a transplanted 19th century victorian cottage hidden in plain sight: part one

the number of daily demolition notifications i receive is incredibly alarming on so many levels. this is no doubt a mantra i have repeatedly expressed in prior posts, interviews, etc. i will expound upon this further when attending the 19th century building materials exhibit that bldg. 51 and the clarke house are co-presenting at the glessner museum during the "open house chicago" event (october 17th and 18th) and as i begin putting together my third book, "deconstructing chicago."

yesterday afternoon, i rushed over to what remained of a little worker's cottage off of western avenue, where i discovered several sill plates, log markings, hidden fretwork, and other distinctive materials and methods that were used to construct this remarkably well-built house.

the second part will include the story told through what i discovered in the rubble, with additional images of the demolition to provide context. hopefully in the next few days i have time to sort through the few hundred images taken on site and recover the remainder of materials still on the site. the building components shown below, were photographed late last night, only a few hours after i returned from the demolition.