city of chicago stops demolition of post-fire christopher bettker frame cottage

after learning that the city had rejected the demolition of a post-fire chicago cottage located at 1639 n. north park avenue this morning, i opened up my schedule to spend the afternoon photodocumenting the frame house's exterior characteristics. from there, i decided to broaden the scope to include several nearby cottages that, like the one in question, were constructed shortly after the fire, due in large part to the chicago relief and aid society.

not only did the society supply hundreds of families (known at the time as "burnt-out people) with large quantities of dimensional pine wood lumber, but in addition, offered a booklet featuring detailed schematics and/or materials and methods required to build a frame cottage based on the number of occupants that would reside there.

the fact that so many of these quaint little cottages are still standing in and around the area where the north park avenue cottage stands is impressive and likely contributed to the city deciding against demolition. in this case, the whole is indeed, greater than the sum of its parts, but only if those "parts" are kept in place (i.e., not demolished). for those interested in seeing a largely unaltered pocket of frame cottages erected shortly after the fire of 1871, i suggest spending a full day in the "triangle."

after deconstructing and documenting well over a hundred cottages constructed between 1847-1901 over the past two years, i could write a lengthy piece about the materials and methods of this house. instead, let's just say it's structurally sound and retains many of its original elements. whether it was raised to create rentable space for added income years later is not known. if that were the case, it likely occurred a few years after completion, when the city began implementing its "fire limits." the images below offer a detailed photographic assessment of the exterior.

before heading off to bed, i spent about 20 minutes to do a little research on the cottage through sanborn insurance maps and city directories. the cottage and surrounding structures are found in the image of an 1886 sanborn (see below - note: the black arrow points to the cottage as it existed in 1886). according to the 1876 lakeside directory, christopher bettker resided there. his occupation is listed as "drayman," which is a person who delivers beer for a brewery. if time permits, i will look at additional city directories, maps, newspaper articles, and so on to see if i can dredge up any additional information on a post-fire cottage the city finally gave a shit about.

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