My winter project - Oakley Street Chicago

[bparrish]

Greg.......

I think I have heard of it but my hangout was the Esquire on Madison street and Oak Park Avenue.  A shirt tail relative of my Greek side, Uncle Louie, ran the place for nearly seventy years and would kick me out for hardly more than the tip.  He was in his 90's in the late 60's and sat by the cash register every day and held court.  It was great ! !

His dad, Nick Sotrus, sponsored my grandfather coming to Chicago from Greece in 1895.  He started the restaurant on Halstead Street and move to Oak Park in the late 30's.

I named my trolley cafe after him.  The restaurant was on the north west corner but wasn't a trolley.  I just gave it his name.



Also I named Jimmy's drug store casting that I made into a restaurant after him also but with his last name, "The Sotrus Restaurant".



thanx
Bob

[bparrish]

I got to throwing some paint at the scaffolding this afternoon.

So I put the finished track section on there and took a photo of that.

Bob C. asked for a photo of the under side so that is there also.

After that I couldn't resist putting the loco and car on there in their radiantly unfinished condition.

I also took a low shot which is close to the vantage point of the object photo.

see ya
Bob

[donatode]

Nice....!!

[PRR Modeler]

Very nice modeling.

[S&S RR]

Bob


Another great thread and project - I'm really enjoying following along.

[ACL1504]

I agree, wonderful thread and workmanship.

Tom

[bparrish]

OK.......... so I'm back at it...

I got the second track done and all of that is set aside for the moment.

I ordered a ton of doors and windows from Tichy this last Monday and they came yesterday.  What a company ! !

So I'm starting on the layouts for the structures. There will be six or possibly seven.  I have a scale 40+ feet on each side of Oakley street to work these into on both sides of Lake Street.  From the original photo.. page one of this thread... only the north side of Lake Street structures are visible.  I found the Sanborn Insurance Maps for this intersection and have a foot print for the properties on all four corners and rough descriptions of business there and construction materials.

Recall that the photo is 1893 and the Sanborns are from a few years later but that is as close as I can get.  Plus property lines don't move that much so I'm alright with the little uncertainty.  Most of these structures were built in the 1870's and used a construction style called the Chicago balloon framing.  It is similar to construction today but the 2x4's in the exterior walls go from the ground level to the roof.  Today a platform is built for each floor level before going up again.  They did not yet understand fire breaks in the vertical framing

Look back at the original photo and at the far left.... about half way up the edge of the photo is a mortar and pistil.  That is, and was then, the standard sign for a pharmacy or apothecary.  That was all I had to go on.  In a city directory I found a listing for a John Ritter druggist at 953 west Lake Street.  The only other feature of this building shown in the photo is the raised iron step leading to the door. Thus indicating a diagonal corner doorway.

For any of you that know your way around Chicago will probably challenge me that the street number is an impossible location for Oakley Street as it is now 2300 west.  But.......... the city was renumbered in 1909 under the Brenner Act of the city council as there had been previously four numbering systems, each having their own zero location and various blocks per mile.  I have compensated for this.

I'm having too much fun with all of this.

Below are the initial layouts for this structure.  There will be an outside rear stairway from the second floor and the one side wall shown at the top of the photo is common to another building so it is just a blank wall. 

[donatode]

Love all the research you did on this. I'm sure it was/is rewarding for you as much as you doing the build.

[deemery]

I'll be interested to see how you cut out the arched windows from the wood sheathing.


dave

[rpdylan]

great project! will be following! I had cut this type of window in wood before and traced the inside outline with a mechanical pencil and used a round file to finish up the arch cut out!

[bparrish]

Bob...

To answer your comment about the arch windows............ they are REALLY easy.

First I plot out the square portion of the window and cut that out.  I then lay the window casting into the opening and plot out the arch with a mechanical pencil with a .050 lead.  Good sharp line.

Then I make a small notch in the top center of the arch. The photos below show this.

The notch is to prevent the grain from running while carving.  I do not use a file.  I cut everything with a #11 blade.  See another thread on this forum for related horror stories ! ! !

Before I start cutting anything else I stiffen the wood from the back side with super glue and then kick it. While the kicker is going off I place the wood down on the bench to hold it for a moment to prevent moisture warping. If you are to stain the wood for you model I would suggest staining all of the wood first as the glue tends to clog the pores and makes staining unstable. For painted models it does not matter.

I then start cutting the arch from the sides of the window opening toward the notch.  Most of you know to do this but no one ever really says much about it.  If you want to carve out a small (tight) radius, you work near the pointed end of the blade.  As the radius increases you move toward the wider part of the blade.

Note: all of this including the actual cutting of the initial opening, is done off of the point of the blade. Thus, if I can get five or six windows from a blade, I call it good.

I test the fit of the window from time to time but my pencil line is the overall guide.

Most windows don't take more than a minute to make this shape.

see ya
Bob

[deemery]

Great tutorial!


dave

[bparrish]

So here is the final layout of windows and doors. All of these panels will need stiffeners on the back. That is the next step. 

Then the walls will be assembled. Due to  uneven floor heights, I will assemble this up side down as the roof line is common to the whole building. After the walls are glued up I will pull off two scribe lines on the rear of the building for roof slope and rear rain gutter.

see ya
Bob

[Janbouli]

Love all the arched windows , another cool building in the making.

[S&S RR]

Bob


Your really moving along on this - it looks great.