Was born in the Back of the Yards. Thought we were "middle class" but actually far from it. Parents and 3 kids in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 900 sq ft appt. Baptized at Sacred Hearth Church. But it formed good morals and values. Graduated from Gage park HS. Ended my career as a VP at McDonald's corp. Kind of funny, we now have a home in the western burbs, one on the lake in Michigan and one in Clearwater Fl. I cherish my upbringing there.
When I was a kid Back of the Yards had the best polish food and it still might but less than it used to be... SR ran the grocery store in McKinley Park... SR worked at the Union Stock yards... Several members of the family worked at The Union Stock Yards... All the city at some point had the smell of the stock yards... Back of the Yards had the smell the most... Chicago used to have a leather and shoe industry and they used leather from the stock yards... I believe some of the leather industry still exist... although it is smaller... Florsheim shoes was a large shoe maker using stock yards leather... The stock yards used to go to bars and announce they needed 35 people and hire most of the people... SR was a skilled batcher... 15:18 is what SR did... The stock yards was low paying the jobs away from the stock yards paid more and you would try to migrate out... Sr was first a seller, then killed the cattle... about Chicago parks Old Chicago was all work and no play and stressed... Also the worlds fastest growing city... Fraternal clubs were very important for the family... 30:44 The family shopped at Goldblatts... Goldblatts was reasonable and would give people credit... A good store...
I used to pick up tallow from Ed Miniat Co. on Pershing in the early 1990's. Usual loading time was 2 am in the morning and delivered to bakeries in Wisconsin by noon that day. I believe they still have a facility down by Dolton.
65 years old now. Polish and have moved on in life, degreed and, retired comfortably. Yet, as a little kid, growing up in the "Back of The Yards", I cannot forget that smell in the air to this day, lol. I look on it with humor now and, ironically, being raised by a low-income single mother, she moved us eventually from there to near the old "Argo" corn startch plant (changed to CPC - Corn Products) which, was trading one stink for another, lol. Good thing I have a sense of humor about it all since, buck then, it really DID 'stink'.
The late Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause grew up in the Back of the Yards, or Town of Lake, neighborhood. He was Lithuanian; his surname was originally Kriaučiūnas. His high school football coach couldn't pronounce it (Lithuanian surnames can be tongue twisters), and shortened it to Krause. His parents were Holy Cross parishioners.
I read the area as very racist in the 30's-70's. Now I think it is mostly Black and Hispanic. There might still be a few Polish and Lithuanian families still there.
The “Burnham and root” gate is half buried, why? The early pre fire depiction shows the property was already there when Burnham and root “found” it, so was the railroad. The bells and the bell towers in the “street scenes” photos look to have been removed perhaps to incrementally sanitize the neighborhood of remains of the old world as it was before the stockyards. WW2 did a good job of this, was this the actual reason for the war, to demo and reduce the old world into a post modern reduction? Now it gets interesting. Saint Gabriel‘s Irish church supposedly built by Burnham and root was based on a “French country Gothic” example?? Look at it and see that this makes zero sense, and you can even hear the stuttering professor making that up as he goes. What does this say about his credibility as well as the credibility of his institution and its accreditation? And it’s especially concerning how he glosses over all the demolished structures in the area which had just been built, without ever questioning why they were demolished, let alone who really built them. We need to hear the professor explain how the architectural similarities in all the different church building denominations came about. How did all the diverse ethnic groups that remained so segregated, all manage to build church buildings of the same style in the same neighborhoods, Protestant or Catholic? The smart moderator knows to asks a hard question on this topic. He calls the architecture in question “higher end architecture” but fails to elaborate on this “higher end architecture” except to say that Burnham and Root and Epstein built it all somehow, and then goes onto explain how the standard two flats and bungalows were created as a response to the need for affordable housing. Ok. He does say Henry Schlacks built all the churches but fails to explain where the diverse laborers who did such an amazing job using horse and buggy managed to all work together under this mastermind Shlacks. There is scant information about Shlacks online, just pictures of churches around chicago that he gets credit for building. How did Shlacks manage to pull this all off? Professor, how did the Chicago native Shlacks learn so much about European church architecture in the first place? There should be volumes on Shlacks to reference with construction photos but there isn’t. The professor talks about all the different immigrant populations all being catholic and tries but fails to explain why they all fight so much even though they all are popish. He gives a long rambling answer and then sums it up saying “it’s the gospel of according to him” which means, admittedly, he just made it all up. Who else is just tired of all this disjointed made up history fed to us by overpaid faux academic liars like this guy? Lying is sin, where are the priests calling it out? They aren’t? Does that mean the priests and academics are working together? Professor, where did the Ratio Studiorum come from?
outstanding presentation my dad is lithuanian, he had friends near the stockyards
Was born in the Back of the Yards. Thought we were "middle class" but actually far from it. Parents and 3 kids in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 900 sq ft appt. Baptized at Sacred Hearth Church. But it formed good morals and values. Graduated from Gage park HS. Ended my career as a VP at McDonald's corp. Kind of funny, we now have a home in the western burbs, one on the lake in Michigan and one in Clearwater Fl. I cherish my upbringing there.
I like your story and the manner you convey it. Greetings from Melbourne, Australia.
When I was a kid Back of the Yards had the best polish food and it still might but less than it used to be... SR ran the grocery store in McKinley Park... SR worked at the Union Stock yards... Several members of the family worked at The Union Stock Yards... All the city at some point had the smell of the stock yards... Back of the Yards had the smell the most... Chicago used to have a leather and shoe industry and they used leather from the stock yards... I believe some of the leather industry still exist... although it is smaller... Florsheim shoes was a large shoe maker using stock yards leather... The stock yards used to go to bars and announce they needed 35 people and hire most of the people... SR was a skilled batcher... 15:18 is what SR did... The stock yards was low paying the jobs away from the stock yards paid more and you would try to migrate out... Sr was first a seller, then killed the cattle... about Chicago parks Old Chicago was all work and no play and stressed... Also the worlds fastest growing city... Fraternal clubs were very important for the family... 30:44 The family shopped at Goldblatts... Goldblatts was reasonable and would give people credit... A good store...
I used to pick up tallow from Ed Miniat Co. on Pershing in the early 1990's. Usual loading time was 2 am in the morning and delivered to bakeries in Wisconsin by noon that day. I believe they still have a facility down by Dolton.
My mom worked in the stock market back in the 40's. The Beatles and Jackson 5 performed at the Amphitheather.
65 years old now. Polish and have moved on in life, degreed and, retired comfortably. Yet, as a little kid, growing up in the "Back of The Yards", I cannot forget that smell in the air to this day, lol. I look on it with humor now and, ironically, being raised by a low-income single mother, she moved us eventually from there to near the old "Argo" corn startch plant (changed to CPC - Corn Products) which, was trading one stink for another, lol. Good thing I have a sense of humor about it all since, buck then, it really DID 'stink'.
The late Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause grew up in the Back of the Yards, or Town of Lake, neighborhood. He was Lithuanian; his surname was originally Kriaučiūnas. His high school football coach couldn't pronounce it (Lithuanian surnames can be tongue twisters), and shortened it to Krause. His parents were Holy Cross parishioners.
Is the back of the yard's neighborhood mostly minorities I'm from Cali so I'm just wandering?
Currently yes... But maybe always because eastern Europeans were the victims of discrimination in the old days...
I read the area as very racist in the 30's-70's. Now I think it is mostly Black and Hispanic. There might still be a few Polish and Lithuanian families still there.
Back of the Yards is nearly all Hispanic, with some black families as you go south and east. The surviving elderly whites died long ago.
Labor "agitation"?
I think you meant "activism".
😍
The “Burnham and root” gate is half buried, why? The early pre fire depiction shows the property was already there when Burnham and root “found” it, so was the railroad. The bells and the bell towers in the “street scenes” photos look to have been removed perhaps to incrementally sanitize the neighborhood of remains of the old world as it was before the stockyards. WW2 did a good job of this, was this the actual reason for the war, to demo and reduce the old world into a post modern reduction? Now it gets interesting. Saint Gabriel‘s Irish church supposedly built by Burnham and root was based on a “French country Gothic” example?? Look at it and see that this makes zero sense, and you can even hear the stuttering professor making that up as he goes. What does this say about his credibility as well as the credibility of his institution and its accreditation? And it’s especially concerning how he glosses over all the demolished structures in the area which had just been built, without ever questioning why they were demolished, let alone who really built them. We need to hear the professor explain how the architectural similarities in all the different church building denominations came about. How did all the diverse ethnic groups that remained so segregated, all manage to build church buildings of the same style in the same neighborhoods, Protestant or Catholic? The smart moderator knows to asks a hard question on this topic. He calls the architecture in question “higher end architecture” but fails to elaborate on this “higher end architecture” except to say that Burnham and Root and Epstein built it all somehow, and then goes onto explain how the standard two flats and bungalows were created as a response to the need for affordable housing. Ok. He does say Henry Schlacks built all the churches but fails to explain where the diverse laborers who did such an amazing job using horse and buggy managed to all work together under this mastermind Shlacks. There is scant information about Shlacks online, just pictures of churches around chicago that he gets credit for building. How did Shlacks manage to pull this all off? Professor, how did the Chicago native Shlacks learn so much about European church architecture in the first place? There should be volumes on Shlacks to reference with construction photos but there isn’t. The professor talks about all the different immigrant populations all being catholic and tries but fails to explain why they all fight so much even though they all are popish. He gives a long rambling answer and then sums it up saying “it’s the gospel of according to him” which means, admittedly, he just made it all up. Who else is just tired of all this disjointed made up history fed to us by overpaid faux academic liars like this guy? Lying is sin, where are the priests calling it out? They aren’t? Does that mean the priests and academics are working together? Professor, where did the Ratio Studiorum come from?
I would have become a vegetarian if I had worked at the stock yards.