A Difference of 67 Years

I decided to try my hand at another Cushman photo. In February of 1941 Charles took the top picture at the Adler Planetarium. My modern photo is taken at a similar location. I think Cushman may have been closer to the planetarium than I am. It's that or the breakwater is totally different :)

On a quick inspection it's hard to tell that Cushman's photo is of Chicago. Once you look closer you'll see the Wrigley Building, The Carbon and Carbide Bldg (Now the Hardrock Hotel) and the Pitsfield Building.

Today's photo shows an almost topped out Trump Tower as well as The Legacy at Millenuium Park. It's simply a different city. Where Chase Tower (nee First National Bank of Chicago) stands today back in 1941 the Hotel Morton stood all 56 stories making it one of the tallest buildings in Chicago. It still holds the record of the tallest structure to be demoed in Chicago.

The 64 Year Question

I haven't had much of a chance to take photos lately, typical summer weather of heat and humidity has kept me in. Today wasn't one of those day's strong northeast winds, temps around 80 and low humidty made it a great day to take a walk. I went downtown and started the walk at Dearborn and Lake, walked lake to Jefferson and then Jefferson to 14th place where it ends. I had to walk over to Canal up to 16th back to Jefferson then up to 18th and 18th back to Halsted. All and all a great walk and I hope to post more pictures later.

The bottom photo is my recreation of Cushman's photo taken almost 64 years earlier. While we decry pollution today, I think we fail to realize how dirty a Coal burning world was. The Merchandise Mart was a little more than 10 years old when Cushman took his photo but it looks like a century has passed.

Where Commercial Meets the Community

Bloomer Chocolate, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

The Bloomer Chocolate factory is located int ther Fulton River District of the near northside of Chicago. When the wind blows just right the wonderful aroma of chocolate can be witnessed downtown.

I wonder how long the factory will remain. It is now surrounded by condo complexes with more to arrive.

Summertime Festival

Dragon is Here, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

With Saturday being a total wash out I didn't know what to expect for today. We had some thunderstorms around 1:00am and it remained cloudy until noon. Then the Sun broken out and heated everything up.

Today was the 29th annual Summertime Chinatown Festival down Wentworth avenue, featuring items for sale and tasty food. The Highlight event which was scheduled for 12:30 was the Dragon Dance. The photo shows the arrival of the Dragon onto Wentworth as it turned off of Cermak Road. It turned out to be a great day for a festival

The Center of Fast Food in Brighton Park

Ok maybe it's not really the center but on the left you have a Popyee's and on the right a Dunkin Donuts. This corner of Archer and Spaulding has been ocuppied by fast food chains for at least 40 years. The Popyee's buidling is less than 5 years old and sits on the site of the former Burger King #182. The Dunkin Donuts was built as a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.

I started my working life at the Burger King that was once on the Popyee's site. In fact the owner of the Popyee's was the head manager at the Burger King. The Kentucky Fried Chicken was relocated to 47th Place and Kedzie and the place was a Lalos's Taco Place for a while. It had been closed for a few years and I was surprised it was refurbished into a Dunkin Donuts.

Old Standard Federal

Old Standard Federal, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

The 4th of July weekend didn't lend itself to great photo opportunites. I had problems at the apartment on Friday and Sunday was too hot. Saturday was ok and so I decided to go down to the old hood and photograph Archer Avenue.

Brighton Park's main business district was Archer Avenue from Kedzie to California. Here at Sacremento we have perhaps the most impressive structure on Archer Avenue. The Old Standard Federal Savings (Later Bank) I believe Standard Federal had sat on this corner since the mid 1920's. I remember in the mid-80's when I first got an account at this S&L being impressed by the 14-15 teller windows.

Standard became a bank after the S&L crisis. It remained indepedent for another 10 years and then TCF came to town and bought them out. I haven't been impressed with TCF. In fact I hate them but since it hard to change checking accounts I remain. The last time I was in the lobby of this impressive building, TCF had two tellers working. What a waste of space :(

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth, originally uploaded by kendoman26.

The Fourth has come and gone and all the fireworks by now have been blown up. It's been an intersting week. On Monday night I had to call the fire department because there was smoke in the hallway. They best determined it was caused by fireworks thrown in the hall.

Then my 4th of July was hampered by lack of power. I guess the wiring got loose. shrug.