Message #224581

[Desolate Angel]

The End of Old Chicago (2-3-1986)
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John R. Schmidt on 02.03.10 at 12:01 AM | no comments |


John R. Schmidt

I'm a Chicago historian who is still learning about Chicago.
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2-3--Old Chicago interior.jpg

 

The dream ended today.  They began tearing down Old Chicago.

Was it an amusement park?  Was it a shopping mall?  No one could decide which it was.  Now it would be neither.

There had been such high hopes in 1973.  The concept was daring--build an amusement park, surround it with stores, and put the whole thing indoors.  That way it could operate the year 'round.  The investors tripped over each other racing forward with money.

The location for the project was a plot of farmland in Bolingbrook, just off I-55 at Route 53.  In a salute to Chicago history, the 11-acre building was to be topped off with a dome in the style of the 1893 Columbian Exposition.  Planning and construction took over two years.  As the dome started to rise above the corn fields, a steady stream of curiosity seekers drove by the site.