BLDG51. News and Events |

05 Apr unearthing the remains of chicago’s long-abandoned street cable car system

Posted at 13:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

it seems an appropriate follow-up to a recent san francisco visit to write about having dug a cable or street car artifact near illinois and franklin street which will soon enter the bldg. 51 collection. the finding of the railway component coincides, ironically, with having bought...

04 Apr newly added items from the past week range from factory furnishings to an unusual billiard room light fixture

Posted at 09:03h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts salvaged and/or acquired and posted in the urban remains massive website catalog (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one...

31 Mar turn of the century wrigleyville apartment complex salvaged shortly before demolition last week

Posted at 16:23h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

a three-story early 20th century yellow brick apartment complex, located in the wrigleyville neighborhood of chicago was demolished late last week. thankfully we had a few weeks to prepare and thoroughly salvage architectural elements from the building's interior. the majority of the passage and closet doors...

30 Mar photodocumenting “painted ladies” in san francisco – a feat that proved challenging

Posted at 00:14h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by Eric

the painted ladies are a historic attraction in the bay, but i was nonetheless thrilled to peruse for myself the sloping row of colorful queen anne style residences in alamo square park and throughout the city. these victorian and edwardian style houses are generally 2-3 stories, featuring multiple balconies, large...

29 Mar demolition of rear “coach house” and party wall dismantlement delays death of 8 east huron

Posted at 00:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

for several weeks now i've continued to make my way over to the northeast corner of state and huron to monitor the agonizingly slow death of 8 east huron, which remains standing, despite the loss of its "coach house" and adjoining neighbor to the west...

28 Mar rare all original documented carbon arc spotlight fixture from the non-extant chicago stadium discovered in warehouse

Posted at 14:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

among the rare light fixtures housed in the urban remains collection is an early 1920's "arctype"auditorium spotlight lamp, an original fixture which represents lighting technology developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, which was replaced by the incandescent spotlight. the carbon arc lamp was the first widely-used...

28 Mar eastlake style hardware, stainless steel medical cabinets, art glass, industrial machine bases recently added to website

Posted at 12:40h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

22 Mar 19th century ferdinand kieckhefer mansion wrought iron railing – executed by cyril colnik – joins bldg. 51 collection

Posted at 23:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

an exceptional and historically important hammered wrought iron railing section, executed by "the tiffany of wrought iron masters" is the latest of the bldg. 51 museum collection's recent acquisitions. the heavily ornamented, strapped and riveted wrought iron artifact was crafted by milwaukee's historic and premier iron worker, cyril...

22 Mar bldg. 51 museum’s collection of artifacts from burnham & root’s rookery building interior renovations

Posted at 13:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the extant historically important rookery building (1888), one of burnham & root's top architectural masterpieces, has undergone three major renovations and/or restorations over the last century, whereby several exceptional artifacts were removed and made available through both public and private acquisition. a small assortment of these...

21 Mar fate of 19th century church on north artesian avenue remains uncertain

Posted at 12:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

four years ago, curbed chicago listed the church at 1300 north artesian avenue as a "juicy development prospect" awaiting residential conversion. the listing cited its windows and woodwork as appealing features; it has since been drastically reduced in price. the semi-abandoned church still stands, no...

20 Mar the loss of an 1860’s-1870’s wood cottage on hubbard street haunts me to this day

Posted at 23:32h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the little cottage "frozen in time" was located just around the corner from the old bottling factory, incidentally, the building where urban remains was first established back in 2006. a spattering of other 19th century residential structures were left standing in and around this industrial...

18 Mar early american machine bases, simmons furniture, chicago stadium artifacts and bank blueprints

Posted at 14:24h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

15 Mar roofline ornament rescued from damen street graystone shortly after demolition permit issued

Posted at 22:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

early in the morning i received notice that a late 19th century two-story graystone was handed a death sentence. after reviewing images of the facade, i was drawn to the matching leaded beveled glass transom windows and roofline ornament consisting of cast iron cresting or...

14 Mar the continued acquisition of historically important chicago architectural artifacts in 2016 greatly enhances bldg. 51 collection

Posted at 13:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

i'm equally surprised and pleased at the sheer number and vast assortment of significant architectural artifacts acquired and/or rediscovered in storage since the beginning of 2016. whether a single sullivan-designed guaranty building doorknob, or a one-of-a-kind hand-stitched nortown theater organ screen fish embellished with sequins, i've...

14 Mar pegged mortise and tenon joinery discovered in two pre-fire erie steet wood framed cottages

Posted at 12:57h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

on the "deconstructing chicago" front, my interest is in demystifying the incredibly complicated methods and materials used during the span of time from 1840-1880, when evolving technologies, as well as supply and demand for material, continually wavered from one building season to the next. [gallery ids="18676,18677,18675"] the case study...

10 Mar light fixtures, art deco terra cotta, robust butcher block table and confectionery jars added this week

Posted at 18:04h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one of the...

07 Mar long-forgotten 19th century bjorgvin singing society hall exposed during its demolition

Posted at 09:13h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

when my salvage team arrived at the church building located at 1639 n. artesian avenue late last week, i wasn't expecting to salvage much of anything. based on preliminary research there wasn't much to expect, with the interior having been altered time and again. aside from...

04 Mar urban remains 10 year anniversary begins with completely rebranded website set to launch in early spring

Posted at 18:39h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Sales and Promotions by Eric

new features include, but not limited to: clean, modern, minimalist design responsive user interface (ui) intuitive and streamlined product categories new product quick views one step checkout improved performance and scalability enhanced ecommerce security weekly blog articles, videos and newly added items greatly enhanced internal website search engine ...

04 Mar demolition completed on one of two adjoining 19th century rowhouses on huron street – its neighbor will share same fate the following week

Posted at 01:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

on the way to the office this morning i made a stop at the corner of huron and state to document the progression of a demolition, a site at which my repeated requests to salvage ornament ultimately fell on deaf ears. this was due in large part to my lack...

02 Mar deeply incised dated cornerstone recovered during last days of holy bethel church demolition

Posted at 11:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

several days after salvaging the late 19th century west side chicago holy bethel or "adams street" church's interior, which involved extracting its painted tin time capsule filled with an assortment of ephemera pertaining to the congregation that built it in 1888, i made one final trip...