BLDG51. News and Events |

16 Oct american industrial furniture salvaged from the roberts electric company late this week

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

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 rare “vajen” firefighter helmet, early porcelain signage, industrial lighting and “tanker” furniture

Posted at 13:33h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages 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 26,000+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

12 Oct demolition of a brick workers cottage at 1111 n. campbell reveals sill plates, summer beams and faceted pegs

Posted at 12:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

with two concurrent demolitions with heneghan about to begin later this afternoon and a west side excavation that holds promise for the discovery of an early privy vault, i simply do not have the time (at least now) to provide greater detail pertaining to the images taken...

11 Oct last minute demolition yields hand hewn beams, incised stone and buried bottles

Posted at 12:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

people in my inner-circle are growing concerned that i'm dangerously consumed or unhealthily immersed in the "deconstruction" and "unearthing" projects that i do for intellectual gratification when not operating urban remains. i cannot disagree, but i feel imbued over this newly found conviction that this...

29 Sep PHOTOGRAPHS from the SAIC HISTORIC BUILDING MATERIALS and Technology LECTURE

Posted at 00:01h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Sales and Promotions by Eric

thank you so much anne sullivan for having me as guest lecturer in your building and materials class this year. i was truly honored and feel now that all of my efforts toward gathering this crazy assemblage of chicago balloon frame components is indeed important....

28 Sep b-52 bomber pilot chair, chicago water tower plaques, industrial lockers and cabinets, signage and sconces

Posted at 22:08h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

25 Sep another recently discovered 19th century chicago dump site provides a wealth of artifacts

Posted at 14:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the vast scattering of excavation sites in and around downtown chicago have provided a dizzying, seemly endless amount of artifacts discarded by chicagoans of the 19th century. the quantity of "hutchinson" type soda or mineral water bottles alone is impressive to say the least. moreso, the sheer variety of...

21 Sep several matching 19th century cast iron exterior residential newel posts acquired this week

Posted at 14:17h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

an unusual number of original and matching ornamented cast iron "chicago style" newel posts were recently salvaged from a chicago residence dating to the 1880's. the nicely distressed paint ball-finial newels are identical in size with various open hole configurations designed for use with tubular...

17 Sep “unearthing chicago” lecture held at glessner museum through photographs

Posted at 16:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Sales and Promotions by Eric

over two hours of talking and sustained concentration left me utterly exhausted but satisfied, knowing that i managed to communicate a single important message: urban archaeological research in chicago is virtually non-existent, and an especially overlooked area of the field is in documentation of 19th century household...

17 Sep daniel h. burnham’s historic downtown chicago fisher building through its artifacts

Posted at 13:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

the fisher building is 20-story, 275 foot tall neo-gothic landmark building in the chicago loop community area of chicago. commissioned by paper magnate lucius fisher, the original building was completed in 1896 by d.h. burnham & company with an addition later added in 1907. it...

16 Sep additional finds from the “flask privy pit” and the closing chapter of “unearthing chicago”

Posted at 12:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

as mentioned earlier, 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...

11 Sep several ornamental pressed anderson victorian era red bricks salvaged from freemont street house

Posted at 14:03h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

on the final day of the freemont street house demolition, the day before we salvaged the ornamental white painted galvanized sheet iron cornice, we managed to secure any and all of the decorative face brick or blocks that adorned the two-flat's facade. the salvaged terra...

10 Sep several chicago hotel exit lights, industrial tables, signage and many more website catalog additions

Posted at 15:15h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages 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 25,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

08 Sep a collection of several cherished diminutive objects and artifacts mounted on custom plaques

Posted at 15:33h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

an assortment of some of my favorite artifacts, objects , and other diminutive fragments mounted on custom-built hardwood plaques by my shop's carpenter. [gallery columns="4" ids="13044,13045,13046,13047,13048,13049,13050,13051,13052,13053,13054,13055,13056,13057,13058,13059,13060,13061,13062,13063,13064,13066,13067,13068,13069,13071,13072,13073,13074,13075,13076,13077,13078,13079,13080,13081,13082,13083,13084,13085,13086,13087,13088,13089,13091,13092,13094,13095,13096,13097,13098,13099,13100,13101,13102,13103,13104,13105,13106"] end...

03 Sep unearthed finds from an undisturbed and remarkably preserved 19th century chicago family’s privy vault

Posted at 18:10h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

photographed in my studio, the following images represent an impressive assemblage of discarded objects once used in the everyday life of a chicago family household spanning from the late 1860's through the early 1880's. the privy pit or "vault" was sealed and forgotten when a...

01 Sep the chicago balloon frame: integrating heavy timber and dimensional lumber in the construction of an 1880’s residence

Posted at 01:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

the following images were taken during the demolition of a heavily altered "chicago balloon frame" oakley avenue house constructed sometime between 1879-1884. the multi-story house was raised sometime around the turn of the century with the addition of a basement or "garden apartment." [gallery ids="12844,12845,12843"] original mortise and...

31 Aug revisiting a transplanted 1850’s chicago wood-framed boarding house on ohio street

Posted at 17:28h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

i finally forced myself to transport this completely intact and unaltered full-sized residential sill plate into my studio to be documented every which way i saw fit. this massive wood beam is comprised of solid old growth pine wood, with a tenon on one side...

30 Aug long-forgotten 19th century chicago landfill yields hundreds of bottles

Posted at 23:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

a utility subcontractor excavating a small parcel of land located just south of downtown chicago came across one of the most remarkably intact and long-forgotten 19th century landfills or dumping grounds, which in a few days times, yielded hundreds of bottles. from c. 1880's hutchinson...

26 Aug a single oversized limestone keystone salvaged from demolished two story brick commercial building

Posted at 13:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

while en route to a residential salvage, i ran across a friend of mine who was wrecking an early 20th century (1910-1915) two story brick commercial building. his excavator had not reached the only redeeming architectural artifact in the form of an oversized carved bedford...

25 Aug knisely & miller exterior cornice salvaged from freemont street house demolition

Posted at 15:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

i was pleasantly taken aback by the amount of community feedback and shared disgust over the demolition of an incredibly intact 19th century victorian era brick two-flat residence demolished late last week. the responses i received prompted me to expound upon a previous post pertaining to my salvage efforts connected...