Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

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 25,800+ 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 and...

my travel companion consists of an agglomeration of small but important fragmented building materials, carefully salvaged from both interior and exterior "systems" used in the construction of the wood framed two-story john kent russell house (1855), and any subsequent additions prior to the great chicago fire of 1871. whether it's a section of rough-sawn white pine wood lath or finished...

an assortment of some of my favorite artifacts, objects , and other diminutive fragments mounted on custom-built hardwood plaques by my shop's carpenter.   end

in preparation for an intensive, systematic photoshoot of the exterior and interior of old st. patrick's church (1854), i came across a statement claiming that the church building is "one of a handful of structures remaining in the city that predate the 1871 great chicago fire." this erroneous and incredibly vague information was found in "chicago's famous buildings" authored by...

photographed in my studio, the following images represent an impressive assemblage of discarded objects once used in the everyday life of a chicago family household spanning from the late 1860's through the early 1880's. the privy pit or "vault" was sealed and forgotten when a horse stable was constructed on the site of the privy around 1881-1884. when the stable...

the following images were taken during the demolition of a heavily altered "chicago balloon frame" oakley avenue house constructed sometime between 1879-1884. the multi-story house was raised sometime around the turn of the century with the addition of a basement or "garden apartment." original mortise and tenon sill plates and girders were slightly altered and reinforced with wire nails, since the...

i finally forced myself to transport this completely intact and unaltered full-sized residential sill plate into my studio to be documented every which way i saw fit. this massive wood beam is comprised of solid old growth pine wood, with a tenon on one side and a mortise on the other.   as i discover more and more houses dating prior...

a utility subcontractor excavating a small parcel of land located just south of downtown chicago came across one of the most remarkably intact and long-forgotten 19th century landfills or dumping grounds, which in a few days times, yielded hundreds of bottles. from c. 1880's hutchinson type carbonated soda and/or mineral water "blob tops" to utility bottles and everything in between...

while en route to a residential salvage, i ran across a friend of mine who was wrecking an early 20th century (1910-1915) two story brick commercial building. his excavator had not reached the only redeeming architectural artifact in the form of an oversized carved bedford limestone keystone located directly above a large bay window surrounded by cream-colored face brick and...

i was pleasantly taken aback by the amount of community feedback and shared disgust over the demolition of an incredibly intact 19th century victorian era brick two-flat residence demolished late last week. the responses i received prompted me to expound upon a previous post pertaining to my salvage efforts connected with this house. the question on everyone's mind was "why"? the structural integrity of the...

i've been spending great lengths of time reviewing images taken from various excavation sites, privy pits and other underground spaces to include in the highly-anticipated "unearthing chicago" hardcover book due out by the end of the this year. at times i feel my eyeballs are going to drop out of my head after opening one folder after another filled with hundreds...

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 25,500+ 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...

neighbors have expressed both interest and concern over the fate of a 19th century victorian era red brick house bedecked with several stained glass windows, ornamental terra cotta brick and a visually striking, painted, galvanized tin bracketed cornice with a large circular-shaped sunburst. a similar house built across the street featuring an equally impressive facade is currently for sale, with the possibility that...

heneghan wrecking leveled the assemblage of finkl steel framed sheds and brick and mortar foundry buildings earlier this year. urban remains was fortunate to participate in the salvage, and managed to rescue an impressive catalog of distinctive artifacts and furniture that otherwise would have been scrapped or brought to the landfill. a reflection of our efforts can be viewed in both...

By:  Scott A. Rappe, AIA We have not had to face this question for awhile, but with tentative signs of economic improvement, East Village, Wicker Park and Bucktown are beginning to see rampant tear downs again. In the last six weeks, on Wood Street between Chicago and Armitage alone, no fewer than six vintage brick and stone buildings have been...

every morning i'm hit with an email notification detailing the number of city of chicago demolition permits issued for 19th and early 20th century residential and commercial structures alike. as i review each and every permit issued, i increasingly feel an urgent self-induced pressure to seek out and document the structures that captivate me, whether they are unidentified pre-fire chicago cottages containing important...

when time permits, i will make sure to supplement the following series of images with an explanation and discussion of this salvage. the photos document the demolition of a 19th century victorian era transplanted wood-framed workers cottage. two interesting finds during the demolition: the discovery of a 19th century applied "blob top" hutchinson-shaped john lomax soda bottle (found within one...

the small chicago worker's cottage was torn down long ago, but from the smattering of objects unearthed (thus far) during excavation, i managed to gain some insight into what transpired there, beginning from the time of construction sometime during the mid-19th century. i was notified early one morning when the first discovery was made by the excavator. before looking at sanborn...

the number of daily demolition notifications i receive is incredibly alarming on so many levels. this is no doubt a mantra i have repeatedly expressed in prior posts, interviews, etc. i will expound upon this further when attending the 19th century building materials exhibit that bldg. 51 and the clarke house are co-presenting at the glessner museum during the "open...

it all started late last year when i befriended and later invited architectural critic lynn becker over to my place to have a drink and discuss the john kent russell house. i had little agenda except to converse about shared interests, and drinking a couple beers in the midst of my collection seemed as good a pretext as any for a meetup. since the...