Those growing up in the Jefferson Park area, like so many Chicagoans who grew up on the Northwest Side, have fond memories of the Olson Rug Park and Waterfall. Just a stone’s throw from Kosciuszko Park and St.Hyacinth Basilica in Avondale, Mr. Walter E. Olson built a 22-acre
Chicago’s large mail order industry didn’t just consist of legendary Sears and Montgomery Ward; many smaller firms also took advantage of Chicago’s transportation hub status and easy access to the hinterlands by locating here. Albaugh-Dover is a prime example. A 1917 ad for an Albaugh-Dover tractor. Farmers
Unlike neighboring Milwaukee, Chicago has never been known as a center of brewing. This is not to say it wasn’t a sizable local industry. Historically, plenty of beer has been brewed in Chicago with numerous breweries operating in the city. The number of brewing companies reached a peak in
Here is arguably Chicago’s best example of an art deco style factory. The Richter’s Food Products “health sausage” factory on Randolph and Carpenter was constructed beginning in 1931 for a cost of $500,000.12 The architect was H. Peter Henschien, a noted and prolific Chicago-based designer of
The James C. Curtis Company manufactured “undertaker’s supplies,” which one is led to believe was a fancy term for caskets (as indicated on the semi-obscured roof sign). The building, designed by Patterson and Davidson (architects of the immense Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Cicero), is a steel frame factory