Chicago was thriving and developing in the 1970s. Downtown was a bit quieter and the density of buildings on the Near North Side, especially around River North, was far lower. There were many homeless people living on the streets and the crime rates were also high. Poor neighborhoods were being replaced with massive public housing that solved a few of the problems of poverty and violence. By the late ’70s, the city was beginning to develop its reputation for festivals, starting with ChicagoFest, it changed how people felt about the Pier.
The Chicago Transit Authority ran old and noisy buses that spewed huge clouds of black smoke from their exhaust pipes each time they started moving. Many streets in Chicago in the 1970s, particularly under viaducts and bridges, still showed streetcar tracks that had never been paved over after the last streetcars ran in 1958.
Here below are some stunning photos that show what Chicago looked like in the 1970s. These photographs were captured by Charles William Brubaker, who was a member of the Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins & Will from 1950 until 1998. Vote your favorites and don’t forget to share.
#1 Pedestrians walking in Grant Park with the Loop skyline in the distance, 1970
#2 Two- and three-story buildings along the north side of West Chicago Avenue, with businesses on the ground floor and apartments above, 1970
#3 Chicago skyline in winter, looking northwest from near the Adler Planetarium, 1972
#4 View looking north across West North Avenue at a Dominick’s grocery store, part of the Pipers Alley Mall complex, 1978
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Still the same building 🙂
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Buttplug
#5 North Sedgwick Street from south of the CTA elevated train tracks, 1971
#6 South Commercial Avenue and Immaculate Conception Church, 1972
#7 Greenstone Church, 1972
#8 Touhy Avenue and elevated train tracks, 1971
#9 Looking east along Grand Avenue from Michigan Avenue toward the high-rise Time-Life Building (541 North Fairbanks Court), 1971
#10 Michigan Avenue from the northern end of the North Michigan Avenue bridge, 1972
#11 Warehouse demolition, North Pier Terminal, and McClurg Court Center apartments, 1973
#12 Reliance building, 1977
#13 View looking north along North Michigan Avenue from just south of the intersection with East Superior Street, 1970
#14 Boats in the Diversey Harbor, located within Lincoln Park, 1971
#15 Looking north along a thriving commercial strip on South Michigan Avenue, 1972
#16 View looking northwest from Calumet Marina, 1972
#17 Auditorium building and Congress Hotel along Michigan Avenue, 1972
#18 Newberry Plaza condominium tower during construction, looking west along Bellevue Place, 1972
#19 Calder sculpture, Chicago Federal Center, 1973
#20 Standard Oil Building (now Aon Center) under construction, 1973
#21 West 95th Street, 1974
#22 South Champlain Avenue, a residential street in Pullman lined with brick duplex row houses, 1974
#23 Argyle Street and Winthrop Avenue, 1975
#24 Gino’s East pizzeria sign and parking lot, 1976
#25 Hanley Dawson Cadillac and Lawry’s restaurant, 1976
#26 North Michigan Avenue at Chicago Avenue, 1976
#27 State Street at Madison Street, 1976
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Wow incredibly busy area…really miss Marshall Field’s!
