Month: December 2019

 

 It was Wednesday, December 30, 1903, the end of a festive Christmas week. The weather in Chicago was fair, temps in the low teens, a hint of snow flurries forecast for the evening and heavier snow later in the week.

Annie Bergch, her husband Arthur Sr. and their 11 year old son Arthur James left their five room, two bedroom three story brownstone built 1895  at 4926 S. Champlain. They made their way seven miles to downtown’s vibrant theatre district, eager to see the 2PM afternoon matinee of Mr. Bluebeard.

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The Bergch family was just three of as many as 2200 theatregoers, mostly women and children, arriving at the Iroquois Theatre at 24–28 West Randolph Street, between State Street and Dearborn Street. There were only 1,602 seats in this new theatre so several hundred had standing room only tickets  causing people to be four-deep behind the last row of seats and many others sitting in the aisles..

Annie Hedges Bergch was 32 years old, the daughter of James and Mary Hedges. She was born August 21 1871 in Canada. Annie married Arthur Bergch, on November 17, 1891 in Chicago, IL. He was engaged in the wholesale tobacco business.

Their son Arthur James was born oct 22 1892 and their youngest Edward George born June 28 1899. Edward did not go to the theatre probably because of his young age. He would lose his mother on this day, then be raised by his grandparents and later marry.

Annie, her son Arthur and some 600 others would die that fateful afternoon, most of them to the toxic fumes and smoke in the worst theatre fire in the United States. And it was the worst disaster in Chicago’s history, inflicting a greater death toll than the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, in which about 250 died.

How could this possibly happen in a city so aware of the dangers of fire? Continue reading ““Absolutely fireproof” –A human Tragedy”

Yes, you read correctly!  The article was dated January 31, 1921

For all you hard core fans of  Riverview, this proposed amusement park was just wrong, motivated by spite and revenge. A few men were quite serious in stealing business away from our beloved Riverview Park at Belmont and Western. Two disgruntled former officials of Riverview Amusement Park, investors,  and their associates planned on building an “end of the streetcar line” park on Chicago’s far Northwest side. It would have been on Milwaukee Avenue just north of Devon Avenue (6400 North) and directly across the street from St. Adalbert’s Catholic Cemetery.

Had it been built, the cemetery would have has a very noisy neighbor.

This new park was even planned to front the North Branch of the Chicago River much like Riverview at Belmont and Western, but some 8 ½ miles north. Had it been built, it might well have had an advantage over Riverview with the option of expansion as it gained popularity.

Continue reading “FLASH NEWS BULLETIN!”

I take you back 100 years to Christmas Eve, December 24, 1919 just as the fire bell is shattering the quiet in Engine 47’s firehouse at 7531 S. Dobson. “Squad 5, you are due to respond to the still alarm”.

The term “still” originated from the days when most fire alarms were transmitted by a street pullbox. A still alarm was considered “silent” when called into the fire department by telephone or by a means other than the loud clicking telegraph signal from the street box. Hence the term “still”.

The post office, in 1919, had been delivering 24 million pieces of Christmas mail and 2 million parcels. Products of the day included Belmont biscuits, Cuticura soap, and Christmas candies at $.80 a pound. Victrola’s were in vogue selling for $25 and $700. There were movies with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. On stage there was Ziegfield Follies.

In most homes, lighted candles illuminated Christmas trees, an extreme fire hazard which kept the Chicago Fire Department very busy during the holidays. Continue reading “STILL ALARM! Christmas Eve 1919”

For fifteen years the large Forest Park Amusement Park was smack dab adjacent German Waldheim and Concordia Lutheran Cemeteries in Chicago’s western suburb originally called Harlem.

Opened in 1908 at Des Plaines Avenue and West Harrison Street, it was built as an “end of line” amusement park and was served by the Metropolitan West Elevated “L” line, surface line street cars and the Aurora and Elgin interurban rail line. The park, was quite popular, but was a noisy neighbor to the adjoining cemeteries, giving new meaning to the phrase “enough to wake the dead”.

Continue reading “ROLLER COASTERS BETWEEN TWO CEMETERIES!”