Living Landmarks of Chicago

Name: Living Landmarks of Chicago | The Local Tourist
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Price: 24.99 USD
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Tantalizing tales and skyscraper stories: bringing Chicago’s landmarks to life

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Description

Description

Living Landmarks of Chicago goes beyond the what, when, and where to tell the how and why of 50 significant Chicago landmarks. From the parlor used as a meat locker to the fight over the Field Museum, history comes to life.

“A wonderful bible of Chicago.” Dina Bair, WGN

History lines Chicago’s sidewalks. Stroll down LaSalle or Dearborn or State and you’ll see skyscrapers that have been there for a century or more. It’s easy to scurry by, to dismiss the building itself, but a hunt for placards turns up landmarks every few feet, it seems. Here’s a Chicago landmark; there’s a National Historic landmark. They’re everywhere.

Ironically, these skyscrapers keep the city grounded; they illustrate a past where visionaries took fanciful, impossible ideas and made them reality. Buildings sinking? Raise them. River polluting the lake and its precious drinking water? Reverse it. Overpopulation and urban sprawl making it challenging to get to work? Build up. From the bare to the ornate, from exposed beams to ornamented facades, the city’s architecture is unrestrainedly various yet provides a cohesive, beautiful skyline that illustrates the creativity of necessity, and the necessity of creativity.

Theresa L. Goodrich’s writing is so delicious it makes it hard to put the book down.

Heidi Kohz

In this dive into Chicago history, Theresa L. Goodrich tells the stories of fifty significant landmarks. Each chapter is a vignette that introduces the landmark and brings it to life, and the book is organized chronologically to illustrate the development of the city’s distinct personality.

These fifty landmarks weave an interconnected tale of Chicago between 1836 and 1932 (and beyond). I’ve chosen each for a reason.

I have read many histories of this, my favorite US city, and I could not put Theresa L. Goodrich’s book down. It should be available in every living landmark, at every city hotel (especially now that places like The Palmer House and The Drake have reopened.) It should be required reading for city administrators, high school history classes, and tourism bureaus. Brilliant book.

bookwriter

You might notice there are several hotels. That’s because so many wonderful old buildings have been adapted in that manner. It’s pretty cool to be able to spend the night in a building designed by Jenney or Burnham.

This book is a masterpiece of history and a travelogue that will inspire you to visit the landmarks you have not seen, and to go back to those that you have.

Cindy Ladage, Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl

Landmarks listed as Original Name (Current Name, if changed)