30 Apr

Posted at 21:32h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum recently secured through auction a pair of original and amazingly intact 1918-1919 william e. drummond-designed interior residential leaded glass windows accentuated with richly colored and festive flashed glass rectangles and squares. the strongly geometric windows were likely fabricated by the linden glass...

24 Apr

Posted at 22:36h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 35,500 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

09 Apr

Posted at 02:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by

[caption id="attachment_36637" align="alignleft" width="2807"] 1961 richard nickel kodachrome slide of john vinci working on stencil recovery from adler & sullivan's garrick theater. under crombie taylor's direction, wall sections from garrick theater - then under demolition - were cut out and brought back to taylor's home...

04 Apr

Posted at 02:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

taking on more projects when already burned out beyond belief takes its toll - both physically and mentally. however, i've mastered the ability to ignore the warning signs (again and again) when situations arise where i know i need to act - whether its documenting...

23 Mar

Posted at 15:33h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

a matching set of original richly colored stained interior residential stained glass windows - salvaged from the palmer v. kellogg mansion (burnham and root, 1883) during the depression - joined the bldg. 51 museum collection earlier this week. the two high victorian windows - featuring...

09 Mar

Posted at 22:20h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 35,500 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

01 Mar

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

2018 looks to be a very promising year in terms of ephemera, book, and artifact acquisition -  based upon what the bldg. 51 museum archive has already secured, along with arrangements in the works or nearing finalization. the ever-growing museum archive has reached a critical...

08 Feb

Posted at 01:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by

i finally had time to shoot these two artifacts unearthed from a downtown chicago dump a while back. the 1860's hutchinson "ring top" bottle was found 15 feet below grade. the single-sided porcelain enameled depression era chicago sign, dug from the same location, was found...

29 Jan

Posted at 22:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

the former humboldt garage & auto service company building (1911) had a walk-in vault. shortly before that section of the building was demolished, the wreckers managed to open the door, where they discovered several ledgers, signs, salesman samples, blueprints, and other odds and ends left...

24 Jan

Posted at 15:23h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 35,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

12 Jan

Posted at 23:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

three sections of cove molding were salvaged from albert sullivan's residence (1891) shortly before or during the house was deconstructed/demolished in 1970 (portions of the facade were removed by richard nickel and his brother donald for southern illinois university with the hope that the facade...

10 Jan

Posted at 02:05h in Bldg. 51, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired architectural artifacts (including an original early 20th century watercolor rendering that hung in the lobby) from the historically important columbus memorial building (boyington, 1893) and its neighbor, the venetian building (holabird & roche, 1892), which happened to share a...

03 Jan

Posted at 21:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following images (see below) represent a small selection of bldg. 51 museum architectural fragments acquired during 2017. the museum collection continues to revolve around chicago artifacts, with a greater emphasis placed on commercial buildings designed by notable architectural firms (e.g., burnham & root, jenney...

03 Jan

Posted at 19:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

all original c. 1920's antique american ornamental cast iron interior oriental theater auditorium chair or seat end, fabricated by the heywood-wakefield company, menominee, mich. the highly ornamented single-sided cast iron figural cover seat end was salvaged from the auditorium when the seating arrangement was reconfigured...

03 Jan

Posted at 04:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by

next year i will force myself to set time aside and digitize my entire reference library containing 19th century architectural trade journals, company catalogs, salesman samples, booklets, brochures, etc.  for example, after rediscovering an early 20th century binder, containing double-sided plates with wood samples in...

24 Dec

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

  the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired a historically important collection containing hundreds of 1871 chicago fire insurance claims, letters, city permits, flyers, and advertisements revolving around the dry good merchants, bowen, winslow, and hunt.  countless hours have been spent sorting through and digitizing piles of...

20 Dec

Posted at 15:38h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 30,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

12 Dec

Posted at 23:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

after a much-needed break from the bowels of congress theater, i spent the remainder of my time there traversing the auditorium's upper balcony plenum chambers hoping to discover more objects discarded by moviegoers beginning around the time the theater opened in 1926. thankfully, i was...

09 Dec

Posted at 12:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

a largely intact circular pine wood privy pit or "vault" floor was discovered during excavation of a site where a pre-fire chicago residence succumbed to the wrecking ball. i was busy documenting the sill plate configuration of a nearby wood frame house when i got wind...

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