Bldg. 51

a very deep, brick-lined backyard privy pit was discovered on another job site yesterday where the house on the lot was constructed in the late 1880's according to city records. as of late, the brick-lined holes we have come across where originally used as privy pits, but with the introduction of indoor plumbing (where installation varied widely), the deep holes...

beginning last week we were notified of a major excavation where a former parking lot will be redeveloped for condo construction. consisting of several lots, this massive parcel of land once contained multiple brick and wood-framed dwellings, according to sanborn insurance maps dating back to 1886 and another from 1917. after only a few short days into the dig, the...

there is already abundant and easily accessible background information on the henry b. clarke house (1836), one of chicago's earliest extant residential structures-turned museum, so i will avoid the inclusion of details surrounding the history of the house. instead, i will briefly touch upon some of the more interesting facets of my visit there, which included a "behind the scenes...

the focal point of wolf point "part two" moves away from the discovery of several mid-19th century pontiled soda and/or mineral water bottles during excavations in the 1980's, which were retrieved from intact wood-lined privy pits built and later filled by individuals that resided near the sauganash hotel and wolf point tavern. instead, we fast forward to 2014, where another...

extraordinary and very rare early 20th century remarkably intact new york city subway sub-station single panel open front switchboard designed and fabricated by the metropolitan electric mfg. co., new york city, ny. metropolitan was founded in 1892 and went on to manufacture electrical equipment in addition to switchboards well into the 20th century. period advertisements offer a glimpse at some...

i recently acquired a remarkable cobalt blue iron pontil glass soda bottle that was recovered from a wood-lined privy pit dating to the 1850's. interestingly, the bottle is not native to chicago, although other bottles found where identified as chicago-based lomax and competitor hutchinson, who had bottling operations during this time period. the image below was taken from the 1853 bird's...

very few of the original "sprite" statues adorning midway gardens survived demolition in 1929. the indoor/outdoor entertainment facility was constructed in 1914 with frank lloyd wright as architect. the full-bodied statues were designed and executed by notable industrial designer and sculptor, alfonso iannelli. wright took much of the credit with the design process, which greatly upset iannelli to the point...

as a late 1870's two story worker's cottage is rapidly being transformed into a growing pile of splintered old growth wood, i managed to work around the ongoing chaos and extract several intact building components that were used to build this modest 19th century hybrid frame dwelling; incorporating the use of balloon frame and post and beam construction. the interior...

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AN IMPORTANT AND RARE PAIR OF "WEED" VASES Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD IMPORTANT 20TH CENTURY DESIGN 17 DECEMBER 2014 | 2:00 PM EST NEW YORK FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AN IMPORTANT AND RARE PAIR OF "WEED" VASES patinated copper 29 1/8  in. (74 cm) high circa 1895-1900 executed by James A. Miller and Brother, Chicago PROVENANCE Cathers & Dembrosky, New York Edgar...

i feel very fortunate that we had the opportunity last saturday afternoon to attend the last day of architech gallery owner david jameson's "burnham, sullivan & wright" exhibit. almost immediately upon our entry we received a warm greeting and quick overview from david. i happened to notice my friend lynn becker there, admiring the framed drawings and blueprints hung on...

as i continue to systematically document an overwhelming amount of drawings, photographs, artifacts and correspondences revolving around notable artisan odin j. oyen, i felt it was important to share multiple drawings i've gathered thus far that not only shed new light on oyen's work during his time in chicago at the art institute, but also document the evolution of oyen's...

early in the afternoon we arrived at the job site during a momentary pause as the wreckers were refueling their backhoe. we took advantage of that time to quickly assess the unusually large, double lot, containing a single victorian era red brick two-flat residence constructed in the 1880's. i must admit, from the very beginning, it was incredibly hard to...

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from the very beginning of this salvage, the so-called "coach house" (more often referred to as a carriage house), located on the back lot of the property, was the structure that peeked my interest more than the two flat (1897) facing the street. i felt convinced from the beginning that the classic gabled roof two-story wood frame chicago workers cottage (1883-87...

it's no secret that this gargantuan, riveted joint, wrought bronze metal john massey rhind-designed statue or figural weathervane head fragment was brought to auction by the david v. nelson family, based on all of its recent recognition in local media. however, i was truly surprised and remarkably fortunate to secure the weathervane artifact (for the bldg. 51 museum), that once was apart of...

acquiring louis sullivan and frank lloyd architectural artifacts to bolster the bldg. 51 museum collection is very important to me, and will continue on (likely with the addition of another artifact catalog in the coming years), but as i'm nearing the ten year anniversary of urban remains, i realize the need to continually evolve and diversify in other directions in...

we arrived early in the morning to begin where we left off a few days before. it was hard not to ruminate intensely about the implications of what we would soon discover in the circular-shaped oversized wood-lined privy during that time away. however, with tools in hand, we began to carefully dig after developing a documenting strategy to keep detailed...

while i patiently wait for the city to issue an excavation permit that will uncover any undiscovered buried remnants from the john kent russell house site before the new foundation is poured, which not only effectively ends my frequent visits to the site, but in addition, draws the fieldwork to a close. with this facet of the project completed, i...

judging from numerous channels of feedback, it's rather obvious that "open house chicago" this year was a smashing success. i'm very pleased that so many residential and commercial structures opened their doors to the public for observation, appreciation and an endless stream of photographic images populating blogs, flickr, facebook and so on. although i have visited most of the listed...

the small, but visually distinctive single story commercial buildings bedecked with bright white glazed terra cotta "sullivanesque" ornament in numerous configurations on their facades are disappearing more and more from the urban landscape in and around the chicago area as the number of demolition permits seem to have greatly increased this year. the majority of the these commercial structures outfitted...