![]() ![]() Writer Elizabeth McNulty covered this fertile ground a decade ago with her excellent photobook, Chicago Then and Now. ![]() ![]() The statue itself was moved from the middle of the street to the western edge of King Drive. In the pairing below of the Washington statute at 51st and King Drive, notice how the building in the background over the years lost its awnings, ornamental top and cornice. James Cathedral at Huron and Wabash, the old and new photos show how the edifice survived both the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the massive wave of development that also changed the look of the area 120 years later. In other areas, I noticed streets were widened, eliminating planted parkways. You’ll see a magnificent vintage shot of old Prairie Avenue north of 24th Street, but most of the old manses were demolished in the 1950s and ’60s the accompanying photo shows the cleared lots and industrial fencing that still scar the landscape years after the homes were raised. ![]() Of course its interesting to see how the city has simultaneously changed and remained the same. (And it was either luck or providence that a car passed into my frame at almost the exact spot a horse-and-buggy entered the view of the photographer took the stereoscope more than a century ago.) ![]()
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