Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

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...

the gallery below represents one of my many sub-collections with a focus on early american signs (both vitreous or porcelain and baked-on enameled) that would be found in factory settings dotting the urban landscape. i selected these signs based on their subject matter, characteristic surface wear, rarity and color scheme. although i've slowed down in terms of acquisition, i will pick...

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 23,100 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in...

in preparation for my next book, "unearthing chicago," i'm going after 19th century privy pits with a vengeance! this will include renting machinery to excavate areas of chicago where i have been given permission to dig. this may seem a little extreme, but salvaging a structure slated for demolition, i need to be in control of extracting material.    

over the past two weeks urban remains has acquired several depression-era interior illuminated exit light wall sconces and ceiling light fixtures salvaged mostly from extant commercial structures that performed upgrades long ago.  the majority of the single electric exit lights are equipped with brilliantly colored ruby red glass wedge-shaped shades with bold white lettering. nearly all of the pressed glass shades...

the fate of the last original elevated "l" station on wabash avenue has been officially sealed when the city issued a demolition permit for the late 19th century palladian-designed structure. i very much hope to work with the wrecker to not only document (onsite) the station's destruction, but also collect any and all artifacts that otherwise will be scrapped. in the...

i had my eye on this little 19th century two-story gable or hipped wooden frame chicago cottage for weeks after i discovered that a demolition permit was pulled to obliterate it in preparation for a new residential development. after looking it over time and again, i strongly suspected the house might very well date to the 1850's or at the...

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 23,000 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in...

salvage operation in progress: more to follow... recovered items cleaned and documented thus far.   end

very unique and primitive late 19th century single-sided exterior "foreman" occupational sign purportedly salvaged from the temporary and/or mobile construction office or shack housing the general contractors involved in the construction of the chicago world's fair of 1893 (more commonly referred to as the world's columbian exposition). the heavily weathered elongated oval-shaped pine wood sign contains cast iron letters affixed...

i've been spending the past couple of weeks visiting the sites of 19th century wood frame structures undergoing demolition. nearly all of these houses have been ravaged time and again with cobbled alterations to the point where any traces revealing visual cues of age, lie squarely in the frame work. i photographically document the demolition from the time the excavator...

the image gallery below provides several collections of 19th and early 20th century fragments and bottles unearthed from various demolition and/or dig sites in the city of chicago. from wolf's point to the wood-lined privy "vault" discovered at the john kent russell house (1855) and everything in between, the gallery reveals an image "database" of buried artifacts left behind long ago by chicagons...

i have yet to post concluding remarks on the final days of the gethsamane missionary baptist church's demolition. i'm so incredibly behind on posting about my involvement in this seemingly endless demolition craze because i'm either out the door at a moment's notice to document yet another site faced with the wrecking ball or taking care of business matters at urban remains. despite...

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 22, 800 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed...

the bldg. 51 museum, consisting of a curated election of historically important american architectural artifacts, is proud to announce its latest acquisition: an original interior art deco style multi-faceted glass paneled electric pendant light removed long ago from the chrysler building. after a phone call discussing provenance with its with previous owner, gil shapiro of urban archaeology, told me (in great...

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 22,700 item mark. the ultimate goal since day one, is to have each and every artifact (housed in...

jerome, arizona - photographs taken by eric j. nordstrom - march 2015  

several matching all original interior antique american square-shaped diminutive ceiling rosette tiles were recently salvaged from a late 19th century corner schlitz saloon or tavern (non-extant) located in chicago. the deeply embossed tiles, along with cove molding and wainscoting used throughout the saloon contained markings indicating the milwaukee corrugating company, milwaukee, wisc., as both the designer and manufacturer. period catalogs distributed by milwaukee...

urban remains is in the final stages of salvaging the a. finkl & sons foundry complex of mind-boggling proportions. this first set of images (shown below) were taken by owner eric j. nordstrom during the initial tour of the entire complex as it sat, frozen in time. the second batch of images represents some of the industrial furniture and artifacts we...

the following images represent a hastily assembled visual overview of the rapid disappearance of the conglomeration of gray-painted brick buildings constructed on a triangular-shaped lot during the latter half of the 19th century. as of this writing, the last of the buildings has been reduced to a pile of debris destined for both the landfill and scrapyard. the two photographs shown...