30 Nov

Posted at 16:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

long after a heavily modified 1870's-era two-story building was demolished last month, the excavators rolled in to begin laying the foundation for yet another new structure that is devoid of character. sure enough, shortly after the backhoe began digging, pockets of artifacts left long ago by...

28 Nov

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

with only two days before demolition of an early 20th century two-story brick residence began, we had very limited time to salvage an interior outfitted in pristine golden oak wood millwork on both the first and second floors. from door headers to built-in cabinets, and...

27 Nov

Posted at 16:10h 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 26,700+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

18 Nov

Posted at 01:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

yesterday i received good news that my "bid" to secure a historically important ornamental cast iron louis sullivan-designed gage building exterior facade stringer was accepted. shortly thereafter, i had a staff member secure the piece and bring it to the studio to photodocument, before making it...

12 Nov

Posted at 16:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the bldg. 51 museum just acquired the historically important and virtually untouched c. 1893 time capsule in the form of a diminutive corrugated copper metal box containing several newspapers, typed letters, a bible and other pertinent artifacts stowed away in the former german zion's evangelical...

12 Nov

Posted at 15:49h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

after nearly ten years of searching, i've finally acquired an original and very well-maintained softbound dawson brothers catalog, profusely illustrated with their product line from 1887. over the years i've salvaged, from houses all across the city of chicago, a few hundred dawson brothers fireplace...

10 Nov

Posted at 15:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

for years i would drive to work along grand avenue, and i always paid special attention to a heavily modified commercial building, which contained a remarkably intact fret-sawn ornamental pine wood sill or belt course panel that likely would have fallen to pieces if it...

10 Nov

Posted at 14:18h 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 26,500+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

09 Nov

Posted at 16:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

with a little over a week to do some exploratory surgery in a three-story house, built between 1881-1886 on the near west side of chicago, we had ample time to carefully examine any and all extant architectural artifacts original to the house. remarkably, the original carved...

06 Nov

Posted at 16:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

with only two hours left in the work day, i received a call that a house constructed in 1915 was scheduled to be demolished the next day. i had no choice but to drop what i was doing and head to the jobsite. when we pulled...

04 Nov

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

last week i was doing research into the timeline of the notable chicago-based john a. lomax bottle company, when reading text written by a friend and avid collector of all things lomax. i was shocked to discover that the chicago consolidated bottling company, established in 1887...

30 Oct

Posted at 15:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

reiterating a previous post: after discussing my recent urban privy find with several people in the field (e.g., historians, archaeologists, chicago bottle collectors and so on), there is very little doubt that i have come across the oldest known/documented chicago urban privy pit, with artifacts pulled from various "pockets"...

29 Oct

Posted at 16:46h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

despite having to endure several revisions to insurance certificates with heneghan wrecking and the ever present and watchful eye of power construction, we managed to work quickly and flawlessly to remove another large load of industrial furniture left behind when the roberts electric company vacated the building....

28 Oct

Posted at 16:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

we arrived at the latest house near damen and melrose to salvage foster-munger company interior residential oak wood doors (some with "florentine" pattern glass); a single variegated art glass transom window and beaded hardware likely fabricated by the p.& f. corbin company. the farthest thing from my mind was...

26 Oct

Posted at 23:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

with virtually little notice and very little preparation, urban remains was given a very small window of time to secure two iconic depression era neon signs the hung (one against the facade and the other atop a signpost) from the historic cedar hotel, constructed in 1928 by...

24 Oct

Posted at 17:15h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, 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 26,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

23 Oct

Posted at 15:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

fully documented and all original c. 1929 historically important exterior palmolive building ornamental cast bronze flush mount facade pilaster removed during extensive renovations during the mid-1960's when the leasehold was purchased by playboy enterprises and renamed the playboy building in 1965. the exact foundry or...

20 Oct

Posted at 16:57h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the "DECONSTRUCTING CHICAGO" exhibit held this weekend at the glessner house museum  (during chicago's "open house") was at the very least, a good start to make people aware of this exciting project. the exhibit revolved around harvested building materials from demolished wood-framed chicago houses, salvaged in...

16 Oct

Posted at 16:56h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

several truckloads of industrial factory and office furniture were removed from the defunct robers electric company, located on morgan street. the great majority of the building has been demolished, but a landmarked building within the complex will avoid the wrecking ball. in fact, the facade...

15 Oct

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

i was notified early on in the day to quickly head to an excavation site (the two story wood frame house had been demolished a week prior), that looked promising for unearthing bottles and other discarded household wares dating to the early 1870's. sure enough when...

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