Back in April I posted a collection of buildings facades made with white glazed brick and olive green accent brick. At the time, I put up every one I was aware of. But as often happens when you have 65,000 digital photographs of a city, sometimes things get lost. I’ve since found and tagged more such buildings – a LOT more.
Sadly, what I have not found is further information on the architectural style or its manufacturers and designers. As usual, though, I’ve included some of the anecdotal histories I’ve found among the Chicago-Tribune archives and elsewhere.
3760 Fullerton Avenue at Hamlin – west of Logan Square
3740-46 Fullerton Avenue – west of Logan Square
1111 W Wilson Avenue – Uptown – most recently home to Rokito’s Mexican Streetside Kitchen.
The Greenleaf Building, Wilmette – home to 9 separate storefronts. The building appears to have gone up in two parts, with the eastern portion replacing a house in 1912. The 1137 Greenleaf storefront housed a Western Union telegraph office from the 1930s into the 1960s, then the Butt’ry Tea Room & Pastry Shop from 1979 until circa 2010. At 1141 Greenleaf, the storefront housed a tire shop in 1920, Bob’s Radio Shop in 1925, a belly dance studio in 1973, and a coffee soup & sandwich shop today.
2906 Central Street, Evanston. This curious case appears to be a 1910s storefront with a later second-story addition. On top of that, a 1960s storefront renovation added a flagstone base under the display window, and an angled entryway.
741-743 W. 79th Street at Halsted – built by 1917.
3650-52 W. Chicago Avenue – Near West Side. Built by 1917, when it was home to J. Faust, dealer of Emerson records. (Records as in 78 rpm singles, with such famous tunes as “He’s Had No Loving for a Long Long Time”, “Some Day I’ll Make You Glad”, and “How Are You Goin’ to Wet Your Whistle?”)
3814 W. 26th Street – Little Village. Now the 26th Street Medical Center. Built by 1915, this was a family-owned building and business from its construction until the end of the 1970s. The first name associated with it is Vaclav M. Urbanek, in 1915; V.M. Urbanek & Son were listed as one of the many undertakers called upon to serve the victims of the steamship Eastland disaster that year. His son Edward Urbanek became an undertaker and seems to have opened a full-fledged funeral home around 1930 – possibly when the anomalous first floor facade was added. A snazzy mid-century side entrance came later still. Funerals were held here in the Urbanek Funeral Home until 1970; by 1981 it was a doctor’s office.
3916 W. 26th Street – Little Village – Taquerias Atotonilco has occupied the space since the 1980s.
3519 W. 26th Street – Little Village
4226 W. 26th Street / 4222 W. 26th Street – Little Village
1011 N. Western Avenue
949 N. Western Avenue – Ricky’s Deli
1730 W. 18th Street (orig. 756); 1726 W. 18th Street (orig. 754) – Pilsen. The left-hand building was built by 1912.
1623 N. Milwaukee Avenue – Wicker Park – Red Hen Bread. A 1912 ad shows the National Bedding Company at this address. In 1923, Sigman’s Music Store, a short-lived piano dealer, is advertised. Only 2 years later, ads show the Western Brass and Iron Bed Company at the address. Today, fragments of a demolished neighbor cling to the party wall.
1657 W. 47th Street, Back of the Yards – La Baguette Bakery
4601 South Marshfield Avenue, Back of the Yards – a curious brick upgrade to a much older building otherwise sheathed in wood siding.
5048 S. Indiana Ave. Occupied by 1918 – when some inhabitants were arrested for gambling.
1467 E. 53rd Street at Harper, Hyde Park. The corner retail store was originally home to a branch of Mesirow & Jacobson Pharmacy, who in 1921 were proud distributors of “Yeast Foam Tablets – A Tonic Food”, and four years later were selling “Vapo Chlorine” as a surefire protection against influenza. By 1940 a grocer occupied the space.
4200 W. Madison
2149 W. Division Avenue – Nabi Cleaners. Real estate ads show that the upstairs apartments retain some rather lovely woodwork.
11021 S. Michigan Avenue, Roseland. In the 1920s, the Peoples Store, a general store. In the 1940s and 1950s, a Firestone tire dealer. In the 1970s, a TV store. From the early 80s, Major Motor Auto Supply, whose signs still adorn the party wall, along with a painted over sign in front that remains faintly visible today.
A Chicago Sojourn 