10 Nov

Posted at 16:01h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 75,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of november, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need...

09 Nov

Posted at 02:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

a modest downtown chicago post-fire masonry structure built between 1873-1874 for the rubber paint company will be destroyed by end of the week. the two-story brick building retains the original distinctive archtop windows punctuated with unornamented lemont limestone keystones. the original pressed metal or wood projecting...

07 Nov

Posted at 03:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

richard nickel images of william borden’s chateauesque mansion (1884) undergoing demolition in 1962. the facade consisted of smooth-faced beford limestone, with windows, main entrance, turrets, and dormers accentuated using hand-carved bedford limestone ornament. the mansion was designed by architect richard morris hunt. it remained with...

26 Oct

Posted at 02:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

three 19th century houses located on orchard street in lincoln park are set to be demolished to make way for new development (i.e., luxury homes).  the structures include a post-fire 1870s wood-framed cottage with largely intact clapboard facade and dentiled cornice, a mid-1870s brick italianate with...

25 Oct

Posted at 15:39h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 musuem archive recently aquired an exceptionally rare and profusely illustrated prismatic glass pocketbook published in 1898 for the luxfer prism glass company, chicago, ills. the softbound book retains the original singlefold glass color sample card. information...

25 Oct

Posted at 04:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

The limited-edition (300 copies) "Lost and Found" book is now be available for purchase. This heavily illustrated 58 page, soft-bound book scours the depths of the Congress Theater (1929), chronicling the building's history through depression-era artifacts and detritus discovered in hidden crevices of the structure's attic...

25 Oct

Posted at 03:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

  the 19th century saw new technologies emerge in all areas of production, including improvements in metallurgical processes that shifted use of materials in all areas of life, from construction to household goods. the bower-barff process is one such development, a method of making iron rust-resistant that...

21 Oct

Posted at 14:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

latest photographic images from eric j. nordstrom and/or bldg. 51 archive's chicago architectural ornament survey (caos) provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings located in downtown...

18 Oct

Posted at 03:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

a 19th century two-flat (discussed in a previous post) has been reduced to rubble, but the discovery of an aqua blobtop miller beer bottle (with intact lighting stopper) left in a wall exposed during the final moments of demolition, has made it worthwhile to photo-document...

14 Oct

Posted at 14:48h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

a collection of photographic images documenting thalia hall's exterior bedford limestone facade, designed by the architectural firm of faber and pagel for john dusek in 1892.  several images focus on the oversized tapered keystone, depicting a deeply carved "green man" with stoic expression, surrounded by richly...

12 Oct

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

the image gallery offers a somewhat comprehensive visual representation of ornamental builders' hardware found in chicago's commerical buildings built between the 1880s to the depression. the majority of the hardware is custom-designed, often by the hand of the leading architect or architectural firm tied to...

11 Oct

Posted at 14:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum archive recently acquired a large collection of rare and seldom found great chicago fire stereoview cards made and distributed shortly after the fire was extinguished in early october, 1871. several photographers are represented, with hand-written notations on verso. the following gallery...

11 Oct

Posted at 04:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

richard nickel images chronicling the systematic deconstruction of adler and sullivan's terra cotta chicago stock exchange entrance arch during the early stages of the building's demolition in 1972. the louis sullivan-designed buff-colored terra cotta arch was the building's primary entrance facing la salle street. the...

10 Oct

Posted at 19:32h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

five historically important commercial and residential keystones from the bldg. 51 museum collection.  [caption id="attachment_34712" align="alignleft" width="2216"] one of a kind original and intact museum-quality and historically important single ornamental hand carved exterior solid keystone salvaged from a pre-fire chicago german school (later known as the gethsemane...

04 Oct

Posted at 19:12h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 75,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of october, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need...

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