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unknowingly stumbling upon chicago's portals to the past can be frustrating at times

lately i’ve been incredibly busy. bouncing between concurrent salvages contributes to the chaos of my burgeoning schedule. i'm no doubt overwhelmed with the daunting projects and events i’m committed to, all while prioritizing "on the fly" photo documentation, and subsequent research. it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to accept the fact that it's not humanly possible to be everywhere at once, especially when what’s at stake is documenting structures that will be wiped away without a trace of their existence.

despite trying to convince myself that i can stay ahead of the game, and at the very least, photo-document  these "portals to the past", i'm often distracted by events unfolding before me as i travel from one site to the next. for example, on my way to work last friday, the department of streets and sanitation and/or a subcontractor had opened a section of a street in downtown chicago for upgrading/replacing gas or water lines. i immediately pulled off to the side and asked one of the workers if i could have a granite block, more commonly referred to as a "cobblestone" or paver (they had unearthed hundreds at that point).

i have been wanting to document the morphological characteristics (and differences) between wood, brick and granite specimens used in chicago (beginning in the 1840's and lasting well into the early 20th century). i’d already acquired wood and brick specimens long ago, so the addition of the cobblestone completes the "trifecta" i was seeking.

the photographic imagery I now have will certainly aid my research in terms of the ‘why, when and where?’ of the use of these materials in the city (beginning in the 1840's and lasting well into the 20th century). i actually touched upon this subject a bit, when i happened on a large load of original wood street pavers  (see previous post here).

moving along, i made my way over to the joseph t. ryerson demolition site, where a few weeks back, we removed the interior staircase shortly before demolition was to commence. i spent a few hours removing layers of remuddlings to determine whether any interior artifacts  (e.g., plaster medallions, wallpaper, etc.) remained from the time the house was rebuilt in 1872-73 (on the same site) after the great chicago fire burned down the original, constructed in 1860 (see post on that salvage here).

although an excavation was not in store, i was hoping that the wrecking crew would come across artifacts of some sort dating back to that time period. the project foreman and one of his crew did manage to find a few things that they set aside for me. i told them that the very foundation, or at least sections of it that survived the fire were likely reused when the house was quickly reconstructed. there could be other pre-fire artifacts on the site as well.

if and when the site is excavated, i'm hoping i can return to determine whether privy pits or other areas of refuse will be found, documented and recovered. we shall see. regardless, i was pleased that the crew kept a watchful eye and found the few fragments that i picked up as they were wrapping up at the site.

from there, i had to meet with the owner and project managers of alpine wrecking, who have been commissioned to pull down the cluster of buildings located at 500 north milwaukee avenue or the "gray triangle",  in order to go over what exactly we were going to do that day in terms of salvaging interior ornament. i was pleased to learn that some of the artifacts are being removed for the property owners/developers, who plan to incorporate those artifacts into the new structure they build there on the historic site.

there was so much to process in such little time, and i hadn’t even had the chance to get to the office, where i wanted to go over the recent changes happening with the conversion of urban remains' showroom to an event/exhibit space for programs pertaining to chicago history and architecture (further details found here).

in the flurry of activity, i simply cannot pass off any seemingly random opportunities. this is where a street will quickly be repaved; artifacts graciously set aside, ditched, or covered over; or precious time will be lost to document a unique building slated to become rubble.

 

 



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