05 Jul early adler & sullivan houses documented by richard nickel shortly before 1950s chicago land clearance

i’ve carefully selected a few blog posts (click on titles between images) that focus on richard nickel’s evolving style of documentation and salvage efforts for early adler and sullivan residential and commercial commissions built during the 1880’s. i’m intensely interested in nickel’s earliest experiences with the widespread destruction of buildings on chicago’s south side during the 1950s when the “land clearance commission” leveled block after block of old chicago houses slapped with condemned posters time and again. during this time, speedway wrecking was one of the largest wrecking companies in chicago, and their machines appear in images taken by nickel and the newspapers of the time. when time permits, i will provide additional images and information on nickel’s salvage efforts during the 1950s and the history behind speedway wrecking.  we have nickel’s archive, but speedway (if it exists) would be of equal interest. 

RICHARD NICKEL’S PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION OF SAMUEL STERN HOUSE BEFORE AND DURING ITS DEMOLITION

RARELY SEEN RICHARD NICKEL PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF THE VICTOR A. FALKENAU FLATS

ADLER AND SULLIVAN’S ROSENFELD BUILDING AS IT APPEARED IN 1959 SHORTLY BEFORE AND DURING ITS DEMOLITION

LOST AND FOUND: ADLER & SULLIVAN’S KNISELY FLATS AND STOR

ADLER AND SULLIVAN’S RUBEL RESIDENCE LIVES ON THROUGH IMAGES AND ORNAMENT

FURTHER READING: