History in River North

One of the few structures to survive the Chicago Fire in 1871, the Water Tower (erected in 1866) and the Pumping Station (erected in 1869) at 806 North Michigan Avenue were designed by architect W.W. Boyington and built from yellowing Joliet limestone.  They comprise the above-ground portion of a water system designed by Ellis Chesbrough.  Clean water was pulled from Lake Michigan and sent through underground tunnels to the Pumping Station, which pumped it to the top of the Water Tower, where it was stored in a 138-foot standpipe.  Water was distributed from the standpipe through the city’s water mains.  The Water Tower is the second oldest in the United States, and its design is said to have been the inspiration for the White Castle restaurants.  

Catherine and Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable established a fur trading post at 401 North Michigan Avenue, between 1770 and 1780 and are largely considered the first settlers of Chicago.  Jean-Baptiste was reputedly biracial and of Haitian descent, and Catherine was Patawatomi.  Their post at this auspicious geographical location laid the foundation for the city that, within a century, had grown into a world leader.

Historical evidence suggests that by 1779, and perhaps earlier, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable had become Chicago's first permanent resident, having built a farm and trading post on the north bank of the Chicago River at its junction with Lake Michigan.  On May 7, 1800, DuSable sold the entire property to Jean Lalime, a French Canadian fur trapper from St. Joseph, who made the purchase on behalf of William Burnett, a resident of Wisconsin.  Four years later, John Kinzie moved from Detroit and purchased the property from Burnett, who was his trading partner.  Following the sale, Jean Lalime worked as an Indian translator at Fort Dearborn.  Legend has it that Lalime was working as a spy and collecting evidence of corruption at the fort, leading to a confrontation with Kinzie.  On June 17, 1812, Lalime reputedly opened fire on Kinzie, wounding him in the shoulder, and Kinzie responded by stabbing Lalime repeatedly with Lalime's own knife, killing him.  Kinzie fled for Milwaukee, but was later exonerated by Captain Nathan Heald, at which point he returned to Chicago.  (By contrast, the online encyclopedia of early Chicago, citing contemporaneous writings, asserts that Kinzie's attack on Lalime was unprovoked.)

Kinzie buried LaLime about 200 yards from the home he purchased from DuSable, but Kinzie's son (also named John) later exhumed the body and reburied it within the grounds of the St. James Church.  During an excavation in 1891, a coffin was discovered here at the intersection of Rush and Illinois, and the collection of bones were believed to belong to Jean LaLime.  The remains were moved to the original Chicago History Museum which was built in 1892 and is currently the site of the Excalibur nightclub.

From the time of its completion in 1931 until it was passed by the pentagon in 1943, the Merchandise Mart was the largest building in the world by floorspace.  The Mart was originally owned by Marshall Field & Co. and was constructed on land at 222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza, until 1911, served as Wells Street Station, a sprawling railyard.  Just east of Wolf Point, the Merchandise Mart was also located adjacent to the earliest Native American trading post in Chicago.  A classic example of art deco architecture, this enormous edifice was under construction during the onset of the Great Depression and kept 2,500 people continuously employed.  The building was sold to the Kennedy family in 1945 and acquired by Vornado Realty Trust in 1998.

Rush Medical College was chartered on March 2, 1837, two days before a charter issued to the City of Chicago.  It was founded by Dr. Daniel Brainard, who chose the name in honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the only physician to sign the Declaration Of Independence.  The original medical school was erected at Southwest Corner of Dearborn Street and Grand Avenue in 1844, then replaced with a bigger facility in 1867.  The “new” building burned in the Chicago Fire five years later, and the medical school was rebuilt on the west side of the city.

Taverns and hotels were important meeting places for the communities of Checagou.  According to Molly W. Berger of the Encyclopedia of Chicago, "The first three taverns, Caldwell's Tavern (built by James Kinzie), the Miller House, and Mark Beaubien's tavern, soon known as the Sauganash Hotel (at the Intersection of north, south, main branch of Chicago River), arose at Wolf's Point at the fork of the Chicago River during 1829 and 1830."  Mark Beaubien added a frame to the Sauganash, making it the city's first hotel in 1831.  In City of the Century, Donald Miller writes that "Men and women of every color and class were welcome; and whiskey, song, and dance were the great democratizers" at the hotels and taverns.

In 1922, the Chicago Tribune  at 435 North Michigan Avenue held an international design competition and offered substantial cash awards to architects (and would-be architects) who wanted to try their hand at designing a new headquarters for the newspaper.  The winners were John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, whose neo-gothic tower was selected, although some of the consolation entries presaged the modern era with minimalist designs.  Many of the Chicago Tribune’s correspondents returned with bricks and stones from famous structures around the world, and these artifacts were built into the tower.  As a result, the wall of the Tribune Tower contains stones from such diverse places as the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, Westminster Abbey, the Parthenon, the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, Notre Dame, the Alamo, and Independence Hall.  

Wolf Point (Intersection of the north, south, and main branches of the Chicago River; southeast corner of Wacker Drive and Lake Street ) was "the center of early Chicago," wrote Donald Miller in his famous book, "City of the Century."  Miller describes Wolf Point as "the rollicking gathering place of a racially mixed settlement of Indians, half-breeds, French Canadians, and Anglo-Americans."  Three things united the diverse community of Wolf Point: "isolation from civilized society, trade in furs, and drinking and reveling at the river taverns on Wolf Point."

Dean O’Banion was raised in the Kilgubbin neighborhood, which today is known as Goose Island.  Back then it was known as “Little Hell” and was populated with Irish immigrants who named the area after their hometown.

O’Banion worked as a waiter at McGovern’s Liberty Inn, which was located at 661 North Clark Street, and sang in his Irish tenor for the patrons whose pockets would be picked in the coatroom or who would be robbed outside by fellow members of his street gang.  O’Banion would reputedly slip the patrons a Mickey Finn.  His early friends and colleagues included Earl “Hymie” Weiss, Vincent “The Schemer” Drucci, and George “Bugs” Moran.  Collectively they formed the “Market Street Gang.”  They specialized in theft and robbery and worked as “sluggers” for, first, the Chicago Tribune and, then, the Chicago Examiner.  His gang soon branched into bootlegging and became known as the “North Side Gang.”  They reputedly pioneered the first liquor hijacking on December 19, 1921.

Earl “Hymie” Weiss (born Earl Wojciechowski in Poland) was a member of the North Side Gang, originally founded by Dean O’Banion.  During the course of his short career as a mobster, Weiss attempted to kill Johnny “The Fox” Torrio twice and Al Capone once.  He failed on all three occasions, but not for lack of effort, as his gang was adept at using Tommy guns to unload magazine after magazine of ammunition during their attacks.  Weiss is also reputed to have orchestrated the "drive by shooting” of Sicilian crime boss Angelo Genna.  On the afternoon of October 11, 1926, Weiss’s career as a bootlegging gangster abruptly ended.  He was rubbed out in a volley of machine gun fire while approaching his headquarters at the Schofield Co. Flower Shop at 740 North State Street.  The attackers, henchmen of Al Capone, began their stake-out weeks earlier at a boarding house across the street at 1 West Superior.  The cornerstone at the entrance to the Holy Name Cathedral still bears bullet holes from the attack that killed Weiss.

Sbarbaro's Funeral Parlor, established in 1885, handled the funerals of many of Chicago's most notorious gangsters.  According to Laurence Bergreen (author of “Capone: The Man and the Era”), John A. Sbarbaro "led a curious double life.”  He ran the mortuary preferred by all the major Chicago mobsters while simultaneously serving as an Assistant State's Attorney.  He even worked with William McSwiggin, a prominent local prosecutor who ended up dying in hail of bullets while socializing with gangsters who were bitter enemies of Capone.

Sbarbaro & Company undertakers administered famed Chicago mobster Dean O’Banion’s funeral at 708 North Wells Street after Cardinal Mundelein refused a funeral mass for O'Banion at Holy Name Cathedral and prohibited him from being buried on consecrated ground.  According to Bergreen, more than two-dozen cars were required to transport the flowers from the funeral home to the cemetery.

The Catholic elementary school founded by Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini served the Italian-American immigrant community from 1899 to 1945. It was designed by the architect Frederick Foltz.  Mayor Richard M. Daley said the school "stands as a fine example of a late nineteenth century urban school building, and its legacy is a testament to the work Mother Cabrini accomplished."  It was designated a landmark on July 10, 2003.

Built in 1901, this was the showroom and headquarters of the Bush and Gertz Piano Company, a leading piano company in Chicago.  It was designated a landmark on June 27, 2001. 

Cobb and frost built This Richardsonian Romanesque-style house in 1886 for Ransom R. Cable.  It was designated a landmark on October 2, 1991. 

Today the home of Harry Caray's restaurant, the Chicago Varnish Company Building was built in 1895 and designated as a landmark on July 25 2001.  The Henry Ives Cobb-designed building is in the minority of Chicago architecture because the style is Dutch Renaissance Revival.  Harry Caray's restaurant opened here on October 23, 1987.

This bank building was designated a landmark on october 8, 2008.

Also known as the Cook County Criminal Court Building, Courthouse Place was the location for legendary trials such as the Leopold and Loeb murder case in 1924 and the 1921 Black Sox Scandal.  It was designated a Chicago landmark on June 9, 1993.  the criminal courts left the building in 1929.  the property was refurbished and dubbed courthouse palace in 1985.

The city designated this 11-story building a landmark on March 10, 2004.  According to Preservation Chicago, it's one of the few remaining buildings on Michigan Avenue from the 1920's, during which time this stretch became the "Magnificent Mile."  It is one of five buildings designed by architect Philip Maher on this famous thoroughfare.

Before moving to North and Clark Streets in Lincoln Park in 1931, the Chicago Historical Society set up shop here.  Designed by Henry Ives Cobb, this building features heavy, rough-cut stone walls, deeply recessed windows, round arches and squat columns.  The city designated it a landmark on February 26, 1997.  the nightclub excalibur calls the building home today.

Designated as a landmark on june 27, 2001, this building "survives from the heyday of chicago's cable car system, the largest in the united states during the late 19th century," according to the city's official landmark site.  this building was a "critical mass transit link between the loop and the north side by powering cable cars through the lasalle street tunnel beneath the chicago river, moving about 100,000 passengers daily."  today it is the home of a bar, lasalle power co.