Our tourguide is fascinated by mid-century construction, so the first commercial structures we were shown were these mid-century bank buildings on Cermak.
Prior to this tour I never gave it much thought, but you really don't see any pre- World War II bank buildings being used as banks in Chicago. This excludes buildings on LaSalle street downtown. I wonder why that is. It's like the 1950's come along and all the banks decide they need to update to what we now call mid-century modern.
A large area that we explored west of western was built as a manufacturing area and such gems as these are still standing and being used.
The building above and below were some of the first buildings to use concrete to support the building instead of thick load bearing walls. The building below was built for AT&T to house telphone equipment but today the Cook County Sheriff's department uses it.
The area contained a street car garage at Bell and approx 25th street. This is a really old structure which dates from the 19th century. A somewhat newer structure was built across the street. That structure is now gone and is a parking lot for a school.
Finally we come to the vibrant shopping district around 22nd and California. Here we have a Furniture store and another structure that was a theatre at various times.
I hope you enjoyed this little walking tour as much as I did. I'm planning on going to Forgotten Chicago's final tour of the year, down LaSalle Street on October 18th.
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