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"State Street, Chicago, 1905." At the corner of Hustle and Bustle. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
I wish I could join the men looking over the horseless carriage parked along the street. Cars were still novelty in 05.
Oh, to have an audio of this scene! The clip-clopping of the horse hoofs, the wagon wheels rolling on the pavement, the voices of hundreds of conversations, the bells and screeching brakes of the trolleys, church bells possibly ringing, clocks chiming on the quarter hour, the horns and sputtering engines of the automobiles...
The steps up to the streetlights are a gas.
My resident Chicago expert (that would be my wife!) tells me we are looking South on State St at the corner of Washington Blvd..
That is the original Marshall Fields "Great Clock" installed on the Northeast corner of State and Washington on 11/26/1897
Is that a "jumper" standing at the edge 3 floors above the clock. I can just see a flat cap, shoulder, short sleeves, arm and shoe. On the other hand it may just be part of the stonework ornamentation - I hope.
[It's a statue. -tterrace]
The tallest building in this photograph is the Columbus Memorial Building, designed by old-time Chicago architect W. W. Boyington (designer of the famous Chicago Water Tower back in 1869), and built 1891-1893. It featured a statue of the building's namesake in a niche above the main entrance arch; the building was demolished in 1959. Further south along State Street one can see Louis Sullivan's brand-new Schlesinger and Mayer Department Store, which had just been sold to its longtime occupant, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. The white building at the far end of the view is the Republic Building of Holabird & Roche in its original 12-story version (1905). Of all the buildings visible on the east side of State Street, Carson's (now called the Sullivan Center and home to a Target store) is the only one still standing.
If you planned a rendezvous in downtown Chicago, this is the way it was done. A Marshall Field tradition still today, even with Macy's ownership.
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