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late 1880's red brick rice street chicago worker's cottage demolished earlier this week

prior to this demolition, a cluster of similarly built late 19th century brick worker's cottages just west of damen avenue had been largely unaltered since they were constructed around 1885-1890. unfortunately, one of the closely-shaped houses was brought down earlier this week, leaving a gaping hole that has now disrupted the continuity of the side-by-side houses.

gleaning information from an 1886 sanborn insurance map "snapshot," the non-extant house had already been built by that year, but judging from several interior characteristics, it was likely a newly-built structure that just made inclusion into that particular sanborn plate.  

during the demolition phase i didn't discover anything terribly unusual or out of the ordinary pertaining to the methodologies of constructing this home. no beams were employed and the dimensional studs and joists were mostly consistent throughout. every now and then however, i would come across materials that still contained bark, such as a furring strip (originally nailed against a double course brick wall), as shown below. the pine wood trimwork, cut nails, paneled doors and hardware (consisting of "oriental" pattern escutcheons with mineral knobs), were used throughout the two-story house.

with the exception of leaving a gaping hole where a nicely preserved collection of worker's cottages had escaped development on rice street for well over a hundred years, there isn't much to discuss in great detail. regardless, i find it very important to document, as time permits, any and all 19th century chicago brick and wood-framed houses, which are falling to the wrecking ball at an alarming rate. i've included images of both the building materials used, along with a series of photographs capturing the swift demolition as taken from the backside of the house.

update: a few images from the cottage's unfortunate demolition... 



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