Betcha didn't know about Chicago... (Peoria, Bridgeport: apartment, hotels, houses)

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

SWEET. I go past there all the time going to the bank for work. I'm going to have to stop by and get me a pet!!!!!!!

Watch out! They like to pee on your hands when you pick them up.

[manncer]

DIDYA KNOW; The lions at the Field Museum, are the famous lions of Savo, a novel titled The Heart of Darkness describes their very rare and greedy behavior of killing and eating humans only. The lions are stuffed and mounted inside the museum. The Heart of Darkness is also the original teleplay of Apoclypse Now, even the characters names are the same, and the VC were the lions.

The Lions of Savo are from the Novel "The Ghost and Darkness" The "Heart of Darkness" by Conrad is the basis for "Apocalypse Now" but the lions are not "VC" dingbat!

[Manigault]

Originally Posted by manncer

DIDYA KNOW; The lions at the Field Museum, are the famous lions of Savo, a novel titled The Heart of Darkness describes their very rare and greedy behavior of killing and eating humans only. The lions are stuffed and mounted inside the museum. The Heart of Darkness is also the original teleplay of Apoclypse Now, even the characters names are the same, and the VC were the lions.

The Lions of Savo are from the Novel "The Ghost and Darkness" The "Heart of Darkness" by Conrad is the basis for "Apocalypse Now" but the lions are not "VC" dingbat!

Oh, the horror!

I have yet to read the 'N-word of the Narcissus'.

[Avengerfire]

This is a cool thread that should have not died off!

[Feeling Brackish]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through this thread. Thanks for digging it up for us!

[nana053]

Didya know:

The highest Wind Gust ever recorded in Chicago was 87 mph and was measured in February of 1894.

New York Sun editor, Charles Dana, tired of hearing Chicagoans boast of the World's Columbian Exposition, dubbed Chicago the "Windy City".

The first of Marshall Field's Clocks was installed at the corner of Washington and State Streets on November 26, 1897. The cast bronze clock rests some 17.5 feet above the sidewalk and weighs a hefty 7.75 tons.

Under instructions from William Wrigley, architects designed the Wrigley Building to look like a "luscious birthday cake." It also became the first air-conditioned office building in 1946.

I enjoyed this thread, so I thought I would look up some things and contribute them.

Dorothy

[Mr Downtown]

The traditional tour-guide story has been that the term "Windy City" comes from the fight for the privilege of hosting the Columbian Exposition: “Don’t pay any attention,” wrote Charles A. Dana day in and day out in his New York Sun, “to the nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not build a World’s Fair even if they won it." Problem is, this quote first appeared in the Chicago Tribune in a 1933 feature story, and no evidence of Dana’s actually writing this in the Sun has ever turned up. On the other hand, we know that “Windy City” to refer to Chicago was in common use in Detroit, Louisville, and particularly Cincinnati newspapers as early as 1880.
The Encyclopedia of Chicago’s entry

A number of office buildings were air conditioned by the 1930s, including the building that is now Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. First in the U.S. was the Armour Building in Kansas City (1902); first highrise was San Antonio's Milam Building (1928).
History of air conditioning

[paytonc]

The Cook County Jail facility is the nation's busiest criminal courthouse. (New York City is divided into five counties and Los Angeles County has multiple district courts.)

Two architectural curiosities downtown -- the flared base of the now-Chase Bank building and the little bridge connecting Wrigley's two towers -- can be explained by Illinois' then-law prohibiting branch banking, thus requiring that the entire bank branch be in one place.

Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan

Campbells has factories all over the world. They're active in, like, 30 countries. My hometown had a Campbells plant.

Maxton?! Woah, that's pretty far down east. They apparently make the vegetarian soups there.

The 2009 annual report lists soup/sauce factories in Dixon CA, Sacramento CA, Stockton CA, Marshall MI, South Plainfield NJ, Maxton NC, Napoleon OH, Wauseon OH, Paris TX, Milwaukee WI, and nine other countries.

Originally Posted by NSH

Did you know the City of Chicago still has a working farm within her limits?

Actually, there's land that's always been working commercial farm -- and I'm not talking City Farm here. Like the high school, though, it just barely counts as "city limits."

Originally Posted by nana053

The first of Marshall Field's Clocks

And nearby stand some of the tallest stone columns around. Take a close look for joints sometime: you won't find any.

[Thepreacherswife]

In the 1880s, Chicago had a larger (and more profitable) cable car system than San Francisco. But in the 1890s, they were mostly converted to electric propulsion.

[Orangeish]

Awesome thread, I wish I would have taken notes when I took the Architectual Boat Tour a couple years ago, because the lady who was our guide was spouting off all sorts of facts that would have fit nicely into this thread, I can't recall many of them though