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a look back at salvaging an early 20th century chicago standard brewery "tied house" saloon demolished over 3 years ago

the following blog entry was first posted on july 15th, 2015.

i spent the greater part of a day documenting and salvaging ornament from the historically-important early 20th century saloon building that has been identified as the only known "tied house" (i.e., exclusively sold and served standard-brand beer bottled and distributed by the standard brewery company (1892-1923) beer. the massive carved indiana limestone built-in rondel with the brewery's name and logo displayed prominently on the corner saloon's facade attests to this.

i was told long before demolition was to commence, that the property owner wanted the stone rondel saved (if possible) by the wrecker. the intentions of what would become of it we not revealed (at least to me), nor did i ask. once it was made clear it was "spoken for," i focused on documenting the entire demolition and salvaged ornament that was made available for me to purchase. i'm just glad that the rondel is being saved and hopefully used for the public to see.

preparation.

salvaging the carved limestone anthemion.

salvaging one of four roofline corbels.

the heavy limestone rondel was incredibly loose - likely from badly corroded anchors in the mortar.

a face brick, tin ceiling panel and limestone corbel will be added to the bldg. 51 museum. a few fragments will be donated to various nonprofit organizations (e.g., historic societies) and still other fragments or artifacts will be made available for sale to the public.

 

i've noticed this deeply internalized "split" in having one foot lodged in the salvage business, where you are identified as a "vulture," and the other foot firmly planted in preservation, where, despite the impending demolition of a structure, i am fortunate enough to devote an entire day of documenting the demolition or death (of a building), along with the ability to salvage artifacts that are not intended to be sold.

this seemingly forced identity crisis is indeed hard to escape from. i'm truly proud that i managed to establish a building artifact museum, publish books/articles, and devote a great deal of time photographing the rapidly disappearing urban landscape for no other reason than civic duty. on the other hand, i need to be a business, where i sell architectural artifacts - some from historically important buildings - to generate the income necessary to give me the freedom to pursue these deeply meaningful projects through musuem and archive project, bldg. 51

sidenote: i was truly saddened and somewhat frustrated that there was only one camera focused on documenting the demolition of this historically significant building. in fact, that goes for nearly every building i've documented and/or salvaged for over 15 years. 

 

artifacts salvaged from the site and later photographed late at night in my studio:

the salvaged carved exterior limestone ornament was fabricated by the bedford steam stone works, bedford, ind. the building facade rondel was likely the only customized building competent executed (in design) by the architect and/or standard brewery.

the salvaged interior saloon pressed or stamped tin ceiling was executed by thefriedley-voshardt company, chicago, il. the repeating palmette pattern (shown below) was used apart of the cove molding. it was likely a "stock" pattern made available in the company's extensive product catalog. 

see http://www.brucemobley.com/ for more information.

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