Sometimes you don't know what you don't know

...about the South Loop

07/27/2011 3:09 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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Dennis and the tourgoers along the tour route (photo by Bonnie McGrath)

Last Wednesday, South Loop Neighbors president Dennis McClendon (a mapmaker, neighborhood historian and urbanophile) gave a South Loop history tour for members of the organization and their friends. It was a corker of a hot night, and the participants who met up for some dinner first at Jimmy Green's on South State--including me--were troopers, to say the least.


Dennis was surprised that I was attending one of his famous tours once again. But I always feel if I don't go, I might miss something. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that either he said a lot of new things he never said before, or my memory is shot and there were a lot of "new" things I don't ever remember hearing about the neighborhood before.

So I decided to make a list of things I never knew about our South Loop--that you might not know either:

--That the WLS National Barn Dance was held from 1931 until 1957 at 8th and Wabash at the 8th Street Theater (now torn down and replaced with the modern ballroom structure at the southwest corner of the Hilton);
--that the Starbucks building at Dearborn and Harrison was a porn publishing emporium back in the day;
--that the Transportation Building at 600 S. Dearborn was originally called the Heisen Building when it was built in the early 1900s--and that Eliot Ness' office was on the third floor, not the second floor as I'd always thought;
--that the northernmost building that makes up the vintagey now-Wyndham Blake Hotel at Congress and Dearborn was built in 1986;
--that Blackie's at Clark and Polk was named after a most popular waiter--and that the owner in 1939 hoped the name would bring in business;
--that a scene from the movie North by Northwest where Cary Grant sneaks off the 20th Century Limited was filmed at Polk and Lasalle;
--that the tan building that sticks up with the smokestacks west of Clark and north of Roosevelt produces steam for railroad purposes, such as switching;
--that the Donahue Building annex on the south end of the sprawling stucure on Dearborn is actually made up of two annexes;
--that the infamous SROs of the South Loop first housed day laborers for the railroads, who couldn't afford more expensive housing;
--that there was once a "Chicago Theater" at Harrison and State that housed burlesque shows;
--that George Halas almost built a football stadium where Dearborn Park now stands (the 5th most walkable neighborhood in Chicago) and that the first residents of that neighborhood faced 18 percent interest rates when they wanted to buy townhomes and condos there in the late 1970/early 1980s;
--that there was a previous Jones High School building that was torn down to build the current Jones High School Building at State and Harrison--which means the current building of the new Jones is the third Jones;
--that Ferd Kramer, who was one of the movers and shakers who developed Dearborn Park was at the 1919 Black Sox Scandal world series;
--that River City at 800 S. Wells was originally supposed to be north of where it is now;
--that the sculptures along the Roosevelt Road bridge were done by a teacher from Columbia College to honor the Museum Campus.


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By Matt Wos from Dearborn Park
Posted: 07/28/2011 5:34 PM

I'm sorry I haven't been on one of Dennis' tours. I'm sure they have been great! I loved the photo insert. On Flickr (or however you spell that site) if you search "Dearborn Station" or "Printers Row" some folks have posted some great photos - including photos of the desolation that used to exist here. Whatever prompted them to take those photos back then I'm not sure, but I am glad they did! It really shows the nothing that existed here until 30 years ago. Love Dearborn Park/P.Row!