Who remembers when house-hunting meant sitting with your realtor at their office flipping through listing books?   Who remembers what came between that and our MLS database of today?   Here it is:

Love it!!   You all know that my fellow realtors and I go to work each day wearing our lace gloves.   

p.s.   Guess what firm today is in this former space of Kahn Realty?

Hemphill Home.     We see that again and again in descriptions in North Shore home listings.

For newer agents or residents to the area, here is what everyone is talking about:

If you're not asleep already after reading that headline, you must be a realtor.   Who else would find this interesting?

Remember in your first licensing class the teacher taught you about The Quinlan Tyson Act?   You'd think that it was named after the last names of the senators or whomever came up with the idea.   Nope - it was named after a very local well-known real estate firm.   Here you see Quinlan and Tyson, Inc's ads from 1966.   Many of these buildings are still occupied today by real estate firms.  

Isn't that interesting?  I think so but then again...I'm a realtor.

If you ask my husband what I am like, he would tell you I love puzzles and I am somewhat stubborn.  (Ok, he might not have used the word "somewhat.")   Anyway, I have been thinking more about the connection of Buffalo Grove and Levittown.   

In Chicago we think of Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan when we think architectural history.  As a kid of the suburbs with a degree in Architectural History, why do we have to always look at this trinity of architects and always think about their contributions to the Loop, Oak Park, etc?  Someone had to have designed places like Skokie, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, etc.  

Let's take a look at the history of Chicago's Buffalo Grove.   The village was settled in the 1840's but saw its greatest population boom immediately after its incorporation in 1958.  The population tripled between 1960 and 1966.  Dundee was the first state concrete road in northern Illinois opening automobile access.

Below is Buffalo Grove in 1968.   The Levitt& Son's development at the top of the photo is the Strathmore Subdivision, home today to Checker Dr, Twisted Oak, Arbor Gate, Burnt Ember and other streets.   Just below that is the village's golf course that runs on the north side of Lake Cook Road.   Just below that is the Levitt & Son's development that today is home to Whitehall, Plum Grove Circle, Weidner & other streets.

Here's the same today:

Now, back to being stubborn & liking puzzles.   I wanted to see what a house in that 1968 picture would look like today.   Look at the NE corner of Timber Hill & Country in 1968:

Pretty much Pleasantville right?  No trees, houses still being built up the block.   Well, here is that exact same house today:

I love figuring out this sort of stuff!    What did things look like originally?  How did these suburbs that we all roll our eyes at get to be the way they are?   It's all pretty cool to learn about & I welcome your memories and comments.  Thanks!

Levitt built a great deal of Buffalo Grove, Vernon Hills, Schaumburg and other Chicago suburbs.   Pretty cool!

I know we all love looking at that amazing piece of suburban history - the development of the Levittowns.  Everyone in the photos look like they just fell out of an episode of Donna Reed or the film Edward Scissorhands. 

Did you know there is a Chicago-area connection to Levittown?
(Ok, I know you all know probably a zillion connections but the one I am looking for has to do with a Lake County community.)
This picture above is not an east coast Levittown.   It is a very early Buffalo Grove.  Yes, the Levitt Company built large pieces of Buffalo Grove.   Does anyone have their home's original plans or photos of Levitt logos on any parts of their homes?  Post them because I'd love to see them.   Thanks!

You're gonna get hungry reading this.  

Who remembers these restaurants?   Please comment and share with me your memories / photos.   I'd love to learn from you.   Thanks & bon appetit!

Chicago then was not Chicago now.  

Our lovely lakefront with its museums, parks, bike trails - all that used to be factories, smokestacks, trains spewing smoke, horses (and their uh...you know) and factory waste being dumped straight into the river and lake.

This basically is where Millennium Park is today.

The same space in 1965:

Check this out.  Illinois Center & The Hyatt?   Factories.   NBC Building & 401 N Michigan Avenue?   Soap factory & warehouse.    Hybrid cars?  Nope.  Muddy streets, horses & their "leave behinds" ?   You bet your nose this city was stinky.

Doesn't it make you appreciate where we are today?

The 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition...yes, we all know a lot about it.   "Devil in the White City", Museum of Science & Industry, Ferris Wheel - etc.   

Take another look at it now.  Closer.  Over to the left.  On top of the dome.

Anything look familiar here?

That statue from the fair reminds me of the statue on top of the headquarters of Montgomery Ward.  I realize they are not the same statue but to me, they are cousins.   What do you think?

Turns out they are cousins!   Take a look at this:   https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage015/spiritofprogress/