Hubbard Street Murals: Chicago’s Street Art Gallery

Wanna see some cool murals in Chicago? This stretch of Hubbard features street art done by artists from around the world. 

Pilsen or West Loop? Find out where the best murals in Chicago are.

Duke and I are obsessed with street art. We hunt it down and take pics of it wherever we go. 

But, as amazing as it would be to share your art with the world, it also strikes me that it must also be heartbreaking how ephemeral street art can be. Buildings get demolished (or simply change ownership), and the artists have no claim to their work. And how awful it would be to have your work obliterated — which definitely seems to be a trend, at least in Chicago at hip venues like Soho House and the Violet Hour. In many cases, we view murals nowadays as temporary canvases, able to shine all too briefly before they are painted over and another takes its place.

One of Wally’s favorite murals on Hubbard Street

I work near Fulton Market (West Loop is Best Loop, as we say), and on my lunch break, I will often walk along Hubbard Street, from Halsted to Ogden, to admire and photograph the murals. The one downside is that there’s no real path along the street — at times you’ll be trekking through weeds and bushes to see the sights.

Even the underpasses along Hubbard are covered with cool graffiti.

At first there were many remnants from the ’70s, faded and less artistic than the amazing works done by today’s muralists. But now, every time I pass by, more and more of the original murals have been painted over, replaced by more modern artworks. Hubbard Street acts as an amazing outdoor gallery, an open-air museum of some of the most talented street artists from around the world. 

¡Viva Chicago indeed! A fading luchador mural

The Hubbard Street murals blow Duke’s mind.

Great street art really packs a wallop for Wally.

I caught up with Levar Hoard, chief curator and managing director of the B_Line, a mile-long corridor of public art in Chicago’s Fulton Market District, who was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

Levar Hoard heads up the Hubbard Street Murals project.

A Q&A With Levar Hoard of the B_Line

Tell us about the original project. When did it begin and what was its mission?

The original founder/curator was Ricardo Alonzo. When the murals started in 1971 (this year is our 50th anniversary), they were dedicated to environmental causes (pollution initially, then endangered animals). That went on to include many concepts like Mexican native art, abstract and other styles.

How did B_Line get involved?

We became the sole curators in 2017 after years of research and negotiation with the private train company that owns the walls (it's not a city project), and we legally assumed the license in perpetuity from Ricardo that was signed in 1971 with the railroad.

How do you find the artists? What’s the process with them?

We fly the world's most renowned artists to Chicago and also find Chicago’s best muralists, and discover new muralists, who we give their first commission to. 

As a privately run and funded organization, we subjectively select artists based on skill level, demonstrated competence with techniques and materials, and aesthetics. 

One of the artists flown in to create a mural

How do you decide where each artist is to paint, and when it’s time to paint over an existing mural?

It’s based on the condition of the wall. Most of the murals from 1971 are long gone, and we work to preserve or restore them where possible. Where it’s not possible or worthwhile, we recondition the wall and usher in a new era of art and artists that reflect the time we now live in — the M.O. of street art. 

What’s your favorite thing about the mural project? 

Meeting thousands of people that visit the murals weekly. 

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Be sure to check out B_Line’s Instagram feed for video interviews about their many projects and history: @blinechicago.

To learn more about the history of the Hubbard Street Murals, read this Reader article.

We also reached out to a couple of the street artists behind our favorite murals along the stretch of Hubbard. Here are their stories.

Nurture or Nature by the street artist duo Pipsqueak Was Here!!!

A Q&A With Pipsqueak Was Here!!!

The Amsterdam, Netherlands-based street artist duo known as Pipsqueak Was Here!!! told us about their experience with the Hubbard Street Murals:

We were in Chicago for a show with Vertical Gallery and had a few days to play around. Patrick Hull, who runs the gallery, introduced us to Levar Hoard, who curates the B_Line paintings. He helped us out with two ladders, and Patrick provided us with some paint.

We painted a girl holding a duck, a stencil we had with us because we planned to do a mural for the RAW Project, an incredible collective to improve the environment of elementary schools around the USA.

Our painting is called Nurture or Nature. The work, like most of our paintings, is a combination of a child with an animal. We combine these two to depict the relationship between human beings and the remaining natural environment. Most of our work is about how we treat the world and how, in return, it treats us.

Nurture or Nature poses the question, should we protect what is left or should we let nature take its course, whatever the consequences may turn out to be?

We really enjoyed being part of this wonderful project, as we found it incredible to see that they included and restored some of the paintings over 40 years old. It was an honor to contribute to such a rich tradition, and we were really helped by Lavar, Patrick and Margaux Comte, who took photographs while we worked.

We had an overwhelming response to this painting, and it really was fun being able to do something like this on such short notice.

Here’s a short time-lapse video of the mural creation.

The Hubbard Street mural painted by Stinkfish

A Q&A With Stinkfish

The artist known as Stinkfish told us: 

I got involved by an invitation by B_Line and through my gallery in Chicago, Vertical Gallery. 

I used a portrait of a girl in a workshop I did in Vienna, Austria. She had the mask because we were using spray paint. 

Then came COVID, and the piece took on another relevance and meaning. 

It was a good experience. It’s a nice place to paint. The project gave me the opportunity to see different styles, techniques and messages in the same place. 

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If you’re a fan of murals, you can’t miss the Hubbard Street corridor. This might be a controversial view, but I prefer these murals to those on 16th Street in Pilsen, another legendary stretch of street art in Chicago. With new artists constantly creating works of art, a walk along Hubbard is never quite the same, even just weeks apart. –Wally

Fabyan Villa Museum and Its Frank Lloyd Wright Connection

Tour the picturesque Riverbank estate, with the Fabyan Forest Preserve, a Japanese garden, a windmill, quirky curios (a suspect mummy!) — and a codebreaking legacy.

The Fabyan Villa can thank Frank Lloyd Wright for its cruciform shape. The house and its grounds are worth exploring if you want to take a day trip from Chicago.

Before my parents make their annual visit to Wally and me in Chicago, we plan an interesting day trip, do a little research and look for something quirky to do. Typically it’s somewhere a bit farther afield since neither of us has a car. I can’t recall how we settled on the Fabyan Villa in Geneva, Illinois. It’s entirely possible that I came across it on the Atlas Obscura website, given Wally’s and my proclivity for attractions that don’t always make their way into guidebooks. Or it could've had something to do with Frank Lloyd Wright, the Japanese garden or the circa-1850 Dutch-style windmill located on the grounds of the sprawling estate. 

Colonel George Fabyan

George Fabyan, Country Squire of Riverbank

In 1905, Colonel George and Nelle Fabyan purchased 10 acres of land in Geneva, including a Victorian-style farmhouse, as a country retreat from their residence in Chicago. Fabyan (pronouced like Fay-bee-yen) came from a wealthy and prominent Boston family. His father was a co-partner at Bliss, Fabyan and Company, one of the country’s largest dry goods and textile merchants, known for Ripplette, a lightweight, crinkly fabric similar to seersucker, which needed no to minimal ironing after washing. 

Fabyan inherited his father’s wealth — around $2 million dollars (equivalent to over $57 million today). He acquired an additional 300-plus acres over the next 20 years and named the estate Riverbank. 

George and Nelle indulged in a variety of unconventional interests, including cryptology, Japanese gardening and the construction of a scientific laboratory complex that let them pursue their research interests.

“Some rich men go in for art collections, gay times on the Riviera or extravagant living. But they all get satiated.

That’s why I stick to scientific experiments, spending money to discover valuable things that universities can’t afford. You can never get sick of too much knowledge.”

— Colonel George Fabyan

The Fabyan Villa Museum

A Tour of Fabyan Villa

The four of us arrived at the forest preserve, parked the car and followed the steps leading up to the house, which sits on a hillside overlooking the Fox River. We purchased tickets ($10 per person) and met a docent from the Preservation Partners of Fox Valley (PPFV) outside who told us about the historic home. In 1907, the Fabyans commissioned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to enlarge and remodel the existing farmhouse in the Prairie style. While it’s no Fallingwater or even Graycliff, it has its charms.

Additions included the two-story south wing, which added symmetry to the dwelling’s long, low cruciform shape, three projecting porches, wood-spindle screening and overhanging eaves, adding to the horizontality of the overall design. 

Our tour began in the Fabyans’ reception room, which is paneled in dark walnut and furnished with Victorian-era wood and glass display cabinets, showcasing the couple’s memorabilia, taxidermy and Asian ephemera. Among the notable acquisitions on display are a white marble statue of Diana and the Lion (Intellect Dominating Force) by American sculptor Frank Edwin Elwell, which stands in the dining room and was originally exhibited in the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. There’s also a Japanese samurai suit and a vitrine filled with bodhisattva statuettes.

On the back porch is a display case holding a mummy. Its body is wrapped in strips of linen and clutching what uncannily resembles an infant. Turns out the mummy is actually a forgery. In 1982, an expert examined the mummy, and an X-ray revealed it to be fabricated with nails, plywood, sawdust and a single bone inside the wrappings — and that bone came from a dog. Apparently, no one’s certain of its provenance or if the original owners knew it was a fake. One theory is that it may have been featured as a sideshow oddity or was an artifact purchased by Fabyan from the Field Museum. 

The Fabyans’ mummy turned out to be a hoax.

Beyond the dining room is Nelle Fabyan’s bedroom and en suite bathroom with custom furniture designed by Wright. Nelle had a hanging bed, suspended from the ceiling like a giant swing, and it’s speculated that this was to promote air circulation and protect her from contracting tuberculosis. Many of the original furnishings were auctioned off when the estate was sold in 1939, but locals who owned pieces donated them back to the landmark, which is managed by the PPFV. 

Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t build the Fabyan Villa from scratch — but he did renovate it, infusing it with Prairie style aesthetics and symmetry.

Wright’s Prairie style aesthetic is also evident in the open floor plan and warm earth tone color palette used on the walls of the interior. 

Upstairs is the music room, where Nelle’s Victor Talking Machine aka Victrola, encased in a wood cabinet, stands sentinel. Only the wealthy could afford the innovative Victor-Victrola model, whose initial selling price was $200, expensive for the time.

Duke and Wally explore the estate.

Duke and his parents in the rose arbor (which was noticeably lacking roses at the time of our visit).

Connected to the music room is the sleeping porch, where the pet monkeys, Mike, Patsy and Molly, would stay during the winter months. The floor of the room is tinplate, with drainage incorporated for obvious reasons (monkey waste). Perhaps the simians filled the vacant role of children to the childless couple?

Furniture, art and light were an integral part of Wright’s conceptual philosophy, creating compositions that functioned as a cohesive whole. As such, he would have most likely despised the ornate Victorian bed in the second floor bedroom. Wright’s leaded glass cathedral-style windows or “light screens” as the architect called them, fill the room with light. They’re not the intricate geometric stained glass affairs he was famous for elsewhere, as, out here in the countryside, he didn’t want to obscure the beauty of the natural view. 

The house’s grounds lead down to the Fox River.

Fabyan’s Animal Kingdom 

In addition to that trio of monkeys, a menagerie of animals lived on the estate, including Cayman alligators, a pair of black bears (named Tom and Jerry after a popular Midwestern milk punch served at the holidays), cows and dogs. A bear cage remains southwest of the garden, and according to local lore, loaves of bread were baked in the basement of the windmill to feed Fabyan’s pet bears. 

Japanese gardens were a craze with the elite in the early 1900s, and the Fabyans added a lovely one to Riverbank.

Turning Japanese: The Fabyan Japanese Garden

Awaiting visitors outside and just beyond the villa are the Japanese gardens and rose arbor, which lead from the bottom of the slope at the rear of the villa down to the banks of the Fox River. After the Japanese embassy created a garden for the 1893 World’s Fair, they became a status symbol among the wealthy. 

The Fabyans’ gardens were built between 1910 and 1913 by landscape architect Issei Taro Otsuka, a Japanese immigrant gardener who later redesigned the 1893 Wooded Island in Jackson Park for the Century of Progress International Exposition, the second world’s fair hosted by Chicago.

The gardens were closed on our visit, but we were able to see the torii gate, traditionally found at the entrance of a Shinto shrine and demarcating the passage from the earthly to the sacred. The gardens looked beautiful from afar, with conifer pine trees, traditional stone lanterns and a graceful curved bridge reflected in the pond beneath it. 

Although Fabyan didn’t serve in the armed services, he was given the honorary title of colonel by Illinois Governor Richard Yates out of gratitude for his public service work after Fabyan allowed the National Guard to use the estate as a training ground — and from that time on, George was known as Colonel Fabyan. He also received Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, a decoration of honor awarded for his invaluable participation in peace negotiations with Japanese emissaries, a few of whom stayed on the property when the Colonel and Nelle hosted them. 

Riverbank Laboratories, owned by Fabyan, conducted acoustic research and later became instrumental in codebreaking.

Codebreaking at Riverbank Laboratories: Birth of the NSA

The Fabyan estate also carried on extensive scientific research, with greenhouses where they would grow exotic plants and conduct genetic experiments. Across the street from the villa is Riverbank Laboratories. This was Fabyan’s think tank. He was interested in subjects as diverse as acoustics and, perhaps the Colonel`s most famous legacy, the cryptology laboratory.

The acoustics laboratory, which is still in operation today, was built around an ultra-quiet test chamber for the study of soundwaves and was designed by the top acoustics expert in the country, Professor Wallace Sabine of Harvard University. 

One of the Colonel’s odder obsessions was a belief that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of some (or even all) of Shakespeare’s literary works, and that Bacon had left coded messages within the plays and sonnets. Fabyan hired Elizabeth Wells Gallup, a scholar and author of The Bi-literal Cypher of Sir Francis Bacon, to decipher a binary alphabet to reveal secret messages in the works of Shakespeare. 

Fabyan was convinced that there were clues in Shakespeare’s plays that revealed that their true author was actually Sir Francis Bacon.

Gallup’s team included Elizebeth and William Friedman, who spent years honing their cryptology skills researching the Bard’s works using Bacon’s ciphers. Though largely inconclusive, their efforts weren’t entirely in vain: The couple was instrumental in breaking codes and ciphers during World War I and World War II. Because the U.S. military didn’t yet have a dedicated department devoted to codebreaking, Fabyan’s Riverbank Laboratories ended up being the foundation for the NSA, the National Security Agency.

Fabyan was quite proud of his windmill. Make sure you cross the Fox River and check it out.

Over the River to the Windmill

In 1914, Fabyan purchased a Dutch-style windmill for $8,000 from Yorktown, Illinois, about 20 miles from its current location, and spent around $75,000 reconstructing it on the east bank of the Fox River. The windmill stands at an impressive 68 feet high and was originally built by Louis Blackhaus, a German immigrant and craftsman, between 1850 and 1860. 

But it was mainly a toy for Fabyan, who enjoyed showing it off to his Chicago friends. In 1979, the windmill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the following year, it was selected to be on a U.S. postage stamp as part of a series in a booklet called Windmills USA. 

Look for the fun Egyptianate benches on the lawn.

Preserving the Legacy of the Fabyan Villa and Forest Preserve

George died in 1936 and Nelle in 1939, and because they had no offspring, the Forest Preserve District of Kane County purchased the majority of the estate and opened the residence as a museum the following year. Starting in 1995, the nonprofit PPFV was enlisted to maintain and provide tours of the historic dwelling. The house was added to the National Registerof Historic Places in 1984. 

The four of us had a wonderful time wandering the paths that cross the bucolic park-like setting of the historic estate, with plenty of photo opportunities along the way. It’s an easy drive (just over 40 minutes from Chicago) and it’s remarkable to consider the lasting scientific achievements that germinated from the Fabyans’ private research center. If you’re looking for a fun place to visit that combines architecture and nature, the Fabyan Villa is open for tours from May to October. –Duke

 

Fabyan Villa Museum & Japanese Garden

Fabyan Forest Preserve
1925 South Batavia Avenue
Geneva, Illinois, USA 

The Beautiful Bahai Temple in Chicago

What is Baha’i? What’s the history of the Baha’i Temple in Wilmette, Illinois?

The beauty of the Bahai’i Temple makes Wally jump for joy.

Those of us who live in the Chicago area are familiar with the Baha’i Temple — though most know nothing about the religion itself. We’ve seen glimpses of the structure on the North Shore and have been drawn to it, where we discover that it’s a gorgeous building that makes for a pleasant visit to spend a short time wandering its gardens and admiring its intricate stonework. 

Which is exactly what we did one weekend with our friend Kate during the COVID-19 pandemic. We weren’t able to go inside the temple, but to be honest that’s not too big a disappointment. The interior isn’t all that impressive — a large, open space that’s unadorned, in stark contrast to the ornate exterior. OK, the interior of the dome is gorgeous. But that’s the extent of the beauty inside, I promise. 

“The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

— Bahá’ulláh, founder of Bahá’í

An illuminated manuscript of Baha’u’llah’s writings that was presented to the British Museum in 1913

What is the Bahá’í religion?

It’s a relatively new faith, having emerged in the Middle East in the 1840s. A Persian teacher known as Bahá’ulláh preached a religion founded on the principles of peace, equality and the unity of humankind. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? 

Bahá’ulláh, the founder of the Baha’i faith, might look stern — but he was really all about peace, love and understanding.

To Baha’is, the soul is eternal and should be illuminated by focusing on kindness, generosity, integrity, truthfulness, humility and selflessness. That’s exactly what this world needs more of, if you ask me.

At a Parliament of the World’s Religions meeting in Chicago in 1893, the United States was introduced to Baha’i. (By the way, it’s pronounced “Buh-high.”) Despite being proclaimed as one of the world’s fastest growing religions, it never caught on big time, and I’d wager that most Americans aren’t familiar with the faith. 

But by 1900, there were about 1,000 Baha’is living in the U.S. and Canada. Worldwide, the faith’s adherents now number around 5 million.

Duke and Wally spent a pleasant day with their friend Kate, circling (and admiring) the Baha’i Temple.

Do they have a prophet or savior like Mohammed or Jesus?

Like Muslims, the Baha’i believe that Mohammed, as well as Jesus (along with Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna and Zoroaster, for that matter) was a prophet — just not God’s final prophet. Divine revelation, to them, is not final but ongoing; there will be other prophets in the future. Maybe the next one will be female.

The Baha’i faith sees all people as equal — a view that doesn’t fit with conservative Islam — and has led to persecution since its inception.

How have Baha’i been treated over the years?

It’s sad that a religion that preaches acceptance has suffered so much oppression and violence. Perhaps it’s telling that no temple exists in Iran, the birthplace of the faith. The Baha’i messages of religious tolerance, gender equality, universal education, and elimination of all prejudice and racism don’t jibe well with many conservative religious entities, and the faith is viewed as a heretical branch of Islam. As such, countries including Yemen, Egypt and Afghanistan have persecuted and imprisoned Baha’is on the sole grounds of their beliefs. And Iran has a history of torturing and killing Baha’is, closing their schools, banning their literature, and denying their rights and marriages.

Worship for Baha’is is very personal and freeform, devoid of rituals and clergy.

What is worship like for Baha’i?

The freeform, personal worship certainly won’t appeal to everyone, especially those who find comfort in religious rituals. My ex became interested in Baha’i, but the lack of any sort of pomp and circumstance never appealed to me. I have always been more drawn to Wicca, which has a similar acceptance of all faiths, seeing them as symbols, but has the flair of magic spells.

In keeping with the Baha’i philosophy of egalitarianism, everyone is welcome at their temples, and there isn’t any clergy. Ceremonies happen on only a few holy days each year. Typical worship consists of sitting there quietly, praying or meditating on your own. 

It’s also encouraged to get involved in social projects in your community. 

The COVID pandemic meant most people had to stay closer to home, so Wally and Duke headed up to give the Baha’i Temple another visit.

What is the Chicago Baha’i Temple’s history?

It began with the purchase of a couple of plots of land along Lake Michigan in 1907, north of Chicago in what is now the town of Wilmette. Because it was funded by individual contributions, the project was delayed, much like Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, Spain (which is still being built, by the way). The Chicago Baha’i Temple was further held up by the two World Wars and the Great Depression. The foundation stone was laid in 1920 and construction ended with the temple’s formal dedication in 1953. 

The temple was built from 1920 to 1953 and is composed of a variety of architectural styles.

Who designed the Chicago Baha’i Temple?

Louis Bourgeois, a French Canadian who had been a Baha’i for over a decade at the time, got the commission. He wanted the building’s design to reflect the beliefs of the faith: the oneness of humanity and the unity of all religions. To really run with this symbolism, he designed a conglomerate of various architectural styles: Neoclassical symmetry, Gothic ribbing, a Renaissance dome, Romanesque clerestory and Islamic arabesques on pillars that hint at minarets. And while that sounds like an unpleasing Frankensteinian mishmash, it somehow all comes together gracefully.

The carvings on the nine pillars feature symbols of the world’s biggest religions: the Christian cross, the Jewish Star of David, the Islamic star and crescent moon — even the swastika of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. 

That swastika causes a lot of controversy — but that’s just because people don’t understand that Buddhists and Hindus have used that symbol long before the Nazis co-opted it.

Bourgeois’ vision was to create “a gathering place for all humanity.” When describing his design, the architect said, “There are combinations of mathematical lines, symbolizing those of the universe, and in their intricate merging of circle into circle, and circle within circle, we visualize the merging of all religions into one.”

Ornate scrollwork depicting symbols from major world religions covers the building’s façade.

What’s with the repetition of the number nine?

To a Baha’i, nine is the most sacred number. As the highest single digit, it’s a potent symbol of comprehensiveness as well as unity. In addition to the nine columns, there are nine entrances, nine verses above the doors and alcoves and nine fountains. 

Each column is topped by a nine-pointed star, the symbol of Baha’i.

The nine columns around the exterior are each topped with a nine-pointed star, the symbol of the Baha’i faith.

Small pools and fountains surround the Baha’i Temple.

How many Baha’i temples are there?

The original idea was to have one house of worship on each inhabited continent (sorry about your luck, Antarctica), and the one in Wilmette, known as the Mother Temple of the West, remains the only one in North America. It’s also the oldest Baha’i temple in the world. (The first temple was built in Ashkhabad, modern-day Turkmenistan, in 1908 but was commandeered by the Soviets and later badly damaged by an earthquake before being demolished in 1963.)

The temple outside of Chicago is the only one on the continent and is supposed to serve all of North America.

Here’s a list of Baha’i temples around the world:

• Wilmette, USA

• Santiago, Chile

• Panama City, Panama

• Kampala, Uganda

• Langenhain, Germany

• Sydney, Australia

• Apia, Western Samoa

• New Delhi, India

Other national or local Baha’i houses of worship are planned for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, India, Kenya, Colombia and Vanuatu.

If you’re in the Chicago area, consider a trip north of the city to visit the Baha’i Temple.

What about the gardens?

The gardens are an essential design element at all the temples. There’s one in front of each of the nine entrances to the temple, featuring rectangular as well as rounded elements, revealing influences both Western and Eastern.

Wandering through the gardens with our friend Kate, we kept circling the temple, admiring its beauty. The circumambulation can be meditative.

Who’d have thought that the delicate beauty of the Baha’i Temple was achieved using concrete?!

What is the Chicago temple made of?

Would you believe that various materials were suggested, including limestone, granite, terracotta and even aluminum, before they decided upon concrete?

This didn’t go over so well, as people feared the material lacked beauty. But a fifth-generation stone carver named John Earley devised a technique inspired by Italian mosaics. He exposed the larger pebbles in the aggregate of the mixture, which gave the concrete an unusual warmth. And when you see the final product nowadays, there’s no denying its lacelike beauty that seems to glow, earning its nickname as the Temple of Light and Unity.

Sadly, neither Bourgeois nor Earley lived to see the temple’s completion. –Wally

Kate wasn’t the biggest fan of this shot. “It looks like you’re in front of some office building,” she said. Wally looked at the pic and replied, “That’s some office building!”

Bahá'í House of Worship
100 Lindon Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091

 

TWA Flight Center: 8 Facts About the Futuristic Mid-Century Modern Masterpiece

Channeling the Jet Age, the Eero Saarinen-designed Terminal 5 at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport received a second life as the lobby of the TWA Hotel.

Whether you think it looks like a bird or a sea turtle, there’s no denying the architectural excellence of the TWA Flight Center.

When I had to travel to New York to attend Shoppe Object, an independent home and gift show, at Pier 36, where I’d be assisting the Hay wholesale team with taking orders, Wally figured he’d tag along. 

We flew into JFK a day early and put aside an extra hour or so to visit Terminal 5, or T5, and get a drink at the Sunken Lounge and explore the iconic Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center. 

One of the first things you’ll see is this amazing check-in desk for the TWA Hotel, with the departures and arrival board (it might be old-fashioned, but it’s got up-to-date listings) and staffers in retro outfits.

“The space reminded me of Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família Cathedral in its organic sensibility.

To me, this was Saarinen’s cathedral to aviation.”

After we disembarked, we took the AirTrain to Terminal 5, then followed the signs directing us to the TWA Hotel. 

Here are eight interesting facts about the TWA Flight Center. 

Howard Hughes in the cockpit of a TWA plane. He bought the airline and commissioned the construction of the Flight Center.

1. Playboy Howard Hughes hired Eero Saarinen to build the terminal, costs be damned. 

Prior to becoming a recluse and taking up residence of the penthouse at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, Howard Hughes, one of the wealthiest men in the world, dabbled in motion picture direction, production and aviation. He acquired control of TWA (short for Trans World Airlines) in 1939, without ever holding an official position. 

Known to want the best that money could buy, in 1959, Hughes commissioned Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect behind the 630-foot-high Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, to design a terminal for the airline. Never one to keep to a budget, construction costs for the terminal ballooned from $9 million to $15 million (equal to a staggering $130 million in 2021).

An old map that shows TWA’s routes

Fun fact: Hughes was well known for his dalliances with celebrities of both sexes, including Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Olivia de Havilland.  

The sky blue VW bus out front is totally groovy, man.

2. Saarinen got the inspiration for his mid-century modern marvel from a grapefruit.

Often described as a swooping bird, I found the structure to more closely resemble a sea turtle. 

The TWA Flight Center was dedicated to the Golden Age of travel and was a marvel of mid-century modern design when it opened in May 1962, nearly 60 years ago — the likes of which the world had never seen. 

If Eero Saarinen didn’t eat grapefruit, the TWA Flight Center would never have been conceived.

Legend has it that the architect arrived at the building’s evocative form one morning during breakfast, after flipping over a hollowed-out grapefruit rind and pressing down in the middle. 

The Flight Center’s shell-shaped roof consists of four symmetrical reinforced concrete forms separated from one another by narrow skylights. Inside, undulating organic forms of the 200,000-square-foot lobby merge inward — soaring ceilings blend into walls, and those walls become floors. The space reminded me of Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Família Cathedral in its organic sensibility. To me, this was Saarinen’s cathedral to aviation.

At the center of the terminal’s vaulted ceilings, the original Vulcain clock still keeps the time.

The original clock high above, positioned where the many arches converge on the ceiling

Speaking of time, Saarinen’s ran out all too soon. Sadly, the designer never lived to see his finished creation. He died at the age of 51, during surgery to remove a brain tumor, in 1961 — one year before the Flight Center was complete.

Swooping staircases and curving walkways fill the interior.

3. The media adored the TWA Flight Center, but one of Saarinen’s fellow architects described it as part of a “nightmare.”

Today, Saarinen is revered as one of the most important architects of the 20th century. However, when the TWA Flight Center opened in 1962 at what was then Idlewild Airport, not all of the attention it attracted was positive. The press was enthusiastic about his design, heaping acclaim on the structure’s dynamic form and fluid interior. 

But some of Saarinen’s peers were critical of his work. British architect and critic Alan Colquhoun was quoted in Architectural Design as saying the Flight Center was “like the monster forests of a child’s nightmare, where a toadstool may be 20 feet high or like the dematerialized and unearthly forms of an Expressionist film set.”

You can understand why critic Alan Colquhoun would say the interior feels like an Expressionist film set — but why does that have to be a bad thing?

It was designated as a New York City landmark in 1994 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. 

Planes are a lot bigger than they used to be, rendering Terminal 5 obsolete.

4. The iconic terminal was ultimately too small to work for larger planes and closed for almost two decades. 

By the mid-’70s, the aging hub became impractical — Saarinen’s design couldn’t accommodate the proliferation of wide-body jets that could carry hundreds of passengers at a time. The terminal was still used for smaller planes but eventually closed, with the last flight departing from there in 2001. 

Duke chillaxes on the chili pepper red seating.

5. Saarinen didn’t just design the TWA Flight Center — he also created a color for it. 

The signature hue, chili pepper red, which Saarinen developed for the Flight Center can be seen everywhere, from the banquettes and furnishings to the hallway carpeting in the hotel buildings. It stands out in stark contrast to the predominant white interior.

Incidentally, the space was originally outfitted by acclaimed Parisian industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the creative mind behind the 1959 TWA twin globes logo. 

The Sunken Lounge as seen from the second floor

6. The Sunken Lounge is the hippest spot to grab a drink at JFK.

The centerpiece of the space is the Sunken Lounge cocktail bar, complete with Tulip chairs and pedestal tables designed by Saarinen for Knoll. 

I ordered an Idlewild old fashioned, while Wally got a Bloody Mary. We were particularly delighted with the retro swizzle stick featuring a dancing Shiva, the Hindu god.

The drinks might be spendy, but the atmosphere makes it worthwhile.

Wally’s a sucker for spicy Bloodys.

There’s something comforting about the click-click-click of the retro departures board.

A split-flap departures board, by Solari di Udine, the Italian manufacturer that made the terminal’s original, displays custom messages instead of flight info. There are over 34,000 tiles on the sign, creating a nostalgia-inducing whir and clatter throughout our visit.

De plane! De plane! One imagines this aircraft was named Connie cuz she’s a Lockheed Constellation.

7. The on-site plane, Connie, is now a cocktail lounge — though she once ran drugs in South America.

While enjoying a drink in the Sunken Lounge, you can see a vintage plane through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Wally and I knew we had to explore it. 

Wally’s off to see if there’s any pot left on Connie from her drug-smuggling days.

There’s no ticket needed for Duke to board this plane!

A 1958 Lockheed Constellation L 1649A — a four-propeller airplane commissioned by Hughes and affectionately known as Connie — sits parked on the tarmac behind the terminal. Its interior has been transformed into a delightful, one-of-a-kind cocktail lounge. 

Grab a drink and some nibblies inside Connie, a plane-turned-cocktail bar.

Check out the cockpit while onboard Connie.

In the interim between being a part of the TWA fleet and being a star of the Flight Center, Connie engaged in some dubious activities, including delivering marijuana for a Colombian drug cartel before being abandoned in Honduras, according to Air & Space magazine.

Saarinen designed the Tulip chairs and pedestal tables found throughout the space.

8. A restoration project returned the Flight Center to its former retro space-age glory.

The impeccable attention to detail of the restoration of the former terminal was overseen by Richard Southwick, partner and director of historic preservation at New York-based architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle. 

A vintage convertible sits out front of the Flight Center.

One design element that was particularly challenging was the ceramic penny tiles specified in Saarinen’s original design. A total of 20 million custom ½-inch-diameter bisque-colored mosaic tiles were sourced and used over the course of both phases of the project, covering the floors and swooping interior walls. 

The organic yet futuristic forms create a Jetsons sort of feel, retro and space age all at once.

Those things on the wall are called payphones. They’re sort of like mobiles, except they were stationary.

There’s an odd little seating area (with another classic car) off to the left when you enter.

Vintage magazines and toiletries at the newsstand by the bathroom

The upper level features a mini-museum of TWA artifacts, including flight attendant uniforms from the 1940s to the 1990s. Designs from Valentino, Cassini and Balmain are on display, along with vintage flight bags. 

The Paris Café on the second floor

Famous designers like Valentino designed flight attendant uniforms for TWA. They’re on display upstairs.

The Paris Café is located on the second floor of the Flight Center and occupies the footprint of the original Lisbon Lounge. 

The pair of corridors featured in the 2002 Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, once led to boarding gates and now offers access to the two wings of the TWA Hotel, Hughes and Saarinen, which partially encircle the terminal.

If you’ve got some extra time before or after a flight at JFK, be sure to stop by the TWA Flight Center for a drink and some photos. Saarinen’s design somehow manages to be retro and futuristic at the same time. –Duke

Follow the signs the Terminal 5, and you’ll be rewarded with the architectural and design wonder that is the TWA Flight Center.

 

TWA Flight Center
John F. Kennedy International Airport
JFK Access Road
1 Idlewild Drive
New York, NY 11430

All-Too-Perfect Seaside, Florida

The quaint-as-heck New Urbanism town where “The Truman Show” was filmed will charm visitors, even amidst a red tide.

An aerial view of Seaside, Florida reveals the town’s well-thought-out planning, with buildings surrounding green spaces and everything within walking distance.

We left early in the morning from Hilton Head, South Carolina with Wally’s parents and arrived in Seaside, Florida around eight hours later. It was one of Shirley’s sister Eve’s favorite places to visit and is located so far west on the Florida Panhandle that it’s in the Central time zone. 

Strangely, we found ourselves simultaneously clearing our suddenly dry throats as we exited the car. We chalked it up as a coincidence — but soon learned it had a more sinister explanation.

Some say the beach at Seaside on the Gulf of Mexico is one of the best in the state of Florida.

We met up with a rental agent who handed us the keys to 208 West Ruskin Place, officially known as Forsythe House. The Shirl asked if the woman knew what was causing the tickle in our throats and got the casual response that it was a byproduct of red tide — airborne toxins released by algal blooms that can cause respiratory illness. The woman suggested we purchase an antihistamine, which would help reduce symptoms. 

That flag is a lesson that there’s a price you pay for perfection: red tide, airborne algal blooms that irritate your throat.

We ventured out to the town square and stopped by Modica Market. It didn’t really help Wally and I all that much while we were outside but seemed to do the trick for Dave and Shirley. 

Wally and his parents with Duke in front of the charming post office, the first civic building built in town.

Nothing’s Perfect 

“It’s almost too perfect,” Wally said as we perused one of the boutiques near our rental. As if on queue, a shop owner replied, “You do know that The Truman Show was filmed here?” 

““It’s almost too perfect,” Wally said.

As if on queue, a shop owner replied, “You do know that ‘The Truman Show’ was filmed here?” ”

Seaside was almost eerily quaint — so we weren’t surprised to learn that it’s where The Truman Show, starring Jim Carey, was filmed.

The film stars Jim Carey as Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman who leads a seemingly ideal life in the idyllic town of Seahaven — only to discover that he’s the unwitting star of one of the longest-airing reality TV series. 

We looked at each other, wide-eyed.

“I knew it looked familiar!” I exclaimed. 

“Now it makes perfect sense,” Wally said.

Our home away from home, Forsythe House

Forsythe House on Ruskin Place

I’ve often joked that if I wasn’t so bad at math, I would’ve been an architect. One of the reasons I moved to Chicago was because of its rich and varied architectural legacy. So you can imagine my excitement when we entered the modernist row house we would be staying in. Designed by Walter Chatham for a couple from Chicago, Forsythe House was filled with quirky artwork. Maybe it was too much of an open loft concept (the ceiling of the living room soars three stories high) or perhaps it was the narrow open tread staircase and cable railing system, but the house wasn’t to Shirley’s taste, which skews more traditional. 

Wally and I, though, were utterly smitten with it and loved our third-floor room that overlooked Ruskin Place, the quiet park-like square inspired by the French Quarter of New Orleans. The balconies and archways of the surrounding townhomes are a nod to the Vieux Carré. Buildings display names such as Home Alone, Albert F’s and Beach Music. 

Wally hangs out in Ruskin Place, the charming square outside our rental.

An all-white board-and-batten Carpenter Gothic-inspired chapel designed by Scott Merrill stands at the far end of the green. This type of siding consists of wide boards laid vertically with narrower strips of wood, called battens, covering the gaps. It was striking to look at, but, unfortunately, we were unable to see inside as it’s locked up tight when not in use. It’s most prominent feature is the 68-foot-tall bell tower. 

The quaint, nondenominational Chapel at Seaside

Next to the property we were staying at was architect Alexander Gorlin’s residence. Aptly named Stairway to Heaven, its exterior features a two-story-high glass curtain wall and spiral staircase that rises through the interior and corkscrews out through the rooftop to take in sweeping views of Seaside and the Gulf of Mexico. 

“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold, and she's buying a stairway to heaven.” –Led Zeppelin

A Brief History of Seaside and New Urbanism

Founded in 1981, Seaside is located in South Walton County along Florida's scenic two-lane Highway 30A. 

The idea began in 1946 when Davis’ uncle, Joseph Smolian, a businessman from Alabama, bought 80 acres of land near Seagrove Beach on Florida's northwest coast. His intent was to develop and create a summer camp for the employees of Pizitz, the regional department store he co-owned and operated in Birmingham. 

In 1978, ownership of the property was transferred to his nephew Robert Davis. Davis envisioned a self-sustained coastal community where second-home residents could experience “the special pleasure of relaxing on a porch rocker after a shower at the end of the day on the beach,” like he had on family vacations on the Gulf.

Sunsets are a highlight of the day in Seaside, with the sun setting right over the water.

When development started on the deserted stretch of the Florida Panhandle, Davis tapped Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, pioneers of the New Urbanism movement — a design philosophy which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods. 

The Seaside Neighborhood School was built, in part, thanks to the location fees from The Truman Show.

The planned community of Seaside embodies this ethos. The diminutive post office was the first civic structure to be built, with a charter school and the chapel to follow.

Houses use materials and forms that evoke the vernacular architecture of old Southern towns. Aside from its lawns and squares, the city’s landscaping incorporates native drought-tolerant species such as the gnarled branch evergreen known as scrub oak. 

All of the main shops in Seaside open onto the town green, complete with an amphitheater. You can see the back of the post office and the line of food trucks in the background.

It’s a Small World

While browsing the vinyl collection at Central Square Records, we ran into Nichole, a delightfully crass friend of ours from Chicago. She was staying with her mother in a nearby town and spending the afternoon in Seaside. Nichole remarked that she was relieved to be out of the house as it was a real “boner-killer” being at home. Wally went out that night with her to get into some mischief and was introduced to the Justin Bieber song “Love Yourself,” which Nichole had on repeat. 

Wally fell in love with the Duckies mascot.

Duke had fun at Duckies Shop of Fun.

Seaside has an eclectic array of shops. A nearby boutique behind the rental we stayed in named An Apartment in Paris turned out to be a favorite of The Shirl. The eclectic, cluttered shop offered French milled soaps, artwork and home goods. It’s as close as you’ll get to exploring the Paris Flea Market in Florida. 

Since everything is within walking distance, Wally and I took the opportunity to explore and wander the network of footpaths. Of course we spent a lot of time perusing the shelves of Sundog Books. And we started our days getting our caffeine fix and baked goodies at Amavida coffeeshop. 

Duke and Wally hung out here a lot, with a bookshop on the bottom floor and a used record shop above.

Grab a meal or two at the Airstream trailer food trucks, which line Highway 30A.

Across the main thoroughfare of Route 30A, silver trailers used as food trucks and known as Airstream Row, offer a variety of fare from fresh-pressed organic juices to the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. 

Making an Entrance: The Pavilions of Seaside

At Seaside, all of the beaches are public. A series of pavilions mark access points, each one designed by a different architect.

One of my favorites was David Coleman’s Obe Pavilion. The slatted-wood obelisk was adorned with lights during our visit in December and appears in the background in The Truman Show. 

Take a ride over to the nearby (and colorfully named) town of WaterColor. We had lunch at the WaterColor Inn and bought handpainted ornaments at a small craft fair.

Though the “red tide tickle” deviated from the script, and we were only in Seaside for a long weekend, we were happy to have supporting roles in this idyllic town. –Duke

 

National Museum of Mexican Art: A Hidden Gem in Chicago

Remedios Varo, Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera are all part of the rich heritage of Mexican artists honored at this all-too-often-overlooked museum.

If you’re not all tied up, make a visit to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago — it’s dog-gone great!

It’s one of our favorite fall activities. Every October, Duke and I make a trip to the National Museum of Mexican Art on the South Side of Chicago to see the ofrendas set up for the Day of the Dead. These altars for loved ones who have died are always colorful, touching and artistic — and, despite being tributes to the dead, they never fail to make you smile. 

An ofrenda to Diego Rivera, one of the most famous Mexican artists of all time

Plus, it’s an excuse to wander the Pilsen neighborhood to see its street murals and grab some tacos and tamales. Pilsen is known as a Mexican neighborhood, though the artists who once called it home got priced out and vacated to Logan Square (and have most likely been priced out again and moved on to the new up-and-coming enclave). 

When you visit the museum, be sure to take a walk through the colorful neighborhood of Pilsen and go mural-hunting.

We were unable to see the ofrendas this year because of that pesky pandemic, so we reached out to the museum to tell us a bit more about one of the most impressive cultural centers in the city and to share their favorite artists (the founder seems particularly fond of the Surrealists).

The gift shop at the museum is filled with great Mexican handicrafts.

When the museum reopens, be sure to visit. It’s a small space, so you could easily see it all in one visit. And the gift shop is an exhibition itself, filled with Mexican handicrafts, from brightly painted fantastic beasts to comical skeletons. If that’s not enough to entice you, admission to the National Museum of Mexican Art is always free.

Here’s a Q&A with the museum’s founder, Carlos Tortolero. –Wally 

Duke loves the National Museum of Mexican Art thiiiiiiiis much!

Wally in front of a cool exhibit with knitted fruit

How did the museum come about?

Founder Carlos Tortolero, a former high school teacher who’s now president of the museum, invited four of his fellow teachers and his sister, also a teacher, to form a nonprofit to create a museum in 1982.

CHema Skandal’s take on lotería cards depicts Donald Trump as “the Evil One.” After launching his political career by calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, we agree with that moniker.

What is its mission?

To showcase the richness of Mexican art from both sides of the border from ancient times to the present.

Laura Molina’s Amor Alien from 2004 is part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Tell us about Mexican art.

Mexican art is an amazing cultural tradition. From ancient times to the present, the manifestations of Mexican art have earned worldwide recognition.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

Artists who are deceased that I admire are:

• Saturnino Herrán

Saturnino Herrán, The Offering, 1913

• Remedios Varo

Remedios Varo, Simpatía (La Rabia del Gato), 1955

• José Celmente Orozco

José Celmente Orozco, The Trench, 1926

• Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, detail from Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park, 1948

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Diego’s Amazing Museum in Mexico City

Dolores Almedo’s Home, the Largest Private Collection of Diego’s Works

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• David Alfaro Siqueiros

David Alfaro Siqueiros, La Marcha de la Humanidad, 1966

• María Izquierdo

María Izquierdo, Viernes de Dolores, 1945

• Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939

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9 Fascinating Facts About Frida Kahlo

A Visit to La Casa Azul, Frida’s House

Coyoacán, Frida’s Boho Neighborhood

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• Salvador Dali

• Rene Magritte

Living artists: 

• Patssi Valdez

Patssi Valdez, The Enchanted Garden, 2005

• John Valadez

John Valadez, Pool Party, 1987

• Marcos Raya

Marcos Raya, Girl With Prosthesis, 2010

• Nahum Zenil

Nahum Zenil, Con Todo Respecto, 1983

Murals have long been an important part of Mexican culture.

What’s special about the Pilsen neighborhood?

Pilsen has historically been a port of entry for immigrants from Europe and now from Mexico. There’s a dynamism of activism that has always made Pilsen stand out from other communities. Pilsen also has excellent restaurants and bakeries based on Mexican cuisine.

Skeletons are a popular motif in Mexican art — especially around Día de los Muertos.

What else is the museum used for?

The museum hosts numerous events during the year, from health workshops dealing with health issues like HIV, cancer and lupus, community fundraisers, immigration presentations, city-wide initiatives and, of course, presentations of authors, musical groups and theater.

Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl by Jesus Helguera welcomes visitors to the permanent collection gallery at the National Mexican Museum of Art.

 

Why Are There Coyotes in Graceland Cemetery?!

Were coyotes introduced to get rid of the raccoons? And just how dangerous are the coyotes in Chicago?

They’re cute — and a bit frightening. But the coyotes in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago haven’t hurt anyone and keep to themselves. Photo by Adam Selzer

I never can resist a stroll through a graveyard. One winter day, I walked past the entrance of Graceland Cemetery at the intersection of Clark and Irving Park in Chicago. Before I even knew what I was doing, I found myself heading through the iron gates.

The cemetery is enormous and full of gorgeous old graves and mausoleums, some of which house the remains of famous Chicagoans, including the architect Louis Sullivan and the department store magnate Marshall Field.

Wally thinks this might have been the copse where the coyote made her den.

As I wandered around the pond at the northern end of the cemetery, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. A dark shape emerged from a cluster of brambles about 20 feet away, its brown fur in stark contrast to the whiteness of the snow-covered ground. The creature stared at me, then crouched a bit, its ears flattening, and slowly began to prowl in my direction. I realized this must be a coyote — people in Chicago talk about these creatures roaming the streets at night — and despite its inherent cuteness, I had no doubt it could inflict some serious damage. 

I was carrying a tote bag with my laptop inside, which I now desperately clutched like a weapon, ready to swing it at the beast if it decided to attack me. I backed away, slowly at first, so I could keep the coyote within my sights. Once I had gained some distance, I started running through the snow, finding one of the roads that led to the main entrance. 

Can you spot the coyote? These wild canines help curb populations of raccoons, rats and geese at Graceland Cemetery. Photo by Adam Selzer

Out of breath and slightly traumatized, I darted into the cemetery office near the front gate. A young man smiled at me as I shouted, “There’s a coyote in the cemetery!”

“Oh, yes,” he said calmly. “There’s more than one.”

I blinked at him, dumbfounded. I mean, I understand why cities would allow squirrels and bunnies and even deer to roam our green spaces — but why would it be OK to have large wild dogs running free? As insane as it sounds, there could be up to 4,000 coyotes in Chicago, according to NPR.

“In fact,” the young man continued, “the city brought the coyotes into the cemetery to eradicate the raccoon problem.”

This was getting stranger and stranger. It seemed to me that, in this case, the solution might be worse than the problem. 

“I might have been imagining things,” I said, “but it seemed as if it was pursuing me, like it might attack.”

He nodded. “There’s never been an attack in the cemetery, but she just had a litter and was protecting them.”

That being the case, it sure would have been nice to have a warning posted, something along the lines of: Caution! Keep a lookout for a mother coyote that could maul you because she feels you’re a threat to her babies. Enjoy your visit!

As strange as it might seem, it turns out coyotes are indeed fixtures within Chicago city limits and are, in the vast majority of cases, not a threat to our safety. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as the 6-year-old boy who was bitten by a coyote near the Nature Museum — though who knows? The kid might have done something to instigate the attack.

There are typically three to five coyotes within the grounds of Graceland Cemetery. Photo by Adam Selzer

The Official Word on Coyotes at Graceland

Wanting to get to the bottom of this mystery, I reached out to Graceland’s staff to ask them about coyotes in the cemetery.

No one is sure of exactly how many coyotes are on the grounds, but employees estimate there are usually about three to five.

“The coyotes have never hurt anyone on the grounds and stay away from people,” says Jensen Allen, associate director at Graceland. “We do not allow people to feed them, which is usually what can cause animals to become accustomed to up-close human interactions.”

Did the city really introduce them to the cemetery to deal with the raccoon population?  

“We cannot verify whether they were brought into the city for any reason or not,” Allen says. “There are many stories out there, but we have heard from wildlife experts that this is not true per se. Coyotes have been part of the city for an extremely long time, and it is likely humans encroached upon their territories long ago and they have become used to surviving in urban areas.”

Either way, raccoons are more of an issue to people than the coyotes have ever been, she attests. “As I’m sure you know, raccoons are pretty fearless and will approach humans with no issue. We are thankful to our coyotes because they keep raccoons down as well as other vermin such as rats, mice, geese and any other troublesome wildlife animal.”

Our friend Sandy and her daughters visit Graceland often — and are always excited to see a coyote.

To learn more about coyotes (and be tempted to hold one of their cute little puppies — even though this is a very bad idea), check out the Urban Coyote Research Project. –Wally

 

Graceland Cemetery
4001 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60613

Bloodletting and Trepanation: A Tour of the International Museum of Surgical Science

12 fascinating, freaky facts about early medical science.

You can’t miss the strange statue in front of the International Museum of Surgical Science just north of the Magnificent Mile shopping district.

We had heard about the International Museum of Surgical Science’s spooky Halloween tours for years and had passed by the colossal figure holding a limp and seemingly lifeless body out front numerous times on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

So when something called Morbid Curiosities showed up as a suggested event in our Facebook feed, we couldn’t resist. The museum smartly offers tours year-round, though their Halloween event is legendary.

“We were surprised to hear that George Washington died from bloodletting.

The reason this was prescribed? He had woken up with a sore throat.”

The tour starts in the coolest room in the museum: the hall of statues of famous physicians.

Housed in a mansion built in 1917 near the shore of Lake Michigan, just north of downtown Chicago, the museum contains three floors of macabre medical paraphernalia. For this event, a guide walked us through the displays, calling out gruesome fun facts about the various medical techniques of the past.

Here are a dozen creepy cool things we learned on our tour.

Doctors swear to healing gods that they will obey certain ethical standards in the famous oath named for the Greek physician Hippocrates.

1. Ancient doctors believed illnesses were attributable to an imbalance of the four humors.

This notion dates back to Ancient Greece and the teachings of Hippocrates. Often referred to as the Father of Medicine, his code of ethics, known as the Hippocratic Oath, is still used today. Hippocrates developed the theory of the four humors and their influence on the body and its emotions.

This woodcut from Leonhard Thurneysser’s Quinta Essentia (1574) shows the four humors.

Humor: Black bile

Organ: Spleen

Trait: Melancholic

Humor: Phlegm

Organ: Brain

Trait: Phlegmatic

Humor: Yellow bile

Organ: Gallbladder

Trait: Choleric

Humor: Blood

Organ: Heart

Trait: Sanguine

Hippocrates believed that by paying attention to the balance of these four humors, we could maintain a healthy body and mind — and an imbalance could result in disease or death.

2. One of the best-regarded doctors of the Dark Ages recommended a medical bath involving the blood of blind puppies.

In Flowers of Bartholomew, written around 1375, the monk and doctor Johannes de Mirfield wrote:

Here is a bath which has proved to be of value. Take blind puppies, gut them and cut off the feet; then boil in water, and in this water let the patient bathe himself. Let him get in the bath for four hours after he has eaten, and whilst in the bath he should keep his head covered, and his chest completely covered with the skin of a goat, so he won’t catch a sudden chill.

If you decide to try it, let us know how it works! (Kidding, obviously.)

If you get poisoned, don’t expect the bezoar, which comes from a goat’s stomach, to be a miracle cure.

3. A stone that grows in a goat’s stomach was thought to be the ultimate antidote to any poison.

The bezoar comes from the Persian word for “counter poison.” And while the bezoar works miraculously in the world of Harry Potter, it doesn’t have quite the same power in real life. The French surgeon Ambroise Paré decided to put the bezoar’s antidotal properties to the test (with the help of an unwilling condemned criminal). The poor fellow was given sublimate of mercury, a nasty poison, to see if a bezoar would counteract it. Things didn’t work out too well. Paré wrote about the experiment in Apology and Treatise (1575):

An hour after, I found him on the ground on his hands and feet like an animal, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his eyes wild, vomiting, with blood pouring from his ears, nose and mouth. Eventually he died in great torment, seven hours after I gave him the poison.

Patients risked blindness (and suffered a lot of pain) during the earliest cataract surgeries in India.

4. Cataract surgery can be traced all the way back to the 5th century BCE in India.

I’m not sure what current cataract surgery involves, but its origins are downright disgusting. The procedure started out pleasant enough, with an oil massage and a hot bath. But that’s when things got icky. The patient was tied down because of the excruciating pain to come. A knife or needle would dislodge the cataract — you’d know when this had happened because you’d hear a pop and see a gush of water. Surgeons would seal the cut with breast milk and a salve of clarified butter. If the patient could see after, it was considered successful. Not surprisingly, this didn’t happen all that often.

The most infamous book bound in human skin, Burke’s Skin Pocket Book, put a serial killer to good use.

5. There are books — mostly medical texts — that are bound in human skin.

The practice of binding books in human skin was once fairly common and has a fancy name: anthropodermic bibliopegy. The poor suckers whose epidermises have been cured to cover books were typically prisoners and other cadavers used for dissection. It’s tough to know if that leather-bound ancient tome is from a cow or a criminal.

How many books from the museum’s library are bound in human skin?

A famous (and morbid) example is Burke’s Skin Pocket Book. William Burke and William Hare were serial killers who murdered 16 people and sold the cadavers for anatomical study and dissection.

Burke was found guilty and hanged. He received a just punishment: His corpse was dissected, and some of his skin was used to fashion a small book, now part of the collection of the Surgeon’s Hall Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.

An early C-section in Latin America, where they actually gave woman pain relievers, unlike Westerners at the time, who thought childbirth was supposed to hurt like hell (thanks, Eve!).

6. People didn’t think women should have anesthesia during childbirth because of a Bible passage.

Yes, there’s a lot of crazy shit in the Bible (read the story of Lot sometime, who offered up his daughters to be gang raped and was then seduced by them). In Genesis 3:16, God punishes Eve for her part in convincing Adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, declaring, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.”

Sorry, moms-to-be! Childbirth is gonna hurt — though a lot less than in the past.

In South America, at least, when a woman was to give birth, they’d use a sea sponge drenched in wine and mandrake root as anesthesia. It had one mild side effect, though: The woman would hallucinate and trip her balls off.

The first surgery ever was to create literal holes in the head, during a practice known as trepanning or trepanation.

7. The first surgery involved poking holes into the skull.

This fun practice, known as trepanation, seems as necessary as a hole in the head — pun intended. It was performed by Incan priests to let out evil spirits. They’d chew coca (the same plant from which cocaine is derived) and spit it into the open wound. What’s most shocking is that more than half of the victims, er, patients survived.

A portrait of Vesalius from De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543)

8. Andreas Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy, took to grave robbing for corpses to dissect.

Vesalius, who lived during the 1500s, used the bodies of convicted criminals to create his seminal works on human anatomy. But when that wasn’t enough, he started digging up bodies in graveyards. To be fair, many cemeteries were a mess at the time. Dogs would often be found gnawing away at the bodies piled up in mass graves, and Vesalius would have to fight them off for his prize.

Who’d’ve thunk a sore throat would lead to the death of the United States’ first president?!

9. Bloodletting was a popular practice — and led to the death of none other than George Washington!

For 3,000 years, surgeons have thought that blood gets old and stagnates, and that the best way to refresh it was to open a vein and start to drain. We were familiar with the practice of bloodletting but were surprised to hear that the first U.S. president died from complications of a bloodletting procedure in 1799, in which nearly 40% of his blood was drained. The reason this was prescribed? He had woken up with a sore throat.

10. Blood transfusions didn’t work so well in the past.

This surgical procedure had a high rate of mortality before blood groups were discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1901. In fact, sometimes animal blood was used in transfusions because it was thought to be cleaner (in part because they don’t drink booze).

Dr. Liston, the Fastest Knife in the West End, was a master of amputation (though he had quite a few misfires as well).

11. Amputation used to be the most common surgery because of infection.

There was even an amputation superhero: Robert Liston, who earned the nickname the Fastest Knife in the West End in the earlyish 1800s. The London surgeon proudly wore his bloody apron and could hack off a limb in 90 seconds flat. Fast was good, what with the lack of anesthesia.

Nice gams! Check out these early artificial limbs from the museum’s collection.

Of course, the downside was that Liston had a high mortality rate. In fact, one of his surgeries killed three people: the patient, an assistant whose fingers were accidentally cut off and later became infected, and an elderly doctor watching the procedure whose coat was sliced in the excitement and died of a heart attack.

12. Maggots are still used to clean out wounds.

These disgusting little creepy-crawlies are actually really good at finding necrotic tissue and dissolving it. On top of that, they have antibacterial saliva. Maybe you should make out with a maggot next time you’re feeling sick? –Wally

If you’d like to learn the creepy origins of medicine, book a tour of the Chicago Surgical Museum.

International Museum of Surgical Science
1524 N. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL 60610
USA

 

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More Strange Stuff

The Sea Pines Shell Ring Mystery

Hidden in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve on Hilton Head is a 3,500-year-old Native American archaeological treasure.

An archeological team excavates the Sea Pines Shell Ring to better understand what it was used for thousands of years ago

Whenever we visit my parents on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, we like to explore the forest preserve. As we wander the trails, we cross boardwalks over pitch-black bogs covered in neon green flora. We’ll see a line of horseback riders plodding along on an excursion from nearby Lawton Stables. Families throw lines in the water in the hopes of catching a fish for dinner.

And if we head between Lake Joe and Lake Thomas, we’ll come upon the Indian Shell Ring, as we did one day a couple of years ago. It’s usually a quiet spot under the cover of trees — but on this day, we stumbled upon the midst of an archeological dig.

“Our best guess is that the ring was a place where people lived year-round and would occasionally hold large-scale gatherings in which they feasted on shellfish and other foods.”

— Matthew Sanger, Binghamton University, New York

The man in charge of the excavation is Matthew Sanger, assistant anthropology professor and co-director of the public archaeology program at Binghamton University in New York. He came right over and told us all about the mysterious shell ring. He obviously has a passion for the project.

Matthew Sanger, a professor at Binghamton University in New York, leads the project

What first drew you to the Sea Pines Shell Ring?

I have worked at other shell rings located in Georgia and had heard about the one at Sea Pines. There are at least 50 known shell rings spread across the coast between South Carolina and through the Gulf Coast to Mississippi.

The Sea Pines Shell Ring is well known for being one of the most accessible (others are often on uninhabited islands or well off the beaten path) and being one of the best preserved (many others are under parking lots, have been disturbed or destroyed by rising sea levels, etc.).

A team of students gets hands-on experience unearthing artifacts at the Sea Pines Shell Ring

Tell us a bit about how the project works.

I bring a crew of students to Hilton Head every summer as well as occasionally during our other breaks (Winter and Spring Breaks are the most common). The crew works with me over a month or so as we excavate the site in search of clues to how the ring formed, who lived there, etc.

Where will the artifacts end up?

We bring all of the artifacts back to Binghamton with us at the end of the summer. We then spend the rest of the year processing and analyzing the artifacts. We will hold onto the artifacts for the next few years, but plan on ultimately transferring them to a local institution in South Carolina.

What’s the timeline?

We are currently planning on continuing to do excavations at the Sea Pines Shell Ring for the next two to four years, depending on funding and what we find.

Hurricanes Matthew and Irma caused Hilton Head Island to be evacuated in recent years. How did the hurricanes affect the project?

We were very lucky that the ring survived both hurricanes unscathed. We had some downed trees, but really almost no damage at all.

Archeologists attempt to solve the mystery of the shell ring and the house that might have once been situated inside it

What’s your best guess about what the ring was used for?

So far, our best guess is that the ring was a place where people lived year-round and would occasionally hold large-scale gatherings in which they feasted on shellfish and other foods.

The Sea Pines Shell Ring is one of the smallest shell rings, so it may have been a year-round home to a small group of families — perhaps only four to six households.

But on occasion, the ring might have hosted events that brought together dozens, perhaps more than 100 people.

What type of people lived in this area at the time of the shell ring?

Roughly 3,500 years ago, when the Sea Pines Shell Ring was forming, the South Carolina coast was inhabited by Native Americans. It is impossible to characterize these Native Americans as belonging to a particular modern tribe, but their progeny likely includes members of a wide number of tribal groups, including the Yemessee, Escamacu, Edisto, Coosa, Pee Dee and Sewee, to name a few.

What was the biggest surprise you found on the dig?

Last summer we came across what looks to be the remains of a house inside of the ring. The evidence is very ephemeral — which is not surprising, considering that the house has been gone for more than 3,000 years. But we came across some stains in the soil that look like where a few walls might have been located as well as an area that looks like it could have been a floor. We are returning to further excavate this area this coming summer to see if this is indeed an ancient home.

Note: For the past couple of years, the Sea Pines Shell Ring has been off limits due to hurricane cleanup in the forest preserve. –Wally

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Heading to Hilton Head?

Gambling Advice

Before you hit the casinos in Vegas, these gambling tips could improve your odds. We’d be willing to bet on it.

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No matter what your game, we’ve got some tips to help you get started gambling — and they just might help you hit the jackpot

When in Rome…you drink wine and visit ancient ruins.

When in Vegas…you might as well try your hand at gambling. Brandon knows his way around a casino. It’s not all about luck. Here’s his advice.

“If you want to win a jackpot, you’ll have to play max bet. And the higher the pull, the better the payout — but the more potential to lose your money quickly.”

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Read more Vegas tips from Herminia and Brandon

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Brandon cruises the Strip like a badass — but he’s a high roller in the casinos

Start early.

Brandon has a routine that begins early every morning (10 a.m.is early in Vegas) with a trip to the sports bet. Because of the time zone difference, the games are played earlier in Vegas. So he gets his free Jack & Coke, sits at the sports book and places a few bets. He checks back after lunch to collect his winnings, which he’ll then use toward his gambling efforts in the evenings…

Remember: high risk, high reward.

For slots, you’ll want to bet between $2-$3 a pull so you don’t lose your money quickly, while still having the potential to win a decent pot.

If you want to win a jackpot, you’ll have to play max bet. And the higher the pull, the better the payout — but the more potential to lose your money quickly.

Don't go during prime time.

As for tables, they can be intimidating if you’re not usually a table player. Brandon recommends getting to the tables at an off-hour. That’s basically any time during the day, especially on weekdays. Sunday nights are good, too. Because the tables aren’t busy, the dealers are typically super nice and will show you how to play.

Brandon’s love affair with craps started one Sunday night at a table at the Wynn…

Booze it up.

And whenever you’re gambling, remember the drinks are free. While you don’t have to tip, if you leave your server a nice tip, she’ll usually be sure to find you and bring you drinks with better liquor.

Good luck — and if you still lose big, please don’t blame us. –Wally