Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

my ever-growing collection of antique american soda bottles and my persistent and/or obsessive privy digging engagements are firmly planted (for better or for worse) in the day-to-day living with my significant other. recently she surprised me with an unbelievably thoughtful "couple activity," in which we visited a glassblowing studio to learn firsthand how to create our own glass bottles. at the helm was instructor...

i was absolutely delighted to begin the week by acquiring an assortment of original early 20th century cast bronze and brass "bare bulb" industrial incandescent light fixtures salvaged from various new york city subway stations. the subway station fixtures are  so incredibly simplistic and visually attractive in design, with virtually unlimited potential for use in a vast array of settings...

when time permits, i'm moving from one excavation site to another to look for pieces of the past before those "time portals" are once again closed when construction begins. i must admit, i have not "scored" any major privy vaults containing a condensed collection of material to tell a story of chicago life during a given time span, but at...

prior to this demolition, a cluster of similarly built late 19th century brick worker's cottages just west of damen avenue had been largely unaltered since they were constructed around 1885-1890. unfortunately, one of the closely-shaped houses was brought down earlier this week, leaving a gaping hole that has now disrupted the continuity of the side-by-side houses. gleaning information from an 1886 sanborn...

i've managed to gather well over a hundred rare and richly colored soda and/or mineral water bottles dating to the mid-19th century over the past month. since the rapidity of bottle acquisition has made it incredibly difficult to populate the urban remains website with these great finds, i've included an image gallery below of the ones i've at least managed to photograph...

the assemblage of photographic images shown in the gallery below offer a glimpse of my most recent visit (two consecutive days of shooting) to the notable a. finkl & sons chicago foundry that is rapidly being taken apart and discarded by several on-site excavators operated by the heneghan wrecking company. with assistance from my salvage crew, i continue to discover industrial objects or...

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 surpassed the 23, 200 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed...

earlier this week urban remains came across a treasure trove of chicago public school science classroom anatomical models, charts and posters, fossils and other interesting specimens. the images below provide a small sampling of the acquisitions that have been photographed and added to the website.    the images below pertain to the discovery of the double helix, with watson and crick...

after thoroughly documenting and/or collecting any and all data from wood beam sill plate corners from various 19th century chicago residences, i'm trying to determine what to do with them since i have nearly 100 individual specimens finished in a nearly identical manner to the two interconnected plate segments shown below. since most of the furniture in our new home...

for the past few months i have been exchanging emails with marty uhl, the grandchild of clement uhl, who with his brother joe, founded the toledo metal furniture company in 1903. for the next several decades, their "uhl art steel" furniture would find its way in commercial spaces throughout the country. in modern times, the resurgence of the clement-designed adjustable...

i have a feeling oddball movie director david lynch would find inspiration at this overwhelmingly desolate and gloomy demolition job site, that once was home to one of the largest foundries in the chicago area. the thick overcast blanket prevented the sun from making an appearance throughout the day. the light was a bit tricky, with the lack of a warm glow...

the mounted albumen print features the non-extant telegraph block building, located in thomaston, maine.  the 1865 photographic print clearly depicts multiple businesses represented in part, by the variety of exterior hanging trade signs, which took many forms in early america. when education was a privilege and literacy rare, the ideal trade sign immediately caught the attention of a passerby and, because...

the recent removal of a depression era three-phase alternating current gantry crane switchboard, outfitted with an oversized trumball 3-pole knife switch, injected me with newly found inspiration to revisit an otherwise largely dormant interest in acquiring any and all electrical apparatus revolving around building "power plants." i took a moment and reviewed the vast assortment of voltmeters, ammeters, jackknife switches, fuses and...

the photographic essay below offers a brief glimpse at a day of savaging artifacts during a single afternoon at a chicago area standard oil (of indiana) brick factory building constructed as a distribution and handling center for several decades. the building is set to be demolished in the coming weeks. the images capture a multitude of objects that peaked my interest...

demolition of the downtown chicago howard johnson inn, constructed in the late 1960's, is nearly complete. in preparation high-rise development that will be constructed on the site (located at the corner of la salle and superior), the wrecker has spent the past few weeks systematically "potholing" the site to make way for drilling the caissons that will serve as the foundation system for the...

last night i finished editing images of two incredible artifacts carefully removed the a. finkl & sons foundry. both depression-era artifacts join the ever-growing number of antique american industrial objects and furniture being salvaged from this notable sprawling chicago industrial complex. before being taken down and brought back to the shop, the porcelain enameled depression era cobalt blue "northern crane" sign...

he 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 surpassed the 23, 200 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed...

as part of our ongoing salvage efforts at a notable chicago foundry complex, we finally gained access to yet another building on the sprawling industrial campus; the building formerly served as a distribution center for standard oil of indiana. there, we discovered several matching, unusually-shaped dirk saaf-designed white porcelain or vitreous enameled fixtures with original "stems" and ball-joint canopies. as of...

urban remains has been spending an increasing amount of time salvaging anything and everything of interest as demolition of the a. finkl & sons sprawling foundry complex has intensified over the past two weeks. the next few posts will cover the salvage efforts, along with the "unearthed" artifacts found at the site of the former downtown chicago howard johnson.  ...

i'm am so utterly exhausted from keeping up with documenting the alarming rate of inner-city demolitions happening week after week, despite redefining my eligibility parameters for seeking study materials from 19th century wood-framed chicago houses within my study period. extracting samples of wood lath, segments of joists and studs, nails, miscellaneous builders' hardware, sheathing, clapboard, brick, floor boards, etc., is still very much apart...