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Chicago IL

Hollywood Tuxedo Rental – Chicago, IL – Circa 1972 – Featured Fade – Marian Saska

© Marian Saska

This was from the very first time I went out to take pictures of painted ads! 1972, between April and June (can’t narrow it down any more than that). It was on 59th St. in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood — the ad is long gone. I had it digitized from an Instamatic print, which accounts for the quality. I’m glad you like it — I chose it especially for your birthday. – Marian Saska

Reflections on The Boston Store, Chicago – Featured Fade, Peter Anderson

© Peter Anderson

The dry goods emporium began life on this site in 1873 when Charles Netcher opened the Boston in a small 5-story building. The story goes that he was so dedicated to seeing the enterprise become a success that he spent his nights sleeping on showcase counter tops in order to spend as much time in the store as possible. His dedication paid off, and in 1891 after marrying ladies undergarment buyer Mollie Alpiner, the pair began acquiring property surrounding the store. Not wanting to show his hand and overpay, Netcher used third parties and pseudonyms to buy, or lease for 99 year terms, the half block fronting State Street and running west along Madison Street to Dearborn.Designs Linger 

Courtesy of John Chuckman – CLICK FOR LINK

Not to be confused with The Boston Store of Erie, Pennsylvania.

University of Chicago – Digital Library – CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

Peter Anderson works in the financial sector but writes fiction, “to ease the crushing monotony of corporate life.” Anderson lives and writes in Joliet, Illinois and his novel Wheatyard was published by Kuboa Press in 2013.

Featured Fade – Chicago’s Andersonville Coca-Cola Sign Revisited – Katie Levin

CLICK HERE FOR LARGER IMAGE – © Katie Levin

This ghost sign was recently uncovered at 5438 N. Clark in Andersonville (a couple blocks north of Berwyn, near the Brown Elephant resale shop) when a building adjacent to it was torn down. This sign is believed to be over 100 years old. – Katie Levin

Katie- Michael Hirsch recently provided a link to your image through the Forgotten Chicago FB Page. The ad was featured by FAB earlier this year when it was brought to my attention by Mike Merritt who shot it last summer. I love how the “deck” has progressed. Lucky neighbors.

Featured Fade: Coca-Cola Sign Uncovered in Chicago in Summer of 2012 – Mike Merritt

© Mike Merritt of www.redship.com – CLICK TO CHECK OUT MIKE’S NEW START-UP

Frank,

Stumbled across your site while on the net and love it!

I’ve attached a photo of a Coca Cola ad that was uncovered this summer when a building was demolished. This was in a row of buildings on the 5400 block of North Clark St. in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

Enjoy!

Mike

Thanks Mike and I hope you enjoy the book! Check out Mike’s new start-up business, REDSHIP –  a college care package company with a great retro logo and web design.

CLICK THROUGH

Schulze’s Butter-Nut Bread – Chicago, IL

© Frank H. Jump

© Frank H. Jump

Nationwide Advertising Specialty Co., Tyler, Texas – The Tichnor Brothers Collection – Boston Public Library, Print Department – via Wikipedia – CLICK FOR LINK

Interstate Bakeries Corporation (1930)

The company has its roots in the Nafziger Bakeries which were started by Ralph Leroy Nafziger in a church basement at 6th and Prospect Avenue in Kansas City in 1905. Nafziger expanded the bakeries and bought out competitors. In 1925 he sold Nafziger Bakeries to Purity Bakeries (which in turn became American Bakeries). Using his fortune he acquired a controlling interest in Schulze Baking Company and its Butternut Bread brand.

In 1930 he announced the formation Interstate Bakeries Corporation (IBC) with the merger of the Schulze Bakery with seven bakers under the umbrella of Western Bakeries of Los Angeles. At the time claimed to be the fifth largest baker in the United States. The company was a wholesaler selling Butternut bread loaves wrapped in gingham to grocery stores. – Wikipedia

Chicago Tribune Building – American Gothic Statue – Chicago, IL

April 2009 – © Vincenzo Aiosa

Pago Pago – Cantonese Food & Exotic Drinks in a Polynesian Atmosphere – Chicago, IL – April 2009

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

Champlain Building – 37 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL

Originally called the Powers Building – Entire floors – Offices & Shops – CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

© Vincenzo Aiosa

Holabird & Roche have the distinction of designing two buildings in Chicago that eventually bore the same name, the Champlain… [In 1902] the building was built by a consortium of investors on a piece of property that already had a building standing on it. The architectural firm was so good at what they did that their 13-story tower opened for occupancy in December of 1902, just 8 months after demolition had begun on the old building… In 1938 after the Powers name change, the building underwent a “modernization” which stripped the first two floors of their original facades… By 1988 the School of the Art Institute itself was outgrowing their studio building at the museum and purchased the nearby Champlain for additional class and office space. – Design Slinger

Lyon & Healy – Everything Known In Music – Washburn – Chicago, IL

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

From Hubert Pleijsier’s book, Washburn Prewar Instrument Styles: Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos and Ukuleles 1883-1940:

© Hubert Pleijsier – Google Books

Chicago Theatre – Chicago, IL – Vincenzo Aiosa 2009

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa

© Vincenzo Aiosa