v25-3 Edgewater Teaser #24
Vol. XXV No. 3 - FALL 2014
In the last issue we asked What were the previous uses of the building on the Piser property at 5206 N. Broadway before it was a funeral home? What other buildings were on the site? What businesses were there before?
Answer: Surprisingly, the building was originally built as a movie theatre, first named The Foster, then renamed The Broadway sometime between January and March, 1914. See the photo below. The permit was issued November 1909; the owner was H. Cohlgraff, and the architect was Perkins & Hamilton (a partnership of Dwight Perkins and John L. Hamilton. Perkins was at the time Chief Architect for the Chicago Board of Education. He designed both the Hayt and Trumbull school buildings.)
As early as April, 1921, the building began its new life as an auto showroom. It had a succession of different dealerships: an April 26, 1921, Chicago Tribune ad showed it as the home of the North Side Oldsmobile Co. It later became the home of the Kailer-Youngquist dealership. Sometime in February, 1929, Kailer-Youngquist moved to 5031 Broadway and the building became the home of a Cadillac dealership, until the company moved across the street to a new building at the northeast corner of Foster and Broadway. Finally, in 1932, the building was re-purposed again as a funeral home for the Piser organization. The funeral home closed in 2005 or 2006, and it remained vacant until May, 2014, when demolition began.
As for the other buildings to the north of it, and south of yellow brick building at the south west corner of Broadway and Berwyn, the 1928 Sanborn fire insurance map shows six buildings. More information on these buildings will be available in the future.
The building at 5210-14 was shown to be the home of the P.J. Johnson Rubber Co. (1919-1922) and the Broadway Tire and Battery Co. (1926-1927); the building at 5218-28 was at various times the home of Fashion Automobile (1923), Broadway Peerless (1926-1927) and Edgewater Motor Sales [Crosley autos] (1948); the building at 5230-5236 was the Annex Garage in 1915 and the Edgewater Beach Garage Co in 1917; it was the home of the Have Brakes, Inc. in 1938-1939; the gas station was the Guertin’s gas station in 1945 and the Charles D. Kimball [tire] Co in 1957.
The building at 5244-5246 was the home in succession of North Side Motor Sales (1923), the Uptown Flint Co (1926), the Locomobile Co (1927), and Broadway-Auburn Co (1928). This information was derived from searches of the Chicago Tribune digital archives. Fashion, Peerless, Crosley, Flint, Locomobile and Auburn were all names of auto companies.
In January, 1980, a building at 5246 Broadway was the home of Bananas, a restaurant/club. The Lakewood Balmoral Residents Council held its winter party there in 1980. Before a brick building was constructed at 5210-14 Broadway, there was a one-story frame building that was a roller-skating rink. The 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the entire block as vacant.
Teaser #25
What two-time Olympic Gold Medal Winner once lived in Edgewater?