.
Mary was staying at Robert's house on Wabash Avenue after Tad's death when, on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire started behind the O'Leary house at 137 DeKoven Street (today's address is 558 West DeKoven Street) in their barn. Believe it or not, the O'Leary house escaped the fire untouched, and I have the photograph to prove it. Robert's house was just one block south and two blocks east of the burnt area. Robert and Mary were home when the fire started. Robert quickly ran out to try to get to his law office located at 154 Lake Street in the Marine Bank Building on the northeast corner of Lake and LaSalle to save what he could. But when he managed to get there, the building was already burnt to the ground. Lost forever were some of his father's letters and other keepsakes.
Because of the thick, choking smoke, neighbors panicked and rushed to Lake Michigan, a couple of blocks to the east, to avoid the thick, choking smoke. It's unclear if Mary stayed in Robert's house or if she went with neighbors to the lakefront. Both Mary and Robert survived, as did Robert's house, unscathed. In 1874, Mary was living at the new Grand Central Hotel on LaSalle Street. On April 6, 1874, she sold her old house on Washington Street.
The Grand Central Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
Just 10 years after Lincoln's assassination, his widow, Mary, was charged with insanity and put on trial in Chicago. The accuser was her only surviving son, Robert Lincoln. The trial was held on May 19, 1875, and she had received no prior warning or chance to organize a defense. The jury deliberated for only 10 minutes, and then she was institutionalized at Bellevue Place Asylum [1] in Batavia, Illinois. Mary was released in less than 4 months, but mother and son never reconciled.
NOTE: All Chicago addresses in this story are before the 1909 & 1911 Chicago street renaming and renumbering to today's standard. 1909 Chicago Street Renaming Document
[1] Bellevue Place Asylum - On May 20, 1875, she arrived at Bellevue Place, 333 South Jefferson Street, Batavia, Illinois, a private, upscale sanitarium in the Fox River Valley.
Bellevue Place as it appeared at about the time Mrs. Lincoln was there. This drawing was used on the sanitarium's letterheads during the 1880s.
In 1854, while the Lincoln family lived in Springfield, this building was constructed of Batavia limestone at a cost of $20,000. It first housed a private academy called the Batavia Institute. By 1867 it became Bellevue Place, a rest home and sanitarium run by Dr. Richard J. Patterson, one of the physicians who advised Robert Todd Lincoln. The building changed owners several times after Mary Lincoln's stay in 1875 and has been converted into apartments. It is not open for tours.
After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the city was in ruins. The first fire, the Saturday Night Fire on October 7th and the Great Chicago Fire on the 8th had struck in early October, and winter was coming. Just over 90,000 people lost their homes. Tens of thousands of people left the city, and others were taken in by friends.
The Chicago General Committee and the Chicago Relief and Aid Society stepped in to provide kits – plans and materials – so people could build their own shelter cottages (aka 'fire relief shelters' and 'fire relief cottages').
They came in two sizes; both were tiny, small ($100 or $2,165 today) and smaller ($75 or $1,622 today). The kits contained pre-cut lumber, windows, a door, a chimney and a flexible room partition offering a modicum of privacy. The 12-by-16 foot (192 sq ft) model was for those with families of three or fewer; the 16-by-20 foot (320 sq ft) version was for everyone else. More than 5,200 of these cottages were built in the month following October 18, 1871. They didn't last long, as people moved on to more permanent housing. This one is located at 216 W Menomonee Street, in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago.
Year Built: 1872 (estimated)
Estimate Value: $687,250 (2016 Cook County Assessor's Office)
2,800 sq ft lot
780 sq ft house, including a basement (140 sq ft total add-ons to the front & rear)
1 Bed.
1 Bath.
Full and unfinished basement.
This Old Town cottage is one of the two remaining free-standing fire cottages left. The other is an in-law/guest flat in a nearby backyard.
ARTICLE With its cheerful yellow clapboard facade and white picket fence, the little house on Menomonee Street seems a bit lost among the imposing stone buildings and brick townhouses that surround it, as if it were dropped into the Old Town section of the city from another place and time. "How cute!" passers-by often remark, even if they're alone. There's just something about it that makes people stop and smile.
So it isn't surprising that David Hawkanson immediately knew which house his real estate agent was talking about when she suggested the reasonably priced but somewhat impractical one-bedroom cottage. This was in early 2007, and he was in a bit of a pickle, still living in an extended-stay condominium a few years into his tenure as executive director of the Steppenwolf Theater Company. People were starting to talk.
"One of the trustees suggested it would be good for my reputation if I actually put down roots," said Mr. Hawkanson, 67. So he decided to take it as a sign when he learned that the curious little house that drew him to Old Town in the first place was suddenly on the market. "Something in my gut told me, 'This is just what you want right now!'" he said.
The idea of living smaller and owning less was so exhilarating he bought the 780-square-foot house that afternoon and then rushed home to make a list of the things he could not live without. It was a bit like eloping after a boozy first date, for there was so much he didn't know about the house and its origins. He certainly had no idea about the extent of its celebrity, which made living there, as a previous owner had observed, "like living in a fishbowl."
That would all come later, long after he realized that the large Robert Kelly painting on his must-keep list would not fit on a single interior wall. Although the house is an anomaly today, back in the fall of 1871, thousands of others exactly like it was being slapped together in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire that had burned for two days that October, claiming about 300 lives and leaving one-third of the city's 300,000 residents homeless.
The idea behind the kits, which were distributed, often for free, by the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, was to get the city back on its feet as quickly as possible. By mid-November, some 5,200 cottages had gone up; by May of 1872, 3,000 more had been built. "The whole idea of framing mass numbers of buildings quickly using dimensional lumber, that's a development that happened in the 19th century," said John Russick, director of curatorial affairs for the Chicago History Museum. "Immediately, they were building the wooden city again using the resources at hand."
But it wasn't long before city leaders realized they were repeating an earlier mistake, he said, and new building codes soon outlawed clapboard construction downtown. Old Town was still a bit of a rural outpost, and the ban on wood did not take effect there until 1874, the year Mr. Hawkanson's house was recorded as having been built. Historians and neighborhood preservation advocates are convinced that a number of these cottages are still around. Still, most of them have been obscured by renovations or have become unrecognizable over time. Mr. Hawkanson's and another a few blocks away, in a backyard on Sedgwick Street, are the only two thought to look remotely as they did in the years following the fire. And "David's is the supreme-o one," said Diane Gonzalez, a neighbor and architectural tour guide.
Given how many of its owners have wanted to alter or demolish the house, it's remarkable that it still exists, let alone resembles its original self. Credit goes to those like Ms. Gonzalez and Shirley Baugher, an Old Town historian and author, who fought for landmark protection for the neighborhood; now, street-facing facades of structures deemed historically significant cannot be substantially changed without approval from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Ms. Gonzalez, for one, was thrilled to learn that Mr. Hawkanson was single and had no children because she reasoned that meant he would not want to alter the home's appearance or size, as others have tried (and failed) to do. At one point, Ms. Baugher said, an owner sought permission to connect the house to the detached garage and add an extra story, putting a sign in the window that read, "This is not a landmark." Even so, there are a number of changes that have been made in the years since Mr. Hambrock built the house using the larger of the two kits, Ms. Baugher wrote in "At Home in Our Old Town: Every House Has a Story." A kitchen was added in 1900, a bathroom and garage extension in 1930, and a bay window later that century. Jens Bogehegn, who sold the house to Mr. Hawkanson in early 2007, gut-renovated it in 2002, creating an open living area and combining two tiny bedrooms. (With a second child on the way, he and his wife thought they had no choice but to sell.) And during the renovation, he said, he often had to wriggle through the crawl space, where the pungent smell of burned wood remains unmistakable. Although Mr. Hawkanson had been cautioned about it, one fine day during his first spring here, he absent-mindedly ventured out in his skivvies to retrieve the morning paper just as a tour guide was recounting the story of the "cute little house." The guide finished with a dramatic flourish about how the "shanty kit" cost only $100 in materials all those years ago. Then, inspired by Mr. Hawkanson's appearance, he added: "And this guy just paid in the mid-six figures!"
That was Mr. Hawkanson's introduction to the tours that snake by the house at the most inopportune moments — and sometimes through it. Once, he said, he had been working in the garden out back and walked in to find a family of tourists sitting at his dining table eating their bag lunches. He had left the door open, and they had mistaken the house for a public venue. Although he is in the entertainment world, Mr. Hawkanson feigns shyness. This friendly house, his 12th in 20 years, he said, does much of the work for him. "You sit on the front deck, reading or having a drink," he said, "and you talk to people as they walk by. It's so Midwestern." (He can say that; he grew up in Duluth, Minn., and Pittsburgh.) He has even managed to cultivate a philosophical attitude about the constant stream of tourists. "You come to understand when you get a property like this," he said, "that you are not the owner, just the steward."
The DeMoulin Factory - Riding the Goat: A Business is Born.
The founding of DeMoulin Bros. and Co. was the result of a chain of events that began when William A. Northcott, a local attorney joined Greenville's Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) camp and was soon representing the chapter at state and national conventions. In November 1890, Northcott was elected Head Consul of the MWA, the fraternal order's highest position. Faced with the challenge of boosting the organization's membership, he consulted his friend and fellow MWA member, Ed DeMoulin. This request set in motion a small fraternal paraphernalia and regalia business that eventually grew to become the nation's leading band uniform manufacturer.
Ed discussed with his brothers Northcott's dilemma and it was decided that they should create something based on "riding the goat," a prank in which a man was carried on a rail hoisted by two men. The idea quickly met with favor among the Modern Woodmen of America camps. Ed DeMoulin was in the unusual position of having a business but no manufacturing plant so he enlisted the help of his brother, Erastus. Putting his blacksmith talents to the test, Erastus made the earliest DeMoulin goats in his shop and then shipped them by horse and wagon to Greenville.
Wardrobe to Warehouse: 1892-1900
Starting in a side room of Ed DeMoulin's photo studio, the factory's early years saw it move frequently to meet production demands. In May 1894, Ed moved his operation into a brick building on 2nd Street in Greenville, Illinois – now the First Bank parking lot. As orders for Modern Woodmen of America products increased, so did the need for more space. February 1895 brought a move to the former Schlup Wagon building on 3rd Street – now site of the Bond County Senior Citizen's Center.
Orders grew dramatically as the factory expanded its work to the Woodmen of the World, Odd Fellows, and other fraternal groups. Purchasing the site of an old flour mill for $800, the DeMoulin brothers constructed a 35 x 72 three-story building with a basement and rail access.
Opening in September 1896, the new factory's first floor housed the stockroom and shipping department on the east side, and a machine shop at the west end. The second floor contained offices and a sewing room. The smaller third floor was home to the art department. A gas engine, located in the basement, powered the factory's equipment.
In October 1897, the DeMoulins purchased a St. Louis company that specialized in badges, seals, and other metalwork. The operation was relocated to the expanded basement of the Ed DeMoulin & Bro. factory. Further growth led to the spring 1898 construction of a three-story, 35 x 90 addition to the west and in 1901 a two-story, 20 x 16 addition to the south.
When Erastus DeMoulin moved to Greenville in 1901 to oversee the mechanical work, a blacksmith shop was built on the grounds. The brothers were employing 45 men and women in 1899 with an average monthly payroll of $1,000.
The Fire of 1907
On the afternoon of February 12, 1907, a fire broke out in the basement of the building when the gasoline line feeding the 16-horsepower engine operating the sewing machines burst. Ed DeMoulin was entering the front door of his residence when he heard the fire alarm. He ran to the factory and supervised the salvaging of office furniture, files, and the safe. Henry and Phil Diehl, brothers who worked in the office, plunged into the smoke-congested building to save records.
Employees connected the factory's fire hoses to the water main, but due to a lack of pressure had to wait nearly five minutes for the first stream. The pressure was so weak that the water sprayed only five feet. Someone suggested fighting the fire from above, and a hole was cut in the second-story floor. The plan was unsuccessful. The gusting wind pushed the blaze through the factory, and in less than an hour, the building was reduced to smoldering rubble. The loss was estimated at $67,000.
The nearby towns of Highland and Centralia attempted to lure the factory from Greenville, but Ed DeMoulin soon announced that a new factory would be built in the same location. For the next several months, the DeMoulin brothers would manage a makeshift operation from several buildings around Greenville.
Built for the Ages
Scrambling to find a temporary home for their factory after a devastating 1907 fire, the DeMoulins opened an office at the Thomas House hotel on south 2nd Street. Two buildings were leased from the Greenville Lumber Company and replacement machinery was rounded up. On February 25, thirteen days after the fire, production resumed. Ed and U.S. now turned their attention to building a new factory.
Hiring a St. Louis architect, the brothers decided on an "E" shaped building that provided more natural lighting. The new factory would extend farther to the south and the blacksmith shop, the only building to survive the fire, would be demolished. Plans also called for fire doors and a fireproof safe. The brothers broke ground in early May and construction was completed on October 12. From lighting and heating to sewing machinery, the new factory would feature the latest technology.
The building has survived a 1955 fire and a 2002 tornado and witnessed the shift from lodge initiation paraphernalia to band uniforms. And there have been expansions with the largest coming in 1964 – a 22,000-foot facility for the cap and gown division. Perhaps the most welcome addition was air conditioning which came in the 1970s.
ABOUT THE DeMOULIN BROTHERS
Erastus DeMoulin
The oldest of the DeMoulin brothers, Erastus was born September 9, 1860, at Jamestown, Illinois. U.S. DeMoulin once described his brother as "strong and brawny" and "most considerate in every way." Unlike his brothers, "Ras" was content to run the family blacksmith shop in Sebastapol. It was there that the first DeMoulin lodge goats were made by the skillful Erastus.
He officially joined his brothers in their lodge paraphernalia business in October 1901 when he accepted an offer to be the factory superintendent. Erastus' family moved to Greenville the following year. When the company was incorporated in 1905, Ras and his brothers were elected directors, but he held no formal title in the corporation and preferred to work behind the scenes.
Erastus married Leonie Malan in February 1886 and they had three children: Oradelle, Lillie, and Leslie, who would later become the factory president. His granddaughter, Elizabeth DeMoulin Pirtle, fondly remembered Erastus as "one of the sweetest men in the whole world." James McDonald called his grandfather "a very gentle soul." Erastus was the tuba player in the Greenville Concert band.
When Erastus died on March 27, 1936, the pallbearers at his funeral were DeMoulin employees Charlie Lipple, Phil Diehl, Charlie Gum, Ernie Streiff, Joe Clare Sr., and Alvin Watson. It was a fitting tribute to the man who preferred being in the woodworking department to the office.
U.S. DeMoulin
Born two months premature on October 3, 1871, at Jamestown, Illinois, U.S. DeMoulin was saved through the efforts of a Dr. Gordon who rubbed the infant with olive oil, wrapped him in cotton batting, and placed him in a basket in the family's oven. This makeshift incubator must have worked because U.S. lived for 84 years.
U.S. joined his brother Ed in the lodge paraphernalia business on Friday, February 13, 1895. DeMoulin selected that day to prove that he was not a superstitious man. U.S. held patents on several lodge initiation pieces including the Lung Tester, Traitor's Judgment Stand, and the Lifting and Spanking Machine. He served as vice-president of the company until Ed's death in 1935, at which time he assumed the duties of president. U.S. remained company president until his retirement in 1946. He continued to visit the office for the remainder of his life.
Ed DeMoulin
Born June 11, 1862, at Jamestown, Illinois, Ed DeMoulin learned the family blacksmith trade. He may have soured on the vocation when at age fifteen he nearly lost his thumb in a sawing mishap. DeMoulin developed an interest in photography and opened a studio in Greenville. His reputation grew as an outstanding photographer and artist. His first patent was issued in 1892 for a camera attachment that created seamless, dual images of a subject in a single photograph.
Ed became involved in Greenville's fraternal orders including the Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) where he became acquainted with William A. Northcott. The Bond County State's Attorney, Northcott had been elected national president of the MWA in 1890. Seeking to increase membership, Northcott sought the input of Ed DeMoulin who then consulted his brothers. The DeMoulins soon found themselves creating lodge initiation paraphernalia for the MWA and other lodges.
Like his brothers, Ed was a member of the Greenville Concert Band and was often praised for his French horn solos. Technology was perhaps his true love. He was the first person in Greenville to own an automobile, having purchased a two-seat Oldsmobile in 1902. In the summer of 1892, Ed and two other men invested in a steam-operated "merry-go-round and panorama" they toured southern Illinois. In 1899 he spent $300 on a 12 disc music box that automatically changed them after each tune.
DeMoulin, a four-term Greenville mayor (1897, 1899, 1903, and 1905), was instrumental in the community's industrial growth. He also championed infrastructure improvements like electric street lights, a new water tower, and the oiling of streets. He later purchased a home in Los Angeles, California and by 1920 was living there permanently.
Ed's first wife, Constance, died in 1899 after a brief battle with influenza. They had five children: Gladys, Horace, Eric, Adele, and Lillian. Later that year he married Anna Diehl, the sister of U.S. DeMoulin's first wife, Emma. Her brothers, Henry and Phil, would be long-time DeMoulin employees.
Ed DeMoulin died October 29, 1935, at his Los Angeles home. His body was returned by train to Greenville for burial at Montrose Cemetery.
At an early age, he developed an interest in music and played the baritone for decades in the Greenville Municipal Band. DeMoulin was known as an outstanding marksman and co-founded the Greenville Gun Club in 1902. Perhaps his greatest legacy is Greenville Regional Hospital which was built upon land donated by U.S.
His first marriage, to Emma Diehl, ended in divorce when he refused her request to have children. Emma's alleged affair with a St. Louis streetcar conductor was cited as the reason for the break-up leading to the St. Louis Post Dispatch printing the headline "Goat Maker Sues Wife." DeMoulin's second wife, Cora, apparently agreed to his wish to have no children and the couple enjoyed many years together.
He was an avid reader and considered himself well-versed in many topics. U.S. embraced his role as Greenville's elder statesman and was later remembered as tall, dignified, and always dressed in a white shirt and tie.
DeMoulin built his home on 4th Street in 1900 at a cost of $5,000. Greenville's first tennis court was constructed on the grounds in 1912. A garage was added in 1921 and a sunroom in 1925. U.S. lived there until his death on July 11, 1955.
Chicagoans built their first court house in 1835 at the southwest corner of Clark and Randolph streets. They replaced it in 1848 with a second court house, located at the northwest corner of Clark and Washington. Like the first, this building was one story atop a basement that was built above ground. Municipal and county affairs were also conducted in other nearby buildings.
Jevne & Almini, Lithograph, 1866
Pictured here is the city's first combined Court House and City Hall, originally constructed in 1853. The view is from the northwest corner of LaSalle and Randolph Streets. Just south of the Court House, on the southeast corner of LaSalle and Washington streets, is the Chamber of Commerce. The Court House occupied, as the Chicago City Hall and Cook County Building do now, the entire downtown block formed by Randolph, Clark, Washington, and LaSalle streets, though its footprint was small enough to allow the block to include a good deal of landscaping, which gave what was called Court House Square the appearance of a park. The designer of the 1853 structure was John M. Van Osdel, who also built the previous court house. Van Osdel was born in Baltimore in 1811 and moved to Chicago in 1836 at the behest of the enterprising William Ogden, who became the first mayor the following year, when Chicago was incorporated as a city. Van Osdel and William W. Boyington, who arrived in 1853, were the leading pre-fire architects of both commercial enterprises and private homes. Never an aesthetic triumph, this building grew clumsily along with Chicago. It was originally two stories and an above-ground basement. With the raising of the surrounding grade in the late1850s (Raising Chicago Streets Out of the Mud in 1858), the city added five feet of fill to Court House Square, partly burying the basement. It soon added a third floor and the cupola, with a spiral staircase leading to an observatory balcony 120 feet high, which served as a fire watchman's walk. Note the street car. According to the 1871 Chicago city directory, at the time of the Great Chicago Fire the West Division railway ran its cars east and west along Randolph at five-minute intervals between State Street and both Robey Street (now Damen Avenue) and the city limits at Crawford (now Pulaski Avenue). Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The Chicago Pedway is a network of tunnels, ground-level concourses, and bridges connecting skyscrapers, retail stores, hotels and train stations throughout the central business district of Chicago, Illinois. With a length of more than 40 downtown blocks, it contains shops, restaurants, and public art and helps pedestrians in inclement weather. Most connections to the pedway are commercial or government buildings, including hotels. Columbus Plaza, The Heritage at Millennium Park, the Park Millennium, 200 North Dearborn Apartments, and Aqua are the only residential buildings connected to the pedway.
The tunnels between Chase Tower and Two First National Plaza remain but are closed to the general public. Chase Tower is still connected to the Blue Line subway and to the restaurant structure in the south-west corner of the adjoining Exelon Plaza, and public access is permitted during workday hours.
