the wonders of a river

Old World columns decorate this modern structure.

A view of the many bridges crossing the Chicago River.

This building curves along the Chicago River.

I just returned from a quick trip to Chicago where I saw a college friend as a means of unwinding from my work on a manuscript. During my visit, I kept my eyes open for anything that would push my thinking about this upcoming course.

Leander James McCormick's double-house.

While walking around downtown, I passed by a double-house once owned by industrialist Leander James McCormick. The house was constructed in the Italianate style also seen on Tuscaloosa’s DePalma’s Italian restaurant. The restaurant, which was originally a bank, was built in the 1870s like this house and Tuscaloosa’s Jemison Mansion. The double-house was built in 1875 after the famous 1871 fire that began in a Chicago barn. The fire has figured into many pop culture products including songs. During my visit I went on an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River and was directed by a docent to look west  in order to see a huge radio tower that now sits in the approximate area of the barn in question.

One of the things I was most struck by on this tour, which was sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, was how nineteenth century Chicagoans went to great lengths – literally  - to stop polluting nearby Lake Michigan by making the river flow toward St. Louis.  In doing so, they narrowly avoided a lawsuit by St. Louis residents who hardly wanted Chicago’s dirty water.

I learned, too, how Chicagoans across time have had a love-hate relationship with their 156-mile long river, which is interesting. This waterway was a critical reason why the city even became a key site. For sure, it was this river that drew Jean Baptist Point du Sable, a man of African and French descent who is regarded as the city’s first permanent settler, to the area in 1790. By 1837, the city was chartered and quickly grew.  The entrances of some of the buildings adjacent to the river eventually began to face away from the river, which was soon filled with debris and who knows what else. As the city gentrifies, new constructions, among them high-priced apartments, face a now-cleaner river. 

As the students in this class will learn, water is often  important to how people make decisions about where to build things.  Just look at the new construction in Tuscaloosa. A lot of such construction  - including the Embassy Suites Hotel - is on  or near the Black Warrior River!