Articles in the History Category

Advocates to Revitalize Cultural and Historic Elgin Sites (ARCHES) is holding its inaugural meeting Monday at 6:30 at the Gail Borden Public Library.
The idea came about a few years ago when members of the Northeast Neighborhood Association rallied to save — for now — the former D.C. Cook Communications building on North Grove Avenue from demolition to make way for a condominium development.
ARCHES members want to serve as a resource for others if a similar scenario surfaces.
Betsy Couture, an ARCHES member who also is a member of Elgin’s Heritage Commission, …

Anybody who’s been to Chicago is familiar with Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City which resembles two giant corncobs–that’s meant to be descriptive not unflattering. They are among Chicago’s most recognizable landmarks. I even know somebody who went out there to paint them while they were still under construction. The Chicago Tribune came out with three stories this week, including one, interestingly, that summarizes the other two stories:
The first of the stories, by E.A. Torriero, chronicles how residents of Marina City (left) are banding together to fight an architecturally-disruptive incursion from …

Jessica points out an Elgin fanatic’s MySpace page (that Elgin bug sure gets around), in which he lists seven architectural wonders of Elgin, which was compiled from a survey apparently. So what are these wonders?
They are:

Elgin Tower Building - 1929
Professional Building - 1927
John Newman (Butterman) Mansion - 1889
Elgin National Watch Company Observatory - 1909
Pratt Castle - 1937
O’Conner - Leetz Funeral Home - 188?
Lords Park Pavilion - 1897

The Elgin fanatic’s MySpace page also lists some great Elgin trivia:

The Elgin National Watch Company was one of the first manufacturing complex’s in the …

I had a nice talk with Mike Alft at the Taste of Laos event at the Gail Borden Public Library Thursday evening. Mr. Alft was the mayor of Elgin in 1967 when the State Department approached the city about forming a sister city relationship with Vientiane, the capital of then-Kingdom of Laos.
You do have to wonder about how the State Department came around to picking Elgin of all the thousands of cities in America. Mr. Alft suggested that it was because they were looking for a moderately …

Next door to the cobblestone house I mentioned in the previous post, the good JB Harris is at work on another restoration project.
I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

This is one of about six remaining cobblestone buildings in Elgin. Lucky you, it’s for sale.

(photo by Seth Gaines)
The city council voted 5-2 last night to allow the Family Life Church to remove the masonic compass and square icon in the pediment of the building, as well as the masonic cornerstone. Michael Powers and John Steffen voted against it.