Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries

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!”

Continue reading “From Venice to Mount Carmel Cemetery”