Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts

05 November, 2009

Good Luck Swastika on Chicago Building

Ted and I saw a movie tonight in Logan Square, an old Chicago neighborhood, and while driving down Kimball we spotted a really neat early 20th-century building.

I didn't have our camera with, and besides, it was pretty dark, anyway, so the above image comes from Flickr, and below you can find it on Google maps (you can click the map image to move it around and get a closer view; hit refresh a few times if you need to, as the map sometimes gets stuck loading).



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I was rather surprised to see it. I had heard that, prior to WWII, when the Nazis perverted this ancient symbol, a number of buildings in the City had swastikas in the decorative brickwork. Many had been destroyed or covered up. In any case, I don't recall encountering one before.

I often have trouble trying to convince people that, prior to the 20th century, the symbol actually had a rather positive history. It's thousands of years old, and can be found as a decorative or religious symbol in cultures spanning the globe.There's an interesting history of the swastika at Lucky Mojo, a fun site with an extensive online archive of folk magic traditions. (The postcard below, dated 1907, is from their collection. I have the same one kicking around my office somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it and scan it.)

I have a few other swastika-as-good-luck items that I've picked up in my travels, including a yak bell I got in Nepal with black-and-white swastikas woven into the collar, a puppet from Thailand who has them embroidered all over his tunic, a hundred-year-old stoneware pitcher I found at an estate sale, and a small Buddha figurine with a swastika carved into its base.

And the Baha'i temple up the road from us has some carved into the facade, amongst other religious symbols:


So now I wonder, does anyone know of other buildings in the Chicago area that still sport good-luck swastikas?

(Image of Logan Theatre courtesy of nonnyV on Flickr; image of swastika building courtesy of JonathanMathias on Flickr.)

31 January, 2008

Growing Oranges in Chicagoland

I made my first pre-purchase for the garden this week. Now, growing citrus trees in Northern Illinois doesn't sound like the smartest thing to try with our harsh winters (we're in gardening Zone 5), but I found this company that sells patio-sized trees you take indoors to overwinter.

Stark Bro's in Missouri sells a Citrus Garden Assortment of four different fruit trees: Valencia Orange, Tangerine, Meyeri Lemon, and Key Lime. Aren't they adorable? They'll arrive the first or second week in April, and I think we'll put them at the front entrance of The Box House, by the stairs. The house faces south, so I'm pretty sure they'll receive enough light.

With all of the other expenses that come with the first year of living in a new house, we've given ourselves a pretty tight budget for the garden and will probably only be able to focus on a few things, like the entryway and general cleanup. Most of our grand schemes--the fish pond, the flowering trees--will have to wait until this fall or even next year.

It looks like the bulk of this summer will be spent prepping the ground and taming or removing the shrubs that are already here. I think most of them are going--including the two-story evergreen tree that's practically growing out of the foundation. The dense row of shrubs in front of the house blocks all of the natural light coming into the basement--believe it or not, there are some very large windows just above ground level. So those bushes will have to go, too, as much as I hate the idea of removing greenery; I think we should be able to handle the bushes ourselves, if not the evergreen tree. (Before anyone asks, all the trees in the parkway stay.)

I would love to hear from anyone who has taken out a large tree themselves. Is it worth the effort and hassle? Just how hard will it be to dig out a root ball? Or is a tree as large as this evergreen a good candidate for a professional?

The photo shows Mom in front of The Box House on the day we closed.