Slice of Life: Seahorsing Around

I know that pineapples are supposed to be a symbol of welcome.  Seahorses?  I have no idea.  But there are a number of them on the outside of the Willows Hotel in Lincoln Park.  Maybe it has something to do with the hotel's address: 555 West Surf Street.

Slice of Life: You Oughta Terra Cotta

Walking Chicago's neighborhoods you can start to see repeated patterns of familiar construction, new and old.  And then every once in a while something truly special pops up.

One of these special places is the Pine Grove Apartments (2828 North Pine Grove Avenue) in Lincoln Park.  Though the real estate listings calling it "vintage" are technically correct, they really don't do this beauty justice.

Slice of Life: Sitting in the Shadow of Goethe

Though it's not what it once was, today there's no shortage of Goethe-worship in Chicago.  And if you recently downloaded one of his works onto your iPad, this bench in Lincoln Park is probably the best place to digest his words.

The back of the bench contains his head, and the inscription "Joh Wolfg V Goethe, 1749-1832" and passages from Faust.

Slice of Life: Elks Sculptures

Many of Chicago's architectural treasures of verboten to the general public.  This is not true of the Elks Veterans Memorial (2750 North Lakeview Avenue) in Lincoln Park.  Anyone is welcome to come in and look around and marvel at the artwork, the sculptures, and the design.  And the Elks won't even bother you for a donation.  Though the building is a little forbidding on the outside, inside it's very welcoming and worth a visit.

If you happen to show up at a time when the memorial isn't open, there's still plenty to marvel at outside, including this four-person sculpture to the south of the main rotunda.  Unfortunately, while the Elks web site has lots of information about the building's interior art, I couldn't find any information on the site explaining the exterior sculptures.

Slice of Life: Long Way From The Loop

The corner of West Diversey Parkway and North Pine Grove is a long way from the Loop, but this apartment building would fit right in among the Monadnock (53 West Jackson Boulevard), the Manhattan (431 South Dearborn Street), or the other historic buildings of downtown Chicago.

This is actually the 1893 Brewster Building at 2300 North Pine Grove Boulevard.  It used to be known as the Lincoln Park Palace, and we can see why.

Slice of Life: A Man and His Bird

Living on the North Side means becoming familiar with how to pronounce the name "Goethe."  Whether you're into German philosophy, or just trying to find your way around, this is going to come up eventually.

This statue in Lincoln Park has a plaque reading:

To

Goethe

The Mastermind of the

German People

The Germans of Chicago

1913

Slice of Life: Lincoln Park is a Gas

With concerns about the environment and the economy, you'd think that gas lamps would have gone the way of the buggy whip.  But there are a number of them alive and burning in Chicago.  I've seen a few in the Gold Coast, in the streets behind the Cardinal Francis George's* home, and a few others in Hyde Park. This one isn't on a home, but is actually one of a pair illuminating a street in Lincoln Park.  Sadly, the owners have the money to keep the lamp light burning, but not the time to clean and maintain the lantern, itself.

* Chicago's cardinal prefers to be called "Cardinal Francis George," not the traditional order "Francis Cardinal George."  His office sent out a news release about this shortly after he became cardinal.  There is no "official" method proscribed by the Vatican, it is up to the individual to choose.  For a short time Chicago media organizations abided by his wishes, but were overwhelmed by angry phone calls from Joe Sixpacks who assumed they knew better.  Most media outlets switched back to the traditional form just to make the complaints stop.  It's easier than being correct.

Slice of Life: Slice of Chicago

Two photographs of Chicago taken from the same location in Lincoln Park two months apart.  The frame on the right shows where we are.  The frame on the left shows what we have to look forward to.

Of course, if I was smart I would have arranged them in chronological order, but I'm not.

Slice of Life: Snacks on Wheels

You may or may not remember a series of television commercials that ran a couple of months ago for Little Debbie snack cakes.  They showed a small fleet of three tiny cars decorated like cupcakes driving across America spreading happiness and joy the way only baked goods can.

If you kept your eyes open, you might have actually seen those cars in Chicago.  I managed to catch two of them in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  There weren't any cupcake personnel stationed by the cars which were stashed away on a quiet side street.  Perhaps they'd piled into the third car and gone for some coffee.

 

Slice of Life: Filming A Lincoln in Lincoln Park

The Lincoln getting all the attention in Lincoln Park this day isn't the locally-famous Standing Lincoln monument.  It's a 1968 Lincoln Continental being shot by a film crew for an upcoming movie.

I wasn't able to find out exactly which movie this was being filmed for, but the production crew for Little Fockers was in town at the time.  Also, I know nothing about cars, so "1968 Lincoln Continental" was the analysis of the photo provided by one of our readers.  If you disagree with his assessment, take it up in four forum.

Slice of Life: Fields of White

The Chicago skyline peeks over the trees and snowy fields of Lincoln Park on a gloomy winter's afternoon.

Park District to Burn Lincoln Park

Bad things happen in nature.  The cute and fuzzy are eaten by the ugly and toothy.  Sometimes the cutest penguin gets left behind.  And every once in a while Mother Nature sets things on fire.

The Chicago Park District has worked hard to restore patches of the city's parks to what they used to be -- Illinois prairie.  In the hum and thrush of summer they are fascinating places to sit and watch nature at work.  But as poet Bonnie Eldred noted, "Mother Nature is a bitch."

In the natural world she occasionally takes our her frustration on the prairie in the form of a prairie fire.  It's frightening and chaotic when it's happening, but in the long run it is cleansing and cathartic for the ecosystem.  And in the District's quest to really go the extra mile in simulating a natural environment in downtown Chicago, something's gotta burn.

Those things are the recreated prairies along the edge of Lincoln Park's north pond.  The exact date for this year's burn hasn't been set, but it's expected to happen before the end of the year depending on weather conditions.

Though I love the smell of a good wood fire, I don't know what a prairie fire smells like.  I don't think the neighbors are going to be too happy with it.  But the Park Department does have an entire web page about why burning is a good thing.  You can read it here: http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/custom.natureOasis01 Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated in seven years.

Here's the summary about this year's burn from the public notice:

The Chicago Park District uses controlled burn management to help maintain native plant communities.  A controlled burn is the use of fire as a management tool in a carefully planned and controlled manner.  Controlled burn management is an efficient and economical tool that reduces the amount of pesticides that otherwise may be needed to control invasive plants. Fire helps promote species diversity by controlling invasive woody shrubs and trees.  Without fire, natural areas often become thickets of shrubs or weeds with little diversity.  Fire burns off dead vegetation and stimulates new plant growth by allowing sunlight to warm the dark soil, encouraging germination. Fire also enriches the soil by returning nutrients back to the soil.

Research shows that fire is a natural part of native Illinois ecosystems.  These landscapes need to be burned periodically in order to stay healthy and to provide habitat for native plants and animals.

All persons who conduct controlled burns are specially trained, equipped, and supervised. The fire department has been notified and all permits have been obtained to do this work.

So, Lincoln Park is officially on burn notice.  

Status Update: 416 Deming

There's not much to say about 416 Deming yet (416 West Deming Place).  Right now there's a fenced off surface parking lot and this sign. The building's web site contains the usual list of amenities. The only thing unusual is that it's going for LEED Silver status. 

Status Update: Lincoln Park South Pond

It doesn't look like much more than a mud hole now, but the $12 million renovation of Lincoln Park's South Pond is movng along.  The project emptied the pond, dredged out all the muck, and removed the concrete and steel borders. 

The pond will be deepened and the shoreline made more natural to attract wildlife.  Apparently the pond as it was was too shallow to support much aquatic life, and concrete doesn't make much of a habitat unless you're a goose. 

For people, a boardwalk will be installed and educational programs will highlight the pond ecosystem. 

Status Update: Lincoln Park 2520

Though it's been downsized, things appear to be moving full speed ahead at Lincoln Park 2520 (2520 North Lakeview Avenue). More pictures:

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (2009 edition, part 6)

Crews are festooning the trees at the Lincoln Park Zoo (North Stockton Street at Webster Street) with lights in anticipation of this year's Zoo Lights event.  It's another great way to show your kids that Christmas doesn't come in a box, and that Christmas spirit can be had for free.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (2009 edition, part 5)

The wreaths and garland are up along North Clark Street.

The Names They Are a Changin'

A lot of cities I've lived in (and I've lived in a lot of cities) have changed the names of their streets over time.  I've always been impressed that Chicago hangs on to its street names longer than most of the other places I've lived.  Perhaps its because in Chicago an "Honorary" street name sign can be added to a block or two without having to change the street's official name.

But last week while wandering around I stumbled across two deprecated street names still living on old buildings.

The first was on the block with Blue Chicago.  The peeling paint proclaimed the address as "536 Heritage Place."  Was Clark Street once known as Heritage Place?  I checked the Chicago Tribune archive and found no reference to Heritage Place.  I asked the Municipal Reference Team at the Chicago Public Library (your tax dollars at work!) and got this response:

As far as we can tell Clark Street has never had another name. Clarke [sic] street was shown on the original plat maps of Chicago. See the Encyclopedia of Chicago at: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10634.html

Prior to the Great Fire of 1871 Clarke Street had been extended north and south to at least the five hundred numbers. Since most or all of the buildings on Clark were burned during the fire, your building would have to been more recent, and definitley been built on Clark.

See for example: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10343.html

Furthermore we are unable to find any evidence of any street named "Heritage".

I'll do a little more research on this, but if anyone can explain this, please leave a comment below.

The second location was up near the Lincoln Park Zoo.  The building at 2100 North Lincoln Park West has carved on its south side "Garfield Avenue" indicating that the street we now call Dickens once bore the name of a president, not a scribe.

It happened around 1934.  In that year, the City Club of Chicago came up with a list of 41 street names it considered confusing, duplicative, or redundant.  One of them was Garfield Avenue.  The City Club proposed changing Garfield Avenue to Dickens because of confusion with Garfield Boulevard in the Garfield Park section of Chicago.

Not surprisingly, there were Chicago Aldermen against the change.  Alderman Caughlin was quoted in the July 27th, 1934 edition of the Chicago Tribune as saying, "If a dozen streets named Lincoln were in Chicago... I wouldn't favor a change in any of them."

Other streets that got their names changed include Grove Avenue, which became South Clark Street; Center Street, which became Armitage Avenue; and Austin Avenue which became what we now know as Hubbard Street.

That's an interesting point because Hubbard Street is what lent its name to the series of freeway underpasses known as "Hubbard's Cave."  You can read the article we wrote last month about the history of Hubbard's Cave.  And by coincidence, just today while strolling along Wacker Drive I cam across this plaque noting the location of "Hubbard's Folly:"

So, who the heck was Hubbard?

He was Gurdon S. Hubbard (I've also seen it written "Gordon S. Hubbard"), the owner of Hubabrd & Company, who was a pioneering businessman.  And by "pioneering" I mean he opened shop in Chicago back when there wasn't much here but Indians, fur trappers, and wild onions.  His specialty was meat packing and this hog butcher to America went out of business around the time Philip Armour left the California gold fields for Chicago and became "Hog Butcher to the World."

Slice of Life: Reflections of Algae

The Chicago skyline is reflected in a weed-choked pond in Lincoln Park.  A nearby sign from the Chicago Park District across from the North Pond Restaurant at 2610 North Cannon Drive explains that the weeds and algae are perfectly normal and that a contractor has been hired to get things back under control.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.

Slice of Life: Day of the Ducks

OK, they're not ducks.  They're geese.  But either way, they've taken over part of Lincoln Park.

Here's some Lincoln Park ducks just so you don't think I don't know the difference between ducks and geese.