(no subject)
Apr. 14th, 2011 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cblj_backupOccasionally, I read stuff and think "That's pretty cool" and then don't know what to do with it. SO I GIVE IT TO YOU.
I recently stumbled over a very old article in Chicago Magazine called Heartbreak Hotel, about the Stevens Hotel of Chicago and its untimely ruin in the early part of the 20th century. I'm not necessarily that fascinated by the rise and fall of the Stevens family fortunes, but it's an entertaining read if you like history.
The little asides in the article are the most interesting, really -- the random factoid that the Stevens Hotel kitchen could produce 120 gallons of ice cream per hour, or the dinner plates that had silhouette images of Elizabeth Stevens on them (rather sweet, I thought). It's a very literary sort of story, from the Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' off-the-record stories about his dynasty's follies to his brother Bill's memories of watching their father study the hotel's blueprints at night on the family dinner table.
It's also a story about Prohibition, which caused speakeasies to draw dinner patrons away from hotel restaurants, and the Depression, which drove eighty-one percent of US hotels into bankrupcy. The hotel was run by a father and his two sons; during the last gasp of the business, when they were being indicted for fraud and disdained by general Chicago sentiment, the father suffered a massive stroke and one of the sons committed suicide, leaving his younger brother Ernest -- Justice Stevens' father -- to stand trial alone.
There is a somewhat happy ending to the story; Ernest was found guilty but the decision was later reversed, and three of his four children went on to become prominent lawyers. The hotel is still standing today, at Michigan just south of Balbo -- you can see it for yourself.
And now all this crap is in your head as well, and I can write it out of mine. :)
I recently stumbled over a very old article in Chicago Magazine called Heartbreak Hotel, about the Stevens Hotel of Chicago and its untimely ruin in the early part of the 20th century. I'm not necessarily that fascinated by the rise and fall of the Stevens family fortunes, but it's an entertaining read if you like history.
The little asides in the article are the most interesting, really -- the random factoid that the Stevens Hotel kitchen could produce 120 gallons of ice cream per hour, or the dinner plates that had silhouette images of Elizabeth Stevens on them (rather sweet, I thought). It's a very literary sort of story, from the Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' off-the-record stories about his dynasty's follies to his brother Bill's memories of watching their father study the hotel's blueprints at night on the family dinner table.
It's also a story about Prohibition, which caused speakeasies to draw dinner patrons away from hotel restaurants, and the Depression, which drove eighty-one percent of US hotels into bankrupcy. The hotel was run by a father and his two sons; during the last gasp of the business, when they were being indicted for fraud and disdained by general Chicago sentiment, the father suffered a massive stroke and one of the sons committed suicide, leaving his younger brother Ernest -- Justice Stevens' father -- to stand trial alone.
There is a somewhat happy ending to the story; Ernest was found guilty but the decision was later reversed, and three of his four children went on to become prominent lawyers. The hotel is still standing today, at Michigan just south of Balbo -- you can see it for yourself.
And now all this crap is in your head as well, and I can write it out of mine. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 07:11 pm (UTC)Also: Origami Bunny Cups! (http://www.origamispirit.com/2010/08/30/origami-bunny-box-%E2%80%93dont-wait-for-easter-to-fold-it/)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 12:24 pm (UTC)Even the areas of Chicago have changed over the years, in some cases -- the shoreline has expanded, for example, where all the debris from the great fire was dumped. Street names have changed, too, and a lot of the action happened in what once was suburbs but is now urban Chicago, so the social landscape is drastically different too.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 08:20 pm (UTC)You are such a lovely writer Sam, and a good person. Keep up the good work! -Kristin
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 11:14 pm (UTC)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/science/15language.html?_r=2&hp
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 05:49 pm (UTC)Uh. Still awesome, right? I can explain a few things if you need me to...
no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 07:44 pm (UTC)...except for Bernini, but that's because he was a bamf sculptor.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 07:19 am (UTC)