The Chicago Public Library Northtown Branch closed before Christmas of 2018. View the artist rendering of the new Northtown Library at the North-West corner of Pratt Bouldvard and Western Avenue.

The Northtown Branch of the Chicago Public Library at 6435 North California closed the week of December 16th, 2018, after 56 years of service to the West Ridge community.

The building was designed by City Architect Paul Gerhardt Jr., and built for the economical sum of $174,438. A new Northtown Branch will open in the winter of 2019 at the North-West corner of Pratt Bouldvard and Western Avenue.

This was my Library branch all through grammar and high school, as I lived only ½ block west on Arthur Avenue. All the employees knew me by name. As a young kid with a childrens library card, I was allowed to check out books from the adult side of the library. The library was a retreat from home... anytime I wanted to 'escape' I was always allowed to go to the library. I read a LOT of books!

THE NEW NORTHTOWN LIBRARY IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The new Northtown Chicago Public Library Branch is a mixed-use structure being built at the north-west corner of Western Avenue and Pratt Boulevard; 6800 North Western Avenue.

The four-story project was designed by Chicago-based global architecture firm Perkins+Will, which has designed more than a dozen library projects. The West Ridge project features a glassy, 16,000-square-foot ground-floor library space topped by 44 affordable senior housing units.

 

 

Modular housing units wind above from the west to the east, enlivening the typical residential corridor while creating roof gardens that acknowledge the public park to the east and the quiet residential neighborhood to the west. Double height glazed lobbies connect the library to the senior housing, inspiring community interaction between the inside and outside, the public and private.

 

The library is anchored at both ends with vibrant community spaces, one showcasing teens and technology, while a community room and lobby at the opposite end will house an artist-in-residence, and be available to the community after regular library hours. Creating one large open space for visual connection throughout also meant creating intuitive identities and zones for patrons. Shaping of the stacks and the lighting above helps create paths and destinations visible across the space.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

William H. Herndon's, Lincoln's Law Partner, 200th Birthday was Christmas day, Tuesday, December 25, 2018.

Born in Greensburg, Kentucky, William H. Herndon was one of many Kentucky-born men who influenced Lincoln’s life. 

William H. Herndon - Lincoln's Law Partner.

While working at Joshua Speed’s store as a clerk in Springfield, Illinois, Herndon would end up getting to know and become close friends with Abraham Lincoln. Herndon, referred to as “Billy” by Lincoln, was invited by Lincoln to practice law in the law office of (Stephen) Logan and Lincoln in 1841. By 1844, Lincoln was ready to start his own practice and asked Herndon, who was nine years younger than Lincoln, to be his law partner.

Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, Springfield, Illinois.

Years later, Herndon explained, “I confess I was surprised when he invited me to become his partner. I was young in the practice and was painfully aware of my want of ability and experience; but when he remarked in his earnest honest way, ‘Billy, I can trust you, if you can trust me.’ I felt relieved and accepted his generous proposal.” Even though Lincoln was the senior partner, he split the fees evenly with Herndon throughout their partnership. They were law partners for sixteen years until Lincoln left for the White House in February of 1861.

On Sunday, February 10, 1861, before Lincoln left, he would pay one final visit to Herndon in their law office. They discussed the good old days and some unfinished legal work. Before Lincoln left, he requested that Herndon keep the sign of Lincoln and Herndon up. “Let it hang there undisturbed. Give our clients to understand that the election of a President makes no change in the firm of Lincoln and Herndon. If I live I’m coming back some time, and then we’ll go right on practicing law as if nothing had ever happened.” And as he left, he grabbed Herndon’s hand and said “good-bye.”

After Lincoln’s death, Herndon continued his law career and wrote a bibliography on Lincoln called "Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life. (in pdf)" In addition to a law partner, Herndon was also an important political ally throughout Lincoln’s public life. Both men were part of the Whig and Republican Parties and both were against the institution of slavery. There was a mutual respect between the two men, and Herndon wrote of Lincoln: “I was with Mr. Lincoln for about twenty-five years, and I can truthfully say I never knew him to do a wrong thing, never knew him to do a mean thing, never knew him to do any little dirty trick.”

Herndon died in Springfield, Illinois on March 18, 1891. He is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, the same cemetery in which his friend Abraham Lincoln lies.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The White Birch Forest at Lunt and Ashland in 1900, Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Rogers Park News-Herald, June 29, 1900.

By the turn of the 20th century, a lot of Rogers Park lakefront was still Birch and Oak Forests which, not surprisingly, gave its name to Birchwood Avenue. The subdivision of Birchwood Beach extended from Birchwood Avenue south to Touhy Avenue for about 1/2 mile and west to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad tracks (today's CTA Red Line) in the Rogers Park community of Chicago.

At the rate the native birch trees are dying out and getting cut down it won't be long before the great forest will become extinct.

The Birch Forest extended from about Birchwood Avenue south to Touhy Avenue, about 1/2 mile, and west to just west of where Sheridan Road is today, in the Rogers Park community of Chicago, ca.1900.

Dr. Ward Green Klarke, interviewed in November of 1927.
While I did not come to Rogers Park to live until 1906, I remember coming to the district as early as 1884 to hunt. Ducks found Rogers Park a good lighting place and we came here for the excellent hunting to be found. At that time there were no cross streets between Pratt and Touhy Avenues. I remember when Carter Harrison was mayor and Sheridan Road was improved from a sandy stretch to a cinder path. That was in 1894 and the time of the bicycle craze, and people riding their bikes used to venture north of Devon Avenue because the wooded land was beautiful.

White Birch Woods in the Rogers Park community of Chicago, Illinois.

Then the Birchwood District was covered with white birch and now (in 1927) you cannot find one in the whole of Rogers Park.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 
Accounts from Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society