Gold Coast Chicago Part 3 (Nov 2023)

This series of blog posts are exploring the sights and scenes of Gold Coast, a luxurious neighborhood of Chicago. Post 1 and Post 2 described the North-South streets. In this concluding post of this three part series, I explore the East-West streets.

The first post delineated the boundaries of the Gold Coast neighborhood using Google Maps as a reference (though there is no official arbiter of neighborhoods in Chicago):

In this post, I will explore each street in sequence from Oak to North.

E-W Street 1: Oak Street

I started walking on Oak from the Clark side towards Lakeshore. Right at the intersection of Oak and Dearborn is the Ogden Elementary School (though its main entrance is from Walton Street). Unlike the private Latin School we encountered earlier on Dearborn Street, this is a public school:

The use of the term public school is confusing to most Indians. In India, the term public school refers to elite private schools while in the US, the term refers to state run schools. In India, we would call The Latin School a public school while Ogden Elementary would be a government school. This is a legacy of the British colonial heritage. In the UK, elite schools like Eton and Harrow were referred to as public schools as they were run by a not-for-profit entity as opposed to a private profit seeking entity. In the US people associate private schools with rich people. But in India, government run schools, though free, are so bad that even the poor send their kids to private schools that can charge very low prices.

Ogden Elementary has a special place in my heart because it was here that I cast my first vote as a US citizen in the Trump-Biden election. I was impressed with the efficiency with which the US elections are run and it saddened me to see people making baseless allegations on the integrity of the electoral process.

A small stretch of Oak Street within Gold Coast is the epicenter of Chicago's luxury retail:

For people like me, the world of luxury brands is perplexing. These brands intentionally limit the production of their most coveted items, like the Hermès Birkin and Kelly handbags, creating artificial scarcity and long waiting lists. I paused for a moment, staring at the Rolex clock on the street, wondering what all the fuss is about:

It's impossible to spend a few minutes in the Gold Coast without feeling desire. One book on my reading list, which I have yet to read, is Wanting by Luke Burgis. Burgis popularizes the ideas of French philosopher René Girard, who introduced the concept of mimetic desire. According to this theory, human desires are mimetic because they are shaped by observing what others pursue. If everyone in your peer group wants a Rolex, you’ll likely want one too. This operates on a more subtle level than simply keeping up with the Joneses. For example, if everyone around you is getting married or having kids, you might start believing it’s the right life choice for you. Burgis distinguishes between thin desires and thick desires. Thin desires are mimetic, while thick desires bring true joy. When I write my blogs, I'm pursuing the thick desire of self-expression, but after posting on social media, I feel the intense thin desire for likes.

The word "desire" in English is tricky. Acting on thick desires puts us in a state where we forget ourselves entirely. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced cheek-sent-me-high) describes this as a flow state—a deep immersion in an activity so absorbing that nothing else matters. In contrast, acting on thin desires only amplifies them, requiring increasingly higher doses over time. Thus the word "desire" in English can carry different nuances. A better term for thin desires, popular in Buddhism, is the Pali word *Taṇhā,* which translates to "thirst."

Self-help gurus often urge us to follow our passion, but how do we distinguish whether that passion is a thick or thin desire? Materialistic desires aren't necessarily thin; for instance, someone might buy a yacht because they genuinely love being on the water.

Not having read the book, I do not know how Burgis answers the above question. One activity that has helped me in separating the thick from the thin is the practice of mindfulness. A simplistic, yet powerful definition of mindfulness is know that you are knowing. Every time I am notified of a peer getting a bigger job on LinkedIn, I feel a sense of shame. Yet, when I am being mindful, I know that shame is being felt. The difference between merely experiencing a thought (shame in this case) versus observing a thought (I know that shame is being felt) in real time (and not just afterwards) is life changing. It is very challenging to operate with mindfulness but training the mind to get better at it through meditation has been transformational to me. It is also fascinating to wonder who is the observer behind the know that you are knowing: the thing that knows what we are knowing? Consciousness, soul, God?

Who would have thought that the luxury retail hotspot on Oak Street would send me on a tangent towards Buddhist spirituality!

The billboard of the Esquire Theater makes me sad. It was a lovely film theater that closed:

The theater closed in September 2006. Netflix started its streaming service in January 2007. Talk about a good timing of a business decision!

E-W Street 2: Bellevue Place

Though Bellevue Place is a small street, a lot is going on in it. For starters, there is the tall Thompson Hotel:

As one walks further away from State Street towards the lake, Bellevue becomes less commercial and more historic with beautiful homes like this one:

While 1871 was a milestone but tragic year for Chicago on account of the fire, 1893 is a landmark year for the city for a happier reason. In 1893, Chicago beat New York and D.C. to host the World's Fair of 1893. This was positioned as a celebration of the 400 year anniversary of Columbus' landing in America (technically 401 years). The world's first Ferris Wheel was inaugurated at this fair, to compete with the Eiffel Tower of the 1889 Paris fair. One home that was considered architecturally significant and hence, completed by 1892, in time for the exposition was the Helen and Bryan Lathrop Mansion at 120 E Bellevue:

Interestingly, while the architectural style of the mansion places great emphasis on symmetry, you can note in the picture above that the entrance is not at the center. The building was purchased in 1922 by The Fortnightly Club, a literary club started by 24 women in 1873. It is incredible to think that when the women started this club, they did not have the right to vote! The club today offers lectures, seminars etc. and membership is invitation only. On a tangential note, I have always preferred fortnightly over bi-weekly as the latter could mean twice a week or once in two weeks!

E-W Street 3: Maple Street

Maple is a small street like Bellevue but is antipodal to it, it only runs west of State while Bellevue runs east of State. Its most famous landmark is an upscale steakhouse:

The name of the steakhouse derives from the fact that the two types of wood it burns in its grill are maple and ash! This begs the question on whether they chose the location on Maple Street because of this reason or was it a mere coincidence! Before I learnt of the origins of the name, I had wondered why Ash Street was invisible.

E-W Street 4: Cedar Street

If Oak and Maple are nearby, can Cedar be far off! Like the other streets in Gold Coast, Cedar is a beautiful road with a residential feel and beautiful homes on both sides:

The claim to fame of 49 East Cedar is that the architect of the iconic Drake Hotel, Benjamin Marshall lived with his family in an apartment within the building around the 1920s:

In a previous post I had shared that in the late 19th century the rich preferred to live in homes and considered multi-family apartments as designed for the poor. But by early 20th century, that bias had receded. The Marshall family was very wealthy but chose to stay in an apartment.

Cedar Street of course has its share of beautiful single family homes like the one below built in 1896 and sold for more than 5 million dollars back in 2007:

E-W Street 5: Elm Street

Thankfully, this is not the Elm Street where the famous nightmare occurred. Quite the contrary, the street hosts the beautiful Blue Door Kitchen and Garden, which is owned by Art Smith, who was Oprah's personal chef for 10 years!

Blue Door is part of the farm-to-table culinary movement, which means the restaurant sources its ingredients directly from farms, bypassing wholesalers and retailers. However, this term isn't regulated, which makes me wonder: if a restaurant in Chicago sources ingredients directly from Africa, would it still be considered farm-to-table despite the environmental cost of transporting goods over long distances? The clear benefit of this model is that producers receive a larger share of the earnings.

While the farm-to-table concept has emotional appeal, I believe the primary goal of an economic system should be large-scale poverty eradication, and the "small is beautiful" mindset falls short. First, not everyone possesses entrepreneurial skills. Second, it's challenging to produce significant output without machinery. In India, artisans create beautiful products, but it can take hours or even days to produce a single item. As a result, these artisans often remain poor, and simply cutting out the middleman in retail doesn't address this fundamental issue.

The cog in the wheel in a big factory is likely to have a less financially stressful life than the rural artisan. It is an irony though that the economic system that promotes human welfare also degrades our humanity. In Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, the workers continue doing their jobs oblivious to the fact that it is Chaplin himself on the assembly line instead of a car. As a society becomes industrialized, interactions between human beings is governed by laws and contracts, instead of conscience and feeling. While laying off a worker, the manager must stick to the script provided by the corporation because otherwise you run the risk of being sued.

When I returned to India and was searching for an apartment, prospective landlords would often ask intrusive personal questions. In contrast, in the U.S., landlords typically rely on credit bureau reports and credit scores. It's easy to romanticize the human judgment-oriented approach, but it often reinforces societal hierarchies. If there’s a country that has struck the perfect balance between humanism and capitalism, I’d love to visit it. However, I’m certain that the two countries I'm most familiar with—India and the U.S.—are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

During World War 2 and post-war era, the part of Elm Street close to the lakefront (the Gold Coast area) belonged to wealthy people but as you walked west away from the lake, it was mostly low-income housing catering to poor European migrants, Southern Blacks and Japanese freed from the internment camps.

Spotting the rare buildings with a courtyard gives me a thrill every time and hence, was excited to see The Elms, a condo building that began its life as an apartment hotel:

E-W Street 6: Division Street

Division Street, apart from being a major E-W street in the city of Chicago, has the distinction of being a street whose name origin is unclear (no one is sure what it divides!). Click here for observations on the Old Town stretch of Division. On the Gold Coast stretch of Division, as one walks from Lakeshore towards Clark Street, the street becomes increasingly commercial. The Lakeshore side has the historic cum residential feel that one expects from Gold Coast:

The commercial side of this stretch has a very boozy character and comes alive with happy drunks on St. Patrick's Day:

The need to get intoxicated is deeply rooted in the human condition. While some suffer more than others, the presence of afflictive emotions—fear, anger, sadness, anxiety, worry, jealousy, grief—makes life challenging for everyone. An alcohol-induced buzz, even a mild one, provides temporary relief. The practical question we all face is: How do I spend my day in the presence of these emotions? I have crystallized a formula that works for me:

24 hours in a day= Flow + Mindfulness + Sleep

Flow, as described earlier, is a state of deep absorption in activities that make us forget ourselves. For instance, in a Starbucks, you might see people intensely focused on playing chess—they are clearly in flow, and this concentration shields them from afflictive emotions. However, since flow requires mental effort, it can’t be sustained for more than a few hours at a time. Eventually, those troubling thoughts return. It is here that the skill of mindfulness referenced earlier, comes in handy. Over time, the ability to observe these afflictive emotions from a distance, howsoever infinitesimal that distance, makes a discernible shift in the intensity of suffering.

The final variable in the equation, good sleep, is a natural residue. Since both flow and mindfulness require significant mental effort, sound sleep is the outcome.

E-W Street 7: Scott Street

Scott Street like Bellevue runs exclusively to the east of State. The street mainly consists of residential buildings, like the one below:

On a side note, the building above is a co-op. In a co-op, the residents own shares in the co-op while in a condo building, residents own a specific unit. A friend of mine had a tough time selling his unit in Manhattan because the co-op has to approve the buyer or tenant. Often co-ops would interview the prospective buyer and even evaluate the buyer's pet! In 1999, a co-op board in New York declined to allow Mariah Carey to buy Barbara Streisand's apartment. Perhaps Kanye was more their style?

Since the buyer is buying shares in the co-op, housing discrimination laws do not apply. In India, landlords routinely deny accommodation to bachelors, meat eaters etc. Somehow it is nice to have a legal framework allowing discrimination! The New York co-ops are notorious for their selectiveness. I am not sure what the situation in Chicago is.

E-W Street 8: Goethe Street

Goethe Street, apart from its non-intuitive pronunciation (Gerta), hosts the historic Ambassador Hotel (though its formal address is on State Street):

The hotel began as the Ambassador East in 1926. After Cary Grant was famously chased by a plane in North by Northwest, he returns to this hotel. The picture below is from the film and is the exact same location as the photo I took on Goethe Street above:

Source: https://beta.flim.ai/

The Ambassador, in its heyday, used to compete for celebrities with the Astor Tower (now a condo building) that was described in the first post. Astor Tower has an entrance on Goethe Street, whose address 24 East Goethe was the official street address of the now closed Maxim's, also referenced in the earlier post:

E-W Street 9: Banks Street

Banks Street is a small street that runs only on the east side of Chicago (i.e. it terminates at State Street, which divides the city into East and West). The only prominent building on this short street is the luxury apartment tower at 61 East Banks:

Unlike other tall buildings in Gold Coast, this was designed to house apartments (rented out by the building owner) instead of condominiums (either owner occupied or owner rented units). However, in consonance with the luxury vibe of the neighborhood, these rentals are very expensive ($8000 per month and above).

The most famous building on Banks Street no longer exists. It was the mansion of a wealthy Chicagoan, Edward Ayer, and stood at the intersection of Banks and State streets:

E-W Street 10: Schiller Street

Schiller Street is a showcase for incredibly beautiful historic homes built late 19th and early 20th century (like much of Gold Coast):

E-W Street 11:Burton Place

The most magnificent building on Burton Place, the McCormick Mansion, has the address of Astor Street:

Addresses in Chicago are assigned by the Department of Transportation based on the location of a building’s main entrance. This has significance beyond your friends' ability to Uber to your home and your mail. Firefighters need to know the location of the main entrance to access the fire safety panel, which must always be positioned there.

Getting the desired address can be very important to builders. For instance, the 61 Banks Street apartment tower that we encountered earlier also overlooks Lakeshore Drive. If the builder wanted to market a Lakeshore Drive address, they would need to position the main entrance on Lakeshore Drive. Additionally, if the city has already assigned sequential whole numbers to adjacent buildings, obtaining a Lakeshore Drive address would be challenging without resorting to decimal points.

The McCormick Mansion was built in 1892 for the publisher of Chicago Tribune Joseph Medill, who gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter Eleanor, who married the Tribune's editor. That is equivalent to Jeff Bezos' daughter marrying the editor of the Washington Post! But if I was the lucky spouse, I would be encouraging my father-in-law to gift Amazon shares instead of a large mansion that is costly to upkeep. On a more serious note, the name of the mansion comes from Cyrus Hall McCormick II, who purchased it in 1914. In 1978, the mansion was converted to condominiums. Since there are only nine condos, each cost a packet!

One historic home that bears the address of Burton Place is the Madlener House:

The home was built for Albert Fridolin Madlener in 1902. Albert's father Fridolin Madlener was born in Germany and immigrated to Chicago during the 1850s. Chicago was a popular destination of German immigrants (hence streets named after Goethe and Schiller). Fridolin began distilling liquor at the tender age of 23 and later married into the family of a rich beer tycoon. It seems in the late 19th century, liquor was widely promoted as a cure for ailments and Fridolin Madlener made a fortune capitalizing on this trend. One of his most successful medicinal concoctions was the Fig-Rye Whiskey. This miracle whiskey was promoted with equal gusto by his son Albert, who had studied at The Latin School we encountered in the previous post. The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts acquired this building in 1963 and operate out of here.

Burton Place is also host to something of an anomaly in the Gold Coast neighborhood- a place that the common man can afford:

The Faulkner House is part of a group of condominiums that form the Carl Sandburg Village, most of which is adjacent to the Gold Coast. In the 1950s, neighborhoods like Old Town and Lincoln Park, which adjoin Gold Coast, had become a hub for poor immigrants, brothels, drugs and crime. This was a threat to the residents of Gold Coast, as well as the merchants on Chicago's magnificent mile. Over the years, the Chicago city government got rid of the poor people (as cruel as it sounds) and the Sandburg Village was part of their gentrification efforts. Anyone wondering why this incongruous building exists in an otherwise luxurious landscape, now you know!

E-W Street 12:North Avenue

Finally, it is time for North Avenue. The name North Avenue is misleading because it runs East West. The stretch of the street that lies within the Old Town neighborhood is described here. While the Gold Coast segment of the street is much shorter than the Old Town stretch, there are important landmarks located here.

First is the beautiful residence of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago at the intersection of State Street and North Avenue:

I could not help comparing the above with the Archbishop's house in Kolkata, the seat of the Kolkata Archdiocese, a chapter of the Roman Catholic Church in India:

While the Kolkata one is less grand than the Chicago one, both buildings are beautiful in their own ways. Further, one would hope, God isn't overtly concerned with architectural elegance and interior decor.

The Chicago residence was built in 1885 and is now recorded in the US National Register of Historic Places. When Pope John Paul II visited Chicago in 1979, he lived here (though this may have been a comedown from the Vatican for His Holiness!) While the most majestic view of the building is on North Avenue, the actual street address is on State Street (or strictly speaking State Parkway). The Archbishop at the time this post is written (2023) is Blase J. Cupich and is the first incumbent of the office, who does not live here, because of the optics of living in an opulent mansion located in an opulent neighborhood. A random tangential fact- the current Dalai Lama, is the first incumbent not to live at Norbulingka, the summer residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa from 1780s all the way up to 1959 (when the 14th Dalai Lama went to exile). Of course, Archbishop Cupich had choice in the matter, which the Dalai Lama did not!

Right opposite the Archbishop's residence is the gorgeous Lincoln Park, where you can see an intriguing signboard:

The sign indicates that this area was once a cemetery destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871. Skeletal remains are still discovered during construction projects well into the 21st century.

When I lived in Chicago, I would spend my summers reading here and leave once it got dark. One evening, a concerned old lady asked me to leave because of the crime in the area. Now, knowing about the cemetery, it seems wise to avoid encountering spirits at night. On further reflection, perhaps the old lady was from the other world, and I was crashing a late-night party!

Walking further along on North Avenue towards Lakeshore, you can see a black statue of a guy most of us have never heard of:

The statue, residing within Lincoln Park, honors Greene Vardiman Black (1836-1915) who according to the Chicago Park District's website:

After the Civil War, Black began making important contributions to dentistry. These include inventing the dental drill, using nitrous oxide for extracting teeth without causing pain, and developing the method for filling cavities which is still used today.

As someone who has spent hours in a dentist's chair, I can attest that those are some major contributions!

North Avenue leads straight to the lake, and one of my favorite activities is walking to the end of the North Avenue Pier. At certain times of the day and night, the pier can be quite desolate, but I've never felt unsafe:

Finis

Each building in the Gold Coast is steeped in history, much of it dating back to the late 19th century, following the 1871 fire. Beyond the individual stories chronicled in this series, here are some general reflections based on my wanderings in the Gold Coast::

Maslow's hierarchy and cities

The late 19th century was Chicago's Gilded Age, marked by the fortunes of figures like Potter Palmer, James Charnley, Joseph Medill, and Albert Madlener. Their wealth funded not only stunning homes but also the arts and culture. This legacy is so substantial that cities like Miami and Austin can't compete with Chicago’s cultural richness, including its architecture, museums, educational institutions, and fine arts academies.

American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that humans have two categories of needs: deficiency needs and growth needs. Cities must address deficiency needs such as employment, transportation, and affordable housing. However, great cities also fulfill growth needs through art, architecture, music, cinema, dance, and academia. For culture to be accessible to the public, philanthropy is essential. The Art Institute, for example, couldn't fund its Impressionist Collection through ticket sales alone; the generosity of Bertha Palmer was crucial.

While there's significant concern about income inequality today, the reality is that the ultra-wealthy play a key role in meeting humanity’s growth needs. Government resources should focus on deficiency needs, while the wealthy contribute to cultural and intellectual enrichment. The founders of Chicago’s Gold Coast took immense civic pride and ensured that Chicago would remain a major cultural hub, even as other cities have taken the lead in new industries, such as global finance in New York City and IT in Silicon Valley.

Change with continuity

Buildings in the Gold Coast can be categorized into three groups:

Preserved Originals: These structures have maintained their original character from the late 19th century, such as the Archbishop's Residence and the remaining private residences on Lakeshore Drive.

Reimagined with Acknowledgment: These buildings have been updated but still honor their historical context. Examples include the RH furniture store, the Viceroy Hotel, and the Polish Consulate.

Completely Modern: These structures have erased the historical character of the area, such as the condominiums built on the site of Palmer Castle.

Many of us have an instinctive aversion to the third category, where historical buildings are replaced with modern structures. However, this often becomes an economic necessity. If there aren’t enough wealthy individuals willing to maintain private mansions on Lakeshore Drive, it makes sense to demolish them and build tall residential buildings. The city needs the tax revenue, and decaying mansions in the heart of the city benefit no one. Nonetheless, it’s undeniable that the charm of the Gold Coast lies in its historical architecture. Thankfully, three forces have conspired to preserve its historical legacy: civil society, government and markets:

civil society operates through preservation advocates who write essays, circulate petitions and lobby politicians everytime a building is to be razed. Civil society also includes individual philanthropists (like Seymour Persky) and philanthropic organizations (example, the Graham Foundation, Palette and Chisel Academy).
the government designates buildings and districts as historical, requiring developers to preserve historical design elements.
finally, and perhaps the most important, market forces create economic incentives for preservation. It is hard to imagine that Gold Coast will maintain its real estate prices if it looked like yet another city block of glass and concrete.

Made in heaven

We are told that matches are made in heaven. But the rich of Gold Coast did not want to take chances on heavenly idiosyncrasies. Like the rich everywhere else, they only married into wealth and often into families that would benefit their business. Fridolin Madlener, an up- and-coming brewer, married the daughter of an established Milwaukee based beer tycoon. James Charnley, the lumberman, married the daughter of John Douglas, who was the president of the Illinois Central Railroad. Presumably, having preferential access to the primary means of transportation, would have benefited Mr. Charnley's business. Bertha Palmer was born to a wealthy Southern aristocratic family. Apart from the economic advantages, such unions bought invaluable social capital. The men were already rich when they married. Marrying into a family of older generational wealth brought connections to the upper crust of society.

This brings me to the end of this series on the Gold Coast. I will sign off with a picture of the Chicago skyline taken from the farthest end of the North Avenue pier: