The 1951 photo, from Flickr users Joe+Jeanette Archie, used to tease out cornerspotting enthusiasts does indeed depict 18th Street at Paulina looking east. Most of our participants nailed it. Though the immediate intersection has been upended, with the addition of a gas station, modern bank branch, and the 105-bed La Casa community dorm, the scale of the neighborhood's main artery has kept mostly to densely knotted three- and four-story buildings — most from an era of Eastern European immigration preceding the 1950s. The blue-tinted shot above was the only one we could find from the same perspective that captures a completed La Casa. Oh, and the "L" platform from where the shot was taken has been around a long, long time as well.
·Hint: A Streetscape Without Radical Changes in an Ever-Evolving Neighborhood [Curbed Chicago]
Filed under: