With the momentary diversions of Christmas and New Year`s Eve behind them, Chicagoans have only a few remaining midwinter options. One is to sulk through the next two slush-filled months. Another is to fight off the gray-skies gloom by getting out and doing things–which except for transplanted Eskimos usually is not a very attractive idea.
Yet right below our Loop-bound work-a-day feet, many of us have a viable
–which is to say, unfrozen–variation on the theme. Over the last few years, the city`s hidden center has been hollowed out for a series of weatherproof pedestrian passageways.
One underlies the Illlinois Center complex along the south bank of the Chicago River, east of Michigan Avenue. Another branches off from the State and Dearborn subways, running west from the Marshall Field store to the Civic Center and City Hall/County Building, where it turns south to the Brunswick Building and, via an over-the-street passageway, the First National Bank.
By parlaying those public-access passageways with the subway platforms, and by paying a fare to pass through the Illinois Central Gulf`s commuter platform, it is possible to make a complete tour of the Loop fully protected from the elements–except for one short above-ground portage.
Until the Randolph Pedway opens sometime next year adventure-seeking Chicagoans still have to run a one-block ice-and-snow gauntlet between the Cultural Center and Field`s. Yet for the price of that brief chilly exposure, you can have a day on the town without risking the morning-after sniffles.
Along the route of your subterranean way, you will pass a myriad of shops and stores where you can dispose of your post-Christmas cash, as well as all sorts of dining and drinking opportunities.
A number of the city`s street entertainers also take refuge from the cold down here, lending their musical talents to your underground pilgrimage. But best of all, your route will carry you right past–or, more correctly, underneath–some of the most notable spots in our city`s history.
So here, then, is Friday`s recipe for the mid-winter blues: A Worm`s-Eye Tour Of Chicago Legend And Lore.
Start your day by lifting a brew or two at the bar in Stetson`s just inside One Illinois Center. Don`t worry if it`s a while yet to the cocktail hour. You have good historical justification for your libations. Not more than a few-hundred yards from your barstool is the spot where William Wells had Fort Dearborn`s stock of whiskey dumped into the Chicago River just before he and the garrison abandoned Chicago during the War of 1812. Captain Wells` hope was to keep the firewater from the redmen`s hands, though as every school child knows, that strategy didn`t prevent the Fort Dearborn Massacre.
Having paid liquid homage to the 39 men, 2 women and 12 children who were Chicago`s first martyrs, walk south through the Illinois Center`s Michigan Mall to Boulevard Towers. Here the public-access passageways end. However, the building has a turnstile-controlled entrance to the Illinois Central Gulf`s commuter train loading platforms. Buy the cheapest ticket, $1.15, and pass through the platform to the other side, where another set of turnstiles leads to the railroad`s main station. Walk through it and up the stairs to Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street.
Crime fans should be aware they are passing sanctified ground: Climbing these very same stairs in 1930, one-time Tribune reporter Jake Lingle was assassinated gangland style. Evidently, unbeknownst to his editors, Lingle was working a second job on Al Capone`s payroll. In turn, Scarface feared he might be moonlighting as a fink for one of his mobster rivals.
Look up for one snow-filled moment to gaze at the Cultural Center, nee Chicago Public Library, where Clarence Darrow presided over Gov. Peter Altgeld`s funeral in 1902. Because of his pardoning of the Haymarket Martyrs, the city`s clergymen unanimously refused to conduct the governor`s services in more ecclesiastical precincts.
Sobered by those memories, race west along Randolph Street to the safety of Marshall Field`s Wabash Avenue doors. Once inside, proceed to the basement level, being advised that historians of commerce credit Field and his predecessors with here creating the world`s first department store. London`s famed Clarridge`s was founded by an ex-employee of Field in fond memory of his Chicago apprenticeship.
From Field`s basement, find the access point to the State Street subway, and the pedestrian tunnel running west between Randolph and Washington. Walk through it, secure in the knowledge that just above your head, and to the north, Eliza Chappel`s School, the city`s first, opened in 1833. Your route also will take you beneath the site of Chicago`s first black church, Quinn Chapel, and the second site of the city`s first Jewish congregation, K.A.M.
At Dearborn, you will find a plaque commemorating the Garrick Theater Building (1893-1961), whose foundations once must have run right through this level on their way to bedrock.
Designed by Louis Sullivan, the furor caused by the building`s demolition gave a great impetus to the historical preservation movement in these parts
–especially because Richard Nickle, a Sullivan fanatic, here lost his life trying to salvage bits and pieces of the master`s masterpiece.
If you hear faint cries still reverberating through these depths, it is because also nearby is the site of the Iroquois Theater which caught fire on Dec. 30, 1903. Although Eddie Foy, a leading entertainer of the day, stood on the burning stage trying to calm the crowd, 603 patrons perished in a desperate attempt to fight their way out the theater`s locked doors.
Look the other way, though, toward Washington Street, while passing under the Civic Center between Dearborn and Clark and you are witness to the happier outcome of another Chicago Fire. Two days after the great conflagration of 1871, a well-known real-estate dealer returned to the burned-out site of his offices, and plunked down a sign reading: W. D. Kerfoot–Everything Gone But Wife, Children And Energy.
The spike that secured that famous morale-booster still must be embedded somewhere in the soil that surrounds you.
Passing now under the City Hall/County County Building, listen carefully for the clanking echoes of another bit of Chicago. No, it`s not the aldermen counting the daily boodle. The sound of the old City Hall`s bell still tolling, as the building was consumed by flames, was for years afterwards many a survivor`s most vivid memory of the fire.
Even as it sounded its last peals, a civic-minded businessman, John G. Shorthall, dashed into the building to rescue the city`s land-ownership records. Thank goodness for his bravery. Otherwise, how would you know who to mail the rent check to?
Turning south now, you pass between Dearborn and Clark Streets through the Brunswick Building and into 3 First National Plaza. From there, an enclosed walkway leads over Madison Street to the First National Bank. Be advised that while the premises now are given over to money, they long ago safeguarded more precious contents: In the days before the Civil War, the site was a terminal point on the Underground Railroad.
Inspired by those last two words, enter the Dearborn Street subway from the bank`s entrance. Walk south along its platform alongside of the humongous masonry foundations of the last of the pre-steel structure skyscrapers, the 1891 Monadnock Block.
Nearby, where Quincy Street once ran, you will find a passageway leading to the State Street subway. Walk through it with proper courtroom decorum:
Above is the Dirksen Federal Building. But don`t be surprised to still hear a lot of rumbling and grumbling. It was the site of the Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial–a high, or low, point of `60s Radicalism.
Now turn north through the State Street subway. If you hear echoes of Frankie singing ”That Great Street,” reverberating through the tunnel, it is because Potter Palmer`s development of the street as Chicago`s shopping center and rialto marked our city`s first great real estate killing. At Marshall Field, exit the subway and return to the starting point of your tour.
