urban remains to salvage cluster of gray buildings (500-504 n. milwaukee avenue) facing demolition in coming weeks

the unusual collection of neglected and largely abandoned gray-painted buildings located at the intersection of grand, halsted and milwaukee, will be demolished in the coming weeks.

urban remains will begin salvaging any and all interior and exterior ornament (the latter during the demolition phase), beginning tomorrow afternoon. during my walk through late last week, i managed to find several architectural artifacts scattered from one building to the next that will be removed by our team.

when time permits, i will devote a great deal of time researching anything and everything about this weathered gray fortress that i've driven by time and again for years, wondering whether i will ever get the opportunity to see what lies behind those brick walls.

from the bits of information i've quickly gathered thus far, i now know that the foremost queen anne style triangular-shaped building was originally constructed as a schlitz saloon during the late 19th century, with a very rare and possibly one of a kind, three-dimensional belted schiltz globe (first introduced in 1894).

the two heavily dilapidated commercial buildings situated at the tail end of the lot (flanked be green and milwaukee) were constructed shortly before or possibly right after the great chicago fire. both interior and exterior architectural elements draw upon that time period.

more to follow in upcoming posts. in the meantime, i've provided the reader with a few images of the exterior and interior while i visited the site with the alpine demolition project manager as tour guide.