=MICHIGAN BOULEVARD AND GRANT PARK, CHICAGO, VIEWED FROM THE WEST SHORE
OF LAKE MICHIGAN=]
=Chicago= (_shĭ-kä´gō_), =Ill.= [The “Windy City”], probably received
its name from the Indian _Checagua_, meaning “wild onion” and
“pole-cat.”
It is the second city and largest railway center of the United States,
and is situated on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouths
of the rivers Chicago and Calumet, five hundred and ninety feet above
sea level and fifteen to seventy-five feet above the lake. It is eight
hundred and fifty miles from Baltimore, the nearest Atlantic port, and
two thousand four hundred and fifteen miles from San Francisco.
Chicago is noted for the magnitude of its commercial enterprises; for
the greatness of its financial institutions; for the excellence of its
parks and public playgrounds--particularly in the number, equipment, and
splendid use of its small parks in congested localities; for its
universities, its efficient public-school system, and for other
educational, artistic, and morally uplifting institutions that give to
it an enlightened, a cultured, and a progressive citizenship.
It is estimated that not more than 350,000 of the inhabitants are of
native American parentage; about 550,000 are Germans, 250,000 are Irish,
225,000 Scandinavians, 160,000 Poles, 110,000 Bohemians, 40,000
Italians, 60,000 Canadians, and 100,000 English and Scottish. There are
some fourteen languages, besides English, each of which is spoken by ten
thousand or more persons.
The city has a water-front on the lake of twenty-six miles and is
divided by the Chicago River and its branches into three portions, known
as the North, South, and West Sides, to which must be added the “Loop,”
or business part of the city. The site of the city is remarkably level,
rising very slightly from the lake; and its streets are usually wide and
straight. Among the chief business-thoroughfares are State, Clark,
Madison, Randolph, Dearborn, and La Salle Streets, and Wabash Avenue.
Perhaps the finest residence streets are Prairie and Michigan Avenues
and Drexel and Grand Boulevards, on the South Side, and Lake Shore
Drive, on the North Side.
A splendid bird’s-eye view of Chicago is obtained by ascending to the
top of the tower of the Auditorium on Congress Street and Michigan
Boulevard. This huge building, erected in 1887-1889 at a cost of three
million five hundred thousand dollars, includes a large hotel and a
handsome theater. The Fine Arts or Studebaker Building, adjoining the
Auditorium, on Michigan Boulevard, is one of the show buildings of
Chicago, and has deservedly been described as the focus of the artistic
and intellectual life of Chicago, containing as it does a theater,
concert, assembly, and lecture rooms, studios of leading artists, and
the meeting-places of several clubs. The beautiful Romanesque building
to the north of the Fine Arts Building is the Chicago Club. A little
farther to the north, at the corner of Jackson Boulevard, is the tall
Railway Exchange Building, erected in 1903-1904, and cased in tiles.
Next to this on the north is the new building of the Chicago Orchestra
Association, on the roof of which is the house of the “Cliff Dwellers,”
a literary and artistic club. A little to the south of the Auditorium,
at the corner of Harrison Street, is the Harvester Building, erected in
1907, beyond which is the palatial Blackstone Hotel. A little farther to
the south is the Illinois Central Station.
Following Michigan Avenue toward the north from the Auditorium, we reach
the Art Institute of Chicago, an imposing building in a semi-classical
style, containing a valuable collection of paintings, sculptures, and
other objects of art. Opposite is the magnificent People’s Gas Building,
erected at a cost of eight million dollars.
Farther to the north, on the opposite side of Michigan Avenue, are the
buildings of the Illinois Athletic Club, the University Club, and the
Chicago Athletic Club. At the corner of Madison Street is the Montgomery
Ward Building, with its tower, and a little farther up, at the corner of
Washington Street, is the Chicago Public Library, an imposing building
in a classical style, erected in 1893-1897, at a cost of two million
dollars.
This fine edifice is worthy to rank with the Library of Congress and the
Boston Public Library. The main entrances are to the north and south, in
Randolph Street and Washington Street. The interior is sumptuously
adorned with marble, mosaics, frescoes and mottoes. It contains three
hundred and fifty thousand volumes. On the first floor is a large
Memorial Hall, used by the Grand Army of the Republic and covered by a
dome; it contains an interesting collection of Civil War and other
historical relics.
On the north, Michigan Avenue ends at the Chicago River. Fort Dearborn
stood to the left, on the river, at the end of the avenue.
[Illustration: 9. Railway Exchange