18 Aug

Posted at 23:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

every morning i'm hit with an email notification detailing the number of city of chicago demolition permits issued for 19th and early 20th century residential and commercial structures alike. as i review each and every permit issued, i increasingly feel an urgent self-induced pressure to seek out and document...

17 Aug

Posted at 12:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

when time permits, i will make sure to supplement the following series of images with an explanation and discussion of this salvage. the photos document the demolition of a 19th century victorian era transplanted wood-framed workers cottage. two interesting finds during the demolition: the discovery of a...

17 Aug

Posted at 00:53h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the small chicago worker's cottage was torn down long ago, but from the smattering of objects unearthed (thus far) during excavation, i managed to gain some insight into what transpired there, beginning from the time of construction sometime during the mid-19th century. i was notified early one...

12 Aug

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

the number of daily demolition notifications i receive is incredibly alarming on so many levels. this is no doubt a mantra i have repeatedly expressed in prior posts, interviews, etc. i will expound upon this further when attending the 19th century building materials exhibit that...

11 Aug

Posted at 22:53h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 25,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

07 Aug

Posted at 12:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the bldg. 51 museum has multiple 19th century artifacts from adler and sullivan's guaranty building. these include an interior staircase baluster, which is the only surviving all-original lobby flush mount light fixture ceiling medallion (the current fixtures in situ are recasts), and a few doorknobs...

03 Aug

Posted at 16:43h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

this week urban remains acquired multiple swing-out seat lunchroom tables removed long ago from the former farley and loetscher millwork factory founded in 1875 by christian loetscher. located in dubque, ia., the mill was incorporated in 1881 as the farley and loetscher manufacturing company. by 1910 the farley and...

03 Aug

Posted at 16:42h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 24,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

28 Jul

Posted at 15:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

Deconstructing Early Chicago Saturday October 17 & Sunday October 18, 2015 9:00am-5:00pm Coach House of Glessner House Museum 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616 Free Admission Clarke House Museum and Building 51 Museum will partner to present a special exhibition of early Chicago building fragments and systems on display in the historic...

27 Jul

Posted at 17:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

portable fire escapes date back to 18th century england, where in 1784, daniel maseres invented a machine simply called a "fire escape," a device fastened to the window of a building that would enable a person to descend to the street without injury. abraham wivell created an...

21 Jul

Posted at 22:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

prior to visiting this site, i had only seen it in pictures, by way of google street view. despite toggling back and forth between images of the house between 2007-2014 on google's "timeline," it was difficult to ascertain stylistic features or architectural characteristics that would provide better...

21 Jul

Posted at 14:39h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 24,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

20 Jul

Posted at 13:01h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

urban remains carries a vast selection of "portable" fairies lighting fixtures spanning from the company's founding in the late 19th century to the 1950's. from patented bracketed wall and ceiling fixtures, to table lamps and shades, we offer some of the very best lighting (in some...

14 Jul

Posted at 17:51h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 24,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

07 Jul

Posted at 16:03h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 24,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

04 Jul

Posted at 00:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

every time i entered one of the many mammoth industrial melt, machine or forge "shops" located throughout the sprawling a. finkl & sons chicago foundry complex, i could not help but look up in awe. high above rested remarkably antiquated overhead cranes designed to to move...

02 Jul

Posted at 14:47h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

pictured below: a very well-maintained example of early steel office furniture in the form of a joseph uhl-designed switchboard operator's adjustable height mobile chair with the highly sought after oxidized copper-plated finish largely intact. identified by period catalogs as "model 511," this remarkable patented pressed, folded and...

30 Jun

Posted at 17:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

investigating a near west side chicago site, i discovered some history through researching nineteenth century maps. according to an 1886 e. robinson's atlas (sanborn insurance) map of chicago (lots 14-17), a large parking lot that was recently excavated used to be a huge coal yard surrounded by several...

26 Jun

Posted at 17:12h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have surpassed the 23, 600 item...

25 Jun

Posted at 12:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

beginning monday, i found myself documenting a dig site where a prototypical late 19th century graystone two-flat  (demolished earlier this year) once resided. with the exception of  an early 1880's cobalt john a. lomax hutchinson unearthed at the front of the lot, a surprisingly large assortment...

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