New Acquisitions

UPDATE AS OF 2024: this was posted 9 YEARS AGO. apologies, but we no longer have any left! fortunately, there are a surprisingly healthy supply of original depression-era american streamlined style back bars that remain in use and well-maintained in chicago area bars. a few of the more common design features or characteristics that make these chicago back bars distinctive...

identifying any and all morphological properties of these mid-19th century bottles (see below) remain difficult to nail down, considering that the experimental fabrication methodologies were performed by the lungs and hands of the glassmith or blower, apprentices and children under dire conditions were output meant everything. granted, the carved wood and cast iron two, three and four-part hinge molds, along...

despite the brutally cold weather and piles of snow every which way, we made our way to the interconnected cluster of gray painted buildings (nine of the eleven bearing historic significance to one degree or another), formerly used to house a vast array of restaurant equipment and services for several decades. we had a very short window of time to...

the unusual collection of neglected and largely abandoned gray-painted buildings located at the intersection of grand, halsted and milwaukee, will be demolished in the coming weeks. urban remains will begin salvaging any and all interior and exterior ornament (the latter during the demolition phase), beginning tomorrow afternoon. during my walk through late last week, i managed to find several architectural...

over the past few weeks we have been acquiring a sizable number of completely refinished american cast iron industrial machine bases salvaged from chicago area recently shuttered chicago area factories. the matching sets of bases available on the urban remains's website have been thoroughly cleaned and brushed down to bare metal and sealed with a clear coat lacquer to prevent...

this opulent post-fire chicago mansion, located north of the river on wabash avenue (formerly cass street) near ontario, was built for pioneer steel king joseph t. ryerson in 1873, at an estimated cost of 50,000 dollars by architects burling and adler. the successful industrialist established his chicago-based business in 1842, known as the joseph t. ryerson & son company. prior...

the photo gallery below offers hand-picked or "highlighted" artifacts 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 surpassed the 21, 900 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in the showroom and warehouses), available...

just the other day i was reorganizing some of the artifacts in my "sentimental" storage boxes housed in my personal collection. most of the diminutive artifacts date back to 2000-2005, when i was still employed as a research scientist, but living a dichotomous lifestyle where my alter ego was avid photographer of urban decay and demolition site salvager. i look...

the photo gallery below offers hand-picked or "highlighted" artifacts 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 surpassed the 21, 800 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in the showroom and warehouses), available...

despite the brutally cold weather, i began the work week at the "big dig" site with the hopes that we would discover a wood-lined privy towards the back of the two remaining (unexcavated) lots. immediately upon arriving at the site, the backhoe operator called me over to show a few bottles he had already discovered earlier in the morning. progress...

the photo gallery below offers hand-picked or "highlighted" artifacts 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 surpassed the 21, 700 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in the showroom and warehouses), available...

with demolitions currently in a holding pattern, i shifted my focus back on the "big dig" site located on the west side of chicago. despite the fact that i have unearthed several artifacts (e.g., bottles and common household fragments) dating from the 1880's to the depression, the three brick-lined privy pits (found at the "big dig" site) designed and built...

i stumbled across a rather interesting and historically-important artifact the other week in the form of a pocket-sized "souvenir" medal, representing the first anniversary of the disastrous conflagration known simply as the "great chicago fire" of 1871. the unique and diminutive artifact is commonly referred as the "chicago fire medal" according to multiple museums and other institutions that have one...

over the christmas holiday we visited family and friends in my hometown of la crosse wisc. during our stay, and like others past, i managed to find time to photograph the ever-changing urban landscape (including an old train yard) in and around the downtown area. quite a bit has changed since i left la crosse in the late 1990's for...

the photographic image gallery below represents a variety of mostly illuminated depression era informational and/or exit signs salvaged from theaters and commercial buildings across the country. the art deco style "machine age" signs were designed by numerous manufacturers, but identifying them has proved to be somewhat challenging at times. the great majority of glass globes, fashioned in ruby red, "milk...

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...

the photo gallery below offers hand-picked or "highlighted" artifacts from this week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have surpassed the 21, 600 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in the showroom and warehouses), available...

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...

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...

urban remains recently obtained a sizeable amount of well-maintained and intricately designed "real bronze" interior residential entrance, passage and pocket door hardware designed and fabricated by the hopkins & dickinson mfg. co., new york city, ny. the patterns exhibited in the builders' hardware or "trimmings" was likely first introduced in their 1874 product catalog and remained available for purchase in their...