The abandoned Palace Theatre, Gary Indiana. 2004, I think.
“When the Miss USA pageant was held in Gary in 2002, Donald Trump renovated the front of the theater. The windows were painted to depict a false interior, and an external marquee was mounted, declaring “Jackson Five Tonite”. Though the Jackson 5 are originally from Gary, they never actually performed in the Palace Theater.” (via)
These have been online for a while now, so maybe you’ve already seen these. Or, maybe not: archive photos from the World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago of 1893, on flickr. The image on the left, titled Ferris Wheel, Chicago, United States, 1893 [View of girders of] Ferris Wheel [from inside gondola], is courtesy the Brooklyn Museum, which has 96 more photos from the fair posted on their flickr page. The photo on the right, Interior of Machinery Hall, is from the Field Museum of Chicago’s flickr page. Their photo set of the fair, which includes 303 photos and illustrations, is pretty amazing.
Sort of related: via The Morning News, a photos by Jade Duskow of former World’s Fair sites, including a couple of Chicago images. Click HERE to see the photos and read an interview with Duskow about the project. Good stuff.
Washburne Trade School cafeteria, 2005–click on the images in this post to make them big.
One of the more prominent features of Washburne Trade School was this mural in the cafeteria, presumably a project for the student sign painters who trained here. My first trip inside the building (back in…2004?) was a blur–so much, almost too much, to see–but this painting really stuck in my head. Since then, I had to get a photo of that wall every time I went to Washburne. Now that summer is upon us and much of the building is gone, I thought I would present the last photos I took of this mural while the building around it was being demolished. Read the rest of this entry »
Whenever I take one of my cats to the vet via the #49 Western bus, I always notice this small factory building and it’s whimsical terra-cotta sign. The name “Parisian Novelty”, more evocative of turn-of-the-century Europe than modern Chicago, makes me think of men in top hats and women carrying parasols strolling down the un-Parisian boulevard that runs through the working class neighborhood of McKinley Park. Recently, after dropping Waggs off for a tooth extraction, I walked a few blocks north to get some photos.
Parisian Novelty Co., which has been making promotional knickknacks such as tape measures (?) and buttons since 1898, recently closed it’s doors, and the circa 1928 building is for sale. Doing some half-assed online research I found a post on the Busy Beaver Button Blog that described a recent tour of Parisian, the “oldest button company in the USA”, with more photos of the interior posted on the Busy Beaver flickr page. Some of the furniture and tools from the factory are now listed at the Urban Remains website.
Since the sign is an integral part of the terra-cotta around the door, there is a decent chance that it will be preserved. Unless whoever buys the building decides to tear it down, of course.
As part of my ongoing project to document the demolition of the former Washburne Trade School building: the view from South Kedzie, as of May 31 2009… Read the rest of this entry »
The demolition of the Lakeside Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, which began in the Summer of 2008, is nearly complete. You might not even guess that a large modernist hospital block used to stand here if it wasn’t for the huge hole in the ground. Read the rest of this entry »
Next to the west end of the 18th Street viaduct is this odd little building that has been sitting vacant for years. I never knew what it was, but I liked seeing it there–it added to the old industrial character of an area that includes the Schoenhofen Brewery, the Amtrak rail yard, and an old (circa 1915) vertical lift bridge. Except now that odd little building is being demolished. Read the rest of this entry »
Like I said…the February 15 fire at Washburne Trade School, on YouTube:
Pretty big fire. I mean, wow…I’m surprised the building didn’t sustain more damage. Nice work, CFD, though since the building is being demolished now I suppose that is a moot point.
Thanks to phule for sending me the link–go look at his photoblog.
Earlier blog posts about the fire at Washburne, with photos, can be found HERE and HERE.
