Classic City

25 Surviving Treasures from Postwar Chicago—and Beyond

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Blues Power

This fall, Chicago reunited six top performers from Chicago's golden era of blues for a photograph at the venerable West Side music joint Rosa's Lounge (3420 W. Armitage Ave.; 773-342-0452). Older and wiser, the musicians exchanged pats on the back, weighed future collaborations, and reminisced about gigs with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy, and Sunnyland Slim. These six continue to call Chicago home, despite tugs from the lucrative European blues circuit. "Chicago is the only city in the world where there is blues every night of the week," says Billy Boy Arnold, the man who gave Bo Diddley his name. "Isn't that reason enough to stay?"

One of the few living bluesmen with an authentic Mississippi Delta sound, the acoustic guitar player Honeyboy Edwards (born 1915) was touring the country with Big Joe Williams by age 17. "He taught me everything I know," says Edwards, who migrated to Chicago in 1945. Twelve albums later, Edwards continues to perform, including at Millennium Park on February 5, 2006, in honor of Black History Month.

When he was 12, young Billy Boy Arnold-the rare bluesman born (1935) and raised in Chicago-knocked on the door of Sonny Boy Williamson's home and asked the legendary harmonica player for a lesson. Arnold ultimately found success backing Bo Diddley before going solo. The Electro-Fi label released his tenth album in October. Catch him live at Rosa's on December 10th.

A gospel singer, Koko Taylor (born 1935) got her big blues break in 1962 when the Chess Records talent scout Willie Dixon spotted her singing with Howlin' Wolf's band. Despite a long hospitalization in 2003, the "Queen of the Blues" has returned to the performance circuit and is working on a new CD. Catch her on November 19th with Sam Lay and the Siegel-Schwall Band at Governors State University (1 University Parkway, University Park; 708-235-2222).

The drummer Sam Lay (born 1935) played with such blues legends as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and Otis Spann-and, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (one of the first racially integrated blues groups in Chicago), he backed Bob Dylan in 1965 when the folkie went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. On November 19th, he joins Koko Taylor and the Siegel-Schwall Band.

"He'd come down in his slippers sometimes and play," recalls

Jimmy Dawkins (born 1936) of his early gigs with Lester Hinton, circa 1955. Dawkins, known for his lightning-fast guitar playing, went on to perform with such greats as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Sunny Thompson. A guitarist and producer, Dawkins appears on My Head Is Bald, the new Delmark release from Chicago bluesman Tail Dragger.

Every good blues band needs a bassist, a fact that has kept Bob Stroger (born 1932) employed since his first gig at Turner's, a club at 39th and Indiana, in the early 1950s. The congenial freelancer has played with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Eddy Clearwater, and Otis Rush, whom he credits for getting him into the blues. Stroger plays at Rosa's with Billy Boy Arnold on December 10th.

Frieze Frame

In 1938, as Chicago and the nation began to recover from the Depression, the social realist painter and printmaker Harry Sternberg unveiled Chicago: Epoch of a Great City, a massive (180 square feet) oil-on-canvas mural at the Lake View branch of the U.S. Postal Service. Originally created for the Works Progress Administration and beautifully restored in 2003, the mural alludes to the Fort Dearborn massacre and the Great Fire, but concentrates more on a brawny and vital city of steelworkers, scientists, and skyscrapers-a Chicago, in other words, that would fully re-emerge in the decade following World War II. (1343 W. Irving Park Rd.)

Grand Crew

It's a touch dusty, slightly cluttered, and a little dark-in short, The House of Glunz seems more like a wine cellar than a shop. But as noted in tall gold lettering outside the store, this family-owned establishment has catered to customers since 1888. Day-to-day operations are now handled by its fourth-generation proprietor, Christopher Donovan, with plenty of input from Barbara Glunz, his mother, who once lived in an apartment upstairs. She is the best guide for a walk around the store's backroom, whose antique displays show off a dazzling collection of green, rose, and gilded glassware. "We do have computers now," says Glunz, nodding to progress, "but our style hasn't changed. ‘Merchants' isn't a proper term anymore, but that's really what we are. We have tasted virtually everything in the store." (1206 N. Wells St.; 312-642-3000)

True as Steel

On a visit to Chicago circa 1960, the architect Frank Gehry first set eyes on the Inland Steel Building, which today remains a bold statement in stainless steel and glass. "It was very awe inspiring," Gehry recalls. "I made a special trip to see it. It still represents a breakthrough to the future." Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1958-making it the city's first post-Depression skyscraper-the 19-story building (now known by its address, 30 West Monroe) has a revolutionary open floor plan, which the designers made possible by relegating the elevator and stairs to a separate structure to the east. The building's latest owners-a consortium that includes Gehry-have pledged to preserve the structure's timeless façade. "We are going to redo some of the things that are historically incorrect," Gehry says, "like stuff in the lobby that has to be changed. I am going to design a new reception desk, but I will do it in the spirit of the place. I'm not going to try and inject myself there."

Hometown Heroes

After 56 years of marriage, Jo and Newton Minow are still engaged in a formidable romance. The couple met as students at Northwestern University when Newton, a Milwaukee native, elected to stay in Chicago after his military tour of duty (in China, Burma, and India) during World War II. But in addition to having eyes for each other, they both harbor a deep affection for the city they call home. "We [lived] in Washington twice," recalls Jo, a lifelong Chicagoan. "People said, ‘You won't come back [to Chicago].' I said, ‘Just you watch.'" Their affection for the city makes them models of civic involvement-though their efforts have also played out on a larger stage. One of those stints in D.C. began in 1961, after President John Kennedy tapped Newton to lead the Federal Communications Commission-which led to Minow's characterization of television as "a vast wasteland." (Newton, 79, a senior counsel at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, slyly refers to today's TV offerings as "half vast.") The couple work with the Chicago Historical Society, the Ravinia Festival, WTTW–Channel 11, and the Jane Addams Juvenile Court Association, among other organizations. Though they travel regularly to see their daughters-Nell, Martha, and Mary-they are always happy to come home to Chicago. "When we come in from the airport and I see the skyline, I just want to throw my arms around it," says Jo. "I love this city."

In Plane Sight

For nearly 30 years, the world's busiest airport was in Chicago-on the Southwest Side. From 1932 to 1961, passengers flocked into and flew out of Chicago Municipal Airport, which changed its name, in 1949, to Midway Airport (at 55th Street and Cicero Avenue). While a series of restorations have obliterated the 1947 terminal (which once had a stylish observation deck and a popular restaurant called the Cloud Room), two 52-year-old hangars, designed by Charles Whitney and Othmar Ammann (the structural engineer who helped build New York City's Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge), recall the airport's halcyon days. Vaulted roofs span the reinforced concrete structures, which are fronted by massive sliding glass doors. Originally built for Trans World Airlines and United, the hangars, situated along 55th Street and visible from the passenger concourse, are now used by ATA and Southwest Airlines.

This article appears in the December 2005 issue of Chicago Magazine.

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