Slice of Life: For Love and Cheeseburgers

A wee moggie gazes out  the windows of the Anti-Cruelty Society (157 West Grand Avenue), hoping that someone will take pity on him and bring him home for love and snuggles and cheeseburgers.  Alas, no one comes this night.

Chicago: The Land Where Time Began

I've always been fascinated by time zones.  Just the other day in the elevator a man from India was telling his son that India is the only country in the world with a half-hour time zone (India is 10.5 hours ahead of Chicago).

I took the opportunity to correct him and inform him that Canada, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, and Australia also have half-hour time zones.  When I got home I looked it up to be sure, and found that French Polynesia, Burma, and part of New Zealand also have them.

So, where did this mess start?  It turns out right here in Chicago.

In the Loop you will find a plaque marking the location where time zones were invented.  It reads:

THE STANDARD TIME SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES

ADOPED ON THIS SITE -- OCTOBER 11, 1883

Chicago's famous Grand Pacific Hotel, then on the site of the present Continental Bank Building, was the location of the General Time Convention of 1883 which, on October 11 of that year, adoped the current Standard Time System in the United States.

The Convention was called by the nation's railroads.  Delegates were asked to develop a better and more uniform time system to govern railroad operations.

Previously, time had been determined by the position of the sun, with high noon as the only existing standard of exact local time.  More than 100 different local times resulted from this method.

The new plan, proposed by William F. Allen, Convention Secretary, established four equal time zones across the country, each one hour ahead of the zone to its west.  All railroad clocks in each zone were to be synchronized to strike the hour simultaneously.

The Standard Time System was inaugurated on November 18, 1883.  On that Sunday, known as the "Day of Two Noons," the Allegheny Observatory at the University of Pittsburgh transmitted a telegraph signal when it was exactly noon on the 90th meridian.  Railroad clocks throughout the United States were then reset on the hour according to time zone.

Although implemented by the railroads, the Federal Government, states, and cities began to use the system almost immediately.  On March 18, 1918, Congress formally asknowledged the plan by passing the Standard Time Act.

THIS PLAQUE PRESENTED TO

CONTINENTAL BANK

BY

THE MIDWEST RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.

November 18, 1971

Incidentally, the bank building that replaced the hotel on this site is now being converted into a J.W. Marriott hotel.  What once was old is new again.

The Mysterious Ladies LaSalle

If you don't spend a lot of time on LaSalle Street, you might not realize that the fair boulevard is graced by a pair of fair maidens.

The baroque beauties represent the concepts of industry and agriculture.  They once stood over the front entrance of the old Chicago Board of Trade Building.  But when the building was demolished in 1929, they mysteriously vanished.

The statues turned up almost 50 years later secluded in a forest preserve in Downers Grove.  The land they were discovered on was once the estate of Arthur Cutten, who was a trader at the Board of Trade at the time 1885-era building was torn down.

Coincidence?  No one's screaming "thief" because really, who among us hasn't made off with a fist full of office supplies every now and then?  Heck, I cobbled together my first computer from Telex telegram machine parts discarded by my parents' offices.  It's not hard to imagine that someone told Mr. Cutten, "If you can move 'em, you can have 'em."

In 2005, the DuPage County Forest Preserve District returned the statues to LaSalle Street.  They now frame the pedestrianized portion of South LaSalle between Jackson and Van Buren.

Indecision at Bank of America

It's unfortunate, but somewhat understandable, when tourists call the John Hancock Center the "John Hancock Tower."  Names are important because the John Hancock Tower  actually exists... in Boston.

It's more curious when a company gives the same building multiple names.  Such is the case in the heart of Chicago's financial district where 135 South LaSalle is the Bank of America Building .  Or is it?

The building, originally known as the Field Building, was known as the LaSalle Bank Building when Bank of America ate one of Chicago's last hometown banks.  But something has gone amiss in labeling the building.

Witness what is written at the top of the building's retail directories:

So, it's not Bank of America Building, then?  It's Bank of America Center?  Let's consult what's written above the LaSalle Street doors for a second opinion:

Oops!  I guess it's "Building" after all.  It certainly makes sense to go with what's written on the door instead of the header of a glorified mallmanac.  Until you look at the Jackson Street entrance:

We should probably just stick with calling it "135 South LaSalle" until the bank can figure out what it wants to do.

Returning the Power to LaSalle Street

If you've been around Chicago for a while, you might remember that Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan once had a restaurant.  You might have even wondered, "What ever happened to that?"  Well, it's gone.  Long gone.  Replaced by Lalo's, a Mexican restaurant.

Now Lalo's is gone.  Being replaced by something called LaSalle Power Co.  The logo's tagline reads, "Rock Bar • Stage • Retro Kitchen."  A sign near the door promises it will be an "exciting new concept."

For those of you more interested in the building than its occupants, you'll remember that this brick pile on LaSalle Street was once the LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse.  Massive engines inside dragged trolleys through a tunnel underneath the Chicago River to move 100,000 people a day from one side of the river to the other.

Today, it's still a nice looking building, and we're glad to see it being put to use and not left to deteriorate and implode into yet another River North surface parking lot.

The Face of the Poor in Chicago

In Chicago, you never know who might be poor.  I mean the real poor, not the cup-shaking grifters who pop up outside liquor stores and tourist spots.  I know someone who's a millionaire.  He has no idea that the person who lives two doors down from him is on food stamps.  People think that just because you live in a high-rise you're rich.  In Chicago, like other big cities, that's simply not true.

This sculpture sits outside the LaSalle Street offices of Catholic Charities.  I started going there to drop off some unneeded clothing that I thought might be able to help out someone less fortunate than myself.  Boy was I surprised by what I saw.

The "poor" people inside could easily be divided into two categories -- the afore-mentioned cup-shaking grifters; and a whole bunch of people who look, talk, sound, and act just like anyone else you might run into a Starbucks or J. Crew, or Millennium Park.  These are people who simply missed a rent payment or who lost their job because of downsizing and found themselves on the street.  We're all a little closer to misfortune these days.  What happened to them could happen to any of us.

A plaque on the sculpture reads

This sculpture is a visual representation of charity.

"Whatever you did for one of these lease brothers

of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

We should see Christ in the poor and the hungry.

We should see our acts of kindness to them as kindness to Him

One day when dropping off another few bags of clothes I saw that the sculpture had money in its palm.  And as I was looking through the fence at it a man, clearly Muslim by his beard and headgear, came down the path and added his contribution to the statue in front of Catholic Charities.

Today is Good Friday.  Let's remember that in many ways we're all in this together.

For Sale: 190 South LaSalle

If you're in the market for a skyscraper that epitomizes the 90's aesthetic, then look no further than 190 South LaSalle .

Crain's Chicago Business reports that the skyscraper is for sale.  In 2006 it went for $137,000,000.  We'll see what happens this time around.

Chicago's Newest Crown

What's this I spied late in the evening of January 5, 2008?  Why it looks like the beginnings of the promised illuminated crown at the top of 300 North LaSalle .

The drawings made public by Hines before construction began showed the top of the building all lit up and floodlights shooting into the sky.  Of course, architectural renderings have as much to do with reality as Arby's has to do with fine dining.  But let's hope that there's more to come here -- perhaps some panels to diffuse the light, because in spite of what the camera shows in the photograph above, the top of 300 looks less like a triumphant crown and more like a bunch of people accidentally left the lights on.

Here's the drawing Hines sent over before construction began.

You be the judge.