a most unusual discovery during the excavation of a residential lot on artesian avenue

as of late i've been giving my body - especially my back - a break from the latest wave of incredibly draining and time-consuming demolitions and excavations.. these have been bombarding my phone and email inbox on a daily basis. during this less strenuous time, i decided to tackle the arduous task of compiling and editing images taken from various salvages over the last ten years for the "salvaged chicago" book, which will likely be the most meaningful and meatiest book in the four-part series, consisting of: the "bldg51. museum collection (published), "unearthing chicago" (due out early next year) and "deconstructing chicago". i anticipate the latter may take a few years to complete, based on the amount of data i need to amass to paint the most accurate portrait of how the chicago balloon frame was built from 1840 through 1900.

while navigating through a mountainous collection of folders filled with hundreds, if not thousands of images, i stumbled across a folder created nearly six years ago, entitled "1600 n. artesian." for the life of me i could not recall that salvage, so i opened it. as my eyes quickly scanned the images, memories of that day rushed back. indeed, this was not a salvage, nor was this a situation where anything was retrieved when i visited the site. instead, i looked on in disbelief at a collection of gargantuan neoclassical carved limestone fluted columns and ionic capitals that were buried under an abandoned or undeveloped lot that was being excavated. to give you an idea of scale, i immediately thought of the towering columns adorning the facade of the extant continental illinois bank building located in the "la salle canyon" (see below).

no one had any idea as to why the columns and capitals were buried under a small residential lot in a densely packed neighborhood. obviously the columns were from a demolished building - likely a 1920's-era bank, but why the hell they were located in such an unusual location was, and still is, a mystery. since i had no intention of salvaging them i just decided to photograph these gargantuan columns as they sat lifeless and broken - fully exposed and surrounded by neighboring houses. it was truly a surreal spectacle. i do not recall what exactly happened to them. were they trucked off to a landfill or simply buried over again?  i didn't have the time to research this unusual find at the time and it might be another few years before i look into it further. however, demystifying this unusual excavation may very well be fast-tracked if i choose to include this in the "unearthing chicago book." in the meantime, i'll share the images taken years ago and let the reader arrive at their own conclusions.