Monday, July 14, 2014

200 Block of N. Peoria, Chicago

West side of Peoria, North of Lake
Surprisingly, this lucrative blog does not constitute my sole means of support.  I work in the Historic
Preservation Division within Chicago's Department of Planning and Development.  Since January I've been working with our consultants to develop a document which analyzes the architectural character of a pending historic district and creates some recommendations on how to best retain that character in light of future changes and new developments. 

This illustration is something I put together in my spare time (mostly over lunch) to be placed on the cover of that document.  I've simplified it significantly, but I think it captures some of the interest of this area. The two buildings on the left are 1890s, while the one on the right is c. 1910.  This area has been in constant use by wholesale food industries since 1850.

2 comments:

  1. This caught my eye, because when my grandfather first came to Chicago in 1904, he secured a job at Swift & Co. He stayed at a boarding house at 120 S. Peoria...I 'think' that area is today part of the UIC Campus. Glad to know some of the old warehouse buildngs are still in existence, over 100 years later.

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  2. Thanks for commenting! I think that building may now be a park. But there's a surprising number of the old meat-packing buildings still in the area.

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