Rush Street, Chicago

I was up in Chicago right after Christmas, and I stayed down along Michigan Avenue. River North, Magnificent Mile, or whatever you call it, is a jumble of buildings that mostly date from the 1950's to the present day. Of course, this is one of the oldest parts of the city from just after the Civil War. While many people I know in Chicago consider River North "dead" from a preservationist point of view, I realized that there are still a few holdouts from the 19th Century amidst the Post-Modern condo towers.

This great example below of a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion is on Rust Street, one block over from tumultuous Michigan Avenue. It has been converted into some sort of pizza restaurant.Walking south of Rush, I encountered this restrained Italianate rowhouse that has been heavily altered .And finally, this mansion in the Italianate style still holds sway over the northwest corner on Rush.Sadly, land values in River North are way too high for many of these beautiful relics to last forever, especially considering that Michigan Avenue is filling up quickly with retail. I am glad that I was able to see at least a fragment of when this area was a quiet residential neighborhood north of the Chicago River.