Calvary Cemetery is located in Evanston.  It is one of the oldest Catholic Cemeteries in the Chicago area.  It is located between Chicago Avenue on the west and Sheridan Road on the east.  It was consecrated in 1859.   One of the most striking features of the cemetery is an arched limestone entrance on Chicago Avenue.    There are three arches.  Likely the limestone came either from Lemont or Joliet.  The architect was James J. Egan.  He was well known in the area.  He designed multiple Catholic buildings and structures.  He was buried in Calvary.

     One of the most interesting features of Rosehill Cemetery is the Gate House. It was built in 1864 using Joliet limestone likely shipped on the I and M Canal.  The architect was William Boyington.  It has features of a Gothic Castle.  These are also seen in his other buildings (the Chicago Water Tower, the Chicago Pumping Station, and the Joliet Prison). The building survived the Chicago Fire. In 1975, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites.

Horatio May born in Canada in 1839.  By 1850, he was living in Belvidere, Illinois.  He came to Chicago in 1856.  He joined the volunteer fire department.  In 1860, he was elected as a lieutenant.    In the early days of his business career, he worked with John Neeley.  In 1864, he was made a partner at McKinley and Ingraham grocers.    In his political career, he was named a Lincoln Park Commissioner in 1886;  he was elected a city of Chicago controller in 1891  He passed away in 1898 while in Germany.

His wife Anna wished to memorialize her husband by having a chapel built at Rosehill Cemetery.  She bequeathed $75,000 for its construction. The architect for this project was Joseph Lyman Silsbee.  He designed the May home on Astor Street in Chicago.  He was also the chief architect for J.L. Cochran’s Edgewater Development Company.  He held this position from 1886 to the 1890’s.

Construction on the  chapel began in 1899.    It was a blend of Gothic and Romanesque Styles.  The exterior was made of granite.   In the front, there was a carriage porch with an elaborate tile ceiling.     The dimensions of the chapel are 35 X 70 feet.    The floor is mosaic tile.    The roof is oak with hammer beam trusses.  In the rear, there is a door leading to a storage mausoleum.  In the past, this was used to store bodies during the winter months when the ground was frozen and burials were not possible. It has not been used for this purpose for years.

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     The Calo Theater was located at 5404 N. Clark Street in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago.  It opened in 1915 for the Ascher Brothers Circuit.  The architect was George Borst.  The building style was described as either Beaux Arts or Spanish Baroque Revival.  There was one screen and 860 seats.  It was a brick building with a terra cotta facade.  The theater closed in the early 1960’s.

     Rich Robinson converted the theater to a bowling alley in the 1960’s.  It was called the Calo Bowl.  It operated for 18 years.  The building was used as a carpet store in the 1980’s.

     The Griffin Theater Company acquired the theater in the 1990’s.  A $100,000 dollar renovation of the theater took place.  It was converted from a movie house to a legitimate theater.  Seating was decreased to 135.  The Griffin Theater operated at this site until the summer of 2004.

     The building was acquired by Brian Posen in 2005.  It was his plan to convert the building into three auditoriums   These would be rented by local theater groups.  This plan never materialized.

     The theater building is currently operating as the Brown Elephant.  This is a resale shop supporting the Howard Brown Health center. .

  

     The Thome Theater was a small movie theater located at 6241 N. Clark Street.  It had one screen. Its capacity was 300 seats.  It operated only for a short time possibly 1913-1914.  The building was demolished.

     

The Wrigley Building is an iconic structure in Chicago located at 400-410 North Michigan Avenue just to the north of the Chicago River.   It consists of two towers.  Construction took place between 1920-1924.  The South tower was completed in 1921; The North 1924.

The building architects were Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White.  It is steel frame construction with outer facade of terra cotta.  Inspiration was the Giralda Tower of the Cathedral of Seville.  Architectural style is a fusion of Spanish Colonial Revival and  French Renaissance.

There  are walkways between the buildings at the ground level and at the third and the 14th floors.  The two towers are of different heights.  South tower is 30 stories and the North tower 21 stories.  Arising from the South tower is a clock with faces in four directions.

In 2011, the building was purchased by Zeller Realty and the Groupon Co-founders.    They added a Walgreens Store, a coffee shop and a fitness center.    As recently reported in Crain Chicago Business ( 6/29/2018), the investor group BDT Capital Partners has sold its interest in the Wrigley Building to Mansueto Properties (founded by Morningstar).  Purchase price is reported to be $255 million.

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This was located at 7320 N. McCormick Avenue in Skokie.  It opened in 1951.   It was a property of M and R Amusement.   It had a single screen.  Capacity was 1350 cars.    There was a concession stand and a playground near the screen.  It was located between Howard Street and Touhy Avenue on the west side of McCormick  Boulevard.  It closed in the mid 1978.   It was replaced by Felt Product Company.  The area is now a Federal Mogul Plant.

 

One of the most iconic buildings at Lincoln Park Zoo is the Kover Lion House. It was built in 1912. The architect was Dwight Perkins. The external walls are made of brick ornamented with terra cotta. There are lion mosaics. There is a vaulted ceiling of Guastavino tile. The building is 32,700 square feet. It was rehabbed in 1990, 1997, and 2007. It was named a historic landmark by the city of Chicago in 2005.

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