The Real Story about the Famous "Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge" in Skokie, Illinois.

Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge were located, hidden among the trees, at 7545 Skokie Boulevard (Skokie Boulevard is Cicero Avenue in Chicago) at the intersection of Howard Street, Lincoln Avenue, and Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, Illinois.

Chris Elliott purchased the property in 1938 for $38,000. The logs were shipped from Wisconsin, and the restaurant was completed and opened in 1939 at the end of the great depression.

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The rumor of Elliott's Pine Log being a speakeasy is addressed at the end of this article.

Chris Elliott

The pine log building was nestled on three wooded acres that are beautiful in any season. No matter which of the four dining rooms you were seated in, you had a picturesque and relaxing view of the outdoors through huge picture windows.

It was hard to believe you were in Skokie as it felt more like you were in a Wisconsin country inn or a Swiss Alps Chalet. 

Natural wood paneling, different in each dining room, heavy beams on the ceilings, and wood-burning fireplaces added to the rustic look of Elliott's. Inside the large waiting room with its natural wood-burning fireplace were comfortable sofas and overstuffed chairs, where you would wait for your table to be readied. 

Adjacent was the "Keyhole Bar," with a sunken cocktail lounge and raised wood-burning hearth. On Friday and Saturday nights, a piano player would play your requests.

Chris built apartments above the restaurant for his parents to live in. Sometimes the kitchen help would use the flats to rest and then go back on shift.

Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant had the best-roasted duck I ordered every time I ate there. The photo is a visual aid.

Elliott's specialties included; Roasted Duck, Broiled Aged Steak, and Fresh Dressed Chicken, among other great dishes. They hosted many Banquets, Showers, Wedding Parties, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, and company parties and meetings.

Elliott's survived the November 9, 1955 fire that gutted the inside and injured two firefighters, Fred Albrecht and Warren Redik, who suffered superficial burns about the hands and face when they fell through the first floor. Skokie Fire Chief estimated the damage at $100,000 and said the fire, of undetermined cause, started in the basement. 

As it turns out, the total loss was $250,000. Chris Elliott told the Skokie News, "I don't know who released the earlier estimates of damages, 'around $100,000,' but I know that whoever it was never had the pleasure of eating in my restaurant." Fireman Jerome Burke and Robert Kutz received awards for saving two firemen at the Elliot's Pine Log Restaurant fire in 1956.

Mr. Anthony' Tony' Gargano, the restaurant's manager, was a patient of my father, an Optometrist (O.D.). Tony always found the time to sit with us for a minute. 

As the neighborhood changed in the 1980s, business dropped off, and the Pine Log was closed. A public auction was held of all the restaurant's equipment, fixtures, antiques, collectibles, seating, etc., in Chicago on June 25, 1988.

Classified Ad, Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1988

To this day, I compare my fond memories of Elliott's roasted duck to every other roasted duck dish I have ordered since. Still, to this day — None Better!

Construction of two mid-rise condominium buildings on Pine Log's property began in August 1988. The Park Lincoln, as it was named, has 70 units.

Both Alex Elliott and Greg Elliott were Chefs at Elliott's Pine Log.

ALEX ELLIOTT

After the Pine Log closed in 1988, Alex Elliott, Chris Elliott's son, did some restaurant consulting, turned down a lot of offers to partner in restaurants, and continued to raise Black Angus cattle at the family home/farm in tiny Ringwood, Illinois, near Wonder Lake, until moving closer to Chicago.

Elliott's Seafood Grille & Chop House, 6690 North Northwest Highway, Chicago

But the restaurant business is like a narcotic. Alex decided to get back into that precarious racket, opening "Elliott's Seafood Grille & Chop House," 6690 North Northwest Highway, in the heart of Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood, in 2001. "I did not do this to become a millionaire," Alex says. "I wanted the place no more than 15 minutes from where I live and only wanted to make dinners. I wanted an upscale neighborhood place where I could enjoy the customers." That is what he created, a charming spot, sophisticated and laid back. The bar business is steady and lively, and the dinner crowd is a nice mix of ages and occasions. 

GREG ELLIOTT

A message from Chris Elliott-Bagley: "Hi Neil. Yes, Greg Elliott is my first cousin."

In 1991, Greg Elliott reopened Lake Side Inn as Elliott's Grand Hotel in Wauconda. He says the building was "slipping into the lake when he bought the hotel." Highland Park architect Mark Knauer was hired to recreate the interior, taking everything out except the bar and making the building structurally sound. He hasn't had that restaurant for years. 

In 1996 he and his wife opened a Consignment Shop in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood and the second shop in Lincoln Park.

WAS THE PINE LOG A SPEAKEASY?

As stated on numerous websites, the rumor of Elliott's Pine Log being a speakeasy is false. Prohibition began in 1920 and ended on December 5, 1933, but Elliott's Pine Log opened in 1939, six years after the end of the prohibition.

The "Morton House" Restaurant (est.1869) at 8509 Railroad Avenue in Morton Grove, Illinois, was reported to be a speakeasy during prohibition. Click the link to find out. This building was destroyed by fire in 1954." The Morton House was rebuilt.

The Original Morton House was destroyed by fire on January 2, 1954.

The Rebuilt Morton House.

Another speakeasy rumor circulated was about the Charcoal Oven Restaurant at 4400 Golf Road in Skokie. It couldn't have been a speakeasy because it opened in 1948, 15 years after prohibition ended.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Copyright © 2017  Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

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VISIT OUR ELLIOTT'S PINE LOG SOUVENIR SHOP

I loved the Pine Log so much that I recreated my favorite logo of Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge. This is my personal 15oz mug. It's high-quality and heavy, and the printing doesn't wash off or fade, even after 5 years of dishwasher sterilization with high-heat drying. Many mug styles, colors, and other items are available.

A NOTE ABOUT THE ACCUSATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Nothing is further from the truth regarding the rumors of the Elliot brothers being anti-Semitic. About 80% of Pine Log's business IN JEWISH SKOKIE was, you guessed it, Jewish. I'm Jewish. My folks were Jewish and knew the Elliotts for a very long time. My family ate at the Pine Log once or twice a month and celebrated special occasions for over 20 years. They couldn't do enough to make our meal special, and I personally saw the wait staff treat others the same 5-STAR way. The Elliotts are a class act.

Jack Silverman wrote this comment in a Skokie, Illinois, Facebook group when I posted my article in that group:

 

A COMMENT POSTED TO SILVERMAN BY AN ELLIOTT FAMILY MEMBER:  

"If his aunt was asked to leave, it may be because of the way she was dressed. Elliott's had a dress code back then. She could have had too much to drink and was asked to leave because she was intoxicated. Perhaps she was embarrassed that she got asked to leave and played 'the Jew card.' But I can assure you that her getting booted, if true, had nothing to do with being Jewish!!!"  

Chris Elliott-Bagley, November 16, 2020. 

A North Shore Electric train rear-ends an Evanston Express at the Granville Avenue station in Chicago, on November 24, 1936. Eleven dead.

The 'L' became a source of tragedy one November early evening in 1936, when a north bound North Shore electric train smashed into the rear of a north bound Evanston Express train stopped north of Granville. Nine people died almost immediately and two died several days later. The total – 11 dead – resulted in it being the deadliest accident on the elevated system up to that time.

Here is the Chicago Tribune account printed in the newspaper on the 25th, the next day after this tragedy happened.

The wooden rear coach of the "L" train was completely telescoped by the steel North Shore car #721. Yes, that is the roof and side walls of the "L" car wrapped around the interurban car. Granville station is on the left.

The Evanston Express train was standing at a switch 50 feet north of the Granville avenue station of the elevated lines, a half block east of Broadway, in the Edgewater district.

The first steel car of the North Shore train plowed all the way through the wooden rear coach of the Evanston train, shearing off its roof and splintering it like a match box. It was the worst elevated lines accident in Chicago history.

All of the dead and all except one of the injured were in the wrecked wooden coach.

Both trains were on the east, or express track. The Evanston train, which switches over to the local tracks at this point in order to make a stop at Loyola avenue, was blocked at the switch by a northbound train on the local track.

Behind the Evanston train of eight cars came the three car North Shore Line train bound for Mundelein, which was scheduled to continue north on the express track and to pass the Evanston train after the latter switched over west to the local track.

Just north of the Granville station is a signal tower which regulates the switch.

The elevated tracks at this point are perfectly straight for a distance of a mile and a half to the south. It was pitch dark, but two red lights glimmered on the rear of the Evanston train. Its passengers, Homewood bound, noticed the train come to a halt for the switch and chafed at the delay.

Suddenly they heard a whistle scream behind them, then a terrifying crash as the North Shore Line train struck the rear coach.

This old wooden car had no chance. Crushed between the plowing steel coach behind and the steel coach just ahead of it in the Evanston train, the light wooden frame crumpled into sudden wreckage. Sides, seats and floor splintered into a myriad pieces.

The steel car from behind drove through and stopped only a few feet from the steel car ahead. The old wooden coach was shattered – part of its roof rested on the top of the car which struck it. The steel cars, except for broken windows, were almost undamaged.

The scene was instantly one of terror and confusion. Darkness cast a blanket over the shapeless mass of steel and wood splinters, twisted seats, shattered glass and, more shocking than all this, the 75 passengers thrown into huddles of screaming, moaning and desolately silent victims of a thousand hurts.

Residents of the neighborhood heard the whistle of the North Shore train, then the crash. They saw the passengers flung from the telescoped coach, saw them falling into the alley that runs along the east side of the tracks.

Edward Price, who lives in an apartment overlooking the elevated embankment at 6150 Winthrop avenue, was one of those first to reach the scene.

“The North Shore whistle sounded three of four times,” he said. “The train was moving at a lively clip and I could see it was going to crash into the Evanston train. I heard the screech of the brakes.”

“The North Shore train swayed back and forth as it slowed down. The lights went out. Just before the crash they came on again, then they went out. There were flames in the wreckage. I ran to the telephone and called the fire department. Then I ran downstairs as fast as I could. I found people lying in the alley. I helped to pull them to an adjoining automobile driveway.”

A curious footnote to human reactions in the presence of tragedy was added by Joseph Laculla, 17 years old, 1429 Thome Avenue, who sells newspapers under the elevated at Granville avenue. When he heard the crash he took out his watch. “It was exactly four minutes when the first fire apparatus got here,” he said. “The first police ambulance arrived nine minutes after the crash.”

With the arrival of police and firemen a great throng gathered at the scene. Private automobiles and trucks were commandeered to take the injured to the Edgewater, Swedish Covenant, Ravenswood, Rogers-Fost, Evanston and St. Francis hospitals.

Firemen raised ladders along the elevated embankment and carried injured passengers down. Others were carried along the tracks to the Granville station and down the steps there. When stretchers ran out the rescuers used seats from the wrecked car to carry the victims.

Police Commissioner Altman, notified of the tragedy, ordered all available police from north and northwest side stations to help in the rescue work and keep back the crowds.

There were more than 500 police at the scene, two companies of firemen, twenty police ambulances, and three fire department ambulances.

After all the injured had been removed to hospitals, police details were stationed at each of these to control the crowds which swarmed at the doors.

Among the first to reach the scene were three Catholic priests. They administered the last rites of the church to injured persons who appeared to be dying. The clergymen were the Very Reverend J.G. Kieley and the Rev. Thomas Doherty, of St. Gertrude’s church, and the Rev. Howard Ahern, a member of the faculty at De Paul university.

A story of the first rescue work came from William Biesel of Libertyville, who was riding in the first coach of the North Shore train, sitting with Champ Carry, vice-president of the Pullman company, who lives in Mundelein.

“We hardly felt the crash,” Biesel said, “but there was a tremendous noise. We climbed down onto the track, and saw a woman lying close to the third rail. Her skirt was beginning to burn. We pulled her away, beat out the flames and got her over to the station platform. Next we picked up two men. Both had been thrown all the way across the adjoining tracks.”

William Helm … an investment broker … said he was not surprised the accident had occurred.

“I have been taking the train almost regularly for a number of years,” he said. “Each evening a few moments after the express switches onto the local track the North Shore roars by on the express track. I have often thought that the timing of the two trains was too close for safety.”

NOTES
The North Shore Line, formally named the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Electric Railway, operated over the elevated into the loop from August 6, 1919, until January 21, 1963, when it abandoned operations. It operated a branch line west to Mundelein, but its main line was along the Skokie Valley line to Milwaukee. Its original line in Illinois, later called the “Shore Line,” went through the North Shore suburbs and generally paralleled the Chicago and North Western.

After the introduction of the Skokie Valley bypass in 1926, the original line was devoted to local service. It was abandoned first, in 1955. North Shore Line trains never stopped in Edgewater. However, Edgewater residents could board trains at either the Wilson or Howard ‘L’ station. Service was very frequent and express trains made the trip from downtown Chicago to downtown Milwaukee in two hours. Given the limited speed it could attain on the elevated south of Wilson and in running on the streets of Milwaukee, this was an impressive performance. There is still Evanston express service [the purple line], but now it is express all the way to Howard along the express tracks and does not stop at Loyola and Morse. 

By the Edgewater Historical Society.
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Edgewater Beach Hotel and Apartments, Chicago, Illinois.

The Edgewater Beach Hotel was located in the far north community of Edgewater in Chicago, Illinois, between Sheridan Road and Lake Michigan at Berwyn Avenue. Built in 1916 and owned by John Connery, John Corbett, Benjamin Marshall, and Charles Fox. Marshall and Fox were also the architects. When John Corbett died in 1919, William Dewey replaced him as an owner.

"The Edgewater Beach Hotel is located on the North Shore, about seven miles from the center of the city. It is built in the form of a Greek Cross without an inside court and without an inside room. A notable feature is the Marine Cafe and Beach Walk overlooking Lake Michigan." Edgewater Beach Hotel Postcard 1924.

Motor Bus at Edgewater Beach Hotel with the Devon Avenue Destination Marquee, c.1919

The complex had a private beach and offered seaplane service to downtown Chicago. During its lifetime, the hotel served many famous guests including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Nat King Cole.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Areoplane View Postcard.

The hotel was known for hosting big bands such as the bands of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, and Wayne King, which were also broadcast on the hotel's own radio station, a precursor to WGN with the call letters WEBH.

On June 14, 1949, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot and nearly killed by an obsessive fan at the hotel; this later would be a large part of the inspiration behind Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural.

You can see the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Apartments in the background from Lake Shore Drive which ended at Foster Avenue in this 1938 photograph.

The 1951–54 extension of Lake Shore Drive from Foster Avenue to Hollywood Avenue cut the hotel off from the beach leading to a reduction in business. There was an Aunt Jemima's Kitchen Restaurant in the hotel. It opened on Thursday, October 6, 1966, and lasted until the hotel closed in 1967. The main buildings were demolished shortly thereafter.

Edgewater Beach Hotels Last Day, Thursday, December 21, 1967.

Edgewater Beach Hotel being demolished mid-1970.

The Edgewater Beach Co-op or Apartments, built in 1928, is the only part of the hotel complex to survive and is part of the Bryn Mawr Historic District.

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Edgewater Beach Apartments, Chicago
The Edgewater Beach Apartments at 5555 N. Sheridan Road to the north were completed as part of the hotel resort complex in 1928. The "sunset pink" apartments complemented the "sunrise yellow" hotel in a similar architectural style. Bears coach George Halas lived in the apartment building for many years.

The hotel closed in 1967 and was raised the same year, but the Edgewater Beach Apartments, the last of the original structures left on the property, remains as a landmarked testament to the spacious elegance and solid construction that characterize the best buildings of the Roaring Twenties.

Edgewater Beach Apartments.

Edgewater Beach Apartments Swimming Pool.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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The Edgewater Beach Hotel: Magic by the Lake
by Ginny Weissman

It was a Chicago landmark -- a lavish pink resort that stood on the lakefront at Sheridan near Foster for almost half a century. The Edgewater Beach Hotel has been closed since 1967, yet the memories linger on.

The Edgewater Beach Hotel was the brainchild of two Chicago businessmen, who initially tried to buy the Chicago Cubs. When the deal fell through, they decided instead to build a hotel. One of the partners, John T. Connery, bought the vacant property across the street from his home on Sheridan Road and called on the architectural firm Marshall & Fox whose lead architect, Ben Marshall, had a reputation for flamboyant taste and adventurous style. Marshall's concept for the Edgewater Beach was no exception: the construction would be in Spanish-style stucco, in the form of a Maltese Cross, so most rooms would face the Lake. The original 400-room structure opened in 1916.

Edgewater Beach Hotel New Double Decker Motor Bus, 1919.

"When the hotel first opened," Connery's granddaughter Mary Nelson remembers, "my grandfather was going from empty room to empty room in the evening turning on the lights on the Sheridan Roadside to make the hotel look occupied. That was not necessary for very long, as the hotel soon became very popular." So popular, in fact, that a second 600-room unit was opened just to the south in 1922.

The Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan at 5349 Sheridan Road. 1,000 rooms with a garage in direct connection accommodating 200 cars of house guests; lawns, children's playgrounds, gardens, tennis courts and a golf mashie-putting course, private bathing beach, an open-air marble dancing floor and over 1,000 feet of Beach Promenade.

During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, the Edgewater Beach was Chicago's place to see and be seen. Countless weddings, proms, dances, and other events drew neighborhood residents. On any given night, you could rub elbows with celebrities such as Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Marilyn Monroe, and major sports figures including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, to name a few. All the big bands played there: Tommy Dorsey, Xavier Cugat, Wayne King, and many others. Hotel manager (and later president) William Dewey "was a showman," says historian Kenan Heise. "He was good at booking top names into the Edgewater Beach, and that was very much a part of its allure."

Edgewater Beach Hotel Beach Walk.

Guests still recall the Beach Walk, the Marine Dining Room and its strict formal dress code, the radio shows, and television broadcasts. Singer Gloria Van, who performed with Wayne King's band, remembers: "I knew I had reached my goal when I worked the Edgewater. I felt like a big deal when I worked it. It was just gorgeous."

Edgewater Beach Hotel Marine Dining Room

The hotel was almost a city within itself - it had its own radio station, print shop, chocolate factory and even a heliport. Newsreels show that it had a state-of-the-art film studio as well. There was even a distinctive green motor coach that shuttled guests each day to and from Marshall Field's downtown. 

Edgewater Beach Hotel  Private Motor Coach. Circa 1930.

And the hotel had a seaplane available for the illustrious and well-heeled who didn't want to take the bus!

A Hydro-Aeroplane rests on the promenade at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, Chicago. Circa 1920

But by the 1950s, the Edgewater Beach, like many traditional establishments, found itself at odds with the times. The city's decision to extend Lake Shore Drive past the hotel north to Hollywood cut the Edgewater Beach off from its prized lakefront.

Aerial view showing the famous Edgewater Beach Hotel and Pool, located on Chicago's New Landfilled Lake Front. Known by world travelers for its dining and luxury accommodations.

Management, maintenance, and financial problems mounted, and the original owners sold their interest in the late 1940s. Symbolically, the elegant Marine Dining Room was replaced by the Polynesian Room. (Employees who were trained in serving fine cuisine disdainfully referred to the new restaurant as "that chop suey joint.") With the advent of television and air conditioning, the hotel drew fewer and fewer guests, and in December 1967, the owners abruptly shut it down. Demolition took over a year. "It was a big part of the neighborhood," recalls resident Phyllis Nickels, "so we were awfully mad when they were going to take it down."

A trace of elegance still remains at the Edgewater Beach Apartments, built in 1927, the last of the original structures left on the property. And as you walk by, you can almost hear the big bands playing; just as they did in the glory days of the Edgewater Beach Hotel. 

Edgewater Beach Hotel Yacht Club

Edgewater Beach Hotel Yacht Club

Edgewater Beach Hotel Ballroom.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Black Cat Room.

Edgewater Beach Hotel  Passaggio.

 Edgewater Beach Hotel East Lounge.

Edgewater Beach Hotel West Lounge.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Flower Shop.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Typical Bedroom.

Panoramic Dining Room Edgewater Hotel Chicago.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Colonnade Room.

Edgewater Beach Hotel Marine Dining Room.

Edgewater Beach Hotel. The 2 buildings seen here were demolished by mid-1970.

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Chicago's Loren Miller & Company Department Store. (1900-1931)

Before there was a Uptown community on the north side of Chicago, there was Sheridan Square.

Centered around the intersection of Lawrence and Evanston Avenue (renamed Broadway in 1913), the area remained pretty much building-free well into the early part of the 20th century, even as people started building large suburban-style homes in nearby Edgewater, Buena Park, and Ravenswood. But when Loren Miller moved his dry goods business from Wilson Avenue a few blocks north to Broadway and Lawrence in 1915, Sheridan Square began transforming into the heart of the Uptown business and entertainment district.

Miller knew the dry goods market well. He'd worked for Marshall Field & Company and other large downtown department stores before opening up his Wilson Avenue establishment in 1896. As more and more people moved out of the more congested and built-up parts of the city to the south, little pockets of upscale residential communities began cropping up north of today's Irving Park Road, and Miller catered to this clientele.

The Loren Miller & Co. was founded around 1900. Much of the store's early success relied upon Miller's willingness to replace traditional retailing practices with more innovative ones, such as widespread use of newspaper advertising, bargain pricing, superior customer service, and liberal credit policies.

By 1914, Loren Miller & Co. had outgrown its original location, and Miller was looking for a place to move to - just not too far away. It just so happened that Mr. Albert Cook owned a vacant piece of property that he wanted to improve with an income-generating building. The vacant lot was between two existing buildings perched on a triangular parcel of land created by the intersecting streets of Broadway, Racine, and Leland Avenues, not far from Miller's Wilson Avenue store.

A beautiful new fireproof steel structure is nearing completion at 4722-28 Broadway in the Wilson Avenue District (today's Uptown community), one of Chicago's smartest residence districts. This new store is between Lawrence and Leland avenues. It has attracted considerable attention in Chicago because its personnel is composed of men who have been identified with the retail trade of the Chicago Loop district for many years.

Loren Miller signed a 20-year lease at $21,000 ($581,000 today) per year for the brand new $150,000 5-story, bright white terra-cotta coated department store. William Klewer designed the loft building between the Plymouth Hotel and the Sheridan Trust and Savings Bank. The annual rent was $21,500, or 430,000 for the term. Mr. Miller had a capital stock of $350,000 ($9,460,000 today).

The five floors and basement give a selling space of approximately 54,000 square feet. 

• The First Floor was devoted to piecing goods, notions, ribbons, jewelry, and men's furnishings. 
• The Second Floor had men's clothing, shoes, and the company's general offices. 
• The Third Floor carried women's apparel, millinery, corsets, etc. 
• The Fourth Floor was the children's clothing, newborn to teen. with the infants' shop, children's barbershop, playroom, and children's, boys and misses' apparel. 
• The Fifth Floor was full of house furnishings, carpets, upholstery goods, and furniture.

By the time the doors were ready to open in November of 1915, Miller had renegotiated his lease and extended the term by another 5 years. Loren Miller & Co. opened with a stock of about $125,000 ($3 million in 2017) in medium and high-class merchandise.

"WE DISTRIBUTE OUR CIRCULARS BY REGULAR CARRIERS."
"I invited all our neighbors—competitors included—to unite in a common enterprise. I turned our circular into an Up-Town weekly of retail trade, sinking its identification with our store completely and engaging to retain the only one-quarter page." Loren Miller

In 1921, Loren Miller & Co. circulated 56,000 weekly "The Up-Town Advertiser" circulars, which they started delivering in 1916. Miller contemplates adding three stories to the building as the expansion of the business has been so great that it requires more room.

In 1926, the store was enlarged yet again when the Sheridan Trust and Savings Bank building to the north of the store was acquired. The neo-classical structure was an important addition to the store, not so much for the extra floor space that is offered, but rather for the high visibility it gave the business. 

For one, it more than doubled the store's show window space and thus enhanced its capacity to entice passers-by with the latest fashions or unbeatable bargains. At the same time, the acquisition of the bank building gave Loren Miller and Company ownership of one of the Uptown district's most distinctive and easily recognizable building sites, a triangular strip of land that narrowed to a point not far from the increasingly congested intersection of Broadway and Lawrence Avenue.

It wasn't long after the move that Miller & Co.'s full-page ads in the Chicago Tribune began to carry the banner "The Uptown Store" to distinguish it from the major downtown retail emporiums.

Though always concerned about promoting his own retail operations, of equal concern to Loren Miller was the overall success and popularity of the entire Uptown area as a retail and entertainment destination. During his years as head of the store, Miller was a leading booster of the district and worked hard to inflate its reputation throughout Chicago and the North Shore. Miller, for one, has often been credited with having coined the name "Uptown" to jazz up the neighborhood's image. Miller also began adding "Uptown" to their address.

Previously, the area had been known only by the less romantic "Wilson Avenue District." During the 1920s, in the hopes of making the intersection of Lawrence and Broadway into another Times Square, Miller pushed the name "Uptown Square." 

In 1927, Miller got the Chicago City Council to officially declare the intersection of Lawrence and Broadway "Uptown Square," and the Miller & Co. display ads now carried a prominent banner proudly announcing "The Uptown Square Department Store."

The Uptown Theatre opened in 1925.

Times were good for Loren Miller & Co. In 1926, the store expanded and moved into the space previously occupied by the bank, and Miller had also taken over the Plymouth Hotel - now the Uptown Hotel - for future expansion.

Then, on August 2, 1931, a full-page ad in the Tribune declared that Goldblatt Bros. would hold a liquidation sale at the Loren Miller & Co. department store as they transitioned to Goldblatt's merchandise in their newly acquired Uptown location. Miller was out, and Goldblatt's was in.

Goldblatt's, a favorite of neighborhood shoppers, survived economic turmoils and remained in their Broadway location for the next 67 years. After finally throwing in the towel and closing up the shop in 1998.

The building sat empty until 2002 when the Goldblatt's sign was finally removed, and the trio buildings underwent demolition, restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse, converting the former department store complex into a three-sided, retail and residential grouping.

2017 Photograph

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Nathaniel Pope was responsible for giving Illinois its shape.

For over a 100 years, Illinois was known as the Illinois Country and controlled by the French. A scattering of French trading forts existed along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois rivers. Father Pierre Marquette suggested a canal connecting Lake Michigan to the Illinois River seemed like a natural idea for the economic benefit of the interior of the continent. At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the territory was ceded to the British.

Illinois Country Map 1763-76

For 15 years, the British took little interest in the area and had just a few forts. During the Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark and the Long Knives invaded from what is now Kentucky and took Fort Massac (Metropolis, Illinois) and Kaskaskia and proceeded to march across the territory to Vincennes securing the upper Midwest for the new United States of America. During the War, Virginia would control the land for a while then ceded the territory in 1778. After the war, the Illinois Country became part of the Northwest Territory in 1783.

In 1800, Illinois then became part of the Indiana Territory under the governance of a young William Henry Harrison. Due to geographic circumstances and the lack of technology, Illinois and Indiana both grew northward starting at the Ohio River. In order to trade goods, both were initially dependent on southern river traffic to exist.

In 1809, Illinois became its own territory which originally included lands that became the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, the eastern portion of Minnesota, and the western portion of the upper peninsula of Michigan. Ninian Edwards,Pope's cousin, was appointed its first Governor.

As Illinois was preparing to become a state, the remaining area of the territory was attached to the Michigan Territory.

The original boundaries of the Territory were defined as follows: “...all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada...”

Kaskaskia was the territorial capital. The 1810 census showed a population of 12,282.

The settlement of the territory was slow due in fact to its isolation on the western frontier, but also in part to the climate, access, and the inability to plow the thick prairie soil, not to mention Indians in its northern portions.

Nathaniel Pope

Nathaniel Pope was responsible for the location of Illinois’ most boring border, its straight-line northern boundary with Wisconsin. Had it not been relocated, the Land of Lincoln might have been the Land of Slavery. And what became the Civil War may well have had a different outcome.

Nathaniel Pope was born in Kentucky, Pope’s brother, John, was a U.S. Senator from Kentucky. John Pope used his connections to appoint Nathaniel secretary of the new territory.

Nathaniel then helped get his cousin, Ninian Edwards, appointed Governor of the territory. Before Ninian assumed his role, Nathaniel appointed others that supported Ninian to government positions in the territory.

In 1812, the territory was progressing slowly. After the War of 1812 ended, a portion of what is today western Illinois was designated as the Military Tract for payment for veterans of the war in lieu of a cash payment. However, Illinois was only at 30,000 in population despite the tract. Nathaniel Pope wanted to be more than just the secretary of the territory. He ran to be the delegate to Congress for the territory. He felt he could do more for the territory to help make it a state. He became the Illinois Territory Delegate in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth United States Congress.

The boundaries of Illinois were basically set by three rivers on the south, east, and west borders. The Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers hemmed in the slowly growing populace. The northern border of the territory was initially set at the southern end of Lake Michigan.

Pope, saw this as a disadvantage should Illinois become a state. While Illinois was populated in the south, very few residents lived north of Vandalia in 1818. But as the Illinois delegate to Congress, Pope was determined to put Illinois on the map, even if it meant rearranging the map.

Illinois with its new northern border.

The Northwest Ordinance originally called for the border to be at the southern tip of the Lake. But when Pope began his push, the border shifted. First, Pope asked for the border to moved 10 miles north of the southern tip. Then after a census was taken to assure 40,000 residents lived in the state (When it was closer to 30,000), Pope submitted his second proposal, eloquently making his case for a new border in the north for two reasons.

Economic – At that time the northern border of the Illinois territory was on an east-west line even with the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Pope argued that if Illinois was given more of the lakefront, the trade in the state would be more connected with northern states by way of the lakes. Trade would flow through the north rather than along the rivers of the south. It would make the great lakes the center of commerce rather than the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 

Nathaniel Pope wanted Illinois to have access to the port of Chicago, which was north of that line. By 1818 plans were already underway for building the Illinois and Michigan canal issuing from Chicago and connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi. If the Illinois border was at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, Illinois would be excluded from a share in the canal.

The Cause of Union – Slavery, while in the back of some minds, was most likely an issue. Although it was never explicitly stated by Pope, the growing sentiment of the time that would be reflected in the Missouri Compromise two years later in 1820, it can be inferred from tying the new state to the north economically through the Great Lakes, was an astute accomplishment in hindsight. Illinois would be in the center of the Union come 1860. While many in Southern Illinois would be sympathetic to the Confederate cause, the state would not.

Nathaniel Pope moved the border of Illinois 51 miles north to 42°35” north latitude line has had a profound effect economically on the state and the culture of the region. There still lingers animosity between Illinois and Wisconsin over the moving of the border.

Illinois in 1822

Wisconsin would not join the Union until 1848 largely because of its small population. By ceding 8,500 square miles of lakefront property to Illinois, Pope and Congress shifted the fortunes of the two states. Wisconsin would become part of the Michigan territory.

The first plat of the town of Chicago was filed in 1830. In 1833, Chicago was Incorporated as a town, then Incorporated as the City of Chicago in 1837. And after a railroad and a canal connected the lakefront to the rest of the state, Chicago’s fortunes forever changed. Even today, while the largest city in the state, and half its population, Chicago does not consider itself part of the state. It is its own entity culturally and economically.

For Pope, he would go on to be judge for the United States District Court for Illinois. His son, John, was commander of Union forces at the second battle of Bull Run. Nathaniel Pope has Pope County named after him in southern Illinois.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.