Blog

By Ed McDevitt, Class of 2010 with Jill Dahlke, Class of 2005

Several years ago, former CAF VP Jason Neises approached a few docents with an idea that had been niggling at him for quite some time. He wanted to develop a series of pub tours. At the time, some other organizations had been running pub tours, such as the Chicago History Museum’s “trolley crawls” and Landmarks Illinois’ annual Pub Tours. Several years before 2010, CAF conducted “Happy Hour” tours in the Loop. In the summer of 2011 CAF and Landmarks Illinois partnered to offer preservation-oriented tours that ended in a local, historic pub. But there was no formal CAF pub tour on the schedule.

Jason’s thought was that such tours in neighborhoods would be a good idea. They would not be the typical walking, talking architecture tour. Rather, docents would talk about the character of the neighborhood, the neighborhood’s history, and how Chicago had grown up as a city with a strong ethnic pub culture. We weren’t planning to ignore the architecture of the neighborhood; we wanted to make it part of the fabric of the story. Jason envisioned a more participatory tour, one that was entertaining and more relaxed than our walking tours of the time. In a sense, his idea anticipated our more recent Project Fresh concepts.

In 2011 we convened a development team, initially headed by former docent Chuck Rita, who was joined by Ed McDevitt, Ellen Shubart, Roy Slowinski, Jeff Marcella, and Cathy Walsh, along with Jason.

Jason wanted to visit mainly “dive” bars because they, as he saw it, best reflected what the working citizens of a neighborhood would have experienced. As it turned out, this became a difficult criterion to fulfill since most of the dive bars we found were too small to accommodate a crowd of tourees or were not along a clear, defined route.

We started with an easy one: we adapted part of an existing River North walking tour, developing a route that allowed our stops at representative pubs in River North. Much of the information for the tour came from Ron Campbell, a docent for the River North neighborhood tour. But before we began incorporating that information, we set out to find good places to stop.

It was delightful to scout a fairly large number of pubs. We found several that were not satisfying or just no fun at all. We narrowed the list to a few, then worked through our choices. Our final list included a first stop at Fado, an Irish pub at Grand and Clark.

While the pub has a great atmosphere, we argued quite a bit about it. It’s part of a chain of Irish-themed pubs (10 in the U.S. and one in, of all places, Abu Dhabi) that has transplanted actual pubs from Ireland and installed them at their properties. As a pub, it clearly is not part of the original history of its neighborhood. However, the 1873 building it occupies has a good story, having been the home of a law firm that was preceded in its occupancy by what was likely a brothel.

Our second stop was at English, a pub on LaSalle Street just south of Illinois Street, now closed. Our final stop was Epic, also now closed, which was the antithesis of a “dive bar.” It was a classy place with a rooftop bar that looked out onto a great skyline that induced terrific post-tour conversations, some lasting for hours. And that, it turned out, was a discovery all by itself: the great conversations we could have with our tourees after the tour. Talk about engagement!

The River North pub tour kicked off in 2011 and was successful enough in its first season that we decided to develop two new tours: Lakeview and Andersonville. These developments attracted now Co-Tour Director Jill Dahlke, who formerly lived in Lakeview, to the team as well as Elise Daughhetee. The Lakeview tour was different in nature from the River North tour because Lakeview was, in many ways, virgin territory for the organization. Lakeview had no prior tours from which to draw information. An older tour of Lakewood/Balmoral was a good source of information on Andersonville.

We also developed some rules after our River North experience. We did not abandon talking about architecture in favor of pure neighborhood history. We blended history and many character-based stories with architectural material, and it worked. Our River North tour originally started at 5 – too early for people coming from work. And it turned out that both we and our customers needed time to get to Lakeview and, especially, Andersonville, so 6 PM became the norm for those tours, as it did, ultimately, with the two tours we developed later, West Loop and Near North. We also figured out that three pubs per tour was ideal. Two would have made one wonder how it was a “pub tour.” More than three, and we’d likely have a lot of weaving tourees.

Our River North and Lakeview tours were discontinued and put “in the vault” for the 2016 season and have not yet been revived, primarily due to a shortage of docents. Our Near North, West Loop, and Andersonville tours remain very popular particularly for CAC members. We’ve had to revise our manuals for all of tours several times for various reasons, not the least of which has been the closing of pubs, a constant phenomenon, but not terribly concerning since new ones open all the time, or we can find a good pub nearby that fits our criteria.
However, the biggest problem in our neighborhoods has been fast-paced development.

Our Near North route has seen the addition of a plethora of new apartment buildings that we’ve had to account for – never mind the disappearance of such landmarks as Ed Debevic’s, Planet Hollywood, and the old – really old – Howard Johnson’s Hotel. Fortunately, the three pubs we started with remain in place: Clark Street Ale House, Brehon Pub, and The Green Door. We have the most fun with the story of Brehon Pub which in 1977 achieved Chicago fame as the Mirage Tavern when city inspectors were caught taking bribes over a two-month period, breaking the story in a continuing series in the Sun-Times that year.

Attorney Jack Burke, a patron of Chicago Architecture Center, and his brother bought the bar after the investigative report concluded. The Burkes rehabbed the building and turned Brehon, at the corner of Wells and Superior, into one of Chicago’s better-known and well-respected Irish-themed bars.

Our Andersonville tour continues each year from April to December to take advantage of local celebrations, beginning with the Midsomer Fest and the St. Lucia Festival. Well known neighborhood bar Simon’s, just north of Foster on Clark, serves a cool slushy version of glogg in the summer and then their mulled wine glogg during the holiday season.

Our West Loop tour has seen major changes in the building landscape since we started, including the disappearance of Harpo Studios and the appearance of its replacement, the McDonald’s Headquarters Building. We’ve seen the addition of such buildings as the Arkadia Tower and many new, tall structures along Randolph Street and near Mary Bartelme Park.

The Skybridge condominium used to be the tallest building west of the expressway when it first opened in 2003. Now it’s second to the 500-foot 727 West Madison, a sleek new building at Halsted and Madison, which will soon be dwarfed by the planned Equinox Hotel, a 52-story, 615-foot tower, located at 725 West Randolph, just east of Halsted Street.

What remains constant are the pubs and the friendly conversations we have as we visit them. We have introduced inquiring residents, new CAC patrons, and seasoned CAC members to the remarkable and often unique architecture of our neighborhoods and to the transformation of industrial blocks into residential areas. We recount the transition of rough areas like the former Skid Row along Madison Street into high-profile and often high-priced gentrified locations. We’ve shown the evolution of neighborhood culture in areas such as Andersonville, as it slowly loses its Swedish heritage in the businesses along Clark Street. At the same time we’re able to show the magnetism of the neighborhood bar that still has the feel of a neighborhood saloon or tavern and gathering place, as is the case with Clark Street Ale house, a bar since the 1940s. It has changed with time (it was formerly known as “Stop and Drink,” as the photo below shows) but continues to have a vibrant life with both regular customers and newcomers, all of it in a building constructed in 1891.

Jason’s idea continues eight years later, similar in nature to what we planned, yet different in the details. It’s a joy to be part of it. We encourage you to join us in the neighborhoods this year.