Trip 100: Business & Pleasure

Date: April 16, 2011

Trip: 100

Landmarks Visited: 5

Landmarks To-Date: 277

Landmarks Remaining: 76

Today was a bit of a milestone because it was the 100th time that I headed out to see landmarks. I was also able to mix a little business with pleasure because I delivered an insurance policy to a client in Wicker Park and then headed further south to see a few landmarks. It was a chilly, rainy morning but since I was driving it wasn't too awful.

1. Stock Yards National Bank Building

This building reminded me a lot of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It's located less than a block from the gates to the old Union Stock Yards. The building is completely boarded up and a sign says that it is property of the city. It looks to be a good shape for an abandoned building, but the last picture here shows a couple of pieces of the terra cotta facade that had fallen on the sidewalk. The pieces were big enough to do serious damage if anyone had been standing there. I actually thought for a minute of taking one with me as a souvenir, but then decided that it should remain where it was.

2. Wendell Phillips High School

The landmark plaque says that a group of students from this south side high school formed the nucleus of the basketball team that became the Harlem Globetrotters. It motivated me to read the history of the Globetrotters to find out why they aren't called the Bronzeville Globetrotters or the Southside Globetrotters. According to Wikipedia, one of the founders picked Harlem for their 'hometown' because it was the center of African-American culture at the time and because an out-of-town name would give the team more mystique.

3. Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church Building

4. Victory Monument

This monument honors an African-American unit of the Illinois National Guard that fought in France during World War I.

5. Supreme Life Building

The rain and the cold killed my motivation to take more photos of this landmark. But it's in the heart of Bronzeville, so I will see it again when I visit the overall Bronzeville neighborhood that is also landmarked.