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December 22-27, 1973: Christmas in North Carolina |
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September 22-30, 1973: My Fall Vacation in the Southeast |
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Return to Index for 1973 |
When I was visiting North Carolina last month, Ed Shuping told Steve and I that he had gotten a job with the Federal Government as a Quality Control Field Reviewer with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He would be doing extensive traveling in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota but would be based in Chicago. Knowing I lived in Chicago, and thinking that his job would just be a steppingstone to another position he really wanted, Ed asked if it might be possible for us to have a place together. He would be traveling most of the time, and so that might make it easier on both of us.
Where I had moved to on Aldine earlier in the year wasn't really appropriate; it was just a one-bedroom apartment. But having two incomes to work with expanded the horizons as far as finding a two-bedroom, two-bath place to live. Ed was to begin his job on October 1 which, coincidentally, is one of the two common moving days in Chicago. That is, almost all apartment leases begin on either October 1 or May 1. So as soon as I returned to Chicago from my vacation, I started looking around. I didn't have to look very far or very long.
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Although I first looked right in my own building and in the neighborhoods around me, I didn't find anything really suitable. I knew Ed might like an old building, but most of those were either too expensive or too old. I wanted to be near Lincoln Park for my jogging and bicycling, and Ed wanted to be close to restaurants and things to do. The area called Old Town seemed ideal, and I remembered back a year or so earlier when I'd come up to Chicago to visit my Army friend Ed Heyward, and he'd taken me for a little tour around the city (although he lived in Evanston) we'd passed a complex called Sandburg Village.
This set of high-rises and low rise apartments and condoo occupied four square blocks right on LaSalle Street, convenient both for me to get to the Bank and Ed to get to the airport. And it was right in the middle of the Old Town area and very near the park. So I drove down there to have a look. I took Lake Shore Drive south to LaSalle Street, and when I got off the Drive there and came around the south end of the park, there was a newly-completed building right in front of me- one that I'd recalled seeing under construction the previous year. There were big signs out advertising "Apartments Now Renting". It was a handsome building, and right across the street from Lincoln Park, so I parked and went in to the leasing office to have a look.
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North Avenue, a block south, is a major street that leads west to the Dan Ryan Expressway (I-94) that goes north and south through Chicago and would provide Ed easy access to his work on those occasions when he drove (which turned out to be fairly often). Finally, I noted that there was a bus stop exactly in front of the building, and the closeness to downtown (half again as close as where I am now on Aldine) would cut my commute in half. So I was hopeful that apartments might be affordable.
Below, left, courtesy of Google Maps, is a 3D look at the block on which Eugenie Square is located. First, remember that the aerial view is from today, not 1973, and so there have been some changes. The high-rise on the north side of Eugenie Street wasn't there in 1973; in fact, Eugenie Square was one of the first high-rises built west of Clark Street and north of North Avenue. The only older one was right across Wells Street- Americana Towers (as seen from my balcony).
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On Wells Street, just out the rear door of Eugenie Square was the Treasure Island grocery store (part of the large chain of grocery stores in the Chicago area). The building also had its own parking garage (although, as it turned out, I didn't use it for the first few years I was in the building).
Anyway, when I went in to the leasing office, I found that I was pretty much just in time, as there were only forty or so (out of a total of about 420) apartments still unrented. To get the building fully rented, the leasing office was willing to offer some good deals, and I took a look at three different units. The two-bedroom, two-bath units are at the corners of the building on all 42 floors, and there were only four of these still unrented. The leasing office offered to rent the highest of them (on the 36th floor) for the same cost as the lowest of them (on the 8th floor)- about $450/month (compared to the $220 I was paying on Aldine.
When the leasing agent took me into #3602, I was bowled away. The apartment was nice enough- good kitchen, big living/dining room, two nice bedrooms and two full baths- but it was the views that sold me on the apartment. They were simply spectacular (as you will see). Since Ed was due in Chicago in two days, I put a deposit down on the apartment to hold it until I could bring him here to see it. I did that two days later, and we agreed to rent it. I offered to pay a bit more than half of the rent, since Ed had said he would only use it a few days a week.
Since we were the first tenants in our particular apartment, and so we got to choose carpeting and all. That was nice, and the fact that it was brand-new and modern was nice too. But Ed agreed with me- the views were to die for. The apartment had unobstructed views from 36 floors up looking east to the lake (if you were out on the balcony on the south side of the building off the living room), south to downtown, and west to suburban Chicago. My previous two apartments had only views of alleys, and this was a spectacular change. In fact, for the first week or so, I just kind of camped out in the living room. Here are some of those views:
This looks across the south end of Lincoln Park, past the buildings that border it on North Avenue, and to the highrises at the north end of the Gold Coast. The lake view is nice, but I am happy to be on the building's southwest corner so I get beautiful sunsets. |
This view looks south down LaSalle Street. In the nearground are the highrise residences of Sandburg Village. You can pick out the two round towers of Marina City, the First National Bank Building to their right, and the Sears Tower- America's tallest building. |
You can see the Chicago "L" in the foreground, a basically low-income neighborhood of older buildings behind it, and Cabrini Green- one of the nation's largest public housing complexes (and the setting for the TV show "Good Times" which will begin airing next year). |
Taken from the master bedroom, this view looks past Americana Towers on Wells Street out across the brownstone neighborhoods of Chicago's northwest side. On a clear day, you can see planes taking off and landing at O'Hare. |
As far as the building itself is concerned, it is really nice. Being new construction, everything is modern. And being the first residents in this particular unit, we could pick carpet and kitchen appliance colors. (This was the time of Flair ranges, not granite and stainless steel. It was also the time when shag carpeting was in vogue, and we chose burnt orange.)
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At right is the front entrance to the building (taken about 1995). This entrance was not present when we moved in; the entrance then was just a broad set of steps up to the doors. This entrance was built after the building converted to condominiums; I was actually on the condo board when we authorized its construction. It provided a shelter for building occupants when waiting for the bus or for taxis. I know the picture was taken after 1990, because the building's name was changed to "1660 North LaSalle" in the early 1990s.
The first floor of the building contained the common areas. There was a sizeable laundromat, a party/meeting room, the mailboxes, building offices, and, on the north end of the building, a restaurant. There was also the elevator lobby, of course. There were four passenger elevators and one freight elevator (used for people moving in and out). At certain times of day, the elevators could be quite busy; with no intermediate stops, it still took some 30-35 seconds to go from the lobby to the 36th floor.
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For the first years I lived here, I just found parking on the street- usually on Eugenie, or nearby in the park. Over the years, the area grew and new buildings went up, increasing demand for parking and making it harder to find a space. After I left the Bank and started working for Cullinane Corporation the very next year, I began a heavy travel schedule. When I was traveling, I typically took my car to the airport, and so was only concerned with finding a parking space on weekends. But even that still meant that I could easily have trouble getting a space, and so when the building converted to condominiums in 1977, I decided that when I bought my unit I would also buy a parking space in the garage, and from then on, of course, parking ceased to be an issue.
So what abour the apartment itself? Well, the layout was pretty simple. Entering the door to 3602, there was an entry alcove first and a big closet to the right. The alcove was big enough for my desk. There was an entry to the galley kitchen to the left, and that kitchen had one of the apartment's many floor-to-ceiling windows. Then you came into the large (20x40) living area; the dining room table was just outside the kitchen, and the rest of the room quite open, with the balcony doors and windows on the south (left) and more windows at the far end of the room (west). After you entered the living room there was a hallway to your right. Down that hall were first a closet and the entrance to the first bathroom on the right, then the door to the second bedroom on the left, and, at the end of the hall, the door to the master bedroom with its own ensuite bath. The whole apartment was some 1175 square feet.
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In this first picture, I am standing in the living room looking back towards the entry. The hallway entry is at left, and then a little bookshelf that I have had forever and now use as the telephone table. My desk is in the entry around the corner out of sight, and then the entry closet and front door. I have a tall bookshelf there, too, and there is an entry to the kitchen. My new Early American trestle table has arrived, and you can see the second kitchen entry as well.
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Looking from the Entry into the Kitchen
Here, I am standing in the entry and looking south into the kitchen.
The kitchen was bigger and more modern than those I had on Barry and Aldine. At left is the Flair range (no microwave yet, as they are just beginning to penetrate the consumer market and I won't get my first one for another eight years or so), which had an upper oven, cooktop, and lower oven. Then the Formica counter with double sink and under-counter dishwasher. The windows with standard building-provided curtains are at the south end.
Working around the room there was space for a little table, then the door to the dining area, and, finally, the fridge just inside the kitchen to the right.
When I bought the unit, I remodeled the kitchen and at that time took out the little-used doorway and put in a passthrough instead.
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In this view, which I took whilst standing just inside the dining area from the entry, you can see the balcony off to the left. The balcony is actually about eight feet long and three or four feet wide. When I was living here, I could go out on it and look over the railing with no problem, but if I were to return there now, I would probably stay away from the edge.
In the corner of the room is my first color television, a Zenith that I bought on my return from Korea in 1971. Then, all along the west side of the room, is the collection of stereo equipment that I acquired while I was overseas. At the moment, I keep my bike in the living room, and there is also the recliner I bought in Indianapolis. I have some more furniture that hasn't come yet; most of it is Early American dark pine from Ethan Allan.
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Looking Towards the Northwest Corner of the Living Room
To take this picture, I am standing near the sliding glass doors to the balcony.
Frankly, I can't remember all the pieces of stereo equipment that I had at the peak, even though it is all in this picture. I had a turntable, of course, and a main receiver, along with a dubbing tape deck for my reel-to-reel tape collection. I have also just bought a new cassette recorder so I can make cassette tapes for my car. All that equipment is in the top row at the end of the room.
Below the turntable is a reverberation amplifier, a pre-amp, and a speaker amplifier. Next to them is my big reel-to-reel tape deck. I have some records, but I am trying to get everything on audio tape, as it is more compact. At the moment, I am in the process of putting the Time-Life Treasury of Classical Music onto audiotape. You can see more of these tapes in my little cabinet. Then there is one of the chairs from the trestle table dining room set, a small plastic table and my recliner.
The building has a central air-conditioning and heating system, and there are vents like the one in the corner column in each bedroom and bathroom, one in the kitchen, and another behind me. The system worked well, and I was usually quite comfortable. Each unit owner could control how much heat or cooling came out of the vents. The only problem was that individual units could not control whether it was heat or cool air that came out of the system. There was one huge system for the whole building, and it was changed from heat to cooling on a specified day in mid-April and from cooling to heat in mid-October. Around those dates, though, you might have unseasonable temperatures at the wrong time. Since it took the building a full day or more to switch over, they couldn't very well go back and forth frequently around those dates. So each year there were at least a few days when I might have preferred the changeover to have occurred earlier or later.
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Here, I am standing just inside the sliding glass doors to the balcony and looking straight down the hall to the north and the bedrooms. The guest room is the door on the left, and you can't really see the large closet and the door to the first bathroom on the right. At the end of the hall is the door to the master suite.
You can see my recliner again, and the bookcase that I brought with me from Indianapolis. Now you can see my new Early American desk in the entryway. I can't quite tell at this point what is standing up beyond the desk- between the desk chair and the closet in the entry. I think, however, that it is the mirror that fits down behind the new dresser that I have purchased for the master bedroom.
I don't have any pictures looking at the guest bath or the second bedroom, mostly because Ed already has his stuff in there and I didn't want to intrude. But I do have a couple of pictures taken in my bedroom- nominally the master but about the same size as the second bedroom and bath put together:
Looking from the doorway, that's the new cannonball bed that I have bought, and the dresser is at the left. All the rooms had lots of light, but I did have to invest in blackout curtains, as the ones supplied didn't make my bedroom dark enough. |
In the master, the bathroom is ensuite. The tub/shower and commode are in a little room of their own, while the sink and vanity are just outside. Between this area and the actual bedroom is a large closet, so it wasn't like a typical motel room. |
Another thing that I did like about the building was that four of the windows could actually be opened (although just a portion). This meant that I could indulge my penchant for having a very cold bedroom- at least in the winter. (I would find out a few months later that when it is below zero outside, the window doesn't have to be open very far to get the bedroom quite chilly- especially because the building's kitchen/bath exhaust system runs constantly, pulling in air and exhausting it on the roof (which is why in the winter you see plumes of steam atop most of the tall Chicago buildings. So when I opened a window in January, cold air would be automatically pulled in.)
We've only been here about two weeks so far, but already living in Eugenie Square looks like it will be a vast improvement over my first two Chicago apartments.
You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.
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December 22-27, 1973: Christmas in North Carolina |
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September 22-30, 1973: My Fall Vacation in the Southeast |
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Return to Index for 1973 |
