04 Nov

Posted at 13:51h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

last week i was doing research into the timeline of the notable chicago-based john a. lomax bottle company, when reading text written by a friend and avid collector of all things lomax. i was shocked to discover that the chicago consolidated bottling company, established in 1887...

30 Oct

Posted at 15:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

reiterating a previous post: after discussing my recent urban privy find with several people in the field (e.g., historians, archaeologists, chicago bottle collectors and so on), there is very little doubt that i have come across the oldest known/documented chicago urban privy pit, with artifacts pulled from various "pockets"...

28 Oct

Posted at 16:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

we arrived at the latest house near damen and melrose to salvage foster-munger company interior residential oak wood doors (some with "florentine" pattern glass); a single variegated art glass transom window and beaded hardware likely fabricated by the p.& f. corbin company. the farthest thing from my mind was...

26 Oct

Posted at 23:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

with virtually little notice and very little preparation, urban remains was given a very small window of time to secure two iconic depression era neon signs the hung (one against the facade and the other atop a signpost) from the historic cedar hotel, constructed in 1928 by...

23 Oct

Posted at 15:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

fully documented and all original c. 1929 historically important exterior palmolive building ornamental cast bronze flush mount facade pilaster removed during extensive renovations during the mid-1960's when the leasehold was purchased by playboy enterprises and renamed the playboy building in 1965. the exact foundry or...

20 Oct

Posted at 16:57h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the "DECONSTRUCTING CHICAGO" exhibit held this weekend at the glessner house museum  (during chicago's "open house") was at the very least, a good start to make people aware of this exciting project. the exhibit revolved around harvested building materials from demolished wood-framed chicago houses, salvaged in...

15 Oct

Posted at 22:42h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

i was notified early on in the day to quickly head to an excavation site (the two story wood frame house had been demolished a week prior), that looked promising for unearthing bottles and other discarded household wares dating to the early 1870's. sure enough when...

12 Oct

Posted at 12:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

with two concurrent demolitions with heneghan about to begin later this afternoon and a west side excavation that holds promise for the discovery of an early privy vault, i simply do not have the time (at least now) to provide greater detail pertaining to the images taken...

11 Oct

Posted at 12:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

people in my inner-circle are growing concerned that i'm dangerously consumed or unhealthily immersed in the "deconstruction" and "unearthing" projects that i do for intellectual gratification when not operating urban remains. i cannot disagree, but i feel imbued over this newly found conviction that this...

10 Oct

Posted at 12:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the workers cottage (1885-1887) was demolished just a few days ago, but excavation of the now-vacant lot is well underway. i stopped by the site on my way to work and asked the wrecker, one who i work with frequently, whether we could do a little...

07 Oct

Posted at 23:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

i feel trapped in this inescapable and horrific cycle of documenting one residential demolition after another. i simply cannot keep up. i receive calls and email notifications daily that a wrecker is onsite and well into dismantling, or rather, erasing another piece of 19th century chicago....

06 Oct

Posted at 10:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

i find it incredibly strange that the last five demolitions i've been involved in shared three nearly identical characteristics: oversized sill plates (with both lap and mortise and tenon joinery), faceted pegs, and 1-2  summer beams with notched parallel floor joists (versus the more common perpendicularly...

05 Oct

Posted at 10:03h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

a fine collection of "real bronze" ornamental builders' hardware designed and fabricated by the metal compression casting company and/or the russell & erwin mfg. company was recently purchased by urban remains earlier this week. the "mccc collection," consisting of some of the most finely executed...

29 Sep

Posted at 23:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the recent burst of demolition activity in my "study area" over the last two weeks has been rather bitter-sweet in terms of loss and discovery. the rate at which these outwardly nondescript 19th century wood-framed cottages are being pummeled into the ground (and their remains trucked off...

25 Sep

Posted at 14:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the vast scattering of excavation sites in and around downtown chicago have provided a dizzying, seemly endless amount of artifacts discarded by chicagoans of the 19th century. the quantity of "hutchinson" type soda or mineral water bottles alone is impressive to say the least. moreso, the sheer variety of...

23 Sep

Posted at 12:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

|Guest Lecture Series|1pm-4pm|9-23-2015|SAIC|Eric J. Nordstrom| PART ONE: Deconstructing the John Kent Russell House [gallery ids="13524,13525,13526,13527,13528,13529,13531,13532,13533,13534,13535,13536,13537,13538,13539,13540,13541,13542,13543,13544,13545"] PART 2: Harvesting materials and recreating "systems" for additional study. ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES IN PROGRESS....

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