CHICAGOGEEK

William LeBaron Jenney’s Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building anywhere in the world to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame, making it the world’s first skyscraper.

When it was built in 1884 large buildings up until then had been supported by nothing but their own masonry walls. Because of its metal frame the Home Insurance Building wouldn’t get thicker, darker, stuffier and heavier the taller it got. It weighed only a third as much as it would have if it had been built in stone.

The building stood for less than 50 years when it was demolished in 1931. A group of architects, including Andrew Rebori, examined the structure as it came down.

Franklin Street at Lake Street, Chicago, 1979.

The Starr Hotel, located in Skid Row on Chicago’s Near West Side, was later destroyed to clear land for the Presidential Towers.

The whole West Loop from Van Buren north to Lake Street was nothing but an area of boarded up businesses, dive bars, burlesque houses, SRO hotels and flophouses. Known as the “Land of the Living Dead,” the ghetto was almost entirely comprised of males, almost 13,000 to be exact. These bums (like Richard Speck in 1966) usually slept in lousy cubicles in flophouses for 50¢ or 60¢ a night. Today it’s the exact opposite, the land of condos and cappuccinos.

Thirty years ago today “The Oprah Winfrey Show” broadcast nationally for the very first time and the rest is history. But in this case, it actually is.

Unfortunately, Harpo Studios, home of the show for over twenty years, was torn down this past month. Although it might not look very old, the refacaded building was once a cold storage warehouse and used as a morgue for 749 victims of the Eastland Disaster in 1915. Supposedly Oprah and her employees would hear strange sounds and saw ghosts while working in the building. In the 1940s it became a roller rink. In the 1960s it became Fred Niles Studios, where The Monkees filmed part of the second season of their television show. Now the site will be home to another icon of Chicago: the new headquarters of McDonald’s.

Demolition of older buildings for the brand new Lake Meadows Apartments, Chicago, ca. 1950s.

Michigan Avenue approaching Oak Street, Chicago, ca. 1937.

Ornamentation from Adler & Sullivan’s Schiller Building/Garrick Theater (1890-1961), Chicago.  

Two architects pose in front of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ward Willits House in 1947.

Architects Harry Weese and Mies van der Rohe in Chicago in the 1960s.

*Notice the elevator grilles from Adler & Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Building in the background.

50 years ago today...

Richard Speck had signed up for work at the National Maritime Union at 2335 E. 100th St. in Chicago. But when he returned later, he found out he had been replaced. Angry, he spent the night drinking and doing drugs in local taverns. He attacked Ella Mae Cooper, stealing her .22 Röhm pistol. At 11:00 p.m. on July 13th he broke into a townhouse occupied by nine female student nurses. It was located at 2319 E. 100th St., close to the National Maritime Union. Armed with the stolen gun and a switchblade, he stabbed or strangled seven of them one by one before raping and killing the eighth nurse. The ninth nurse hid under a bed and survived. Speck may have lost count, or may have known eight women lived in the townhouse but not known a ninth woman was spending the night. The ninth nurse stayed hidden until almost 6 a.m., hours after the last killing, then climbed out the window and screamed for help.

Four of the eight victims’ graves:

Nina Schmale, Patricia Matusek, Suzanne Farris, and Gloria Davy.

Muddy Waters, unidentified man, Otis Spann, Henry Strong, Elgin Evans, and Jimmy Rogers in Chicago, ca.1954.