Category Archives: Chicago

A few visual delights from Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery (in Uptown).  I wandered over to grab a few shots of the Inez Clarke memorial for a post on ghost stories, and got caught up in all of the beauty (I hear that Rosehill is even more amazing).

The top is Eternal Silence, rumored to show you a view of your death if you can manage to look into its eyes.  Down the left side is an unusual church-window marker;  Kroeschell’s memorial, deliberately created as one half to show the incompleteness of life; and then what t looks more like a plant-care sign than a grave marker, thus catching my fancy

The right is the Schoenhofen Pyramid and then a dead-tree-stump marker.  I’d never seen those until I moved into Chicago; I wondered if they’re a Swedish thing, although a quick Google tells me that they have something to do with the Woodman of the World association.

Finally at the bottom is the Marshall Field’s memorial.  I like how she is face-palming, perhaps embarrassed by the hijinks of Marshall Fields Jr. who was shot to death in a brothel.

I spent over two hours in the Preston Bradley center with Reverend Jean Darling, David Karcher , and Virginia Polk, which provided more material than I could possibly cover in one readable blog entry. Below are some of the things that I ran out of space to cover.

Reverend Preston Bradley was quite a character.  My favorite story was that he was suspended from Moody Bible college for being seen leaving a movie theater and smoking a cigar. He, in fact, left quite a few organizations because he was “too” liberal, he started as a Presbyterian minister but was accused of heresy because he wouldn’t accept that unbaptized infants were going to hell. After leaving the Presbyterians and the Moody Bible College, he started his own church which merged with the existing People’s Church in 1912.

This is the small green door (David Karcher kindly providing size comparison).  It leads to the roof over the auditorium, probably for repair purposes.  This also quite nicely demonstrates the cause of the half-floors.  The auditorium is a full three stories high (out of six mind you) and the bottom bit takes up over a story itself.  Therefore, the balcony ends up aligned halfway through the second floor and the very top of the dome halfway through the third.

As for the Mason’s Hall.  Below is one of the blackened murals lightened up as much as my scanty Photoshop skills would allow.

You can see the oasis on the left side along with maybe a building?  Here’s what it looks like unedited;  the oasis is still slightly visible if you really squint.  This is on the East side (to your left when you walk in).

A few more Mason’s Hall pictures.  I really wish I had thought to take a (real) panorama shot.  This is of the back (North) wall and you’d walk into the hall from that left corner.  

A detail of the left corner:

It’s hard to get a full feeling for the south-oriented front, but here’s a Frankenstein image to give an idea.

Finally the last set of murals on the West wall (to your right as you walk in).

Moving on, here’s a shot of the heating/cooling system.  It was high-tech for it’s time because it heated outside air which was then ventilated throughout the building via fan.  Starbucks cup not original as far as I understand.

The church shared a few old pictures with me; my favorite showed how large the congregation once was (it’s now down to 20-30 people).

I have a few more things to show but I can’t bear to deal with any more photo editing tonight.

Yep, that’s me making chain mail because who *doesn’t* have a chain mail craft store in their neighborhood?

Previously….

In my ten years in Chicago, I’ve lived in five apartments in three neighborhoods, but it’s my most recent neighborhood, Edgewater, where I’ve found my Chicago.

Edgewater is brilliant for so many reasons.  

I live two blocks from the lake/beach – one of Chicago’s best features.  There’s a plethora of places to go and things to see.  Within a mile of my house is two Ethiopian restaurants, seven or so coffee shops, uncountable amount of pho places, a beautiful brand-new library, two soda-fountainy type places, and tons of random art.  We might currently not really have any real food stores at the moment, but if you need Kinder hippos, aloe leaves, nuoc cham, or veladoras, we’ve got you covered.  There’s a wide variety of people and they’re friendly, smiling and talking to their neighbors.  Despite the people and places, it’s still quiet(ish), neighborhoody, with trees and green space, and not the hustle-and-bustle that other places might have.

In short, I love it.  So when I learned about 48 Ward* Love Local, a month of  discounts at local places, I was super excited.  I was even MORE excited when I learned that if you participated in at least five deals and either shared on social media or sent your receipts in, you could win lunch with the alderman.**  I have become obsessed with winning that lunch; I’m not exactly sure why.  Possibly since it looks like I have a fairly good chance of winning looking at social media.  Possibly because the whole concept of aldermen is weird.  I’ve already been to my five places, including Cookies and Carnitas (above), but there’s a few more on our household list, and a lot of pictures to share.

I also just realized that this sounds like some sort of crappy sponsored post or something.  It’s not, I just get excited about really weird things.

*technically wards and neighborhoods don’t match up, but whatever.  I love my ward too and my local neighborhoods!

**aldermen are both like the mayor and the senator of your neighborhood.  Chicago is weird.  And awesome.  I’ve met my alderman, Harry Osterman, several times and could go and talk to him at his office whenever, so it’s even weirder that I’ve become obsessed.