. Chicago. pave-ment the sign, No Bottom Here, washabitually displayed wherever a dray had 35 Chicago been dug out of the mud. One day, so thestory goes, the familiar head and hat ofGeneral Hart L. Stewart showed above thesurface of Lake Street. You seem to bein pretty deep. General, shouted a Scott! exclaimed the wayfarer,I ve got a horse under me. But thathappened before the principal streets wereplanked by order of the Common Coun-cil, and in those days a one-storied Court-House adorned by a Greek portico stoodin the Public Square. On its steps a fugi-tive slave was once sold a
. Chicago. pave-ment the sign, No Bottom Here, washabitually displayed wherever a dray had 35 Chicago been dug out of the mud. One day, so thestory goes, the familiar head and hat ofGeneral Hart L. Stewart showed above thesurface of Lake Street. You seem to bein pretty deep. General, shouted a Scott! exclaimed the wayfarer,I ve got a horse under me. But thathappened before the principal streets wereplanked by order of the Common Coun-cil, and in those days a one-storied Court-House adorned by a Greek portico stoodin the Public Square. On its steps a fugi-tive slave was once sold at public auctionby the sheriff, but was freed forthwith byhis purchaser, Chicago being long a cen-tral station of the underground business district was then composedof wooden shanties, a few of which madetinder for the flames of71. Until thelate sixties, moreover, when the Board ofTrade forsook its dingy quarters in SouthWater Street and our principal dry-goods 36 Michigan Avenue from Grant Park. The Heart of the City emporium moved from Lake Street to thefamiliar corner it still occupies, all of thepresent-day Loop south of the Court-House and east of State Street was aresidential district in which the marblefronts of the newly rich adorned bothMichigan and Wabash Avenues as far northas Washington Street. Even while our reg-iments were battling at Shiloh and Vicks-burg, the lot at the south side of the Court-House was still vacant, and its surface sofar below the street level that when in 63a circus spread its tents there, its patronswere obliged to descend to their seats, asinto a cellar. In those days the pedestrians in thebusiness district lost their breath so fre-quently in following the ups and downs ofthe street grades that the raising of thembecame a serious problem, until GeorgeM. Pullman, a young contractor from theEast, solved it by jacking up the Tremont 37 Chicago House a whole story without disturbingthe comfort of its guests. Meanwhile,Uranus H. Crosb
Size: 1747px × 1430px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectchicagoillhistory
