The Great Chicago Merchant Tailors

M. Born and Co. produced this trade card around 1880.

Michigan Avenue at Night

Another great postcard from Brian at Paper Sponge. This is a beautiful night-time view of Michigan Avenue in Chicago.  The Water Tower is still there, but if it hadn't served such an important role in stopping great Chicago Fire of 1871, it would probably be long gone. Public outcry thwarted the various attempts to have it demolished in 1906, 1918, and 1948.  At one time, the 154-foot tower dwarfed all the buildings around it.

Here's the same view today.

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And here's the back of the card.

Annie Crawford's Siblings

Annie Crawford lived in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her siblings, who lived in Chicago seem to have had some difficult times.

The message to Mrs. Annie Crawford, written in August, 1911, reads:

My dear Sister, your letter received this a.m. and glad to hear from you. I am at home but don't get around much, the wound is not all healed yet. I am getting along nicely, but it is very slow work. Will write you soon. Today has been the first I have written any one, and all have had postals. I get easily tired. Love to all from Maisie.

The following postcard is from her brother, sent two years later:

Dear Sister

Would you kindly do what you can to send receipts and card as soon as possible. I need them bad

your brother Charlie

Another interesting note about the first card - the conservatory shown on the front of the card was torn down in 1905, six years before the card was sent. Due to graft and neglect, the conservatory had fallen into disrepair when Jens Jensen, the prairie-style landscape architect was called in to revamp the park. He elected to have the conservatory torn down.

Streetcar Sunday - Chicago, Illinois

As in many other cities around the world, Chicago started out with horse-drawn streetcars in 1859.  Many cities transitioned from the horse-drawn vehicles to electric-powered ones starting in the 1880s, but Chicago invested heavily in a cable car system instead, eventually creating the largest cable car system in the world. While cable cars have a distinct advantage in hilly cities like San Francisco, they are generally inefficient and expensive relative to electric streetcars operating with overhead wires.  Chicago didn't have the hills to warrant a cable car system, so operators began making the transition from cable to electric by the 1890s.

The streetcars thrived throughout the 1920s, but already began their decline in the '30s falling to competition from cars and buses.  In 1957, the last streetcar routes were replaced with bus routes. This postcard is likely from the early 1920s and includes a pitch for the Gray Line bus sightseeing tours: P.S. Saw this view while riding the Gray Line sightseeing car -The Best Everywhere.
Here's an earlier post that shows a double-deck sightseeing bus (though not a Gray Line) in Chicago.

Cows and Cars - Chicago, Illinois

Ma Forgot the Potato Chips!

Who cares about the Knickerbocker Hotel? What I care about is that Ma forgot the potato chips. How could she?

The message from Ma (who forgot the potato chips!) reads:

Pat dearest,

Just got your card and delighted to hear from you. Sorry I forgot the potato chips; I didn't even see them anywhere. Mrs. Runyeon is here and sent her love to you.  (?) working hard at the convention and have not much time to play. Called Helen Krauel yesterday but couldn't get her. Will try again. Much love - Ma.

Lastly, I must admit that I wondered how Ma would feel that about her card being read by others some 66 years later.

Chicago

The front of the card points to a place where Mutti (Mom) had stayed in Chicago. The message on the card sent to Hanna Heycke and Margarete Schröder on the island of Föhr in the North Sea in May 1960, reads:

Dear Mom and Aunt Grete!

Friday evening at 7, Betty is feeling well and Betty's mother arrived on Friday evening. It was a girl, had darker hair and weighed over 8 pounds. Greetings, Your Dieter

The stamp isn't canceled, so I'm not sure if the card was sent or not.

The Fadgl Auto Train

Fadgl is a catchy name, don't you agree? Well, it turns out that the contraption (aka the auto train) was manufactured by the Fageol brothers from California. Someone thought their name was hard to pronounce and that Fadgl would be easier. Really! Perhaps they should have just removed that last pesky vowel and left it as Fdgl.

Anyway, the auto train was not so much a train as a tractor pulling a bunch of open cars. The brothers owned the Flageol Motor Co. in Oakland, CA, where they manufactured tractors, trucks, and automobiles. They made this train for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, but when the exposition was over, the train was shipped to Chicago to be used in Lincoln Park.

I'm not sure how long the train lasted, but the Flageol Motor Co. ran into financial difficulties in 1930, went into receivership, and was eventually bought from the bank by T.A. Peterman, a logger and plywood manufacturer from Tacoma, WA, who needed logging trucks for his business. That was the beginning of Peterbilt trucks, but that's another story.

Double Deck Motor Bus in Chicago

The double-deck motorbus was primarily designed to appeal to sightseers, but also as an alternative to the streetcar.  This card is from about 1917, when this was the only double-deck bus service in Chicago. A few years later there were more routes and numerous competitors. Although the height of the bus was the source of its appeal, it was also the cause of its demise, because the buses were too tall to travel under rail viaducts.

Chicago's Water Street

Water Street was the produce hub of Chicago. In the 1800s, it was the main business street, running parallel to the Chicago River. In earlier years, it was the site of an Indian trading post. However in 1917, Charles Wacker, Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, proposed changing Water Street into a "fine highway of tremendous economic value to the City of Chicago." South Water and River Streets would be double-decker streets from Michigan Avenue to Market Street, with the upper level reserved for light traffic. The Plan called for the market to be moved to another location outside the loop to reduce loop traffic by 13,814 vehicle trips per day. (Source: Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year-Book, 1918.)

Water Street is now known as Wacker Drive (fancy that!) The market was moved to an 8-block area bounded by Racine Avenue, Morgan Street, 14th Street and Baltimore and Ohio. In 2003, the "new market" was turned into apartments, known as the University Commons.