John R. Schmidt

The Suffrage Train

By: John R. Schmidt | Mar. 7, 2012

Mar. 7, 2012

In 1911 women voted in some states--but not in Illinois. On this date 101 years ago, a group of female activists from Chicago chartered a train and traveled to Springfield to lobby for voting rights.

At 9 a.m. the special "Suffrage Train" pulled out of the Illinois Central 12th Street Station. On board were over 300 women. The main group was from the Chicago Political Equality League, headed by Grace Wilbur Trout.

Women had lobbyed the legislature before. This time the contingent included female students from the University of Chicago. "We're going to smile and look pleasant at them, and tell them how young they look," one 20-year-old said. "That's the only way to make a man do what you want him to, anyway."

The Suffrage Train chugged south, stopping at dozens of stations along the way. People had gathered at each stop. Trout spoke to them from the train's rear platform, while her associates moved through the crowd, passing out literature.

They reached Springfield at 5 p.m. Two hours later, the women made a grand entrance at the Capitol.

…Read Full Entry

Pulaski vs. Crawford: A street name war

By: John R. Schmidt | Mar. 6, 2012

Mar. 6, 2012

It began in September 1933, when a local Polish group asked Mayor Edward J. Kelly to name a street in honor of Casimir Pulaski.

The idea was appealing. General Pulaski had been a hero of the American Revolution. Besides that, the Poles were a major ethnic voting bloc. Kelly agreed to the plan--Crawford Avenue was to be renamed Pulaski Road.

As the mayor soon found out, many Chicagoans were against the change.

The street in question had been named for pioneer settler Peter Crawford. His family liked the existing name. So did the Chicago Historical Society. So did the store owners along Crawford, who'd have to revise their advertising--a few businesses, like Madison-Crawford Restaurant, might even have to change their names.

In December 1933 the City Council approved the change to Pulaski. The next month a group of Crawford businessmen got an injunction to halt the action.

…Read Full Entry

Lost landmark: Peter Hand Brewery

By: John R. Schmidt | Mar. 2, 2012

Mar. 2, 2012

Chicago has many micro-breweries to quench the discerning thirst. Our subject here is the city's last "macro-brewery."

Peter Hand was a Prussian-born Civil War veteran who came to Chicago to work in the brewing industry. In 1891 he opened a small brewery of his own at North and Sheffield. His leading brand was called Meister Bräu--"master brew."

Hand died in 1899, but his brewery survived. Between 1920 and 1933 it was officially closed because of Prohibition. After repeal the plant was expanded several times. Meanwhile, dozens of other Chicago breweries came and went.

In 1965 a group of investors purchased the brewery and changed the name to Meister Bräu Inc., with the intention of going national. In Chicago, they launched an aggressive advertising campaign.

Meister Bräu sponsored Sox, Hawks and Bulls broadcasts. Franklyn MacCormack's "All Night Meister Bräu Showcase" became a popular radio program. Bottle openers, coasters, beer steins, and posters were given away. The number of Meister Bräu billboards around town was exceded only by those reading "Daley for Mayor."

…Read Full Entry

The world's first skyscraper

By: John R. Schmidt | Mar. 1, 2012

Mar. 1, 2012

Skyscraper!

We're so used to hearing the word, we don't really think about it. Today we have airplanes. We've flown to the moon. Scraping the sky doesn't seem like such a big deal.

But go back to this date in 1884. On March 1st the city issued a permit to erect an office building at the northeast corner of La Salle and Adams. The Home Insurance Building would start a revolution.

Before 1884 buildings were supported by their walls. The higher you went, the wider the bottom. That's because the base had to carry the weight of everything above it. Think of the pyramids.

Of course, you could take some of the weight off the walls by putting support columns inside the building. Trouble was, you reduced interior space, and wound up with a bunch of small rooms.

And because your outside walls were weight-bearing, glass windows had to be small. That limited the sunlight coming into your building. You want larger windows? Then you build buttresses holding up your walls, like the Gothic cathedrals.

William LeBaron Jenney, architect of the Home Insurance Building, changed this. Metals had become stronger and easier to use.

…Read Full Entry

An entrepreneur with social motives

By: John R. Schmidt | Feb. 28, 2012

Feb. 28, 2012

Listen to John Schmidt discuss Jesse Binga on Eight Forty-Eight

Today the street where Jesse Binga lived is named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That's appropriate. When the street was called South Park Avenue and Binga lived at number 5922, the house became a symbol of the civil rights struggle.

Jesse Binga was a go-getter. Born in Detroit in 1865, he started out to be a barber like his father. He moved through a number of jobs before settling in Chicago at the time of the 1893 World's Fair. A few years later he entered the real estate business.

Chicago's African-American population was small at the turn of the 20th Century, but that was about to change. Here Binga saw his opportunity.

During the first decades of the new century, Southern blacks began moving north. Chicago's neighborhoods were segregated, like most northern cities.

…Read Full Entry

Chicago's forgotten movie star

By: John R. Schmidt | Feb. 24, 2012

Feb. 24, 2012

Oscar night is upon us. A silent movie is a contender for Best Picture. That makes it a good time to talk about Milton Sills.

Milton who? Mention that name, and even some film historians draw a blank. Yet he was one of the biggest movie stars of his time. And he was a Chicagoan--through and through.

Sills was born in Chicago in 1882. His family had money--Dad was a mineral dealer, Mom was a banker's daughter--and Milton grew up on the South Side. He attended Hyde Park High School, then entered the University of Chicago in 1899.

Sills studied philosophy and psychology, played sports, joined a frat--the whole Joe College bit. He also did some acting in a few campus productions.

After graduating in 1903 he was hired by the university to teach mathematics. Sills had talked about studying for a PhD, and it's not clear what happened to that plan. By 1905 he was a professional actor, part of a company that put on plays in the college towns of the Midwest.

The young actor got his big break when he went to New York in 1908. Legendary producer David Belasco saw Sills perform, recognized his talent, and helped promote his career. Over the next few years Sills was in several Broadway plays.

It was the early days of motion pictures, and the movies were silent.

…Read Full Entry

The birth of UIC's 'Circle Campus'

By: John R. Schmidt | Feb. 22, 2012

Feb. 22, 2012

On this day in 1965, Chicago got its first, full-fledged public university. The University of Illinois' Chicago Circle campus was dedicated.

The university had been founded at Urbana in 1867. The first Chicago branch opened in 1946 at Navy Pier--"Harvard on the Rocks," the students called it. But the pier had limited room. All undergrads were forced to complete their last two years at the main campus, 130 miles away.

In 1951 State Senator Richard J. Daley sponsored a bill calling for the university to build a four-year facility in Chicago. The trustees investigated a number of sites. For a while it seemed likely the new school would be located in Garfield Park.

Daley became Mayor of Chicago in 1955. He wanted a more central site. Putting the campus at Harrison and Halsted would stabilize the Loop and renew a blighted area.

Except that the people living there didn't think the neighborhood was blighted. This was the historic heart of the city's Italian community. There were protests, there were lawsuits, there was a bombing. In the end, Daley got his way.

The neighborhood was bulldozed.

…Read Full Entry

Lost on the Dan Ryan

By: John R. Schmidt | Feb. 21, 2012

Feb. 21, 2012

Listen to John Schmidt talk about street signs on Eight Forty-Eight

We've been having some fun recently with the technicalities of Chicago street names. Yet sometimes it's important to be precise. Take the matter of our busiest expressway.

Driving north on the Dan Ryan from the Skyway junction, you encounter a series of overhead signs directing you to the express lanes. The signs warn that if you enter the express lanes, your next exit is 22nd Street.

Chicago doesn't have a 22nd Street.

The city had a 22nd street until 1933. Then Mayor Anton Cermak was killed, and the name was changed to Cermak Road. In some of the western suburbs it's still called 22nd Street. But those towns are at least ten miles away from the Ryan.

Okay, most of the streets crossing the Ryan have numbers for names, so using "22nd Street" is just following that pattern. Right?

Except--Roosevelt Road isn't called "12th Street," and Pershing Road isn't called "39th Street."

…Read Full Entry

Pages