Nostalgia & History > Dearborn Station, Chicago, June 1970

Sensing that the end of long-haul passenger service that I had grown up with was only months away, I spent two days in Chicago in June 1970 intent on imaging as many long-haul passenger trains as possible. I had drawn up a list of trains, arrival/departure times, and stations. Coming up from Cincinnati on Penn Central's "James Whitcomb Riley," I checked in at the YMCA, got a $10 room, and headed over to Roosevelt Road. Three images from Dearborn Station:

1. Grand Trunk Western's "Maple Leaf" departing for Toronto.

2. Santa Fe's "San Francisco Chief," about 30 minutes prior to departure for its namesake city.

3. Louisville & Nashville's "Danville Flyer" (formerly a Chicago & Eastern Illinois train) arriving from Danville, Illinois.

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Oops, "Mr, Magenta" has struck again, shots #2 & #3... Wonder how they'd look with 3D movie glasses from the 50s?
Even so, the shots look great!

Food for thought for anyone with far superior tech knowledge & expertise than mine: I was on the horn with Bob Helling in Salina. He can download
everything from 'captrr' perfectly. I had him send me 4 magenta shots (from my download attempts) over on Yahoo mail. They came over great in small
form but went magenta at full enlargement. The reverse also holds: I sent him the same 4 magenta shots and they downloaded perfect for him. Go figure...

Lance

Please sir may I have more? The Maple Leaf looks sharp with double torpedo boats, long nose first in wet noodle and that bell!

All photos look good here...

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Oops, "Mr, Magenta" has struck again, shots #2 &
> #3... Wonder how they'd look with 3D movie glasses
> from the 50s?
> Even so, the shots look great!
>

So I'm not the only one seeing that. The really odd thing is that if you download it, the colors are right. I was going to play with one to see if I could correct the color, but there was nothing to correct.

DublinDistrict Wrote:
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> So I'm not the only one seeing that. The really
> odd thing is that if you download it, the colors
> are right. I was going to play with one to see if
> I could correct the color, but there was nothing
> to correct.

Same situation here.

Cheers,
Jack

DublinDistrict Wrote:


> So I'm not the only one seeing that. The really
> odd thing is that if you download it, the colors
> are right. I was going to play with one to see if
> I could correct the color, but there was nothing
> to correct.

I just tried to download the 344 SF Chief shot again. It DL'd magenta as other shots before, but with a slight variation. It wasn't a full screen post,
so the white border should've stayed white, but it also went magenta. I've also tried some editing but only have Picasa to work & got no good results.
Weird...

atsffan Wrote:
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>
> Find gfx.color_management.mode in the list.
>
> Right-click -> Modify.
>
> Set the value to 2.
>
> Restart Firefox

Mine is already set to 2 but I get the magenta images.

JL

I am sure the skyline has changed significantly. Can anyone post a shot more present day for comparison. What is that building with the giant LEE advertisement painted on it? I have seen it in many a railroad photos. Thanks for sharing.

spjim Wrote:

> Mine is already set to 2 but I get the magenta images.

Set gfx.color_management.mode to 0 rather than 2. That turns off color management in Firefox.

I'm a Firefox user and have done nothing to tweak my browser; however, the magenta went away a couple days ago and now I simply see great pictures.

DROP FIREFOX AND IE AND USE GOOGLE CHROME !!!!!!!!!!!!! ... FIREFOX IS THE WORST

GN599 Wrote:
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> I am sure the skyline has changed significantly.
> Can anyone post a shot more present day for
> comparison. What is that building with the giant
> LEE advertisement painted on it? I have seen it in
> many a railroad photos. Thanks for sharing.

LEE made jeans at one point in time, and other work clothing. I have no idea for sure, but that building might have been their factory. Alternately, that might have simply been a large paid-for billboard painted on the wall of a building.

The skyline has and hasn't changed, looking at things with Google. The first image below is taken from what used to be S. Federal St, about half way between Polk and Roosevelt. You can see the "LEE" building a bit left of center; it is still there but looking rather blank. The Dearborn Station clock tower can be seen thru the trees to the right of it.

The next picture is a poor google streetview of the building. You can see the sign, or at least the bottom half, a little better. It isn't the same sign, but it is still advertizing clothing, so in all probability was a different version of a LEE sign. (Update: Evan points out that it is the same sign, just the worse for wear. Going back and looking at the original picure, I see that it is. You can barely make out the shadow of the man in the upper right corner.) Crusing beside the building, it appears that it is now in all probability really expensive apartments. It could well have been a sweat shop in the 1960s.

The final image is from Roosevelt Bridge looking toward the Dearborn Station clock tower, this is probably about the position the train images were taken from. The trees somewhat get in the way these days, as do the residential buildings. Of course, there is no track left, and without an old map, it would be hard to guess where it had once been.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/11 19:06 by lwilton.

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Iwilton, thanks for the updates via current photos. #3 really is a shock. It's hard to believe this is the same location that I took all these images from! It appears the city fathers have made good use of the real estate, but for me it is just kinda sad what was...and now is no more. I'm definitely glad I spent the summer of '70...and subsequently '71 as I will eventually post...on Roosevelt Road bridge.

lwilton Wrote:

> LEE made jeans at one point in time, and other
> work clothing. I have no idea for sure, but that
> building might have been their factory.
> Alternately, that might have simply been a large
> paid-for billboard painted on the wall of a
> building.

I think it's the latter. The building at 720 S. Dearborn that bore the Lee ad is the New Franklin Building, which according to its website, was the home of the Franklin Printing Company (that part of Chicago is still known as Printer's Row for the large number of printers that used to have plants there):

http://www.thefranklinbuilding.com/CondoApp/Franklin/ListOne.cdo?ListType=02

Also worth a look:
http://chicago-architecture-jyoti.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-franklin-building.html

According to these folks, the building was converted to condos in 1987:

http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/printersrow.htm

(There is also an Old Franklin Building a few blocks away at 521-5 S. Dearborn Street).

> The next picture is a poor google streetview of
> the building. You can see the sign, or at least
> the bottom half, a little better. It isn't the
> same sign, but it is still advertizing clothing,
> so in all probability was a different version of a
> LEE sign.

I think it's the same sign, just so badly worn that all that remains is the "overalls, shirts, pants" part.

captrr Wrote:

> It appears the city fathers
> have made good use of the real estate, but for me
> it is just kinda sad what was...and now is no
> more.

Better than the site of Grand Central a few blocks west, which is still mostly vacant lots.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=chicago,+il&hl=en&ll=41.867385,-87.633896&spn=0,0.015085&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.564064,61.787109&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.867385,-87.633896&panoid=-Z1lpZD4ZnwVpBO7jfLYiw&cbp=12,357.01,,0,-2.05

Thanks for the interesting look back!

There's so many distinctive buildings around that area.....

the Meadow Gold Butter building
the Franklin Printing Building with the Lee jeans ad
the Erie RR building
the Pennsylvania RR freight depot
The Cuneo Press Building
the YMCA bldg

Does anyone know what the writing was on the black water tower in the background in Photo #3?

I'd like to someday model this area up in Microsoft Train Simulator or RailWorks?

jridge Wrote:

> Does anyone know what the writing was on the black
> water tower in the background in Photo #3?

There was an Erie diamond herald on the east side of the tank, and on the north side were the words "Lifschultz Fast Freight," with the name Lifschultz arranged diagonally between Fast and Freight.