Before disc jockeys and music streaming services, many establishments had jukeboxes to keep the music going. For National Jukebox Day, we’re highlighting one that embodies the smooth, streamlined aesthetic that became popular in the 1930s. During that decade, swing music and streamlined design went hand-in-hand. With its lively melodies, swing provided an affordable way for More
In November 1863, the Christian Recorder reported that the Chicago’s Colored Ladies Freedmen’s Aid Society (CCLFAS) sent a petition for the “entire abolition of slavery” to various federal officials in Washington, DC. The CCLFAS was cofounded by Mary Richardson Jones, who, after moving with her husband to Chicago in 1845, served as a “conductor” along More
With the news that Lawry’s The Prime Rib will be closing at the end of the year, we can only wonder if the next tenant of the former McCormick Mansion will also make a name there. Let’s revisit another establishment that has left a legacy at the corner of Rush and Ontario Streets. From 1937 More
It’s National Homemade Bread Day! Will you rise to the occasion and bake a loaf or two? In early Chicago, the most important food processing activity was grain milling. Prior to 1800, Kitihawa and Jean Baptiste Point DuSable had a pair of millstones and had constructed a bakehouse just north of the Chicago River. By More
About one hundred years ago, Chicago saw a building boom of single-family homes of a certain style—the bungalow. The word “bungalow” derives from the British colonial experience in India, and beginning in the twentieth century, architects, builders, and developers adopted the term to describe modern houses built throughout the United States. In Chicago, a few More