26 May

Posted at 13:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

i was absolutely delighted to begin the week by acquiring an assortment of original early 20th century cast bronze and brass "bare bulb" industrial incandescent light fixtures salvaged from various new york city subway stations. the subway station fixtures are  so incredibly simplistic and visually attractive...

22 May

Posted at 17:10h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when time permits, i'm moving from one excavation site to another to look for pieces of the past before those "time portals" are once again closed when construction begins. i must admit, i have not "scored" any major privy vaults containing a condensed collection of material...

22 May

Posted at 12:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

i've managed to gather well over a hundred rare and richly colored soda and/or mineral water bottles dating to the mid-19th century over the past month. since the rapidity of bottle acquisition has made it incredibly difficult to populate the urban remains website with these great finds,...

20 May

Posted at 09:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the assemblage of photographic images shown in the gallery below offer a glimpse of my most recent visit (two consecutive days of shooting) to the notable a. finkl & sons chicago foundry that is rapidly being taken apart and discarded by several on-site excavators operated by...

19 May

Posted at 16:48h 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, 200 item...

19 May

Posted at 14:25h in Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

earlier this week urban remains came across a treasure trove of chicago public school science classroom anatomical models, charts and posters, fossils and other interesting specimens. the images below provide a small sampling of the acquisitions that have been photographed and added to the website.    the images...

19 May

Posted at 12:00h in Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

after thoroughly documenting and/or collecting any and all data from wood beam sill plate corners from various 19th century chicago residences, i'm trying to determine what to do with them since i have nearly 100 individual specimens finished in a nearly identical manner to the...

13 May

Posted at 09:53h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

for the past few months i have been exchanging emails with marty uhl, the grandchild of clement uhl, who with his brother joe, founded the toledo metal furniture company in 1903. for the next several decades, their "uhl art steel" furniture would find its way...

12 May

Posted at 12:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the recent removal of a depression era three-phase alternating current gantry crane switchboard, outfitted with an oversized trumball 3-pole knife switch, injected me with newly found inspiration to revisit an otherwise largely dormant interest in acquiring any and all electrical apparatus revolving around building "power plants." i...

11 May

Posted at 16:13h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the photographic essay below offers a brief glimpse at a day of savaging artifacts during a single afternoon at a chicago area standard oil (of indiana) brick factory building constructed as a distribution and handling center for several decades. the building is set to be demolished...

06 May

Posted at 09:59h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

demolition of the downtown chicago howard johnson inn, constructed in the late 1960's, is nearly complete. in preparation high-rise development that will be constructed on the site (located at the corner of la salle and superior), the wrecker has spent the past few weeks systematically "potholing" the...

06 May

Posted at 09:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

last night i finished editing images of two incredible artifacts carefully removed the a. finkl & sons foundry. both depression-era artifacts join the ever-growing number of antique american industrial objects and furniture being salvaged from this notable sprawling chicago industrial complex. before being taken down and brought...

05 May

Posted at 12:37h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

as part of our ongoing salvage efforts at a notable chicago foundry complex, we finally gained access to yet another building on the sprawling industrial campus; the building formerly served as a distribution center for standard oil of indiana. there, we discovered several matching, unusually-shaped dirk saaf-designed...

28 Apr

Posted at 17:51h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the gallery below represents one of my many sub-collections with a focus on early american signs (both vitreous or porcelain and baked-on enameled) that would be found in factory settings dotting the urban landscape. i selected these signs based on their subject matter, characteristic surface wear, rarity...

28 Apr

Posted at 16:05h in Bldg. 51, 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 surpassed the 23,100 item mark. the...

27 Apr

Posted at 14:58h in Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

over the past two weeks urban remains has acquired several depression-era interior illuminated exit light wall sconces and ceiling light fixtures salvaged mostly from extant commercial structures that performed upgrades long ago.  the majority of the single electric exit lights are equipped with brilliantly colored ruby red...

21 Apr

Posted at 14:53h in Bldg. 51, 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 23,000 item mark. the...

17 Apr

Posted at 10:29h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

very unique and primitive late 19th century single-sided exterior "foreman" occupational sign purportedly salvaged from the temporary and/or mobile construction office or shack housing the general contractors involved in the construction of the chicago world's fair of 1893 (more commonly referred to as the world's...

15 Apr

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

i've been spending the past couple of weeks visiting the sites of 19th century wood frame structures undergoing demolition. nearly all of these houses have been ravaged time and again with cobbled alterations to the point where any traces revealing visual cues of age, lie...

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