On Labor Day we look at homes of 6 people who died on the job.
On July 24, 1915 the SS Eastland capsized on the Chicago River. It was to carry over 2000 Western Electric workers and their guests to an annual company picnic in Michigan. Instead it turned over at the dock, killing 844 people. Among the dead were people who were on the boat for work. Below are six of their homes. More information about the event and home locations of most of the victims can be found on CBA’s Eastland Disaster Victims Map.
(3/13/24) James Stenson (24) was the assistant purser and ticket taker for the Eastland. He was living above the near former tavern. He had joined on just two weeks before the event. The first floor had been Pippin’s Tavern for over 45 years prior to a 2021 move to swankier digs
(1/8/19) Eleanor Orbes, 16yo separated cabaret singer, lived with her parents in this Bucktown building on the right. Posts in the graveyard, has a researched history of her origins, a later insurance pay out, and the husband. I love when this happens. I had taken this picture several years ago for the Green & White Brick map, not knowing it would be a two-fer.
(2/22/24) Leslie Simmons (29) was an official WE photographer,. He lived in this home in the western suburb of Oak Park.
(6/27/24) This limestone two flat in Lawndale was the home of Robert Pruegert, a 26yo musician employed on the Eastland. Robert, like myself, was a transplanted Oklahoman.
(3/21/24) Joseph Bertrand was a 50 year old bartender on the Eastland living above the near storefront in Lincoln Park with his family. In his younger days he was a Bantam boxing champion known as the “Little Demon” (pdf, w/ pic). I found many references to his matches through the 1890s, one match held “in a basement on the South Side” in front of “about 100 spectators” (pdf).
(5/23/24) Frank Tranchitella (43) a musician on the Eastland lived in this Andersonville home at right. Frank was definitely a victim of the era’s name inconsistency issue, in the Cook County death records he’s listed as “Frank Trankitelli” His brother Matteo, also a musician, had died in 1912; the same year his mother transferred this property to his name (Chicago Examiner 1912.08.20p15).
Contact CBA for a custom guided ridethat includes some of these sights and for gift certificates for the cyclists in your life.Also, these maps are some of the many layers on The Map, where you can plan your own ride, run, or walk around Chicago
