Archer Avenue

15JUL25

Bubbly Creek in Summer

Yes, the South Branch of the Chicago River looks lovely this time of year.

Incident Near the Old Stearns Quarry

Not much to say here. On FB, you can see my Stearns Quarry album, its now a park, but you can see the high rock walls of what had been one of the stranger things in this city. A quarry surrounded by three-flats and bungalows. Well, on my way there to meet Mike Martinez, I walked up Archer towards Halsted and took photos. Passed the noodle place, then the massage place. Turned the corner towards the currency exchange and about crapped myself when I pretty much walked right into that plastic spider. Yes, I was laughing later, but one day I will tell you all about my dream/nightmare I had when I was 5, about the upside down, milk-white giant spider and how I was saved by the Mr. Salty mascot.

Chinatown, Part 1

I have downloaded the photos I took in Kentucky, but it will take me a while to reduce them in size, because I have a lot of them. So I'll finally start posting the photos of Chinatown, taken on the way to meet Mark at the lovely Chinatown Hovel, um, Hotel, and after that we went to see Diana in Oak Park.

The first photo is from the Cermak-Chinatown el stop, even though the diagonal road to the right is Archer Avenue. The Cermak Avenue bridge is just north of Ping Tom Park, so before Chinatown expanded in the 90s, there was a more direct route to Cermak. Then the direct entrance into Chinatown, and I think I'm wrong saying that this is Wentworth Avenue, that might be a block further west. Regardless, there is some ornate entrance above a small concrete area where a lot of old men were reading the Sunday paper. I've included other shots I took as I walked towards the Chinatown Hotel on 21st Place, and when I post those shots, I also took photos of several two and three flats along that street.

Ashland Avenue, Main in Profile

Taken from inside the Orange Line train car.

Ghost Signs, Ghost Buildings

The Cupid Candies Kitchen was across from Fat Johnnie's, and the next block up, at 7721 So. Western, that unreadable sign says Physicians Entrance Only. The other two signs are along Archer, and Capra's I recall from when it was still open. Not from hanging out there, just from hearing polkas on summer nights as the Archer bus went by.

Snake Alley Tent

Last night I mentioned that weave of interstate ramps, and just before you get to them on the way towards end of Archer Avenue and Chinatown, there are a few "Snake Alleys," some with actual street names, like Green or Robinson, others simply a way to move a car behind a building. Salt Street and Quarry Streets are gone now, but the photos here would be at about where Salt Street was back before the expansions in the 90s. As I was walking towards Chinese Maid, I stopped at a gas station for a bottle of water and, when leaving, I found that I had to detour sideways. In all of three minutes, a road crew had started running fresh asphalt right outside the door. And so it was I saw the man with the cart. I never would have seen him if I had simply left the way I walked in. I was baffled by where he was headed, because there was a fenced in lot, an empty lot, and those goofy interstate ramps. Well, I will say, this fellow had a nice set-up, all things considered. Two tents, bundles of stuff, on what I am assuming is city property (the police pound used to be close to here). I took the photos from the edge of a parking lot, near one of the "snake alleys" people used to get off Archer and into the lot. Decades ago, there was a huge flophouse called the Archer Apartments at the site. Now there is a two story brick building selling condos starting at $300,000.

Chinese Maid

Last weekend I went to apply for a job at Connie's Pizza for their Taste of Chicago booths. Extra weekend bucks. This post is just photos, the real story is coming up next post or so, with the photos that really tell the story. Connie's is on the ass end of old Chinatown and I got off the el at Halsted to walk the six or so blocks to the place, my quest being photos of the Chinese Maid building. Every time I'm on the el I see that sign and say I'm going to go get photos, and I was pleasantly surprised at how cool the main entrance looked. Don't let it fool you, though, directly across the short street (Wallace, I think), were $300,000 condos. It's an odd place to walk because of the abundance of interstate ramps all ready to converge on downtown. I actually have the photos of Snake Alley I wanted to post tonight, but in typical Wayne fashion, I can find only two of four. So I'm jumping ahead a bit. I really do love that entrance...

Archer & Leavitt

After I posted last night, I let my dog out and saw that the clear sky had become more misty than cloudy, adding to my belief that I had dreamt my ride home, that there was no reason to be completely mortified at a stranger who I had, in fact, helped. Another odd moment, I had forgotten to write before, as I cut down Lawler towards the church parking lot, a car dropped this teenage girl off in front of a two-story apartment--far as I'm concerned, they are only flats in the old neighborhoods--and it was just so...quiet. The car drove off, I could hear her keys in the lock, even as I was walking and watching the "tree shadow" walking on the other side of 87th Street. Moments that you know are going to be gone forever even as you witness them happening. I recognized the girl, I'm the lone pedestrian of the neighborhood after all, but hearing her keys as I watched Harry's doppelganger, both senses having such clarity, the kind of detail that makes me hate dreaming because I wake up most mornings like I'm digging myself out of a grave.

Diana, Harry's girl, wrote and mentioned Harry having a phrase, "We are patterns, persisting." If I never ever ever got that before last night, I do now. And now, here are the last of my recent Archer Avenue photos. Earlier tonight, Balzekas officially closed its doors to selling new cars. The place opened in 1933, I can't even imagine what Archer Avenue led to back then, back towards where Chinatown is now, there was the Levee District, the whorehouses, the blind pigs. And for some, Archer was always an artery to get close to Comiskey Park, now US Cellular Field. Archer onto Pershing (39th) and east a few blocks.

These last few are random, all within a block of each other. I thought of just putting them on my Flickr account, but it got me to post about Balzekas and, more importantly, Harry and Diana.

Still at Archer & Sacramento

Well, I got tied up posting this a few days, because, well, I couldn't find the damn photos I was taunting Rich Chwedyk--yes, THAT Rich Chwedyk!--with. But one day I do need to get decent photos from around Goose Island, particularly water shots. The previous day I didn't see a lot of comments, and I'm thinking no one watched the video because it only has political asshats on the banner. It was the only one that would load, and I'm not telling anyone to go back and watch it, but, christ, when you see the cop beating the tiny bartender, you have to wonder, well, wonder something. The bartender is healthy, thankfully, and the best quote from the trial was her saying she didn't want to look at the video they showed the jury because she had seen it too many times already. It is amazing how many times that has been played in Chicago, not just in YouTubeland.

Back to Archer. You might recall my saying how I was surprised how everything was bunched up at this intersection. Well, there it is, Rich (he thought I'd be mentioning the Brighton Theater, the vacant lot next to Watra)! I've seen Golden Heart at retro sites and neon sites and diner sites--and for some reason kept thinking it was called Around The Clock--and I'm pointing my camera down after photographing Watra, I turn, and, I was like, what the hell? Then I took an approaching bus a bit closer to Pulaski, the point where the Archer bus meets the Orange Line for the second time. In between Kedzie and St. Louis, Balzekas Chrysler Plymouth. It is officially shutting down. I knew that area of Archer when I worked with the Elvis band. The drummer lived near Ye Olde Place on 46th & St. Louis and the trumpet player's dad worked at Balazekas. We always ate pizza from a place on the south side of the street, near Balzekas, but I can't recall the name of it, even though the building--with a new name--is still there. And Rich might question my not taking a photo of Polonia Grove, but, well, it'd be a pretty dull photo. Even their sign was kinda 70s dull. Whatever that means.