A pet peeve of mine are the generic photos of people at work that a lot of brochures, pamphlets and websites use. You know the ones, they show a generic looking group of people, well groomed, conservatively dressed, ready to conquer the world. Or, you just see photos of hand shaking, cell phone talking, people in a meeting, etc.
My website will have photos of real people at work.
My first photo is a distinguished looking gentleman circa 1903-09 standing in front of his butcher shop in the west Loop area of Downtown Chicago. Who is this man? Why did I include this picture?
The man is my great-great grandfather Meyer Levinson. This is his butcher shop on Maxwell Street in Chicago. We (my family) believe that this photo was taken sometime between 1903 and 1909, before Maxwell Street became a world renown shopping destination in Chicago. We think that Meyer’s shop was at 326 Maxwell, as the address at the top of the left hand window pane indicates, and was between Sangamon and Morgan Streets. However, as this picture was taken prior to 1909, the address doesn’t coincide with our modern day conception of location in Chicago, wherein Sangamon and Morgan are now at 900 and 1000 West.
In 1909, Chicago’s present day address system of 0 North, South, East and West, commencing at State and Madison Streets, began with the Plan of Chicago AKA the Burnham Plan, named after architect and planner Daniel Burnham. Burnham along with Edward Bennett designed the plan. Consequently, my great-great grandfather’s shop had a completely different address than what it would have under the Burnham Plan. Now, his shop is the location of athletic fields at the University of Illinois, Chicago’s campus.
To see a larger version/image of any photo posted in this series just click on it.
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