... or, Time Travelling with Google ..
Besides the postcards sent by my great-aunt Gerda to her brother Gustaf, I also have a postcard album with Christmas/New Year/Easter greetings sent to Gerda, while she was living in Chicago, c. 1903-1910. The most useful information they've provided me with so far is that they show how during her first years in the big city, Gerda moved around quite a lot, before (in 1906) she ended up working in the household of a rather prominent Chicago family at 3328 Michigan Avenue, where she then seems to have remained until she went back to Sweden in 1911.
I decided to have a go at looking up the addresses in Google Street View, to see if any of those neighbourhoods still have some old buldings preserved.
To sum up, the streets are still there, but most of the houses from back then are probably long gone. And house numbers may have changed in some places as well. However, what the Street View exercise did give me was a general impression of how Chicago was and still is a city consisting of a 'grid' of very long and straight streets. Also confirmed by this street map from 1906 that I found somewhere (sorry, forgot to make note of where):
 |
| Map of Chicago from 1906 |
I was also quite surprised to find population statistics informing me that in 1900, Chicago already had around 1.7 million inhabitants, in 1910 increased to 2.2 million - to be compared to around 2.7 million in 2020. (Seems the number has been even higher in between, though.) For Gerda, having grown up on a farm in the Swedish countryside, coming to Chicago as a young girl in 1902/03, 21 years old, it must have been rather overwhelming.
 |
| 6019 Morgan St - January 1903 |
 |
| 6017 Morgan St |
(Actually, I think some of the houses here do rather look like they may have been around since the beginning of the 20th century!)
 |
| 35 Elaine Pl - April 1903 |
 |
| Elaine Place |
I can't find a number as low as '35' for Elaine Place nowadays. This modern apartment building kept coming up in my searches, though.
Elaine Place is the only one of Gerda's addresses with a c/o name added - Deutsche. I took a chance and had a peek at the surname in the 1900 US Census. Only one family by that name in Chicago came up for that year. I don't currently have a subscription allowing me to view details, but I'll assume for now that these were Gerda's employers in 1903. Husband Wm (William, I presume), wife Harriott (I looked up the name and it's of German origin - related to the name Harriet, and meaning 'home ruler'), and son Richard.
 |
| 1240 Addison Ave - year unknown (1904?) |
 |
| 1240 W Addison St |
Well,this building obviously has not been there since 1904... I was hoping to find out if maybe the church has, but so far no luck.
 |
| W Addison St - Holy Trinity Church |
 |
| 1831 Barry Ave - January 1905 |
Now, that's weird... Looks like someone cast an invisibilty spell on that house! (lol)
(Below:) Looking straight on further down that street:
 |
1619 N. Campbell Ave - Dec 1906
(forwarded to 3328 Michigan Ave) |
 |
1619 N Campbell Ave
|
Well, I can see why Gerda wouldn't want to stay for very long there... (lol)
 |
| 3328 Michigan Avenue |
Disappointingly, the modern street view of 3328 Michigan Avenue doesn't really give a clue what it may have looked like back in 1906-10. Nowadays it seems to be part of a large university campus area.
Because (back in 2012) I found Gerda in the 1910 US census, I know that her employers at 3328 Michigan Avenue were Otto L Schmidt with wife Emma, both of German heritage; and with three children in their teens. At the time of the census there were three more white female servants besides Gerda in the household, plus a 'mulatto' chauffeur with wife and two children. I also know that Otto L Schmidt was a physician and a prominent Chicago citizen. Some day I may go back to revise some old posts involving them, and try to sum up what I know about them.
Meanwhile, here is a photo of Gerda with two other girls. Judging by hairstyles and fashion, I think the photo must be from her years in Chicago. I don't recognise any of the other two.
 |
| Gerda in the middle |
I found some vintage Chicago street views on other websites:
 |
Michigan Avenue, looking south, Chicago, Illinois, 1900
[bygonely.com] |
 |
| 1902 Michigan Ave and Art Institute Museum |
|
 |
View of Monroe Street,
west from Michigan Avenue, 1904 |
 |
| 1905 Chicago Lake Shore Drive |
 |
| 1900 Madison Street Trolley Cars |
 |
1900 Chicago 'L' Elevated Subway Train on Wabash Street
|
 |
| 1907 Concert in Lincoln Park |
 |
1905 Chicago River/State Street Bridge
|
... in spite of problems thinking of a clever connection to the prompt this week!
I found the letters my grandfather received after he arrived in Detroit from Montgomery, AL in 1917, in valuable in seeing where he lived. Of course none of the houses are still there because they were all urban renewed in the 1950s. I am working on a blog post now about where he lived during those first years.
ReplyDeleteAs always, a most interesting post. Nice sleuthing, and great old pix of Chicago in the early days of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the streets in those old photos...even if they weren't exactly where Gerda was living. They do give a good sense of what that time was like, after the turn of the century into the 1900s. I wonder if those fire maps were any help...someone else was using them in another area, I've never tried.
ReplyDeleteWhen Google first decided to add street views to its map service, I thought it was going to be an impossible novelty. But of course now everyone uses it for basic navigation. But I've often wondered if the developers anticipated its use by genealogy and history researchers. In my story for last weekend I looked up the Chicago address of the postcard on Google Maps and was impressed that it took me to the general location but there was nothing there in 2022. In fact the 1880s homes in the photo were demolished in the 1930s for public housing and then that housing was recently torn down. Chicago seems to be always in a constant evolution of urban development, maybe because of the flat terrain and the grid of streets.
ReplyDeleteIt's always nice to see Gerda in a photograph. It is fun to see what is still around on google street view. Sometimes I find something interesting and sometimes it is like your college campus - nothing that helps me visualize what it was like in the past. That first shot of Morgan St. is sad. I imagine those homes were once very charming.
ReplyDelete