Shadows of a Forgotten World

I discovered some old fences while in the States this summer  –  first I found several beautiful antique fences on Hoyne Street in Chicago, and then I came across some in my suburb and in Annapolis, and now back in Lviv I have also started paying attention to them.  In all three places  –  Chicago, Winnetka, and Annapolis  –  I found fences made by Stewart Iron Works. This is not surprising as at one point this company was the largest iron fence maker in the world. *** The Stewart Iron Works Cincinnati Ohio Stewart Iron Works, an ironworks plant located in Covington, Kentucky, was founded in 1886 and incorporated in 1910. A branch in Cincinnati operated from 1903 to 1915.  Cincinnati Iron Fence Co. – Inc – Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.  Produced fences from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries W.T. Barbee Fence Works It’s hard to find information about thi...

Something that I haven’t noticed in Lviv and Europe in general is iron fire escapes on the sides of buildings. I read that the reason such fire escapes are a rarity in Europe is because European cities have a long history of fire prevention and safety and were always ahead of America in their immunity against fire, and thus these fire escapes were not necessary. For example, starting in the thirteenth century, only stone and brick, as opposed to wood, structures were allowed in the inner cities, while even in later centuries wood remained a common building material in American cities. The first external iron fire escape I took note of was in my suburb because the manufacturer’s stamp on the counterweight caught my eye. Then I started noticing them all over Chicago. Many of them have a circular or octagonal decorative counterweight stamped with the manufacturer’s name, while some don’t have any inscriptions at all. Fire escape in downtown Winnetka The majority of the...

I saw this antique brass three-unit mailbox with old-fashioned speaking tubes and doorbells in an apartment building that was built in 1904 in the Ukrainian Village in Chicago. I'm guessing it was installed either when the building was built or no later than the 1920s. Currently there is a modern six-unit mailbox (now it is a six-unit apartment building, before I guess it was only three) mounted in a different place, and modern doorbells at each door.

Chicago has its share of ghost signs. Here a few from a couple neighborhoods on the north side of the city. The first one is an old ad for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, which was based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Schlitz brewery was opened in 1858 and in 1902 it was the largest producer of beer in the world and in 1934 it again became the world’s top-selling brewery. In 1982 the company was bought by Stroh Brewery Company and in 1999 sold to the Pabst Brewing Company. Lowest Prices in Town Pawlansky Bros. Meat Market This last one is interesting because half of its outside and half is inside - note the glass door that splits it in two.

Due to historical reasons, there are very few Ukrainian-language ghost signs in Ukraine, but in the Ukrainian Village (a neighborhood on the north side of the city) in Chicago, there is one in Ukrainian, and it is possible that there had been more. The one that I found is for a Ukrainian bank (Security Savings Bank) that was bought out by MB Financial Bank about 10 years ago. The ghost sign is probably from the 1960s or 70s. Security Savings Bank Платимо дивіденду квартально 5% від ошадностей (translated: Dividends paid quarterly 5% interest on savings)