New Acquisitions

after days of negotiating between multiple parties, the bldg. 51 museum secured an early strongly geometric leaded glass window designed by frank lloyd wright for the queen anne style robert p. parker house completed in 1892. the historically important parker house was one of three "bootleg houses" along chicago avenue in the chicago's oak park suburb. the two other neighboring...

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the urban remains online and/or virtual catalog.   the ultimate goal since day one is to have each...

long after a heavily modified 1870's-era two-story building was demolished last month, the excavators rolled in to begin laying the foundation for yet another new structure that is devoid of character. sure enough, shortly after the backhoe began digging, pockets of artifacts left long ago by 19th century chicagoans were pulled from the mud. for an entire week i would sporadically...

with only two days before demolition of an early 20th century two-story brick residence began, we had very limited time to salvage an interior outfitted in pristine golden oak wood millwork on both the first and second floors. from door headers to built-in cabinets, and everything in between, there was a great deal of work cut out for us. unfortunately...

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,700+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the urban remains online and/or virtual catalog. the ultimate goal since day one is to have each and...

yesterday i received good news that my "bid" to secure a historically important ornamental cast iron louis sullivan-designed gage building exterior facade stringer was accepted. shortly thereafter, i had a staff member secure the piece and bring it to the studio to photodocument, before making it the latest installation at the ever-growing bldg. 51 american architectural artifact museum. the elaborately designed cast...

the bldg. 51 museum just acquired the historically important and virtually untouched c. 1893 time capsule in the form of a diminutive corrugated copper metal box containing several newspapers, typed letters, a bible and other pertinent artifacts stowed away in the former german zion's evangelical society church building cornerstone, located in chicago's ukrainian village. the heavily oxidized  corrugated copper box has...

after nearly ten years of searching, i've finally acquired an original and very well-maintained softbound dawson brothers catalog, profusely illustrated with their product line from 1887. over the years i've salvaged, from houses all across the city of chicago, a few hundred dawson brothers fireplace mantle gas inserts, grates, surrounds, andirons and even the seldom found and highly sought after...

for years i would drive to work along grand avenue, and i always paid special attention to a heavily modified commercial building, which contained a remarkably intact fret-sawn ornamental pine wood sill or belt course panel that likely would have fallen to pieces if it weren't covered over sometime in the 1950's. judging from the 19th century characteristics found at...

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,500+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the urban remains online and/or virtual catalog. the ultimate goal since day one is to have each and...

with a little over a week to do some exploratory surgery in a three-story house, built between 1881-1886 on the near west side of chicago, we had ample time to carefully examine any and all extant architectural artifacts original to the house. remarkably, the original carved wood header blocks, single-part molding, passage doors and even cast plaster ceiling rosettes were...

with only two hours left in the work day, i received a call that a house constructed in 1915 was scheduled to be demolished the next day. i had no choice but to drop what i was doing and head to the jobsite. when we pulled up i could not believe my eyes; this structurally sound prairie style brick residence was going...

last week i was doing research into the timeline of the notable chicago-based john a. lomax bottle company, when reading text written by a friend and avid collector of all things lomax. i was shocked to discover that the chicago consolidated bottling company, established in 1887 after lomax acquired fifteen additional bottling plants, had constructed a new bottling plant at 411...

reiterating a previous post: after discussing my recent urban privy find with several people in the field (e.g., historians, archaeologists, chicago bottle collectors and so on), there is very little doubt that i have come across the oldest known/documented chicago urban privy pit, with artifacts pulled from various "pockets" dating between the late 1830's-1850's. most of the nearby pockets of mid-19th century artifacts...

despite having to endure several revisions to insurance certificates with heneghan wrecking and the ever present and watchful eye of power construction, we managed to work quickly and flawlessly to remove another large load of industrial furniture left behind when the roberts electric company vacated the building. among our finds were several workbenches (including maple wood table tops and lyon channeled steel bases...

we arrived at the latest house near damen and melrose to salvage foster-munger company interior residential oak wood doors (some with "florentine" pattern glass); a single variegated art glass transom window and beaded hardware likely fabricated by the p.& f. corbin company. the farthest thing from my mind was discovering yet another unique timber-balloon wood frame, hidden within a late 19th or possibly early...

with virtually little notice and very little preparation, urban remains was given a very small window of time to secure two iconic depression era neon signs the hung (one against the facade and the other atop a signpost) from the historic cedar hotel, constructed in 1928 by architects rissman and hirschfield (the architects designed the knickerbocker hotel on west walton). more information...

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the urban remains online and/or virtual catalog. the ultimate goal since day one is to have each and...

fully documented and all original c. 1929 historically important exterior palmolive building ornamental cast bronze flush mount facade pilaster removed during extensive renovations during the mid-1960's when the leasehold was purchased by playboy enterprises and renamed the playboy building in 1965. the exact foundry or fabricator of the exterior bronze work is not known.   the remarkable museum quality nickel-plated...

the "DECONSTRUCTING CHICAGO" exhibit held this weekend at the glessner house museum  (during chicago's "open house") was at the very least, a good start to make people aware of this exciting project. the exhibit revolved around harvested building materials from demolished wood-framed chicago houses, salvaged in order to gain crucial data and insight to support a more accurate portrayal of nineteenth century building...