BLDG51. News and Events |

10 Apr art moderne house outfitted with depession-era “after sunset” machine age fixtures now available

Posted at 21:36h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

several "after sunset" fixtures were removed from an art modern house undergoing renovations late last week. the american art deco depression era fixtures were designed and fabricated by or for the lightolier corp., jeannette, pennsylvania. the super streamlined machine age electric fixtures are comprised largely of...

09 Apr systematic deconstruction of 850 lakeshore drive athletic club’s grand interior lobby

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

there really is no beginning or end to the surreal story of my crew and i being paid to completely deconstruct the historically important and visually stunning main lobby of the "850 lsd" or the lakeshore drive athletic club building. we were hired on to extract a collection...

07 Apr photographic study of tradesmen remnants, discovered in and around congress theater’s plaster dome

Posted at 14:55h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

i've spent a great deal of time in the congress theater attic space, a place where time seems to stand still. in the upper canopy of the building i find a rare quiet and peace, and often find myself overwhelmed with a sense of calm...

04 Apr late 19th century privy finds from a chicago workers cottage on cleveland

Posted at 21:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

after slowing down some, i find myself deeply immersed again in the "unearthing chicago" project long after i finished cataloging several extensively archived chicago dig sites for the soon-to be-published "unearthing chicago" book (bldg. 51 museum press) due out this year. like any other project i've...

31 Mar 19th century brick and wood-framed worker cottages are quietly disappearing from chicago’s cityscape

Posted at 21:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

over the past few years i've been tirelessly documenting and/or salvaging chicago's 19th century brick and wood-frame cottages as they're demolished with astonishing rapidity. it's deeply saddening just thinking about the seemingly endless number of demolition permits that will be issued during this year's (2017) "building season,"...

30 Mar the “cherry circle” logo was the official “organ” of the chicago athletic association

Posted at 20:21h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the chicago athletic association (caa) was established in 1890 by notable chicago businessmen, marshall field, cyrus mccormick, and a. g. spalding as an exclusive club revolving around sports, business and social activities. in 1893 the club commissioned architect henry ives cobb to construct a venitian...

29 Mar henry ives cobb-designed gothic revival style bronze water fountain from university of chicago

Posted at 22:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum has recently assembled several architectural artifacts from buildings (demolished or heavily altered/modified) designed by henry ives cobb for an upcoming exhibit highlighting his work. an exceptionally well-made and intricately designed late 19th or early 20th century american gothic style interior ornamental...

27 Mar more artifacts recovered from congress theater’s plenum duct work and plaster-covered “iron tent”

Posted at 00:42h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

i was taken aback when i discovered a seemingly endless field of debris (several decades worth) covering the floor of a gargantuan plenum duct running under the congress theater's auditorium floor. i spent a good deal of time combing through piles of candy wrappers, matchbooks,...

24 Mar unearthing forgotten 1890’s “night scavenger” dumping site during north chicago residential excavation

Posted at 23:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

a recently discovered cache of 1890's refuse, in the form of everyday household bottles, jars, shoes, stoneware (i.e. impermeable and partly vitrified pottery), flint glass, ink wells, etc., was unearthed the other day during excavation of a residential lot where a house built around 1890...

22 Mar bldg. 51 museum of chicago building artifacts continues its expansion in 2017 with several newly-added historically important pieces

Posted at 18:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the relentless search to aquire, identify, and document historically important remnants from chicago building demolished or altered has greatly assisted in driving the bldg. 51 museum collection and archive's sustained momentum and/or growth in the new year. while the museum's core mission remains sharply focused on...

22 Mar eagle-themed cast iron federal building elevator panel added to bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 18:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired an exceptional, copper-plated ornamental figural cast iron elevator panel and full-bodied eagle (the latter is an attribution) rescued from henry ives cobb's downtown chicago chicago federal building (1898), prior to its demolition in 1965. the single-sided eagle panel was originally apart...

20 Mar finding forgotten objects in congress theater’s crawlspaces and plenum chambers

Posted at 14:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

[caption id="attachment_28725" align="alignleft" width="2481"] theater ticket stubs found on the plenum floor. note the earlier one locate in the top left corner. very little pertaining to the theater itself has been found - unlike the lawndale theater for example, where i found several programs and...

18 Mar discovery of forgotten late 19th century landfill reveals rubbish from chicago’s past frozen in time

Posted at 04:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

a few hundred bottles, pottery fragments, and so on, were discovered during excavation in a chicago residential neighborhood. the machine operator was gracious enough to grant me highly coveted time to extract as much as i possibly could before loads were sent to the landfill. [caption...

18 Mar living in the past through photographic documentation of chicago’s architecture

Posted at 01:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

it's become impossible to resist my maniacal desire to photograph chicago's cityscape, and that's a good thing. i'm a terribly anxious person in the present, so i counter that by living in the past. in some unexplainable way, i feel i belong there. it's no...

15 Mar 1914 midway gardens interior “cube” fountain head fragment added to bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 21:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired yet another, well-executed full-scale alfonso iannelli-designed midway gardens figural head - cast from a plaster mold taken directly off the only known surviving fragment rescued from the massive "cube" fountain housed within frank lloyd wrights 1914 midway garden's indoor entertainment complex (demolished...

14 Mar early 1870’s remnants unearthed from former site of stephen israel’s post-fire chicago pharmacy

Posted at 09:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

remnants from the site of a short-lived druggist's pharmacy (1872-1874) were discovered under a downtown chicago parking ramp (since demolished). during excavation in preparation for new development, machine operator john propeck unearthed nearly 30 (mostly broken) stephen israel mineral water bottles lying against a foundation...

14 Mar fabrication of early 20th century “sullivanesque” tin ceiling tiles finally demystified

Posted at 03:56h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

after nearly ten years, i was delighted to finally come across a catalog that definitively identifies the fabricator behind a small collection of stamped steel or tin "sullivanesque" style ceiling panels i've had in my possession all these years. this was one of the more substantial discoveries of the week, so...

13 Mar photographing congress theater’s vestibule and lobby fixtures during the “golden hour”

Posted at 23:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

[caption id="attachment_28482" align="alignleft" width="1200"] photo courtesy of theatre historical society of america[/caption] [caption id="attachment_28483" align="alignleft" width="1500"] image courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 museum archive[/caption] the following images offer a detailed glimpse at congress theater's lobby light fixtures, grand staircase, and vestibule movie poster...

09 Mar bldg. 51 museum hosts saic historic preservation graduate program student field study trip

Posted at 23:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i was deeply honored that the bldg. 51 museum was chosen as the destination for the prestigious school of the art institute of chicago's architecture and historic preservation department annual field trip, where students engage with and carefully analyze artifacts (housed in the bldg. 51...

06 Mar depression-era candy boxes discovered beneath congress theater’s balcony seats

Posted at 15:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

i discovered a sea of candy wrappers, matchbooks, ticket stubs, and bottles deep within congress theater's underbelly last weekend. for nearly 91 years, moviegoers would conveniently dispose of their trash through cast iron "mushrooms" located directly beneath each and every seat in the auditorium. [caption id="attachment_28429"...