I recently came across these images from the UIC (University of Illinois) online collection, and they provide a good opportunity to pay a virtual visit to the Chicago of the past. As expected, the images show a good deal of Detroit iron from the period, with a few imports making their appearance. And well, the spirit of the times can be clearly felt through the pictures.
All images date from 1975 and were taken by C. William Brubaker. The lead picture is at Wilson Ave., near the Wilson CTA station.
Howard Street at Clark.
North Broadway And West Wilson Streets at the Wilson CTA station.
Rogers Ave. at Ashland.
North Broadway And McJunkin Building.
Argyle at Winthrop Ave.
North Broadway and Wilson CTA station.
Sheridan Road at Dakin Street.
I’d take the two ‘Alhelp’ Dodge B300 Maxiwagons. With 360s. And impressive, seating for fifteen. Of the cars, I’d take the green Marquis.
Midwest working class neighbourhoods, explains the number of full-sizers. The Civic stands out.
Appears, they used a mix of sand and road salt. The green painted streetlight poles are a throw back.
Pretty sure that is a Monterey with the optional skirts.
Indeed, from the grille.
I love these so, so much. I know most of these locales and can mentally project what they look like now within the past several weeks or so.
That lead shot is facing WNW (from the Wilson CTA station). It’s way less sketchy now. In fact, all of these places are. Love seeing some of the former grit from years before I lived here.
You are correct. It was better when there was grit. But few of us saw this as sketchy. There were over five million of us living in Cook County and stuff went from new to sketchy really fast. You would have loved these places even more than you do now because there were over a million more people living in Chicago back then. Chicago was the city of big shoulders. Muscle and grit, tobacco smoke, work clothes and smelly underarms. It was awsome.
I remember discovering amazing schools, churches and little manufacturing factories where union workers made incredible stuff sold around the globe. There were low income housing with married families in them. Street were filled with children.
Today, these Chicagoans couldn’t afford to live in Chicago anymore. That’s a reason why we left the City. Being surrounded by people is fantastic and my wife and I find Chicago looking increasingly like some kind of empty doll house.
I love my city. I pinch myself regularly.
Watching Johnny Brown as Nathan Bookman, doing his Christmas talent show dance, is a Yuletide tradition in my household. 🙂
HOME!
I can smell those bus fumes, hear the CTA tracks rumble, squeak and roar, feel the cold wind on my face and hear the crunchy black snow as I try to cross the streets! I can also hear the occasional metallic hum of studded snow tires. You needed spare change for the parking meters. The meters still took pennies.
The City worked. Old Man Daley died right after Christmas 1976 and we all just kind of knew that the way things were done to keep Chicago working was going to end. He ruled us like a kind dictator for 20 years, keeping every faction of the City under his control. Like Tito. So his passing left a political vaccum that remained until his son, Richard M. Daley, came to power. Before he took over, we had a pair of clown mayors, with Jane Byrne defeating the remants of the Daley machine after the Great Chicago Blizzard of 1979 – and our first Black mayor, Harold Washington, who did a good job until he suddenly died, leaving the City for the Daleys to take over again.
As to autos, they were shades of Avocado green, rattled like a road train, and were made in either Detroit or Kenosha. Kenosha is only 100 miles north of the City, so AMC was highly represented. They were rear drive and easily stuck in snow. The cars were low, wide, long and sported battering ram bumpers. Average gas miles, 14 MPG, at best. Lots of the cars burned oil. Lots of cars leaked oil and anti-freeze. Lots of cars were missing mufflers or had rusting exhaust pipes tied with wire coat hangers. We’d complain about the lack of a muffler after about a month of hearing it from a neighborhood ride. Chicago was ripe for a auto brand that stayed screwed together.
Rust? Lots of rust. Cars lasted about three years before blistering behind the rear wheels, and where the windshield wipers shoved the rain water down the A pillar beneath the front fenders. VW Beetle running boards fell off about then. Japanese car bodies disappeared, leaving robust mechanicals. Driving through a car wash seemed like a luxury and most car washes were DIY places with pressurized wands. Chicago cars during this time of year sported salt residue until the temperatures permitted using water outdoors.
The hot car to have was the Oldmobile Cutlass. Chicago was Olds country. Special edition Oldsmobiles would be pushed about this time of year. Every City Olds dealer had a “GMO” edition to sell the last year’s models. GMO stood for, “The Gallant Men of Olds”. Those cars were marked with GMO badges. The newer cars sported light yellow, light blue and burgundy. Vinyl roofs, naturally.
I attended my first Chicago Auto Show in 1974, and returned home with every brochure available. You could sit in all the cars. Car lock caps were either swiped, or prevented by salesmen who removed them to keep from being swiped. Domestic cars filled the top level of Big Mick, and the imports and trucks filled the second floor. There were probably 35 brands to see from Rolls Royce to Subaru. By the time I was finished at the McCormick Place, I had a plastic sack that weighed probably 6 pounds. I still have some of them. I have an Austin Marina brochure that held together longer than the brand. I wanted the yellow Pantera, and tried justifying to myself that it would be a practical vehicle for a kid to have.
Chicago was the home for R&B on WLS. Sure they played the music from Britain and California, but they played Motown and Chitown as regularly as they played White rock music. There was a new sound uncontrollably sweeping the City called Disco that we had to destroy at Comiskey Park in 1979 because the music became an earworm that was killing music.
I wish Chicago was still like this. Being 1000 miles inland protected Chicago from the Coasts. I wish Chicago still built stuff. I wish Chicago real estate was still owned by Chicagoans. I wish the Chicago banks were still owned by Chicagoans too. I wish the tallest building in the City was still called Sears Tower because everyone still shopped at Sears, Montgomery Ward and Marshall Field, providing the City with the profits to build the world’s tallest buildings. After five generations of my family living and dying in Chicago, there are very few of us left. My wife’s family was filled with Irish cops and firemen, who have all left for Florida. We’re relieved that they survived. Chicago isn’t any place for families. Crime was bad when I grew up there, and I had friends who lived in the basement of their houses to avoid drive-by shootings. Today, it is even worse.
Thanks for the photos!
I really enjoyed that. You really give the feel of time and place. Thanks!
Kinda depressing, actually. I can see the rust happening. At least it is sunny, but the lack of obvious melting implies that plenty of winter lies ahead. My guess is late January.
It is interesting that the big bumper era is just starting here. While the insurance industry was correct that bumpers weren’t very strong, these photos confirm my recollection bias that a lot of folks didn’t bother repairing bumper bruises. The tin worm was going to assure they fell off anyway.
Is that a Marlin in picture 4 enjoying the salt water habitat?
Good pictures that bring old memories flooding back .
As I age out I find the less good aspects of those times dims in memories .
I’ve not heard studded snow tires in many years .
-Nate
I can remember back when the Austin district and Oak park where a good and safe place to live.
They are now crime ridden like many other suburbs bordering Chicago.
I was raised in the Garfield park area that had turned into one of the most dangerous areas in the city many years ago. Glad I left that area / state long ago !
4th shot – a white Marlin at the corner!!
Yellow “Vega” and red “Maverick” in there too..
I worked in a liquor store during my college years, so vintage liquor brands I haven’t seen in a while interest me.
Picture 5 has a sign for “Old Fitz.” I recall that as a working man’s brand, fitting with the neighborhood. In most places, probably a near bottom shelf brand.
While it appears you can still buy a $20.00 bottle, it appears that Mr. Fitzgerald has undergone a rehabilitation of sorts. There are variations online that exceed $1,000!
That’s at least mid shelf on the Miracle Mile!
My drinking buddies started off drinking top shelf scotch, bourbon and whiskey, bottles costing a lot. Then we started off pitching in and pooling our money for a single bottle of expensive stuff.
This year, we’ve been exploring the bottom shelf booze and having a ball. We’ve been buying anything with “Old” in its title and digging up old ads from 80 years or more ago, and seeing if we can find that brand. Old Fitzgerald is one of those brands – so I really liked that photo.
As to taste – not bad. It is a sweet drink that doesn’t burn and it is easy to drink. It is not our favorite cheap booze. So far, I’ve fallen in love with Ancient Age, Old Crow, and Old Charter. But Old Fitz is something I’d not turn away. Between the four of us, we have about 150 brands and bottles and no one has enough room for all of it at one man cave – so we take turns.
Handsome “Cougar” in the lead pic.
My family visited Chicago in 1960, and the first thing I noticed was RUST. We had some rust in Kansas, but Chicago’s cars were more holes than steel.
I love the business names: Red-E Cleaners, Ready-Men, Bachelor Hotel. lol
Appreciate early to mid ’70s urban grittiness. The Seven Ups captured it well.
Indeed and we could also mention “Detroit 9000” and “Cotton come to Harlem” for the early to mid 1970s urban grittiness..
The first picture shows a CTA Flxible ‘New Look’. CTA bought a lot of those, and before a large buy of T8H-5307 GM New Looks (pictured in the North Broadway shot) in 1972 the property was about 2/3rds. Flxible. Some of the early CTA Flxible New Looks were powered by Fageol propane engines. Those coaches stayed in service until the supply of engine parts dried up. I was told finding replacement cylinder heads were a particular issue.
Best Google map shot that I can get for photos #3 & #7 (North Broadway and Wilson CTA station)
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9652271,-87.6573231,3a,75y,287.51h,86.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s76SrY23WBlnNPVdiXduq2Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
And Google map for Sheridan Road at Dakin Street (#8 photo)
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9532616,-87.6545335,3a,75y,187.1h,90.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_hu_favJJuIZGR0QQINLgA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
I lived in Madison, WI in the 1970s and would regularly go down to Chicago with friends for the weekend. It was great. That was a real city. Tons of fun… except for the lunatic traffic. I was once on the Kennedy heading for the Loop and almost got run off the road by a school bus full of kids. I recommend going online and listening to the song ‘Lake Shore Drive’ by Aliota, Haynes and Jeremiah. Wow does that bring back memories. As does ‘Telephone’ by Wazmo Nariz…
Thank you for taking the time to post all these images!
You are a rare coin!!!!
Azaming work for those who truly enjoy the past of our beautiful city “chicago”
Keep doing your best work!
Pics from my neighborhood in Uptown. Looks the same and very different at the same time. Chicago is much cleaner, more expensive (but still a bargain compared the coasts), less working class, and yes, safer, and warmer! than in the 1970s. It was not better or worse then. Chicago is eternal. It will always be a great city!
Where’s Ray’s Music Exchange…? With the El platforms everywhere, I’m ready to see Jake and Elwood break into a dance number.
My father had a little food store on Howard St. Johnny’s food store
there’s a South side of the city too
Thank you very much for taking me back in time. This brings back so many memories of me and others, travelling around town, venturing into new neighborhoods, cultures, etc.
Growing up in The Ida B. Wells housing projects, Chicago’s neighborhoods, including the one’s shown in the pictures, exposed me to a level of nostalgia that few places in the world could compare to.
Again, thank you for taking me back.
God bless.
I have to say T.W. ;
I think more Americans need to see the projects so they’ll get a clear grasp of what happens if you turn on, tune in and drop out .
It certainly worked for me and my head is as hard as coal .
-Nate