Trip 102: Bronzeville

Date: May 1, 2011

Trip: 102

Landmarks Visited: 4

Landmarks To-Date: 285

Landmarks Remaining: 68

Today was the first day of May, and it was finally sunny after almost continuous rain for the entire month of April. Shawn and I headed to Bronzeville to see a couple landmarks. We had lunch at "Chicken & Waffles".

1. Chicago Defender Building

This building isn't much to look at. It was originally a Jewish temple, and then it was home to the Chicago Defender newspaper for a number of years.

2. Roberts Temple Church of God of Christ Building

This building similarly isn't very fancy. It was obviously landmarked for its historical significance. Emmett Till's funeral was held in this church. He was a teenage boy who was brutally murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His funeral had a major impact on the civil rights movement.

3. Black Metropolis-Bronzeville

Bronzeville is the historical center of the African-American community in Chicago.

4. Ida B. Wells-Barnett House

Trip 101: Kenwood

Date: April 17, 2011

Trip: 101

Landmarks Visited: 4

Landmarks To-Date: 281

Landmarks Remaining: 72

On a sunny Sunday morning my friends Yen, Nick and I headed to the Kenwood neighborhood on the south side. Of all the landmark districts I've seen so far, this neighborhood has the largest concentration of large, vintage, single-family homes. The variety of architecture is impressive as well.

1. McGill House

I would have expected to find this house in the French countryside, not on a Chicago street. It's spectacular in scale and detail, and has been beautifully maintained. The original mansion has been divided into apartments or condos, but the exterior still looks like a single family home. 

 
 

2. North Kenwood District
3. Kenwood District

These are actually two separate landmark districts, but on the ground it feels like one neighborhood. So I didn't attempt to separate the photos. I just included a few of homes that I particularly liked.

 
 
 

 

 
 

 

4. Stephen A. Douglas Tomb

We actually came across this landmark by accident while driving home. Douglas was a senator and is probably most remembered as being Lincoln's political rival. His tomb is located on a portion of his prior estate and probably overlooked vast grounds in its day. But today it overlooks railroad tracks and Lake Shore Drive. Still the monument itself is beautiful, and is in such perfect condition that it looks as if it could have been built yesterday.

 
 
 

 

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.