April 23, 2008: Chicago at night

[glatt]

Oh, look up there at the top of the picture. That's the alley where they shot the mountain lion last week.

Cops kill cougar on North Side

[newtimer]

At first glance I'm reminded of the opening credits in Tron.

[Scriveyn]

... which reminds me of one of my favourite albums:

(listen here ...)

[SPUCK]

And now where did the cow kick over the lantern?

[Scriveyn]

Originally Posted by SPUCK

And now where did the cow kick over the lantern?

approximately here: Google Maps (formerly DeKoven Street) according to Wikipedia

[dar512]

That's interesting. I've actually been down that way while walking on my lunch hour. No barns or cows in that area now. There is a nice Whole Foods store, though.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No barns or cows in that area now

Pssst... they burned down.

[Shawnee123]

Late last night
When we were all in bed
Old lady Leary lit a lantern in the shed
And when the cow kicked it over
She winked her eye and said
It'll be a hot time in the old town tonight
Fire Fire Fire

(sang at Campfire Girls summer camp)

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by Scriveyn

approximately here: Google Maps (formerly DeKoven Street) according to Wikipedia

Now you got me started, Scriveyn and Spuck! To be less approximate than wikipedia : The site of the O'Leary barn is in from the NE corner of DeKoven & Jefferson, at the modern 558 W. DeKoven St. This is 2 blocks west and 2 short blocks north of Roosevelt & Canal (the arrow in that Google map), or 2 blocks east of the Dan Ryan Expressway. DeKoven does still exist, if mostly to provide access to parking for the Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy, which stands at the O'Leary site.

For practical navigation purposes, like when Brianna and glatt are out tooling around town, we could say the academy is at the SE corner of Taylor (more of a through street than DeKoven) & Jefferson, with a monumental modern sculpture and the entrance on the S side just off Jefferson. Note to congestion sufferers : Get ethyl 4-(8-chloro-5,6-dihydro-11H-benzo[5,6]cyclohepta[1,2-b]pyridin-11-ylidene) -1-piperidinecarboxylate clear by using Jefferson St. to bypass the expressways and Spaghetti Bowl just to the west and northwest, where the Eisenhower Expressway meets the Dan Ryan Expressway, which becomes the Kennedy Expressway. Even when parallel Canal St. and Clinton are congested, Jefferson never is. Soon you'll be breathing a sigh of relief through clear passageways. Get back to your old self again--and back to today's active lifestyle .

. .



The O'Leary site is at the tip of that tiny finger in the upper left corner of map sector 1. This map (with north at right) is chronologically keyed to very descriptive PBS text following the progress of the fire.

. .

Left: The O'Learys' house (please note correct apostrophe placement ) was spared, since the fire spread N and NE from their barn--4 miles! (Please see also this old map and this map-illustration.) The O'Learys' barn was in back of the structures pictured, viewed from about DeKoven & Jefferson (looking NE).
" 'The land was thickly studded with one-story frame dwellings, cow stables, pig sties, corncribs, sheds innumerable; every wretched building within four feet of its neighbor, and everything of wood.'
- Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, reporter, Chicago Evening Post" (from PBS page).
Center: Modern view of the O'Leary site, from closer up. The precise spot where the O'Leary barn stood is marked by a dramatic bronze sculpture by Egon Weiner in the plaza in front of the fire academy.
Right: Ich nein sprechen sie Deutsch, but I think "Egon Weiner" can be translated as "wiener agony," as commonly experienced in campfires.



Of course, that should be:

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Scriveyn

approximately here: Google Maps (formerly DeKoven Street) according to Wikipedia

How about H. H. Holmes' murder house?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've been to the Billy Goat Tavern.

[SPUCK]

Imigo Jones; Nice round up there..

Figgers they'd put a fire academy there!

[Shawnee123]

Classic, xoxoxoBruce!

[dar512]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Pssst... they burned down.

Right. Right. On the other hand, I don't think they built this immediately after the fire:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Probably not, but then we do know how long these urban renewal projects can take.