Old Brand Central...

The area on Michigan and Wabash from Roosevelt to Cermack is an area I never really took the time to walk around in until this past weekend. But it has quite the history.
While wandering around there, I found lots of new mid-rise housing, loft conversions, and several buildings with very familiar old brands either carved in stone or molded in terra cotta. This carved marble Coca-Cola sign adorned an old bottling plant on South Wabash.


Across from the Coca-Cola bottling plant was this gem on the cornice of a building at 1327 S. Wabash. This was home to Famous Players-Lasky Corp. which by my understanding was a distributor of films for Paramount Pictures. (Correct me if this is wrong, please!) The building is still involved in video and audio duplication and transfer.


Found on S. Michigan, the remnants of an old Buick Dealer. Michigan Ave was the first "Auto Row" in the early part of the 20th century. It was born out of the need for horse carriage dealers to stay in business as carriages gave way to the automobile. If I am reading the signs on the building next door correctly, this building will be torn down to make way for condos soon.


Atlas Brewing Co of Chicago produced "Prager Beer" during the 30's and 40's. I was not able to find out much more than that. While not a brand we remember... What an amazing sign to find still intact.