Urban Remains Chicago News and Events
Antique American Architectural Artifacts
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a most unusual discovery during the excavation of a residential lot on artesian avenue
as of late i've been giving my body - especially my back - a break from the latest wave of incredibly draining and time-consuming demolitions and excavations.. these have been bombarding my phone and email inbox on a daily basis. during this less strenuous time, i decided to tackle the arduous task of compiling and editing images taken from various salvages over the... -
1893 time capsule with contents recovered from german zion's evangelical society church building
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... -
persistence pays off after recent discovery of an original dawson brothers catalog
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... -
unusual ornamental fret-sawn sill course salvaged from a chicago commercial building shortly before demolition
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... -
chicago chinatown neon arrow, several early porcelain enameled signs, sconces, hardware, and art glass windows
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... -
hidden pocket doors from a 19th century house on ohio street removed prior to demolition
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... -
remarkably intact c. 1915 chicago prairie style brick two-tone brick house on burling street bulldozed today
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... -
the first urban remains storefront was housed in wm. mulvihill's soda water bottling plant
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... -
chicago's earliest known unearthed or dug glass "bottle" is an amber scroll flask
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... -
another industrial furniture haul from the roberts electric company factory and machine shop
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... -
late 19th century timber-balloon hybrid frame melrose street house revealed during demolition
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... -
urban remains secures iconic depression era porcelain enameled neon exterior cedar hotel signs
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... -
american folk art, signage, louis sullivan, industrial furniture and much more added this week
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... -
ornamented cast bronze exterior pilaster from the historic palmolive building recently acquired by BLDG. 51 museum
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... -
photos from the "DECONSTRUCTING CHICAGO" exhibit held at the glessner house museum
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... -
american industrial furniture salvaged from the roberts electric company late this week
several truckloads of industrial factory and office furniture were removed from the defunct robers electric company, located on morgan street. the great majority of the building has been demolished, but a landmarked building within the complex will avoid the wrecking ball. in fact, the facade will be restored since the building is part of the protected fulton market landscape. the sizable amount... -
several chicago fire era bottles, fragments and an incredibly well-built circular wood floor privy discovered this week
i was notified early on in the day to quickly head to an excavation site (the two story wood frame house had been demolished a week prior), that looked promising for unearthing bottles and other discarded household wares dating to the early 1870's. sure enough when i arrived onsite, the machine operator was punching through the ground with his bucket and... -
rare "vajen" firefighter helmet, early porcelain signage, industrial lighting and "tanker" furniture
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... -
demolition of a brick workers cottage at 1111 n. campbell reveals sill plates, summer beams and faceted pegs
with two concurrent demolitions with heneghan about to begin later this afternoon and a west side excavation that holds promise for the discovery of an early privy vault, i simply do not have the time (at least now) to provide greater detail pertaining to the images taken at a demolition located at 1111 n. campbell, where a two story 19th century chicago... -
last minute demolition yields hand hewn beams, incised stone and buried bottles
people in my inner-circle are growing concerned that i'm dangerously consumed or unhealthily immersed in the "deconstruction" and "unearthing" projects that i do for intellectual gratification when not operating urban remains. i cannot disagree, but i feel imbued over this newly found conviction that this body of work is incredibly important on so many levels. as a consequence however, i have...
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