Category: History

• August 6, 2017

  Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest

  Before the Civil War, a network of secret routes and safe houses crisscrossed the Midwest to help African Americans travel north to escape slavery. Although many slaves were able to escape to the safety of Canada, others met untimely deaths on the treacherous journey—and some of these unfortunates still linger, unable to rest in peace.…
• June 7, 2017

  Chicago’s Fabulous Fountains by Greg Borzo with photos by Julia Thiel

  Hiding in plain sight, Chicago’s many fountains are gems of art, history, politics and culture, their stories often overlooked. Sure we all know Buckingham Fountain and the Crown Fountain in Millennial Park. But what about the Nelson Algren Fountain at Division Street and Ashland and Milwaukee avenues which was opposed by the Polish community and many…
• August 4, 2016

  Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago

  

    Almost 12,000 people streamed into the First Cavalry Armory on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on May 25, 1889 to view the coffin of Dr. P.H. Cronin, an Irish physician and political activist who had been savagely murdered. “It was one of the first ‘sensational’ murders covered by the Chicago press and far beyond,” says…