BLDG51. News and Events |

16 Dec partially uncovered early 1880’s chicago night scavenger dumpsite yields several artifacts

Posted at 11:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

in 1912 an apartment complex was built above a small land fill, one that night scavengers (i.e., privy vault cleaners) likely dumped their wagons filled with refuse in, beginning around 1878 up until the 1890's. according to an 1886 sanborn insurance map, this large tract of...

14 Dec nothing but destruction for 19th century buildings along wells street

Posted at 17:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

as the year comes to a close i look back in amazement at the amount of disruption and damage done by demolitions of late 19th and early 20th century structures in downtown chicago and its surrounding neighborhoods. according to the daily demolition permit notifications i receive, the urban...

10 Dec salvage or no salvage, i’m compelled to document the death of old chicago buildings

Posted at 11:35h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

despite leaving the jobsite of a mostly non-nondescript building with no "salvageable" artifacts of significance, i still felt the need, or perhaps "duty", to document the building before its remains are trucked off to the dumpsite. i'm especially saddened when i witness the demolition of buildings...

03 Dec post-chicago fire osborne and adams leather company building demolition imminent

Posted at 18:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

after the demolition delay hold was lifted for 209 west lake street, i knew that within a week the wreckers would be onsite to rapidly tear apart the former osborne and adams leather company building -- a shame since it was constructed shortly after the great...

30 Nov artifacts left by 19th century chicagoans unearthed from the site of a recently demolished building

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

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 classic chicago brick two-flat constructed in 1909 salvaged shortly before wrecking machine arrives

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

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 simmons metal furniture, “barley twist” fretwork, industrial carts, pre-fire doors and stained glass windows

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

24 Nov hidden and largely abandoned chicago wood-framed workers gablefront cottage faces demolition

Posted at 14:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

i normally don't salvage in this area of chicago, but when i received an email notification that a largely unaltered chicago workers cottage was set for demolition, i had to make the journey to see it, tucked away on a block where several working class...

18 Nov latest bldg. 51 museum acquisition: ornamental cast iron gage building facade stringer fragment

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

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...

16 Nov a most unusual discovery during the excavation of a residential lot on artesian avenue

Posted at 18:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

as of late i've been giving my body - especially my back - a break from the latest wave of incredibly draining and time-consuming demolitions and excavations.. these have been bombarding my phone and email inbox on a daily basis. during this less strenuous time, i decided...

12 Nov 1893 time capsule with contents recovered from german zion’s evangelical society church building

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

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...

10 Nov unusual ornamental fret-sawn sill course salvaged from a chicago commercial building shortly before demolition

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

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...

09 Nov hidden pocket doors from a 19th century house on ohio street removed prior to demolition

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

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 remarkably intact c. 1915 chicago prairie style brick two-tone brick house on burling street bulldozed today

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

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 the first urban remains storefront was housed in wm. mulvihill’s soda water bottling plant

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

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 chicago’s earliest known unearthed or dug glass “bottle” is an amber scroll flask

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

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 another industrial furniture haul from the roberts electric company factory and machine shop

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

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 late 19th century timber-balloon hybrid frame melrose street house revealed during demolition

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

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 urban remains secures iconic depression era porcelain enameled neon exterior cedar hotel signs

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

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 american folk art, signage, louis sullivan, industrial furniture and much more added this week

Posted at 17:15h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, 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...