City - Chicago - Traffic jam on Dearborn St 1909

Colorized photo from 1909, May
Original title: Traffic jam on Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois
Photographer: V.O. Hammon Co
Location:... more

by Mike Savad

Title

City - Chicago - Traffic jam on Dearborn St 1909

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Colorized photo from 1909, May
Original title: Traffic jam on Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois
Photographer: V.O. Hammon Co
Location: Dearborn and Randolph, Chicago, IL

What a mess right? You would think it couldn't get this bad, but it did, but it's actually quite unusual that its this busy.

This image was a stunt, the police were told to hang back for five minutes. It was a demonstration, to show the importance of traffic police. It was set up by the Chicago Commerce and later published on May 19, 1911, titled, "For five minutes the police refrained from regulation of traffic at Randolph and Dearborn Streets". There were other photos taken at other loop intersections.

Then for some reason, this one was turned into a very detailed postcard, and it became the people's image of Chicago at the turn of the century.

It really shows off what life was like, the wagons were stopped but they were still doing their jobs, though I'm certain this was longer than 5 minutes, there are a pile of street cars, which I think usually ran a block apart, and people gathered by the windows.

Still it's fun to see the barrel wagon, the one filled with 5 gallon water bottles, each one wrapped in wood because they made it out of glass then. Can't imagine how heavy those must have been. People wait at the corners, must have taken the police a while to untangle this mess. The building on the corner, Cunard, was open for only 5 years when this image was taken.

Today nothing exists, all the buildings are gone, tracks in the street are gone, it's all paved over.

Uploaded

July 26th, 2021