The Illinois Theatre, 65 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois.

The Illinois Theatre opened its doors on October 15, 1900, built for theatrical producer and manager Charles Frohman.

It was designed by Benjamin Howard Marshall, who later, with partner Charles Eli Fox, would go on to design such Chicago landmarks as the Drake Hotel and the Blackstone Theatre and Blackstone Hotel.

The Illinois Theatre, which cost over a quarter million dollars to erect, was a jewel of Beaux-Arts architecture, inspired by the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago almost a decade earlier, and sat 1,249 people.

The three-story facade was faced in limestone, with a row of Ionic columns above the main entrance. Above the colonade, five porthole-like windows ringed by terra-cotta wreathes each had a lion’s head, also of terra cotta, below them. The theatre’s name was inscribed just below the cornice in large letters.

For many years, both the Illinois Theatre and the Princess Theatre, both downtown, were two of Chicago’s most well-known legitimate theatres, their stages hosting some of the most celebrated names of early 20th century theatre.

However, by the early 1910s, the Illinois Theatre had become the Chicago home of the Ziegfeld Follies, and presented both live stage reviews as well as motion pictures, before turning entirely to movies in the 1920’s.

The Illinois Theatre was shuttered during the Depression, and never reopened, being demolished in 1936 for a parking lot, the same fate the Princess Theatre would face a few years later.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site in Illinois.

New Salem Illinois State Historic Site is the historically recreated townsite of Abraham Lincoln's 19th-century frontier village in Menard County (previously part of Sangamon County), Illinois.

During Abe Lincoln's 20s, in the 1830s, this was the homestead of the future President. Here, Lincoln earned a living as a boatman (see note below), shopkeeper, a soldier in the Black Hawk War, general store owner, postmaster, land surveyor, rail-splitter, and was first elected to the Illinois General Assembly. 

The Berry-Lincoln Store was probably the first building in the original village and was constructed in 1829. It is remembered as the town's only frame structure, unlike the other log buildings..

Lincoln moved to Springfield, Illinois, around the time that Springfield became the state capital in 1837.

New Salem was recreated as a historic village in the 1930s, based on the original foundations. The original village was generally abandoned about 1840. The village is located 15 miles northwest of Springfield, and approximately 3 miles south of Petersburg. (The present village of New Salem in Pike County, Illinois is an unrelated community.)

The Original New Salem History.
New Salem was founded in 1828 when James Rutledge and John Camron built a gristmill on the Sangamon River. They surveyed and sold village lots for commercial businesses and homes on the ridge stretching to the west above the mill. Over the first few years of its existence, the town grew rapidly, but after the county seat was located in nearby Petersburg, the village began to shrink and by 1840, it was abandoned. The fact that the Sangamon River was not well-suited for steamboat travel was also a reason for the town's decline.

In 1831, when Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, relocated the family from Indiana to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, 22-year-old Lincoln struck out on his own. Lincoln arrived in New Salem by way of a flatboat and he remained in the village for about six years.  As far as historians know, Abe Lincoln never owned a home in the village as most single men did not own homes at this time; however, he would often sleep in the tavern (it was common for taverns to rent a bed) or his general store and eat his meals with a local family.

He ran for the Illinois General Assembly in 1832, handily winning his New Salem precinct but losing the countywide district election. He tried again in 1834 and won. Lincoln left New Salem and moved to Springfield, also in his election district, around 1837.

NOTE: Abraham Lincoln, the only U.S. president to hold a patent. He received patent No. 6,469 for his "Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals" on May 22, 1849 while a Congressman in Illinois.

When Lincoln lived in New Salem, the village was home to a cooper shop, blacksmith shop, wool carding mill, four general stores, a grocery, two doctors offices, a shoemaker, a carpenter, a hat maker, a tanner, a schoolhouse/church, several residences, common pastures, and kitchen gardens. During its short existence, the village was home to anywhere from 20-25 families at a time. It is important to remember that New Salem was not a small farm village, but instead a commercial village full of young businessmen and craftsmen trying to start a new life on the frontier.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 
Photographs Copyright © Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Chicago Home for the Friendless.

Chicago Home for the Friendless, 51st Street and Vincennes Avenue.

When the population of Chicago grew dramatically, it increased the need for social services to poor and destitute women and children. The Chicago Home for the Friendless, founded on March 18, 1858, responded to that need.

Eventually, the organization served as an orphanage, a shelter for women and children, and also cared for older people in need. From August of 1897 to 1938, the home was located near East 51st Street and South Vincennes Avenue in the Washington Park community area. In 1980, the agency changed its name to Family Care Services of Metropolitan Chicago.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Home for Self Supporting Women, Chicago, Illinois.

The original Home for Self Supporting Women was located at 275-277 East Indiana Street.

The Chicago Woman's Club managed a lodging house, costing $2.50 per week, for temporarily stranded women, and, for at least a few years, the Home for Self Supporting Women ran the Provident Laundry (established in 1889) which provided temporary employment for unemployed women.

The Home for Self Supporting Women moved to this building at 12 E. Grand Avenue in Chicago in 1908 when construction was completed.

Provident Laundry - Objective:
"To provide a new channel of work for able-bodied women out of employment and desirous to become self-supporting; to maintain a training school where superior work is taught, and an Employment bureau where permanent situations are securied for those desiring them."

The laundry was conducted in the read of the home at 275-277 East Indiana Street, overtaxing its accommodations. An average of 20 women find employment daily. A large number of these women become proficient enough to take permanent position in families.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Ryerson Building, 16-20 E. Randolph Street, Chicago

Adler and Sullivan's "Ryerson Building," at 16-20 East Randolph Street, Chicago was built in 1884-85. The building was a 68'x169', six-story masonry and cast-iron loft that cost $152,127 ($4,212,238 today).

Orginally occupied by Gray, Kingman & Collins Store, a wholesale grocery business, then by the Charles H. Slack wholesale and retail grocer & winery. The building was demolished in 1939.