Hanks Ottawa, Illinois

Hanks

     Hank’s  Farm Restaurant is located on 2973 N. State Route 71, Ottawa, Illinois near a bend in the Fox River.  The restaurant building is located in a former barn.  It opened in 1941 as a neighborhood tavern.  It is now a family owned and operated restaurant.  There are landscaped gardens with turkeys, chickens, ducks, and peacocks.  There is a gift shop next store.

Aragon Ballroom

Aragon Ballroom

Aragon Ballroom

      August 15, 2019.  

     One of Chicago’s most popular music venues, the Aragon Ballroom, is scheduled to get a new name.  Due to a sponsorship arrangement with the Byline Bank, the new name will be The Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom.

     The Aragon Ballroom has been a Chicago staple since 1926.

     Recently, this three story building sold for 4.4 million dollars. It was built in 1911.  It was originally known as the Bank of Fort Myers.  A restaurant named as the French Connection occupied the first floor until 2016.  It is now occupied by Izzy and Oyster Restaurant.

     The second and third floors are currently occupied by Great Jones, a property management firm.  Sony Yoga is on the first floor.      The building is 20,733 square feet.

Izzy ‘s Restaurant

Izzy’s Fish and Oyster

    In June, 2018,the city of Chicago announced a 75 million project to renovate and restore the aging Uptown Theater in Chicago.  This elaborate movie palace has sat empty for years.    It has been vandalized and has suffered extensive water damage.

     As of November, 2019 no restorative work has been done on the building.  What is the delay?.  Apparently there has been a delay in obtaining $26 million dollars in financing.  Developers hope to obtain the money soon so that the project may start in spring of 2020.d

Uptown Theater, Chicago

River City, Chicago

     This is a condominium building on the south branch of the Chicago River.  Originally, it was meant to be a much larger development.

    For the past several months, there have multiple attempts to convert the building to rental property.    Apparently, this has now occurred

Samuel Insull

Currently, there is a movie being shown in theaters entitled Current War. This tells the story of debate to determine the dominant mode of electricity generation in the United States. Thomas Edison supported the use of direct current. Nicola Tesla was an advocate of alternating current. . One of the lesser characters in this movie was Thomas Edison’s secretary. His name was Samuel Insull. This individual played a major role in the generation and the expansion of the use of electricity in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Sam Insull was born in London, England on November 11, 1859. In his early teens, he worked as an apprentice clerk for many local businesses. Later he worked as a stenographer for Vanity Fair Magazine. At the age of 19, he was a book keeper and secretary for the London Representative of the Edison telephone company.It

Insull emigrated to the United States to assume the role of Thomas Edison personal secretary. Over the years, he assumed increasing responsibilities in this role. In 1889, he participated in the founding of Edison General Electric. In 1892,:he was offered the role of second vice president at General Electric. He moved to Chicago to assume the role of head of Chicago Edison Company.

In 1897, he incorporated another electric utility Chicago Commonwealth Electric Light and Power Company. In 1907, he formed Commonwealth Edison. Insull electric company grew. By 1920, it used 2 million tons of coal annually to generate electricity. It had 6,000 employees and 500,000 customers. It had two generating plants one on Fisk Street and one on Crawford Street.

His Chicago holdings grew and included Federal Signal Corporation, Commonwealth Edison, People Gas and Northern Indiana Public Service Corporation.

He owned significant portions of many railroads mainly interurban electric lines. They included Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee, Chicago Rapid Transit, Chicago Aurora and Elgin, Gary Railroad, and Chicago South Shore and South Bend

Insull had interests in various local radio stations in the Chicago area.

Like many other business interests, the Insull enterprises suffered financial collapse during the Depression.  He and his wife fled to Europe to escape charges of mail fraud and anti-trust charges.   Eventually he was extradited back to the United States.  He was found not guilty on all charges.

Insull died in France in 1938.  His estate totaled $1000 and his debts were $14,000,000

Over the years, I have posted many entries on the subject of the Illinois Michigan Canal.   My discovery of the this historical canal was by chance.    Both my wife and I have been frequent guests at the Starved Rock Lodge in Utica for  many years.   On our visits to North Utica, we parked in a small lot adjacent to the retail area.  Adjacent to this lot, there was what appeared to be a drainage ditch.

2235 First Street Fort Myers

2235 First Street

2235 First Street0 square feet.  

     This is a  3 story brick building located in historic Fort Myers.  This was built in 1914.    It is 20,36o square feet.  It is currently used as rental space.