Julian Street:
The Travel Writer
You are Julian Street, a New York journalist stopping in Chicago on a 5,000-mile tour across America for a travel book you’re writing. Expenses aren’t a big concern for you — since the publisher’s paying your bills! You were born in Chicago, but you’ve been away for years. (Note: This character is real, and the following postcards feature quotations from Street’s 1914 book Abroad at Home, edited for length.)
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Jane Wilson:
The Farm Girl
You are Jane Wilson, a farmer’s daughter from Waterloo, Iowa. You’ve read about Chicago in books and magazine articles and want to see the opulence of the city for yourself. Your money’s tight, though, so you went looking for a bargain. The 300-mile trip normally costs $17, but you planned ahead for the $3 weekend ticket. (The ticket cost $75 in today’s dollars).
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Emma Parks:
The Schoolteacher
You are Emma Parks, an African-American schoolteacher from Natchez, Mississippi. You’ve read about Chicago in Defender articles — Pullman porters are carrying the newspaper south with them — and you’re eager to see if this big northern city offers more culture and freedom than your hometown. If you see job opportunities for a young black woman in “Chi” (as the Chicago Defender often calls this city), you may decide to move here for good.
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Joe Schroeder:
The Thrill Seeker
You are Joe Schroeder, a 23-year-old department store clerk from Toledo, Ohio. You’ve got a bit more cash than usual — your winnings from a lucky wager on a horse race — and you’re looking for a hot time. You’ve heard whispers from other men that Chicago’s the place to go for some illicit thrills.
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The Blackstone Hotel
636 S. Michigan Ave.
You check into the luxurious 23-story Blackstone, which opened in April 1910. The building is designed to keep out Chicago’s sooty air — what a relief! Stepping inside, you feel like you’ve wandered into an 18th-century manor. You notice that the wealthiest guests have special elevators all to themselves, taking them up to exclusive events. Ladies are flocking to the tea room. And the main restaurant has a window with the biggest pane of glass in America, with a sweeping view of Lake Michigan.
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“It is undeniably a very good hotel. One of the most agreeable things about it is the air of willing service which one senses in its staff. It is an excellent manager who can instill into his servants that spirit which causes them to seem to be eternally on tiptoe — not for a tip but for a chance to serve.
Further, the Blackstone occupies a position, with regard to the fashionable life of Chicago, which is not paralleled by any single hotel in New York. Socially it is preeminently the place.”
— Julian Street, 1914
Further, the Blackstone occupies a position, with regard to the fashionable life of Chicago, which is not paralleled by any single hotel in New York. Socially it is preeminently the place.”
— Julian Street, 1914
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The Art Institute
111 S. Michigan Ave.
You spend a couple of hours strolling around this museum, gazing at the hundreds of paintings and sculptures from ancient to modern times. Several rooms are filled with casts of ancient and modern sculptures — replicas rather than the real thing. Special exhibits include art by Monet and Degas. Open since 1893, the Art Institute is visited by 700,000 people a year. Admission is free on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and 25 cents the rest of the time.
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“By all odds the most important art collection I visited upon my travels. The pictures are varied and interesting, and American painters are well represented. The presence of a good deal of that rather ‘tight’ and ‘sugary’ painting which came to Chicago at the time of the World's Fair, is to be regretted. Most museums are hampered, in their early days, by the gifts of their rich friends. It takes a strong museum indeed to risk offending a rich man by kicking out bad paintings which he offers.
The Art Institute has not the deserted look of most other art museums one visits. It is used. This may be partly accounted for by its admirable location at the center of the city — a location more accessible than that of any other museum I think of, in the country. But whatever the reason, as you watch the crowds, you realize more than ever that Chicago is alive to everything — even to art.”
— Julian Street, 1914
The Art Institute has not the deserted look of most other art museums one visits. It is used. This may be partly accounted for by its admirable location at the center of the city — a location more accessible than that of any other museum I think of, in the country. But whatever the reason, as you watch the crowds, you realize more than ever that Chicago is alive to everything — even to art.”
— Julian Street, 1914
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The Union Stockyards
Halsted Street and Exchange Avenue
(Closed, 1971)
You’re reluctant to visit this industrial slaughterhouse, but as soon as you get to Chicago, it seems like everyone expects you to go. It’s almost obligatory for tourists to visit the 500-acre complex — where 3 million cattle, 7 million hogs, 4 million sheep and 100,000 horses are shipped every year, most to be slaughtered for meat, fertilizer, glue, bristles, buttons and other byproducts. The large packinghouses have catwalks and balconies for visitors. Despite your hesitation, you decide to experience it for yourself.
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“It is a place of mud, and railroad tracks, and cattle cars, and cattle pens, and overhead runways, and great ugly brick buildings, and men on ponies, and raucous grunts, and squeals, and smells — a place which causes the heart to sink with a sickening heaviness.
The manners of the pigs on their way to execution held me with a horrid fascination. I had never before suspected that all pigs are so very much like people. Some of them come in yelling with fright. Others are silent. They shift about nervously, and sniff, as though scenting death. ‘It's the steam they smell,’ said a man in overalls beside me. Well, perhaps it is. But I could smell death there, and I still think the pigs can smell it, too.”
— Julian Street, 1914
The manners of the pigs on their way to execution held me with a horrid fascination. I had never before suspected that all pigs are so very much like people. Some of them come in yelling with fright. Others are silent. They shift about nervously, and sniff, as though scenting death. ‘It's the steam they smell,’ said a man in overalls beside me. Well, perhaps it is. But I could smell death there, and I still think the pigs can smell it, too.”
— Julian Street, 1914
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Marshall Field & Co.
111 N. State St.
(Now Macy’s)
You get a look behind the scenes at Chicago’s most famous department store — the world’s largest — as an employee guides you through the massive building. Marshall Field & Co. has 76 elevators, 31 square miles of carpeting, 23,000 fire sprinklers and 125,000 feet of pneumatic tubes. A 6,000-square-foot Tiffany glass mosaic dome tops the store’s south rotunda. The store’s restaurants (including the Walnut Room on the seventh floor) are a popular spot for ladies to socialize over lunch.
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“Never before had I realized how much of a department store is a world unseen by shoppers. At one point, in that hidden world, a vast number of women were sewing upon dresses. I had hardly time to look upon this picture when, rushing through a little door, in pursuit of my active guide, I found myself in a maze of glass, and long-piled carpets, and mahogany, and electric light, and pretty frocks.
Another thing which interested me in Field's was the appearance of the saleswomen. They do not look like New York saleswomen. In the aggregate they look happier, simpler, and more natural. I saw no women behind the counters there who had the haughty, indifferent bearing, the nose-in-the-air, to which the New York shopper is accustomed. Among these women, no less than among the rich, the Chicago spirit seemed to show itself. It is everywhere, that spirit.”
— Julian Street, 1914
Another thing which interested me in Field's was the appearance of the saleswomen. They do not look like New York saleswomen. In the aggregate they look happier, simpler, and more natural. I saw no women behind the counters there who had the haughty, indifferent bearing, the nose-in-the-air, to which the New York shopper is accustomed. Among these women, no less than among the rich, the Chicago spirit seemed to show itself. It is everywhere, that spirit.”
— Julian Street, 1914
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Hinky Dink Kenna's Saloons
105 W. Van Buren St. and 427 S. Clark St.
By the end of the day, you’re in the mood for a drink — but not just anywhere. You jump at the chance to see one of Chicago’s most legendary aldermen, the notoriously corrupt 1st Ward boss Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna, at work in his saloons. He owns Hinky Dink’s Place and the Workingman’s Exchange, where he doles out free meals to customers, including tramps — allegedly in exchange for votes.
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“The Workingmen’s Exchange is a very large saloon, having one of the longest bars I ever saw; also one of the busiest. Hardly anything but beer is served there; beer in schooners little smaller than a man's head. These are known locally as ’babies.’
‘I’ll tell you a funny thing about this place,’ said my friend the veteran police reporter. ‘No one has ever been killed in here,’ he said. I had to admit that it was a funny thing. After looking at the faces lined up at the bar I should not have imagined it possible.
Presently we crossed the street to the Alderman's other saloon. Here we met Hinky Dink. He is a slight man. He wore an extremely neat brown suit, a round black felt hat, and a heavy watch chain, from which hung a large circular charm with a star and crescent set in diamonds. He looked as if he had just been washed and brushed. The little Alderman is very quiet. There is, indeed, a kind of gentleness about him.”
— Julian Street, 1914
‘I’ll tell you a funny thing about this place,’ said my friend the veteran police reporter. ‘No one has ever been killed in here,’ he said. I had to admit that it was a funny thing. After looking at the faces lined up at the bar I should not have imagined it possible.
Presently we crossed the street to the Alderman's other saloon. Here we met Hinky Dink. He is a slight man. He wore an extremely neat brown suit, a round black felt hat, and a heavy watch chain, from which hung a large circular charm with a star and crescent set in diamonds. He looked as if he had just been washed and brushed. The little Alderman is very quiet. There is, indeed, a kind of gentleness about him.”
— Julian Street, 1914
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Auditorium Hotel & Lookout
50 E. Congress Parkway
You’ve never seen so many tall buildings before — or a lake so immense. So you head over to the observation deck of the Auditorium Building. Designed by the legendary architectural team of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, the magnificent 110,000-ton landmark opened in 1889. It has a 4,000-seat theater and a 400-room hotel — but most importantly for you, there’s a tower rising up 238 feet. It’s one of Chicago’s tallest buildings, and for 25 cents, you can go to the top. ($6 in today’s dollars.)
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Dear Ma and Pa,
Lake Michigan is so big. This is just how I imagine the oceans must look. The lines of the city streets stretch on and on, almost as far as the eye can see — out toward the prairies. But there’s so much smoke in the air, I had trouble seeing some of the skyscrapers.
— Jane
“A bird’s-eye view from this eminence reveals some strange and interesting things. Michigan boulevard appears like a long, white tape or thread, with its thousands of vehicles and pedestrians. … And last, but not least, is the view by night. The myriads of lights of every description all over the city, in every direction as far as the eye and glass can reach, scattered and in clusters, and in long double rows, threading either side of the streets and avenues, are a charming and fascinating sight that reminds you of the fables of the Arabian Nights and Aladdin’s Cave. Then add the moonlight, and the enchantment is complete.”
— Moran’s Dictionary of Chicago and Its Vicinity” (1910)
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Garfield Park Conservatory
300 N. Central Park Ave.
You ride the Lake Street elevated train out to the West Side, exiting at Garfield Park. This is where the famed landscape architect Jens Jensen opened a large conservatory in 1908. With its curved glass roof, the building looks like a giant Midwestern haystack. Inside, you see the largest plant collection under a glass roof anywhere in the world.
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Dear Ma and Pa,
It’s like walking through a forest or a jungle. Some of the rooms are so steamy! And the plants are so marvelous, peculiar things we’ve never seen in Iowa. I wondered how they’d built this greenhouse around the lagoons and waterfalls, but one of the men told me these weren’t natural — they were constructed, too. Imagine that!
Jane
Historical Quotation:
“The beauty and loveliness that I beheld proved a feast fit for the gods themselves. … Flowers and foliage plants … are there from Madagascar, from Australia, from Japan, from the South Sea Islands, from the faraway frozen north — from everywhere. … One of the more enticing charms of the fernery is the smell of the virgin woods, carrying us back to childhood days when we wandered in the forest beside the rippling brook or river, and loved the ferns and honeysuckles which sprang from the niches in the steep banks and rocky bluffs. Here are the cascades, and we hear the musical tinkle of the water, failing and flowing, that was loved so much in the woodland in the days long ago.” — Tribune writer Ewing Love, 1910
It’s like walking through a forest or a jungle. Some of the rooms are so steamy! And the plants are so marvelous, peculiar things we’ve never seen in Iowa. I wondered how they’d built this greenhouse around the lagoons and waterfalls, but one of the men told me these weren’t natural — they were constructed, too. Imagine that!
Jane
“The beauty and loveliness that I beheld proved a feast fit for the gods themselves. … Flowers and foliage plants … are there from Madagascar, from Australia, from Japan, from the South Sea Islands, from the faraway frozen north — from everywhere. … One of the more enticing charms of the fernery is the smell of the virgin woods, carrying us back to childhood days when we wandered in the forest beside the rippling brook or river, and loved the ferns and honeysuckles which sprang from the niches in the steep banks and rocky bluffs. Here are the cascades, and we hear the musical tinkle of the water, failing and flowing, that was loved so much in the woodland in the days long ago.” — Tribune writer Ewing Love, 1910
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Lake Shore Drive
After returning to the Loop, you pay 50 cents for a ride on a sightseeing automobile heading north onto Lake Shore Drive — an open-air omnibus that holds more than a dozen people. You gaze at Lake Michigan and the luxurious houses along the drive, including Potter Palmer’s mansion. On the way, however, your chauffeur keeps stopping for beers at his pals’ saloons.
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Dear Ma and Pa,
Lake Shore Drive was one of the prettiest rides I’ve ever taken. But dear me! Our chauffeur seemed rather untrustworthy. I was so alarmed by his wild motoring that I decided to exit the vehicle at Lincoln Park. Luckily, a streetcar took me back downtown.
Jane
Historical Quotation:
“The Lake Shore Drive is one of the show places of the city. … The drive skirts the Lake Front, and is lined on the left with some of the most beautiful residences in the city. On the right is a shaded bridle path and beyond a gently sloping beach, faced with great blocks of granite, as a protection from the storm waves which at times beat down with terrible force.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
Lake Shore Drive was one of the prettiest rides I’ve ever taken. But dear me! Our chauffeur seemed rather untrustworthy. I was so alarmed by his wild motoring that I decided to exit the vehicle at Lincoln Park. Luckily, a streetcar took me back downtown.
Jane
“The Lake Shore Drive is one of the show places of the city. … The drive skirts the Lake Front, and is lined on the left with some of the most beautiful residences in the city. On the right is a shaded bridle path and beyond a gently sloping beach, faced with great blocks of granite, as a protection from the storm waves which at times beat down with terrible force.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
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Henrici's
71 W. Randolph St.
(Closed in 1962)
For dinner, you meet some friends from Iowa at this Viennese restaurant — one of the city’s oldest dining establishments, in operation since 1868. It’s famous, but the prices are reasonable. The menu includes steaks, chops, chicken and seafood, along with more unusual fare like finnan haddie, pickled lamb’s tongue and fried parsnips. Beverages include sauerkraut juice, Horlick’s Malted Milk and egg lemonade. But no wine or liquor.
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Dear Ma and Pa,
I had such a nice time dining at Henrici’s with Minnie, my old friend from Cedar Falls. I had the roast Long Island duck with dressing, baked apple and candied sweet potatoes. Delicious! I think those fellows sitting at the table next to us were aldermen. Don’t worry — we avoided speaking with them.
Jane
Historical Quotations:
“Many a time, at luncheon, a leading personality in civic government, in finance, or in commercial or professional life, will be found seated at the same table with a stranger from a very modest walk in life. This is Henrici’s.” — Henrici’s ad, Chicago Tribune, 1918
“Henrici’s has never been influenced by the craze for over-decoration and other bizarre effects elsewhere deployed. When music in various forms was first highly favored as a restaurant attraction Henrici’s advertised ‘no music.’ The phrase ‘no orchestral din’ has since become familiar to most of the residents of Chicago.” — Henrici’s ad, Chicago Inter Ocean, 1914
“Any acquaintance in Chicago will tell you Henrici’s is by all odds the place to dine. Appropriate for ladies. A famous restaurant moderate in its charges.” — Henrici’s ad, Janesville Daily Gazette, 1914
I had such a nice time dining at Henrici’s with Minnie, my old friend from Cedar Falls. I had the roast Long Island duck with dressing, baked apple and candied sweet potatoes. Delicious! I think those fellows sitting at the table next to us were aldermen. Don’t worry — we avoided speaking with them.
Jane
“Many a time, at luncheon, a leading personality in civic government, in finance, or in commercial or professional life, will be found seated at the same table with a stranger from a very modest walk in life. This is Henrici’s.” — Henrici’s ad, Chicago Tribune, 1918
“Henrici’s has never been influenced by the craze for over-decoration and other bizarre effects elsewhere deployed. When music in various forms was first highly favored as a restaurant attraction Henrici’s advertised ‘no music.’ The phrase ‘no orchestral din’ has since become familiar to most of the residents of Chicago.” — Henrici’s ad, Chicago Inter Ocean, 1914
“Any acquaintance in Chicago will tell you Henrici’s is by all odds the place to dine. Appropriate for ladies. A famous restaurant moderate in its charges.” — Henrici’s ad, Janesville Daily Gazette, 1914
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Orchestra Hall
220 S. Michigan Ave.
(Now part of Symphony Center)
As evening falls, you hurry to the box office at Orchestra Hall. Last-minute tickets are being sold for seats way up in the top gallery — for just 25 cents. ($6 in today’s dollars.) The climb up the stairs seems like it’ll never end, but you finally find yourself peering down the stage far below — as Frederick Stock conducts the Theodore Thomas Orchestra* in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
(*Renamed Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
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Dear Ma and Pa,
I’ve never heard such beautiful music in all my life. I couldn’t help crying when the chorus sang ‘Ode to Joy.’
Jane
Historical Quotations:
“The stage, toward which all of them are bent like flowers to the light, seems to be miles away, and is set out in formal rows of black clothed men intent on making music. For the high audience nothing exists except that distant spot, their own gallery, and the unmitigated void between. A little flaxen haired, white faced boy gets so excited that he jumps out of his seat. … An old, white haired man is over in an obscure corner. He leans his wrinkled cheek on the creamy horn handle of his cane, and he might be happily dreaming as his thin nostrils and veined eyelids twitch.” — Tribune reporter Mary Isabel Brush, describing Orchestra Hall’s uppermost level, 1910
“The audience … voiced its approval most emphatically. … When the first great theme was announced … it burst forth like a mighty challenge from chorus which assembled all the voices of the human heart that tell of sorrow and of struggle.” — Glenn Dillard Gunn’s Chicago Tribune review of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, 1910
I’ve never heard such beautiful music in all my life. I couldn’t help crying when the chorus sang ‘Ode to Joy.’
Jane
“The stage, toward which all of them are bent like flowers to the light, seems to be miles away, and is set out in formal rows of black clothed men intent on making music. For the high audience nothing exists except that distant spot, their own gallery, and the unmitigated void between. A little flaxen haired, white faced boy gets so excited that he jumps out of his seat. … An old, white haired man is over in an obscure corner. He leans his wrinkled cheek on the creamy horn handle of his cane, and he might be happily dreaming as his thin nostrils and veined eyelids twitch.” — Tribune reporter Mary Isabel Brush, describing Orchestra Hall’s uppermost level, 1910
“The audience … voiced its approval most emphatically. … When the first great theme was announced … it burst forth like a mighty challenge from chorus which assembled all the voices of the human heart that tell of sorrow and of struggle.” — Glenn Dillard Gunn’s Chicago Tribune review of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, 1910
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Pekin Theater
27th and State streets
(Closed, 1911)
You’re excited to visit the country’s first important black-owned theater, opened in 1904 by Robert Mott. Many of the top black entertainers perform here, including actors, comedians, musicians, dancers and acrobats. For African-Americans, it’s a place to see and be seen.
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Dear Father,
Oh, how marvelous it was to see a show at the Pekin last night! I never thought I’d see colored people given the opportunity to perform with such dignity on the stage.
Emma
Historical Quotations:
“I have never felt so proud of being a colored man. … The entertainment was a revolution and shows just what Negroes can and must do in the near future.” — Vaudeville star Sherman Dudley, after visiting the Pekin, 1906
“The race owes Mr. Mott a debt of gratitude for giving us a theater in which we could sit anywhere we chose without any restrictions.” — Ida B. Wells-Barnett, anti-lynching crusader, 1906
“The audiences at the Pekin theater, so far as I could judge, are made up of the better class of colored people — men with their wives and families out for an evening’s enjoyment. There is a very liberal sprinkling of white people who have heard of this curious little theater, and who, if the truth were known, come to leer, but who remain to split their sides with laughter and their gloves with honest applause.” — Chicago Inter Ocean reporter Dan Riley, 1905
Oh, how marvelous it was to see a show at the Pekin last night! I never thought I’d see colored people given the opportunity to perform with such dignity on the stage.
Emma
“I have never felt so proud of being a colored man. … The entertainment was a revolution and shows just what Negroes can and must do in the near future.” — Vaudeville star Sherman Dudley, after visiting the Pekin, 1906
“The race owes Mr. Mott a debt of gratitude for giving us a theater in which we could sit anywhere we chose without any restrictions.” — Ida B. Wells-Barnett, anti-lynching crusader, 1906
“The audiences at the Pekin theater, so far as I could judge, are made up of the better class of colored people — men with their wives and families out for an evening’s enjoyment. There is a very liberal sprinkling of white people who have heard of this curious little theater, and who, if the truth were known, come to leer, but who remain to split their sides with laughter and their gloves with honest applause.” — Chicago Inter Ocean reporter Dan Riley, 1905
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The Stroll
State Street between 26th and 35th
After a show at the Pekin, you take a stroll on the Stroll — a stretch of State Street with restaurants, saloons,dance halls and theaters catering to African-Americans.
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Dear Father,
Everywhere I went on State Street last night, people were singing that tune “Some of These Days,” and now it’s stuck in my head. Some folks warned me that “The Stroll” is rather rowdy and risqué, but I had a perfect gentleman as an escort, and we encountered no trouble.
Emma
Historical Quotations:
“Everything is ablaze … This continuous street fair has taken a hold on the people the same as a seaside resort. You haven’t been out if you haven’t taken a stroll from Twenty-seventh street as far up as Thirty-fifth street.” — Chicagoan Will Foster, 1908
“South State Street was in its glory then, a teeming Negro street with crowded theaters, restaurants, and cabarets. And excitement from noon to noon. Midnight was like day. The street was full of workers and gamblers, prostitutes and pimps, church folks and sinners.” — Poet Langston Hughes, on his visit, 1918
Everywhere I went on State Street last night, people were singing that tune “Some of These Days,” and now it’s stuck in my head. Some folks warned me that “The Stroll” is rather rowdy and risqué, but I had a perfect gentleman as an escort, and we encountered no trouble.
Emma
“Everything is ablaze … This continuous street fair has taken a hold on the people the same as a seaside resort. You haven’t been out if you haven’t taken a stroll from Twenty-seventh street as far up as Thirty-fifth street.” — Chicagoan Will Foster, 1908
“South State Street was in its glory then, a teeming Negro street with crowded theaters, restaurants, and cabarets. And excitement from noon to noon. Midnight was like day. The street was full of workers and gamblers, prostitutes and pimps, church folks and sinners.” — Poet Langston Hughes, on his visit, 1918
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Jackson Park
6401 S. Stony Island Ave.
Of course, you’ve heard about the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, so you want to see where it happened — Jackson Park. In the morning, you rent a rowboat and glide leisurely cross the lagoon with a friend.
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Dear Father,
You told me so many times how you worked at that amazing World’s Fair in ‘93. Well, now I’ve seen the place, but I doubt if you’d recognize it. The park is lovely, however.
Emma
Historical Quotation:
“Jackson Park is unsurpassed anywhere for beauty, having the advantages of ample space, the blue waters of Lake Michigan for a foreground, a natural growth of trees and the aid of the best landscape gardeners’ art to bring all into harmony. … Those who came to Chicago in 1893 will always associate this park with the surpassingly beautiful group of buildings which were a part of the World’s Columbian Exposition.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
You told me so many times how you worked at that amazing World’s Fair in ‘93. Well, now I’ve seen the place, but I doubt if you’d recognize it. The park is lovely, however.
Emma
“Jackson Park is unsurpassed anywhere for beauty, having the advantages of ample space, the blue waters of Lake Michigan for a foreground, a natural growth of trees and the aid of the best landscape gardeners’ art to bring all into harmony. … Those who came to Chicago in 1893 will always associate this park with the surpassingly beautiful group of buildings which were a part of the World’s Columbian Exposition.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
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The Field Museum
5700 S. Lake Shore Drive
(Now the Museum of Science & Industry; the Field moved to 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive)
You spend a couple of hours at the Field Museum, looking at taxidermied animals, skeletons and anthropological artifacts from around the world. It’s one of the few buildings that remain from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, when it housed the Palace of Fine Arts. After your museum visit, you walk down the Midway Plaisance to Washington Park, where a park employee is tending a flock of sheep.
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Dear Father,
I’ve taught children in Natchez about the beasts in Africa and prehistoric monsters, but it was astonishing to see them in front of me. Thank heavens they were stuffed!
Emma
Historical Quotations:
“To scientists and special students, … the Museum is an inexhaustible mine but any visitor to Chicago may spend at least a day here with pleasure.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“There’s a man that is tickled because he is not a monkey, but a man. I don’t blame him; I am myself. I am myself. I went out to see the ‘orang-outang’ at the Field Museum. There he was. Did you notice those long, lean, hairy, mighty fingers? That is a sign he is monkey. He couldn’t play the piano. He couldn’t read Shakespeare’s tragedies. He is a beast. And this hand is a sign we are not beasts but folks.” — The Rev. William Quayle of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, 1906
I’ve taught children in Natchez about the beasts in Africa and prehistoric monsters, but it was astonishing to see them in front of me. Thank heavens they were stuffed!
Emma
“To scientists and special students, … the Museum is an inexhaustible mine but any visitor to Chicago may spend at least a day here with pleasure.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“There’s a man that is tickled because he is not a monkey, but a man. I don’t blame him; I am myself. I am myself. I went out to see the ‘orang-outang’ at the Field Museum. There he was. Did you notice those long, lean, hairy, mighty fingers? That is a sign he is monkey. He couldn’t play the piano. He couldn’t read Shakespeare’s tragedies. He is a beast. And this hand is a sign we are not beasts but folks.” — The Rev. William Quayle of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, 1906
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Leland Giants Baseball Park
69th and Halsted
(Closed)
You aren’t much of a baseball fan, but everyone says you have to see the Leland Giants. Led by pitcher-manager Rube Foster, the African-American baseball team is on a 33-game winning streak! The Giants play in a 5,000-seat ballpark, and the organization also runs Chateau Gardens, a roller-skating rink that features music by an orchestra, dancing and vaudeville shows.
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Dear Father,
I am only beginning to understand the rules of base-ball, but I must say it was quite a spectacle, the way those Giants knocked and threw that little white ball back and forth across the field. The spectators got rather excited, and I cheered along with them.
Emma
Historical Quotations:
“Don’t forget that the Leland Giants’ Park … is the only park in the city owned and controlled by our people, and that if you stand for anything and want to see a good ball game you will go there. Enough said.” — Chicago Defender, 1910
“Colored Team Is the Best. While undoubtedly it is galling to many persons to see a colored nine take honors from five white teams, the Leland Giants are entitled to a place in the (Chicago semi-pro) league by their drawing powers, for the public … demands their presence. The colored men played the best ball, were entitled to win, received a fair deal from unprejudiced umpires, and did win.” — Chicago Tribune, 1909
I am only beginning to understand the rules of base-ball, but I must say it was quite a spectacle, the way those Giants knocked and threw that little white ball back and forth across the field. The spectators got rather excited, and I cheered along with them.
Emma
“Don’t forget that the Leland Giants’ Park … is the only park in the city owned and controlled by our people, and that if you stand for anything and want to see a good ball game you will go there. Enough said.” — Chicago Defender, 1910
“Colored Team Is the Best. While undoubtedly it is galling to many persons to see a colored nine take honors from five white teams, the Leland Giants are entitled to a place in the (Chicago semi-pro) league by their drawing powers, for the public … demands their presence. The colored men played the best ball, were entitled to win, received a fair deal from unprejudiced umpires, and did win.” — Chicago Tribune, 1909
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Swap persona
Chicago Board of Trade
141 W. Jackson Blvd.
After checking into a hotel, you head to “The Pit.” It’s an economic hub for the Midwest — and indeed, the entire country — where traders bid on wheat, corn, oats and other farming commodities. But you’re just hoping it’ll be exciting to see the traders’ frantic shouting and hand gestures.
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Swap persona
Dear Jimmy,
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on in ‘The Pit,’ but those fellows certainly seemed to be excited about something. I think I’ll stick with playing the ponies!
Your pal,
Joe
Historical Quotations:
“The din and confusion, especially when prices are rapidly fluctuating, are indescribable and to the average onlooker all is meaningless when as a matter of fact a regular system and orderly procedure is back of all the seeming chaos.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“Arms were flung upward in strenuous gestures, and from above the crowding heads in the Wheat Pit a multitude of hands, eager, the fingers extended, leaped into the air. All articulate expression was lost in the single explosion of sound as the traders surged downwards to the centre of the Pit, grabbing each other, struggling towards each other, tramping, stamping, charging through with might and main.” — Frank Norris in his novel The Pit, 1903
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on in ‘The Pit,’ but those fellows certainly seemed to be excited about something. I think I’ll stick with playing the ponies!
Your pal,
Joe
“The din and confusion, especially when prices are rapidly fluctuating, are indescribable and to the average onlooker all is meaningless when as a matter of fact a regular system and orderly procedure is back of all the seeming chaos.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“Arms were flung upward in strenuous gestures, and from above the crowding heads in the Wheat Pit a multitude of hands, eager, the fingers extended, leaped into the air. All articulate expression was lost in the single explosion of sound as the traders surged downwards to the centre of the Pit, grabbing each other, struggling towards each other, tramping, stamping, charging through with might and main.” — Frank Norris in his novel The Pit, 1903
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Swap persona
Chinatown
Clark Street between Van Buren and Harrison
(Moved south)
For lunch, you visit Chinatown and eat Chinese food for the first time in your life. The Loop has 40 Chinese stores, and the city has about 60 “chop suey restaurants,” including many located beyond the South Loop’s Chinatown area. The Chicago Tribune calls King Joy Lo, 100-102 W. Randolph St., “The Finest Chinese Restaurant in the World.”
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Swap persona
Dear Jimmy,
Well, I tried chop suey. It just might be the most peculiar thing I’ve ever tasted, but I wouldn’t mind having it again sometime. This Chinese restaurant was a real high-class joint. I didn’t expect that!
Your pal,
Joe
Historical Quotations:
“No city outside of San Francisco has such a number of Chinese restaurants. Many of them are excellent.” — Onward, a Universalist Church magazine, in 1910
“Tea and grocery shops, laundries, and opium and gambling dens line this thoroughfare. … On many of the second floors are Chinese restaurants, some richly furnished with costly tables, chairs, and settees, inlaid with ivory and marble, and having gilded walls and ceilings and luxurious hangings and decorations. These places are mainly patronized by white people, and keep open till long after midnight.” — Journalist William Salisbury, describing Clark Street in a 1908 book
Well, I tried chop suey. It just might be the most peculiar thing I’ve ever tasted, but I wouldn’t mind having it again sometime. This Chinese restaurant was a real high-class joint. I didn’t expect that!
Your pal,
Joe
“No city outside of San Francisco has such a number of Chinese restaurants. Many of them are excellent.” — Onward, a Universalist Church magazine, in 1910
“Tea and grocery shops, laundries, and opium and gambling dens line this thoroughfare. … On many of the second floors are Chinese restaurants, some richly furnished with costly tables, chairs, and settees, inlaid with ivory and marble, and having gilded walls and ceilings and luxurious hangings and decorations. These places are mainly patronized by white people, and keep open till long after midnight.” — Journalist William Salisbury, describing Clark Street in a 1908 book
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Swap persona
The Ghetto Market
Jefferson Street between 12th and 14th
(“Maxwell Street Market” is now on Sundays at 800 S. Des Plaines St.)
Time for some bargain-hunting. You wander down this street where Russian and Polish Jews sell kosher meat and all sorts of merchandise. When you tell a streetcar conductor where you’re headed, he warns you to watch out for pickpockets.
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Swap persona
Dear Jimmy,
Compared with our store in Toledo, this place was a disorganized mess. But I did find a sporty-looking cap and haggled the price down to 25 cents. What a find!
Joe
Historical Quotations:
“The Ghetto Market is in a class by itself. It is one of the interesting sights of Chicago and will be enjoyed by the average visitor looking for the unusual, though it is squalid and dirty to a degree.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“A busy bee-hive, crowded with men and women in search of bargains in all kinds of merchandise from a silk tails to ‘frische Fisch.’ Jefferson street became one of the sights of Chicago and visitors often came there to see the ‘Jewish market,’ as they go in New Orleans to see the ‘French Market.’” — The Advocate: America's Jewish Journal, 1911
Compared with our store in Toledo, this place was a disorganized mess. But I did find a sporty-looking cap and haggled the price down to 25 cents. What a find!
Joe
“The Ghetto Market is in a class by itself. It is one of the interesting sights of Chicago and will be enjoyed by the average visitor looking for the unusual, though it is squalid and dirty to a degree.” — Chicago Association of Commerce Guidebook, 1909
“A busy bee-hive, crowded with men and women in search of bargains in all kinds of merchandise from a silk tails to ‘frische Fisch.’ Jefferson street became one of the sights of Chicago and visitors often came there to see the ‘Jewish market,’ as they go in New Orleans to see the ‘French Market.’” — The Advocate: America's Jewish Journal, 1911
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Swap persona
White City
South Park Avenue and 63rd Street
(Closed)
Continuing south, you visit Chicago’s most popular amusement park of the time. The Jewel Tower rises 250 feet above the carnival grounds, lit up with 20,000 incandescent bulbs. After strolling on the boardwalk, you watch a theatrical simulation of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. You ride a boat that slides down into water, making a huge splash. Now, if only you had a girl with you, you’d take the ride called “Squeeze-Her,” which pushes male and female riders closer together as they rapidly spin around.
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Swap persona
Dear Jimmy,
My stomach ain’t feeling so good after taking a spin on some of those rides. But you should’ve seen the costumes some of the girls on the boardwalk were wearing — wow! I had a pretty swell time.
Joe
Historical Quotations:
“At night the great mass of joy-seeking humanity rolled up and down the boardwalk like the resistless tide of the sea, the ballyhoos ballyhooed, and the bands played, and singers sang, and waiters waited, and all was mirth and happiness everywhere.” — Chicago Tribune writer Richard Henry Little, 1911
“The admission of children of tender age, the suggestive and indecent talk of the barkers is a disgrace, and the performance itself is vile, vulgar, and vicious. We ask that the performers be made to wear more clothing and observe at least a semblance of decency.” — A committee of preachers, 1909
My stomach ain’t feeling so good after taking a spin on some of those rides. But you should’ve seen the costumes some of the girls on the boardwalk were wearing — wow! I had a pretty swell time.
Joe
“At night the great mass of joy-seeking humanity rolled up and down the boardwalk like the resistless tide of the sea, the ballyhoos ballyhooed, and the bands played, and singers sang, and waiters waited, and all was mirth and happiness everywhere.” — Chicago Tribune writer Richard Henry Little, 1911
“The admission of children of tender age, the suggestive and indecent talk of the barkers is a disgrace, and the performance itself is vile, vulgar, and vicious. We ask that the performers be made to wear more clothing and observe at least a semblance of decency.” — A committee of preachers, 1909
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Swap persona
The Levee
Near South Side and Near West Side
(Shut down, 1912)
Temptation leads you into Chicago’s notorious red-light district. Sex costs as little as 25 cents in the seedier brothels, but it might run you the astronomical sum of $1,000 at the legendary and luxurious Everleigh Club, 2131-33 S. Dearborn St.
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Swap persona
Dear Jimmy,
Don’t tell anyone, but I got into a spot of trouble last night. I went looking for that Everleigh place we heard about, but ended up in some low-class resort. I don’t remember much — I woke up in an alley with a lump on my head and all of my money gone. I’m glad I already bought my train ticket home.
Joe
Historical Quotations:
”“The ‘levee,’ blazing with electric lights and floating in liquor, is regarded by thousands of visitors as one of the chief sights of Chicago.” — Anti-prostitution crusader Ernest A. Bell, 1910
“Noise blared from the pianos. The red lights gleamed. Men, young and middle-aged, reeled from saloon to bawdyhouse. Girls led their customers from the dance halls to the ever ready hotels.” — Charles Washburn, a Chicago journalist writing about the time, 1934
“The inmates sit behind curtained windows and as men approach the houses they tap on the window panes. Lookouts are stationed near the windows and in front of saloons and warn the solicitors when the officer on the beat approaches.” — report by the Vice Commission of Chicago, 1911
Don’t tell anyone, but I got into a spot of trouble last night. I went looking for that Everleigh place we heard about, but ended up in some low-class resort. I don’t remember much — I woke up in an alley with a lump on my head and all of my money gone. I’m glad I already bought my train ticket home.
Joe
”“The ‘levee,’ blazing with electric lights and floating in liquor, is regarded by thousands of visitors as one of the chief sights of Chicago.” — Anti-prostitution crusader Ernest A. Bell, 1910
“Noise blared from the pianos. The red lights gleamed. Men, young and middle-aged, reeled from saloon to bawdyhouse. Girls led their customers from the dance halls to the ever ready hotels.” — Charles Washburn, a Chicago journalist writing about the time, 1934
“The inmates sit behind curtained windows and as men approach the houses they tap on the window panes. Lookouts are stationed near the windows and in front of saloons and warn the solicitors when the officer on the beat approaches.” — report by the Vice Commission of Chicago, 1911
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About this project
This Curious City presentation was inspired by a question asked by from John Gardiner IV, a research associate at a small biotech firm in Seattle. An avid train buff, Gardiner has an H.O. model train set in his home and he attends a model railroad club’s weekly meetings at the train depot in Edmonds, Washington. That’s where he sees Amtrak’s Empire Builder train making its journey from Seattle to Chicago — a sight that inspired him to begin planning his own train ride to Chicago this summer. He had visited Chicago once before, when he was about 11. He says he remembers the Sears Tower and Gino’s East pizza.
Credits:
Reporting by Robert Loerzel | Production & Art Direction by Logan Jaffe | Editing by Shawn Allee | Audio story production & editing by Jesse Dukes | Additional web production by Chris Hagan
Listen to the audio version of this story:
Postcard scans courtesy of Chuckman's Collection and Robert Loerzel, images courtesy Chicago History Museum and the Library of Congress.
To learn more about the tourist attractions of Chicago in 1910, read some of the books we used in our research:
A Guide to the City of Chicago by the Chicago Association of Commerce (1909)
Moran's Dictionary of Chicago and Its Vicinity: An Alphabetically Arranged Dictionary, Comprising All of the Interests that Contribute to Chicago's Greatness (1910)
Karl Baedeker’s 1909 travel guide to the United States — see Page 366 for the section about Chicago.
Abroad at Home by Julian Street (1914)