Thank you. 🙏 I think we can all relate to this, as it seems to be a daily occurrence now, whether it’s a speeding car running a stoplight or another news story about a car crashing into a building. Post-pandemic driving is making me nuts.
I've seen more crashes in the last year or two around Chicago than I had in the preceding decade.
It's the pandemic, it's phones, it's touchscreens, it's the lack of enforcing traffic laws, it's just a general callousness and lack of any kind of sense of responsibility to your community...
That is so sad. Thousands of pedestrians just walking get killed by reckless drivers every year. Something really needs to change but it won’t anytime soon with these giant trucks taking over our roads. Thanks. She’s in the hospital and sedated as I write this. 🙏
Earlier today my cousin had the turning signal and was hit by a driver who ran a red light. She had to be cut out of the car. Since the pandemic people are driving more recklessly than ever. Having nearly been hit by a car myself a few months ago, and now this, I can honestly say I’m on edge.
Maybe it’s because I’m a middle-aged architecture and history geek, but I just don’t understand these young people who want to have “careers” as influencers and content creators, yet they can’t get basic information right on their short-form videos. Okay old lady rant over.
My photo of 107 East Oak Street, a 19th century Italianate that will soon be torn for an expansion of the jewelry store next door. Sad.
Ok I just ate some cheese. I feel a little bit better, guys! Better enough to go over to Oak Street to check out the little guy in the middle that got a demolition permit this week. Shame to lose this piece of history, a 19th century Italianate, for more blah.
My photo of the winding back “servant” staircase inside Adler & Sullivan’s James Charnley House (1892) in Chicago’s Gold Coast.
My photo of the “floating” oak wood staircase from the second level to the third level with wood screen inside Adler & Sullivan’s James Charnley House (1892) in Chicago’s Gold Coast. Yeah, the house it tilting. But that’s okay, guys!
When you haven’t left your historic house museum for 5 hours, but have somehow “walked” several miles and climbed the equivalent of 15 floors. This old house makes me tired.
Is it Board of Peace or Bored of Peace? Because I’m Bored (and Sick and Tired) of War.
My photo of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Nathan Moore House, taken in April of 2020, which is located at 333 Forest Ave in Oak Park, IL. The Tudor Revival design was originally built in 1895, but after a fire on Christmas Day 1922, Moore, who was still living there rehired Wright, who completely redesigned the structure above the first level which reflects what he was doing in the 1920s with its Mayan and exotic influences. It stands out for its steep, gables roof and tall, brick chimney, and wide “front” porch.
A close-up of the Sullivanesque balustrades at the Moore House. My photo of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Nathan Moore House, taken in April of 2021, which is located at 333 Forest Ave in Oak Park, IL. The Tudor Revival design was originally built in 1895, but after a fire on Christmas Day 1922, Moore, who was still living there rehired Wright, who completely redesigned the structure above the first level which reflects what he was doing in the 1920s with its Mayan and exotic influences. It stands out for its steep, gables roof and tall, brick chimney, and wide “front” porch.
Speaking of FLW-designed homes on Forest Ave, the Thomas House hasn’t been for sale since 1989. My cousin was friends w/one of the Murphy kids who lived here. Although the most exciting listing one day will probably be the Nathan Moore House, which has been owned by the Dugal family for 60 plus yrs.
My photo, taken in February 2026, of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas House (1901) located at 210 Forest Avenue in Oak Park, IL. Originally a church was on this site, but when it burned down, grain merchant James Rogers bought the land and commissioned Wright to design a home for his daughter Susan as a wedding gift for her and her new husband Frank Thomas. The specific features of this house that determine its Prairie style authenticity its emphasis on the horizontal, lack of basement, low roof with overhanging eaves, casement windows, and a stucco exterior. Also, it was Wright’s first elevated residence as all the main living spaces are on the upper levels. Also, its L-shaped floor plan was developed by Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin, typical of Wright as he always “borrowed” ideas.
Apparently it’s Friday! Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas House (1901) was his first elevated Prairie Style residence, with all the main living spaces on the upper floors. You enter thru the arch & an exterior staircase leads you up to the 2nd level, where you’re surrounded by art glass. It’s very cool.
I knew I had a photo!
I’m not sure how old the building is, but in the 1940s, it was home to Simmons & Kehoe, a distributor of malt beverages.
I wrote about the Bruce Goff exhibit at the Art Institute, as well as my observations about the museum itself, which I can’t help, given my useless museum studies degree. I’m always paying attention to how others interact with art.
chicagolandarchitecture.substack.com/p/bruce-goff...
I did! But it was with actual typewriters. This was around 1995, and my Catholic high school did not have a single computer in the building while I was a student there.
My mom painted this watercolor of a cottage in Door County, Michigan.
My mom painted this watercolor on canvas of a nature screen, lots of colorful trees reflected in the water.
Timeline cleanse: My mom said to me “You like old houses” so she painted a watercolor of a cottage in Door County. I also like this nature scene.
I actually thought of that album first as I love Minutemen, but not enough minutes to make the cut!
Best albums over 2 hours:
The Clash - Sandinista
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
OutKast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions
Shout out to birthday boy (tomorrow) George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Also, your annual reminder to do anything else. Seriously do not watch that shit. Listen to the Mountain Goats.
This is your annual reminder that Thomas Jefferson sent his State of the Union thru written message because he sucked at public speaking. The address wasn’t held publicly again for over 100 yrs, until Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Also what Union? This country’s a fucking joke. Someone should tell Hakeem.
I bet you didn’t know that Ernest’s grandfather, Anson T. Hemingway, operated a real estate & loan business, starting in the 1870s, located in Burnham & Root’s Calumet Block in Chicago’s Loop. Or that Ernest’s great-grandfather, Allen, owned a farm in what is now Chicago’s Oriole Park. Now you do!
Artist Edward Gorey’s “The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley” (1969) that depicts a cemetery with the words “The monuments above the dead are too eroded to be read.”
“My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible...because that’s what the world is like.” - Chicago’s very own Edward Gorey, who was born on this day in 1925.
Black and white photo that depicts a sign from the protest of the demolition of Adler & Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre in 1960: Frank Lloyd Wright says of (Louis) Sullivan - “The effect of any genius is seldom seen in his own time.” 📸 Richard Nickel
Protest sign from the demolition of Adler & Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre in 1960: Frank Lloyd Wright says of (Louis) Sullivan - “The effect of any genius is seldom seen in his own time.”
📸 Richard Nickel
My photo, taken in February 2026, of the old Grace’s Furniture building at 2616-18 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Logan Square. Originally built in 1914 as a warehouse, it served as a furniture store until 2010 and is known for its 70-yr-old neon sign. Vacant since then, the ground level displays street art like this one, a repeated blue poster with a black figure giving the middle finger and the words “Fuck ICE!” above it. A man walks by on the sidewalk in the foreground.
“Fuck ICE!” as seen on the old Grace’s Furniture Building at 2616-18 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Logan Square.
The Noble horse stable at 1410 N. Orleans St. was torn down in 2017. It’s been almost 10 yrs! A seven-story, 252-unit apartment building by LG Development had been approved way back then. I wonder what’s been taking so long?
That’s pretty funny. I guess he went with “Well, at least these movies are about history!” I guess no one ever told him about Mr. Smith Goes To Washington?
Thank you! And I agree about that spot, a nice place to get a view of the Loop.
Of course!
I went to a Catholic girls’ school. We watched Dead Man Walking so many times that we all had it memorized. Sean Penn yelling “Give me my boots! l want my boots!” will stay with me forever. There was a humanities teacher who would also play random Star Trek episodes just because.
My photo of two people in the European art gallery inside the Art Institute of Chicago taken in February of 2026. A woman leans down to take a picture of a man who is also kneeling on ground as he poses in front of a painting by Monet. A sculpture is nearby.
My photo of two individuals posing in front a window under a curved staircase and large floor-to-ceiling glass window the city skyline outside. Taken in Regenstein Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 2026.
The renovated Michigan Avenue lobby inside the Art Institute of Chicago that was redesigned by Spanish firm Barozzi Veiga in 2017. It’s awful. No longer welcoming. Inhospitable. Probably to make sure no one lingers but it just seems such a sad, empty space.
People gather around the new display of the Norman Rockwell piece depicting the lovable losers the Chicago Cubs donated by stupid Bruce Rauner at the Art Institute. I remember in one of my college art classes, the professor said something like, “Please never mention Rockwell again.” with a look of disgust on his face.
Some photos from the Art Institute of Chicago. I made sure to include a shot of the Michigan Avenue entrance lobby, which President and Director James Rondeau described in a recent interview with WBEZ as “much more open, much more welcoming and much brighter.” Lol. It looks like a mausoleum.
Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. My apologies.
James Murray, who played Prince Andrew in the final 2 seasons of The Crown, was in the 2023 biopic Lee starring Kate Winslet, who was in the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown alongside nepo baby Sosie Bacon, who is the daughter of Kevin Bacon. That’s how you connect fake Prince Andrew to Kevin Bacon!
