Rogers Park National Bank was founded in 1912. For the five years prior to the construction of this building in 1917, we presume that the bank occupied retail space elsewhere on Clark Street, although this has not been confirmed. Notable as architect Karl Vitzthum’s earliest extant bank design, Rogers Park National Bank is a typical classical revival style corner bank modeled after Stanford White’s highly influential Knickerbocker Trust Company. Read More »

East Side Trust & Savings was founded in 1919, the same year this bank was erected, and suspended operations July 1933. A stock subscription drive allowed the bank to regain enough capital to reopen Feburary 1934. Read More »

Those growing up in the Jefferson Park area, like so many Chicagoans who grew up on the Northwest Side, have fond memories of the Olson Rug Park and Waterfall. Read More »

Chicago’s large mail order industry didn’t just consist of legendary Sears and Montgomery Ward; many smaller firms also took advantage of Chicago’s transportation hub status and easy access to the hinterlands by locating here. Read More »

Here is arguably Chicago’s best example of an art deco style factory. The Richter’s Food Products “health sausage” factory on Randolph and Carpenter was constructed beginning in 1931 for a cost of $500,000. Read More »

The James C. Curtis Company manufactured “undertaker’s supplies,” which one is led to believe was a fancy term for caskets (as indicated on the semi-obscured roof sign). Read More »

John Sexton and Company was a large wholesale grocery firm that originated in Chicago in the 1870s. Read More »

The William D. Gibson company manufactured springs at this factory on Clybourn. Built in 1908, the factory was expanded over the years. Read More »

Chicago’s importance in the radio industry will be discussed at length in future articles. For now, this postcard provides a glimpse at one of the smaller players. Read More »

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In a selection of Chicago factory postcards, the Charles Bruning Company offers a good place to start. The company’s frequent moves provide a textbook example of industrial relocation common among firms throughout the metro area. Read More »

Continuing on the somewhat unintentional theme of showcasing an example from each of Chicago’s formerly major industries is the American Licorice Company, manufacturers of licorice confections. Read More »

Lyon and Healy is a musical instrument manufacturer that still operates in Chicago. Formed in 1864, Lyon and Healy opened a factory at Randolph and Ogden in 1890 that is still operation. Read More »

For a company that was supposedly “The Largest Tubular Ice Skate Plant in the World,” there is surprisingly little history available about the Alfred Johnson Skate Company. Read More »

In terms of using images to study the built environment, postcards are probably the farthest one can get from “proper” documentary efforts, such as the Historic American Buildings Survey. Read More »

Once upon a time, if you wanted to see a movie in Chicago, you didn’t have to go to some characterless box in a shopping mall parking lot. Read More »

The city began removing yellow street signs and changing them to green in the mid-1970s. Read More »

While other large old cities (especially New York) seemingly have many remnants from different eras of street signage, the “city that works” has been relentless in replacing old street signs. Before the 1970s, Chicago’s street signs were awash in a distinctive yellow color with black text. Read More »

The more things change…the more they become different. Or the less similar they get? Read More »