BLDG51. News and Events |

11 Mar repurposed industrial accessories, architectural elements and brushed metal furniture added this week

Posted at 01:04h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

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 22, 500 item...

07 Mar a pre-fire augustus bauer building: seeking time capsules, salvaging artifacts and photodocumenting its disappearance

Posted at 22:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

for the past two days i've devoted morning, afternoon and evening obsessively thinking about anything and everything pertaining to an augustus bauer-designed building constructed in 1869. the arrival of souvenir hunters, the police, an alderman, and other, largely unhappy individuals coalescing into a rather unnerving and heavily...

04 Mar demolition of another pre-fire chicago commercial building (1862) nearly completed

Posted at 10:33h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

a project manager working for chicago-based heneghan wrecking informed me late last week that two adjoining 19th century multi-story brick commercial buildings located along lake street were undergoing demolition in preparation for future development on the site. when i arrived onsite demolition was in progress, with a large...

03 Mar several industrial stools, cabinets, and other distressed furniture added this week

Posted at 18:50h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the photo gallery below offers hand-picked or "highlighted" artifacts 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 22, 400 item mark. the ultimate goal since day...

03 Mar reexamining a mid-19th century chicago wood-lined privy “vault” and cesspool through material analysis

Posted at 02:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

i just finished shooting several recovered artifacts that were used in the construction of a privy vault and cesspool likely constructed between 1855-1865 for chicago carpenter and millwork company owner john kent russell's house (non-extant). the first of the two unusually-shaped privy vaults was discovered in...

02 Mar historically important reliance building interior door hardware rediscovered

Posted at 14:26h in Bldg. 51, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

while rearranging our large assortment of interior and exterior artifacts salvaged from the historically important daniel h. burnham-designed reliance building last week, we rediscovered crates filled with matching cast iron hinges, escutcheons, doorknobs, office door mail chutes and window sash pulls. the urban remains's website does offer...

25 Feb vintage research laboratory glassware finds new home at urban remains

Posted at 10:53h in Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

first we solidified a deal involving the recent acquisition of a vast array and sizable quantity of industrial stools in both angled and tubular steel form with maple wood and metal seats. a few days later we came across an impressive assortment of old university...

24 Feb a very busy week amassing industrial furniture, vintage medical, mid-19th century bottles and architectural salvage

Posted at 16:06h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

23 Feb discarded “w.h.h.” soda bottle unearthed after 155 years reawakens a mostly dormant interest in old bottles

Posted at 06:51h in Bldg. 51, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

since the day i discovered a light blue cobalt glass william h. hutchinson soda or mineral water bottle resting on a thick privy wood floor discovered behind the john kent russell house, i've been buying each and every virtually identical " w.h.h."cobalt bottle as if...

21 Feb bldg. 51 museum acquires two matching darwin d. martin house (1905) cast bronze sconces

Posted at 13:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

a set of rare and historically important interior darwin d. martin house (1903-1905) wall-mount sconces were acquired by the bldg. 51 museum this week. the strongly geometric designed interior single electric light sconces exhibit a mostly uniform surface patina throughout. it is uncertain whether the white...

19 Feb large quantity of matching vintage industrial “angled steel” shop stools now available

Posted at 14:27h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

a total of 18 matching all original and completely intact american vintage industrial shop stools were acquired earlier this week. the low-lying stools are identical both in seat type (i.e., solid contoured maple wood) and riveted joint angled steel base configuration. the stools were salvaged from...

18 Feb a very unusually constructed heavily ornamented 19th century cast iron interior corinthian style column capital

Posted at 13:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

i've removed several interior ornamented cast iron greek corinthian style capitals (located at the topmost region of load-bearing columns), found on the first floor of many high ceiling 19th century loft style commercial buildings or "blocks" dating between the 1860's and 1880's. the great majority...

17 Feb figural frankart, jolly green giant road sign, andirons and insert, and a “butcher boy” cooler door recently added

Posted at 22:21h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

10 Feb the bldg. 51 museum building artifact printed book available in march of 2015

Posted at 13:21h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

in the next 3-4 weeks, the printed version of the highly anticipated bldg. 51 museum building artifact book will be available for purchase. copies of the profusely illustrated, full color book will be available at the urban remain's store and/or can be ordered online through...

10 Feb industrial furniture, iron-pontiled bottles, hardware, and an authentic chicago street light added this week

Posted at 02:41h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

10 Feb salvaged “new old stock” art deco machine age chicago back bar glass rods available free of charge

Posted at 02:35h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

UPDATE AS OF 2024: this was posted 9 YEARS AGO. apologies, but we no longer have any left! fortunately, there are a surprisingly healthy supply of original depression-era american streamlined style back bars that remain in use and well-maintained in chicago area bars. a few of...

10 Feb an endless fascination with the morphological characteristics and crudities of 19th century bottles

Posted at 02:20h in Bldg. 51, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

identifying any and all morphological properties of these mid-19th century bottles (see below) remain difficult to nail down, considering that the experimental fabrication methodologies were performed by the lungs and hands of the glassmith or blower, apprentices and children under dire conditions were output meant...

04 Feb salvage work at the 500 milwaukee avenue building complex has finally begun

Posted at 03:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

despite the brutally cold weather and piles of snow every which way, we made our way to the interconnected cluster of gray painted buildings (nine of the eleven bearing historic significance to one degree or another), formerly used to house a vast array of restaurant...

03 Feb urban remains to salvage cluster of gray buildings (500-504 n. milwaukee avenue) facing demolition in coming weeks

Posted at 02:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

the unusual collection of neglected and largely abandoned gray-painted buildings located at the intersection of grand, halsted and milwaukee, will be demolished in the coming weeks. urban remains will begin salvaging any and all interior and exterior ornament (the latter during the demolition phase), beginning tomorrow...

30 Jan several sets of early 20th century chicago area factory refinished cast iron machine bases recently added to urban remains’s website

Posted at 01:01h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

over the past few weeks we have been acquiring a sizable number of completely refinished american cast iron industrial machine bases salvaged from chicago area recently shuttered chicago area factories. the matching sets of bases available on the urban remains's website have been thoroughly cleaned and...