Uncategorized – Page 4 – Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries

Send the water!

NYFD shown but Chicago is similar

Fireplugs are almost always overlooked unless you risk a parking ticket or worse. Dogs love them and on a hot summer day kids use them on to keep cool.

Firefighters wrestle with frozen hydrants during the cold Chicago winter.

They come in a variety of sizes shapes and colors. There are dry barrel hydrants in cold winter areas, and the wet barrel “California” can be found in warmer climates. There are “traffic hydrants” designed to break off on impact without damaging the main valve.

A broken hydrant can cause a geyser.

They call it a fire hydrant, a fireplug, or back in the day even a firecock or “Johnny Pump”.

Fireplugs date back when firefighters would drill holes in wooden street mains made from hollowed out logs. After the fire, they stopped each hole with a wooden plug hence the name fireplug. They marked the location in case the plug was needed again.

Terror 50 Feet above Wilson Avenue

My dad worked as a licensed electrical engineer for the J. Livingston company, a prestigious electrical contractor. His office was on the eighth floor of the 333 N. Michigan building and his drafting board had a stunning view of the Michigan Avenue bridge, the Wrigley building, and the then Tribune Tower.

Dad was a creature of habit, and you could set your watch on the thousands of his evening commute home each week day. Precisely at 5 o’clock he would put on his overcoat and hat take the elevator down to Michigan Avenue, walking to the north – south CTA subway station at state and Lake. (Now the red line). He would board the northbound train for the 20-minute ride to the Bryn Mawr station and then the Peterson Avenue. Like clockwork he would arrive home for a 6 o’clock family dinner.

But on the evening of November 5, 1956, One day before the presidential election between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, all that changed.

Chicago Gilded Mansions

Back in the day, Chicago was home to dozens of great and beautiful Victorian homes. The largest mansions were built for the city’s well-heeled social elite Many like the Palmer Potter mansion on Lakeshore Drive which was sadly torn down.

Many others were of frame construction and are easily recognized by their trademarked tower. They were not considered the mansions their time but rather beautiful family homes. A few have survived and restored.

At least two were converted into funeral homes.

Uncle Louie’s haunted mansion

For over 40 years, my interests have included cemeteries, and building miniatures so just for fun I have built called Uncle Louie’s haunted mansion.

So, for the first time I have combined two of my work, cemetery research and building miniatures. Building a miniature haunted mansion complete with a cemetery alongside . It was built to one half scale dollhouse size and is about 40 inches tall. I have been building miniatures since 1990 and this project is the largest taking a full year to build. A miniature project should tell a story, a reason for being.

So here is uncle Louie’s haunted mansion – the back story. Please enjoy!