Those Places Thursday: Dienes Hat Store Chicago Location

Recently I used Sanborn maps (available through the Library of Congress) and the Chicago Building Permits Digital Collection (available through the University of Illinois at Chicago) to trace the history of the Chicago home of my great-great-grandparents' Dienes Hat Store, which was located at 287 [later 460 W.] Division from at least 1888 to at least 1891. 

The photo above, from somewhere around 1888-1891, has my great-great-grandparents Regina Matheis Dienes (1837-1916) and Friederich "Fred" Wilhelm Dienes (1827-1896), and one of their daughters, probably my great-grandmother Elizabeth Regina Dienes Massmann (1876-1946).

Using the index, I found two building permits for this address.  The first gave both the post-1909 renumbering and pre-renumbering addresses. and I could clearly read that it was permit #565, but it was hard to read the date.  March 20-something, 18-something?

Using some of the image enhancement tools made it a little easier to read.  I could see the year was 18-6, and guessed it was likely to be 1866, 1876, or 1886.  Probably the latter, because the hat store was originally (according to the 1882 city directory) just down the street at 267 (later 470 W.) Division.

Here are the pages with this building permit (click on the image to view it larger):

I did a little editing to cut out unnecessary entries and make the date of the permit clear (March 25, 1886), as well as the headings on the page.  Here is the left side of my modified page.  Permit #565 is listed on the bottom (click on the following two images to view them larger):

The owner was German immigrant Frederick Buenzow (1825-1910, see above).  He arrived in the USA in 1853, but by 1886 was apparently doing well enough to erect a four-story store and flats, 22 feet wide, 52 feet deep, and 40 feet high.  The site was in Butterfield's Addition, lot 34, sublot 38, and the permit cost $4.60 (below).  Buenzow is at this address in the 1888 city directory (along with the Dienes hat shop in the storefront), but he's moved to 27 (now 1218 N.) Clybourn by the 1891 directory, and the Dienes family lives above the store.

Here's the Sanborn map for this block from 1910, when it was pretty much fully developed.  My family's interest in the property ended by 1896 when my great-great-grandfather Fred Dienes died.

Image 94 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Vol. 2, 1910 [part].

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Geography and Map Division.

Link to the full image: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g01790191002/?sp=94

By the time of the 1935 Sanborn map (below), all of the entirely-frame (all-yellow) buildings were gone, while a few other buildings had been enlarged.  Although the photograph at the beginning of this post shows that it was there all along, this map indicates that there is an "area under side walk" that provided access to basement levels of the six addresses from 460 to 470 W. Division.

Image 53 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Vol. 2, 1935 South [part].

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC,Geography and Map Division .

Link to the full image: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g01790193502S/?sp=53

The other permit for this address is a "sundry" permit, which is usually for alterations.  This one was also hard to read:

Enhancing the image made it a little easier - I can now clearly read the date (June 4, 1936), and it looks like it is to "wreck 4 st[or]y b[ui]ld[in]g" - in other words, a demolition permit.  I could not find any other detail about this permit.

Sure enough, by the April 1950 Sanborn map update, 460 W. Division is gone, as are some more buildings on the block.  A gas filling station has gone in at the top part of the wedge, along N. Clybourn Avenue.

Image 53 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Vol. 2, 1910 - May 1950 South [part].

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Geography and Map Division.

Link to the full image: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g01790195002S/?sp=53

That gas station was apparently the only thing left on the block by 2003, when it became the always-moving location of the urban City Farm program, which will "cultivate the surplus [land] that occurs between demolition and development" rent-free.  In 2015, the block was slated for redevelopment, so City Farm moved one block west on Division to another large vacant parcel. 

In 2017, the Clybourn 1200 retail and residential development was completed on the block where the Dienes Hat Store used to be (and the home of my great-great-grandparents and great-grandmother was for a while).  In fact, its official address is 460 W. Division!  I think it's kind of cool that this block is "store(s) and flats" once again, over 130 years later.


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