Category: Chicago

by Michael R. Allen

The building at 3206 N. Wilton Avenue housing Chicago all-ages venue the Bottom Lounge was demolished by early 2006 to make way for an expansion of the Belmont El station. At the time, the main story was that Chicago was sadly losing another all-ages venue due to technicalities in laws assisting the relocation of businesses. No one seemed to remember the history behind the building, despite the inexplicable painted-over sign reading “Cooperative Temperance Cafe – Idrott” that appeared above its storefront openings.

The building during demolition on December 31, 2005.

The design alone inspired intrigue. The basic form as the average early twentieth century flat-roofed Chicago Arts & Crafts commercial building. Yet the details were odd: yellow brick above a storefront ribbon trimmed with intricate terra cotta pieces that pleasantly clashed with the upper level even after being subjected to later painting schemes. (Demolition robbed us of the chance to see if the terra cotta was polychromatic.) The storefront ornament was part Spanish Revival, part Moorish and part Renaissance Revival and contained a lovely arcade entrance (see photograph).

Detail of the entrance arcade.

Through this entrance passed many young people headed to a show, including the editors of Ecology of Absence. (This is where we saw Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies as well as Weird War perform on the day after Ronald Reagan’s death.) But long before that phase, the building was built for an idealistic experiment that also was an important part of the social fabric of Lakeview: the Cooperative Temperance Society Cafe, also known as Idrott.

The local society had its roots in the Cooperative Movement, an almost socialist consumers’ movement. The center of the movement was the Cooperative League, based in New York and founded in 1916, which aimed to promote a world “whereby the people, in voluntary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need.”

In 1913, a Chicago group composed of 75 young Swedish people, elected to open a cafe and club known as “Idrott” (Swedish for “sport”) on Wilton Avenue just north of Belmont Avenue. The organization existed to promote temperance and athletics as well as to provide a place for Swedish immigrants to speak and read in the native language while in a new country. The principles of the club were based on self-sufficiency, thrift and sharing. The goal of the cafe was to provide good food at good prices with fair ages paid to staff. The society decided to limit membership to ten new members each year. Later, the group became an important part of the Cooperative Movement although never an official affiliate of the Cooperative League. The society built a new building at the Wilton Avenue location, adding a bakery, meat department, library, game room, overnight rooms and mail delivery for members. The operation was renamed the Cooperative Temperance Cafe, with the old name noted on the exterior. By 1926, there were 200 members and the organization opened a branch cafe at 5248 N. Clark Street. All surplus funds raised by the club were used for expansion and educational efforts, so that there was no profit to any member or to the club.

The Cooperative League became the National Cooperative Business Association and still exists. The Chicago group eventually folded, and the building became home to Lakeview Links, later the Bottom Lounge, in 1991. More information about the history of the Cooperative Movement and the Cooperative Temperance Society can be found in the archives of Co-Op Magazine, where I gleaned some of my information.

by Michael R. Allen

In June 2005, we received an email from John Merchant about 1423 N. Leavitt (see “Lost on Leavitt in Wicker Park”, November 6, 2004):

“I used to live in the quaint building you describe on your website (1423 N. Leavitt). I lived their for five years, finally leaving in the spring of 1999. I no longer live in Chicago, but on a recent visit a friend who still lives in the area asked me if I had seen the old place and upon driving by I could not believe what I saw. Those have to be some of the ugliest condos I have ever seen.

“It is hard to describe in an e-mail, but the swath of destruction that ended with the annihilation of my old building was owned by my landlord. Behind my place was a slightly rickety but really nice coach house. Next to my building was a long, nicely tended yard. And then my landlord had 2-3 empty lots’ worth of space for a yard, all of which was cared for and decorated with funky artwork. Her building was on the corner, a former storefront from the looks of it with two apartments upstairs. One entire wall of her building was glass brick and the ceiling was one of those beautiful tin jobs. Janet, landlord, was an artist who had bought all of that land in 1980s, when the neighborhood was neglected, run down, and rather sketchy. She received offers to sell all the time, but refused. I don’t know what happened that made her change her mind and all her compound to go under the bulldozer…”

He added in a later email:

“The one thing I was thinking might still be there is a plaque remembering this old Polish man, Michal, who lived in the upstairs apartment in my landlord’s building overlooking Leavitt. She planted a pear tree, I think, and put in a memorial to him… maybe even his ashes, I can’t recall. It is sad to think that those hideous condos will loom over him for eternity. He lived the Nelson Algren age of Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village, playing accordian in the bars, etc.”

Fortunately, John sent us the following photographs so that we could see what the buildings and yard looked like under Janet’s care. With his permission, we are sharing them here.