Jazz Age Chicago (Chicago Stadium)
Chicago Stadium
1800 West Madison Street
Built 1928, demolished 1995
Architect: Eric E. Hall
pened in 1929, the Chicago Stadium was located at 1800 West Madison Street on the city's near west side. For much of the twentieth century, the facility served as the city's prime indoor sports arena, featuring a wide array of athletic events including championship boxing bouts, ice hockey matches, and basketball games. As the city's largest indoor auditorium, the Stadium also doubled as an important public meeting space, hosting numerous political rallies, expositions, concerts, and other special events over the years.
The originator of the Stadium project was Paddy Harmon, one of Chicago's best-known and most charismatic impresarios of the early twentieth century. Harmon was born near Division and Halsted Streets in 1878. His parents were relatively poor, having emigrated from County Kerry in southwest Ireland. To help his parents make ends meet, Harmon left school at an early age and pursued various odd jobs. At age seven, he began selling newspapers and, two years later, secured a contract with his brother Martin to snuff out nine hundred gaslights each morning in his neighborhood for sixty dollars a month. "We turned the money over to mother," he recalled later in life, "and she kept the home going." At age fourteen, he earned the right to sell newspapers at North and Milwaukee Avenues, one of the most lucrative spots in the city.
Harmon's fortunes turned for the better when, at age sixteen, he entered the amusement business. "When I was sixteen," he recalled, "one Sunday a crowd of us engaged Walsh's hall at Noble and Milwaukee avenue, for a dance. The rent for the evening was $40. I was chairman of arrangements and when the time came to pay the rent I passed the hat joshing the young fellows and kidding their girls. I collected $83." The smashing success of the event led Harmon to form his own dance club, the Victorias, which sponsored weekly dances at rented halls on the city's northwest side. In time, he became one of the city's most highly respected dance hall managers. By the early 1920s, he had acquired ownership of two of the city's most popular ballrooms and was called upon by the city to manage the ballroom at the end of the newly constructed Municipal Pier (now known as Navy Pier). In 1922, he helped form and served as the first president of the National Association of Ballroom Proprietors.
Harmon's career as sports and special events promoter expanded quickly during the early twentieth century. When roller skating became the rage around the turn of the century, he began holding skate parties, and eventually secured the concession to run the roller skating rink at the city's largest amusement park, Riverview. In 1909, he played an instrumental role in the effort to build the Ice Palace at Van Buren and Paulina Streets for the purpose of hosting year-round ice skating parties and boosting the popularity of ice hockey in the city of Chicago. When the Palace's refrigeration system proved faulty, Harmon dropped the ice rink angle, changed the building's name to "Dreamland," and turned it into the city's largest and fanciest ballroom. In 1913, Harmon began staging bike races at the Dexter Park pavilion and later had a hand in the management of Riverview's bicycle-motorcycle race course. At some point in the 1920s, he became interested in the promotion of boxing matches as well.
Prior to the construction of the Stadium, the Coliseum at 1513 South Wabash was the city's main indoor sports arena and exhibition center. Harmon believed the city of Chicago had grown large enough to support a much larger arena, something on the scale of New York's famous Madison Square Garden. In 1926, he began lining up investors for a new sports arena. His plans were ambitious. Harmon envisioned a 20,000-seat arena, the largest in the nation and expected to cost at least $6 million to build. As negotiations to finance the building languished, it appeared on several occasions that the project was a lost cause. "Twenty times I thought I had everything all set," Harmon recalled shortly before the Stadium's completion, "only to get knocked down." But financing for the Stadium was eventually secured, and after about six months of furious construction activity, the building opened for business on 28 March 1929.
1800 West Madison Street
Built 1928, demolished 1995
Architect: Eric E. Hall
pened in 1929, the Chicago Stadium was located at 1800 West Madison Street on the city's near west side. For much of the twentieth century, the facility served as the city's prime indoor sports arena, featuring a wide array of athletic events including championship boxing bouts, ice hockey matches, and basketball games. As the city's largest indoor auditorium, the Stadium also doubled as an important public meeting space, hosting numerous political rallies, expositions, concerts, and other special events over the years.
The originator of the Stadium project was Paddy Harmon, one of Chicago's best-known and most charismatic impresarios of the early twentieth century. Harmon was born near Division and Halsted Streets in 1878. His parents were relatively poor, having emigrated from County Kerry in southwest Ireland. To help his parents make ends meet, Harmon left school at an early age and pursued various odd jobs. At age seven, he began selling newspapers and, two years later, secured a contract with his brother Martin to snuff out nine hundred gaslights each morning in his neighborhood for sixty dollars a month. "We turned the money over to mother," he recalled later in life, "and she kept the home going." At age fourteen, he earned the right to sell newspapers at North and Milwaukee Avenues, one of the most lucrative spots in the city.
Harmon's fortunes turned for the better when, at age sixteen, he entered the amusement business. "When I was sixteen," he recalled, "one Sunday a crowd of us engaged Walsh's hall at Noble and Milwaukee avenue, for a dance. The rent for the evening was $40. I was chairman of arrangements and when the time came to pay the rent I passed the hat joshing the young fellows and kidding their girls. I collected $83." The smashing success of the event led Harmon to form his own dance club, the Victorias, which sponsored weekly dances at rented halls on the city's northwest side. In time, he became one of the city's most highly respected dance hall managers. By the early 1920s, he had acquired ownership of two of the city's most popular ballrooms and was called upon by the city to manage the ballroom at the end of the newly constructed Municipal Pier (now known as Navy Pier). In 1922, he helped form and served as the first president of the National Association of Ballroom Proprietors.
Harmon's career as sports and special events promoter expanded quickly during the early twentieth century. When roller skating became the rage around the turn of the century, he began holding skate parties, and eventually secured the concession to run the roller skating rink at the city's largest amusement park, Riverview. In 1909, he played an instrumental role in the effort to build the Ice Palace at Van Buren and Paulina Streets for the purpose of hosting year-round ice skating parties and boosting the popularity of ice hockey in the city of Chicago. When the Palace's refrigeration system proved faulty, Harmon dropped the ice rink angle, changed the building's name to "Dreamland," and turned it into the city's largest and fanciest ballroom. In 1913, Harmon began staging bike races at the Dexter Park pavilion and later had a hand in the management of Riverview's bicycle-motorcycle race course. At some point in the 1920s, he became interested in the promotion of boxing matches as well.
Prior to the construction of the Stadium, the Coliseum at 1513 South Wabash was the city's main indoor sports arena and exhibition center. Harmon believed the city of Chicago had grown large enough to support a much larger arena, something on the scale of New York's famous Madison Square Garden. In 1926, he began lining up investors for a new sports arena. His plans were ambitious. Harmon envisioned a 20,000-seat arena, the largest in the nation and expected to cost at least $6 million to build. As negotiations to finance the building languished, it appeared on several occasions that the project was a lost cause. "Twenty times I thought I had everything all set," Harmon recalled shortly before the Stadium's completion, "only to get knocked down." But financing for the Stadium was eventually secured, and after about six months of furious construction activity, the building opened for business on 28 March 1929.
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