When preparations were underway for the World’s Fair in 1893, everyone wanted something that would top the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They eventually went with the giant Ferris Wheel (three times the size of the one now at Navy Pier in diameter), but the obvious choice before they landed on that was to simply make Read More…
Tag: world’s fair
A Night at the Whitechapel Club – Part 4
(concluding our series serializing an article on the mysterious whitechapel club from 1890) “To our patron saint and president,” says the chairman, raising his glass of punch. Then the health of Jack the Ripper is drank. It is drank until hte framed panel containing the club’s charter from the state of Illinois – the object: Read More…
A Night At the Whitechapel Club – Part 2
(continuing a serialization of a Tribune article on The Whitechapel Club fro 1890, just after Chicago was chosen as the World’s Fair location). The room is triangular. Long, narrow tables run through the center spaces. But this goes for little. It is the walls that give The Whitechapel Club a distinctive character. There one finds Read More…
A Night in the Whitechapel Club – Part 1
One of the most bizarre famous social clubs in the history of the city was The Whitechapel Club, a morbid club for news reporters whose headquarters featured body parts, a coffin, and all sorts of grisley stuff. In 1890, the Tribune ran a GREAT article called “A Night at the Whitechapel Club” that I’ll be Read More…