The History of Chicago Buildings During Prohibition
October 8th, 2011 by admin
Posted by: Sara on August 7, 2011
Chicago has an interesting history and when you take a nostalgic look back at the Prohibition Period and Chicago’s architectural history, the combination is both colorful and fascinating. While the Prohibition Period gave rise to infamous characters such as Al Capone and John Dillinger, Art Deco yielded up an architectural style of simplicity and elegance. The Prohibition Period’s time frame was 1920 to 1933 and the Art Deco Period was 1925 to 1939. There was the wild Roaring 20′s when underworld crime escalated and the Great Depression, which caused enormous suffering. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre took place in 1929 in a long gone warehouse in Lincoln Park. John Dillinger was killed by FBI agents in 1934 at the still standing Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park . Chicago’s rich history of Art Deco architecture can be seen today in such structures as the Palmolive Building on north Michigan Avenue, the Carbon and Carbide Building, the Oriental Theater, and the Chicago Board of Trade Building. There are other architectural delights of this period; so if you ever visit this vibrant city, it would be worth your while to take the Art Deco tour of historic buildings.