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| Michael Wesolowski posted Navy Pier - 1920 |
A different exposure.
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| Mike Tuggle posted Navy Pier, looking west in 1920. Navy Pier opened to the public on July 15, 1916. Originally known as the "Municipal Pier", the pier was built by Charles Sumner Frost, a nationally known architect, with a design based on the Plan of Chicago (1909) by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett. It's original purpose was to serve as a dock for freights, passenger traffic, and indoor and outdoor recreation; events like expositions and pageants were held there. In the summer of 1918 the pier was also used as a jail for draft dodgers. In 1927, the pier was renamed Navy Pier to honor the naval veterans who served in World War I. In 1941, during World War II, the pier became a training center for the U.S. Navy; about 10,000 people worked, trained, and lived there. The pier contained a 2,500-seat theater, gym, 12-chair barber shop, tailor, cobbler shops, soda fountain and a vast kitchen and hospital. In 1946, as the Navy was winding down from its mission, the University of Illinois at Chicago held classes at the pier. Though the maximum capacity was exceeded the school outgrew the pier and the university relocated to Circle Campus. After the university left, the Navy Pier became underutilized. In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened and increased commercial shipping activity at the pier for a short time, though business died down and left for more modern facilities at Lake Calumet. In 1976, the East End buildings were renovated and for a brief period the pier was alive again, home to summer events like ChicagoFest. But maintenance was not done and the pier went into decline. In 1989, the City of Chicago had the Urban Land Institute (ULI) reimagine uses for the pier. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) was created; its responsibility was to manage and operate Navy Pier as well as McCormick Place. The MPEA undertook the redevelopment, incorporating some of ULI’s recommendations. In 1995, Navy Pier was redesigned and introduced to the public as a mixed-use venue incorporating retail, dining, entertainment, and cultural spaces. Starting in 2014, the redevelopment plan called The Centennial Vision was implemented. The purpose of this plan is to fulfill the mission to keep Navy Pier as a world-class public space and to renovate the pier so it will have more evening and year-round entertainment and more compelling landscape and design features.[9] The Centennial Vision was completed in summer 2016. The Polk Family Foundation (founded by Sol Polk) donated $20 million to the redevelopment effort; the park and fountain at the entrance to the pier was named the Polk Brothers Park and Fountain. Philip Wizenick: The Port of Chicago Navy Pier was active with foreign flag shipping from 1959 to 1979. It ended because containerized freight took over and unloaded at salt water ports transferring the containers to rail to continue inland.Paul Jevert shared |
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| Historic Chicago posted Chicago - Navy Pier when it was called Municipal Pier. (1921) |
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| Jim Hamby posted Municipal Pier Built in 1915. Before it was called Navy Pier. Name was changed to Navy Pier in 1927. Paul Webb shared |
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| Zavier Quintana posted From Vintage Tribune: Municipal Pier (now Navy Pier) is seen from the air on Sept. 7, 1927. Municipal Pier opened to the public on July 15, 1916, on the shore of Lake Michigan. The pier originally had a docking place for frieghters, passenger boats and an indoor and outdoor space for recreation for the public. By 1927, the pier was renamed Navy Pier to honor the naval veterans who served in World War I. Navy Pier was redesigned in 1995 and became a retail, dining, and entertainment hotspot. It is one of the most visited attractions in the Midwest. (Vintage Tribune) |
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| MWRD posted A view of Municipal Pier, now Navy Pier, from Lake Michigan on April 9, 1920. |
In the 1960s, after the St. Lawrence Seaway opened, Navy Pier was a cargo pier.
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| Early 1960's Anton Wenzel posted , this is an enhanced version by Jerry Jackson |
Kenneth Andresen provided three more views of some ships using the pier from postcard pictures.
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| Dennis Popiela posted Navy Pier • Late 60s [This posting has some interesting comments.] |
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| Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted This is Chicago's "Navy Pier" when it really was a shipping pier. Note the tank cars along the big "boat". They got there courtesy of the C&NW which ran a line from Kinzie Street west of the north branch of the Chicago River all the way out to the pier. Isn't that a City of Chicago fire boat in the foreground? Don Walsh Even though tank cars were smaller then, it's crazy to see how tiny they look next to the ship. Makingsalembetter CHICAGO fire academy was located in a building at the eastern end of this pier... actually on the west end of this line of ships.... Logival for it to be moored here... I believe there were rails (two tracks - INSIDE the center of the building as well as on the outside edges that we see here.... The 'auditorium' is just out of the image on the right..... Nice pic.. Nice memory... thanks! .... Jeff Bittner: In 1937 3 fire boats were built for Chicago. 1 of them is at the maritine museum in Sturgeon Bay. This tug looks a bit smaller. Historic Chicago posted Navy Pier, Chicago (1961) Andrew Roth shared I believe the boat at the bottom of the photo is a Chicago Fire Department firefighting boat. Ke Nesius Roeger: https://doorcountypulse.com/fire-boat-41-from-chicago.../.... |
Dennis DeBruler commented on a post Here is a photo from its glory years (from an industrial history perspective) after the St. Lawrence Seaway opened. "This is Chicago's 'Navy Pier' when it really was a shipping pier. Note the tank cars along the big "boat". They got there courtesy of the C&NW which ran a line from Kinzie Street west of the north branch of the Chicago River all the way out to the pier. Isn't that a City of Chicago fire boat in the foreground?" Are those sailing masts on the foreground ship? The masts are part of the ship's cargo handling equipment. At the base of each mast, you can see about four booms sticking up and out from the mast at an angle. Each boom can be independently controlled to hoist cargo between the ship and the pier. You can barely make out the cables that are used to move and secure each boom and to hoist cargo with each boom. Notice the tank cars are grouped along side almost every ship . This is for refueling the ships . |
I thought this was just a cropped version of the above, but the smoke out of the stack is different.
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| Johnny Conlisk shared his web page Navy Pier, possibly in the early 1960s, with 5 ocean-going ships along side. Note the skyline and the FDR Lake Shore Drive Bridge in the distance. This was just after the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks & canals that allowed ships from the Atlantic Ocean to go to the far reaches of the Great Lakes. Only a few years later, the advent of container shipping made it far cheaper to ship containers of goods from foreign ports to US coastal cities and on to Chicago by truck or rail. When that happened the Pier fell into disuse until the 1980s, when it was turned into an entertainment venue. It is currently one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. Photo: A Pictorial History of the Great Lakes - Read more about it here http://johnny-sells.com/when-chicago-was-an-international-…/ [The is lots of discussion of post port history in the comments.] |
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| Xavier Quintana posted Ships line the dock and warehouses are filled to overflowing at Navy Pier in one of the busiest weeks in its history on Nov. 10, 1962. The closing of the 1962 St. Lawrence seaway season is about three weeks away, and the activity reflects the heavy end of the season rush. Ships in line, from left, are the Sanmar (Greek), Gilsand (English), King City (English), Fair Head (North Ireland) and Takeshima (Japan) (Vintage Tribune, Chicago) Joanne Kirkpatrick: Where do they dock now? or do they? Dennis DeBruler: Joanne Kirkpatrick They don't. Just a few years after the St. Lawrence Seaway opened, shipping cargo in containers was developed. Now ships carring general cargo dock on the west and east coasts, and it is shipped to the Midwest using container trains. Andrew Roth sharedThe C&NW railroad spotted box cars at Navy Pier in Chicago so their cargos could be transfered to the outbound ships. |
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| Xavier Quintana posted From Vintage Tribune: Cargo at Navy Pier, Chicago's lake front harbor facility, spills over on the docks, with steel lined up on the adjacent street as a surge of shipping fills warehouses on Nov. 18, 1961. The last vessel from the Chicago area is expected to be gone by Thanksgiving Day. (Vintage Tribune) Ke Nesius Roeger shared From back in the day when salties would dock at Navy Pier in Chicago. |
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| Jeff Nichols posted Navy Pier. From the 1966 Circle Campus yearbook. University of Illinois at Chicago Jennifer von Springhorn I remember my Mom taking me down to watch them load the ships. The cranes lifting netted crates and pallets to be stored in the hold. |
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| Xavier Quintana posted From Vintage Tribune: Navy Pier when University of Illinois classes were held there, 1964. It was also a working dock. (Vintage Tribune) |
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| Lou Gerard posted Chicago & North Western train going into Navy Pier in 1975. |
Stan Nettis When I went to University of Illinois at Navy Pier we were told it was built on 18,000 pilings.
After construction when passenger boats used the pier as a pier. The Encyclopedia of Chicago has a brief history of the pier.
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| Frank Pajak commented on the above posting 1915
Nelson Herrera also posted
The construction of Navy Pier in 1914
Cost 4.5 million dollars
James McKay That's $107M in 2016 dollars.
[Some comments indicate that it could not be built today for $107M.]
Matt McClure Streetcar in the center. C&NW line on the south side of the pier.
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| Jeff Nichols posted May 1916 photo of men working on train tracks on Navy Pier (which, of course, was then known as Municipal Pier). Chicago History Museum, DN-0066200 |
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| Glen Miller posted Municipal Pier in 1919. Martin Trombetta Before the warehouse days |
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| Sylvia Rzeminski shared a post by Jack Spatafora Navy Pier in one of its many lifetimes , 1940 Bruce Gordon: Very few people remember how it was used. Train tracks ran down the lower level into the docks. Trucks would go on the ramps to the upper level to unload. Freight would go into the building and go from train to truck, etc.We drove over the tracks so many times in the 1950's. What memories. In my semi-adult year's I was there working at ChicagoFest and Taste of Chicago from 1979 on. |
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| John Martin posted Anyone remember when Navy Pier was an industrial site? Here is a photo of a CNW crew coming west after spotting freight cars at Navy Pier. Looks like Danny Fryar on the left and Robert Vaughn on the right. Edward Kwiatkowski shared Dale Windhorst: Any photos of the CNW grain elevator operation down around 118th and Torrence? Dennis DeBruler: Dale Windhorst https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../crlc-irondale... |
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| Historic Chicago posted We are giving away this amazing print for free to all our followers, simply go to Navy Pier Streetcars 1921 Print |
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| Nelson Herrera posted Navy Pier 1931 [The "white line" is a plane flying by blowing smoke.] |
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| Jamie Moncrief commented on Jeff's posting The City of Holland was a Goodrich boat and regular visitor to the pier...but the stern doesn't look the same.. The Christopher Columbus as well, but her stack was pushed back more towards the stern... |
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| Mike Tuggle posted
Navy Pier, circa 1947.
The University of Illinois had a branch here from October 1946 until February 1965 when the new University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (now University of Illinois at Chicago) opened. |
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| Georgia Rasmussen posted Are any of you survivors of the University of Illinois ay Navy Pier? When It rained the roof leaked, hall floors flooded, ceiling material fell down... It was chilly and to top it all off...occasionally a freighter would run into It. We worked hard for our education before the Chicago Circle campus Was built. I was there from 1959-61 before transferring to the Urbana Campus. [The comments talk about waves coming in on the classroom floors, asbestos, and ice water dripping down the back.]Bob Wolfberg Don't forget the rail cars running down the center of the pier. Mike Haislet Bob Wolfberg Thats right!!! Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Robert Holzer I was there from 1956 to 1958 the roof didn’t leak then And we had great instructors. Then finished up in Champaign . Aski wa wa! Mitch Simon I was at the "Pier" for the last year 1964-65. |
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| Jay DiDomizio commented on Georgia's post [A view of Ogden Slip before the west end was filled in.] |
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| Eddie Yung posted The good old "S" curve on LSD. Lake Shore Drive. Ginny Teister Morton This definitive S-Curve photograph, was taken from the Prudential building in 1963 by the venerable Charles Cushman. Bob Lalich The white buildings along Ogden Slip were known as North Pier Terminal. [Note that some of the Illinois Central freight houses still exist on the south side of the river and that there is still some heavy industry on the north side of the river.] |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on William's comment I just remembered that this was what freight ships looked like before container shipping was developed. In fact, I've read that it was container shipping that killed the Navy Pier freight traffic. It was cheaper to offload containers at the coasts and ship to the Midwest using rail rather than run a ship up the Seaway. And if the freight is too big to fit in a container, they now use pedestal cranes. Paul R. Murry posted the photo with the comment: "MUNTGRACHT - Upbound Port Huron, Michigan 5-14-2017" |
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| Chris West posted Chicagofest, 1981 - Navy Pier [You can see tracks are still running along the side of the pier.] |
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| Xavier Quintana posted When Navy Pier was open air: A crowd of more than 125,000 gathered at the Pier for fun, food, and music at ChicagoFest in August 1981. Photo by Mario Petitti (Vintage Tribune) Kirk Pagels: I was there. Check out this setlist, legends of Blues, R&B and Rock music all in one place in Chicago for the price of No.2 meal at McDonalds today. John Gronkowski: Before Navy Pier became Disney-fied..... Susan Pfeuffer-Powell: Was a great time!! Thought of doing this today makes me horrified. |
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| Tina Sifrer posted Navy Pier Daniel Bovino posted Aerial of Navy Pier back when the University of Illinois Chicago was located there c. 1962. Paul Jevert shared |
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| Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted WE at the C&NW Historical Society archives bet that today's tourists and young people cannot believe that this is a photo of Chicago's Navy Pier (about where the wheel is today). It is a "Port of Chicago" photo taken on August 17, 1963. The SW-8 was, according to Stephen Timko, a C&NW one of a kind. Sunny Dhillon shared |
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| Jerry Hund posted American Freedom Train at Chicago's Navy Pier in 1975. |
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| Mike Raia posted The Freedom Train at Navy Pier in Chicago in August of 1975. Bill Raia photo. Mike Raia shared |
Jerry Hund posted two photos with the comment:
I took this photo at Chicago Navy Pier, 1975. American Freedom Train. The 4449 was taken at Proviso the day before. Not sure how the cars made their way through the “Chicago underground” and into Navy Pier.
Franklin Campbell It was the Reading T1 2101 that derailed several times on the Navy Pier line near the Merchandise Mart I think the train was handed off to 4449 at Proviso soon thereafter.
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| 1 Terry Hund posted Navy Pier, Chicago The year was 1975. The American Freedom Train was making stops all over the U. S. In celebration of our country’s 200th birthday. I took this photo at Chicago’s Navy Pier. I sure do miss the railroad siding that went right down the length of the pier. In my opinion, this was an opportunity lost that today could have been a trolley running between Union/Northwestern stations and back. |
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| Mark Llanuza posted Its Aug 1975 the great American Freedom train is on display on the CNW tracks at Navy Pier in Chicago IL. [The steam locomotive was not part of the display. Comments are conflicting about weather or not it derailed on its way to the pier. Two said it did and one said it wasn't attempted.] Paulene Spika: I used to do work for the City out at the Navy Pier Auditorium. The tracks in the picture ran along the outside length of the pier. They were for loading/unloading cargo from rail cars to ships docked at the pier. They were there all through the 1980's, until they turned Navy Pier into the amusement park that it is now. |
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| Grace E. Kennings-Kwiatkowska posted Navy Pier, 1914. Pierre Hamon shared Construction of Municipal Pier in 1914. Later renamed Navy Pier in 1927. BDBRCPC posted The building of Municipal Pier (Navy Pier) 1914. Raymond Kunst shared Moss Tornero: How..HOW?? It’s to complicated.. Is that behemoth built on wood ?? Is mud holding it up? I need answers!!! David Hodson: Moss Tornero wood piles are driven by large (and heavy) weights into the bed of the lake. These weights are continually dropped, while advancement of the pile after each blow recorded. Generaly this continues until "refusal"; the point at which the advancement of the pile is below the required design point. The weight with which the pile is driven, and the height from which it is dropped, and the amount of advancement with each blow, can then be used to calculate the bearing capacity of each installed pile. With the necessary design loading already known, it is the calculated how many piles are needed. It should be noted that a significant portion of a driven pile's bearing capacity is derived from friction as the soils surrounding the length of the driven pile consolidate. Underlaying much of the surface soils of Chicago is a layer of "fat clay"; a clayey soil with a very high silt content, generally greyish blue in color. This type of soil is relatively impervious to water infiltration, thus minimizing subsurface pile rot, as well as providing frictional support when these clays (relatively quickly) re-consolidate after being disturbed by the driven pile.  ...but Im sure this is clearer. https://www.sciencedirect.com/.../engineering/pile-capacity Raymond Kunst posted Construction of Municipal Pier in 1914. Later renamed Navy Pier in 1927. Walter Walas: Kinda knew this about the wooden pillar’s, but never seen a picture like this before … When I was scuba diver for the Chicago Fire Department I was stationed on the large fire boat that was stationed there Eng . 41 … ( back in the mid 1970’s ) .. & one night did some practice night diving and went under the pier , not real far because I seen these .. at the time not knowing exactly what I may get into . Stopped … Raymond Kunst shared Mike Jackiw: It’s always astounded me that it’s sitting on wood. How the heck isn’t it rotting away and dropping into the lake? Mo Cahill: Mike Jackiw no bugs or oxygen for rot. depending on the wood, can last a lonnggg time,. i believe there r jacaranda piers in the thous of yrs old, still in use. or at least, that‘s what the guy who sold me my jacaranda glider told me. Andrew C. Martin: Mike Jackiw The whole city of Venice, Italy is on wood. Bill Utermark: Amsterdam canal houses on wood. 100's of years. No contact to air. |
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| Diane Bassman posted University of Illinois, Navy Pier Howie SilverHowie and 63 others joined Windy City Historians within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! I went to “The Pier” (Navy Pier) and then moved over to “Circle” (as UIC was called).Pat Howe I went to school there. Cold cold winter mornings out on the lake with ice jams grinding away at the foundations. |
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| Sunny Dhillon shared David M Laz posted And there were freight trains running at Navy Pier to exchange goods with the docked freighters! Michael Bose Engine 1241 is a Baldwin VO660M built in 1945. It was rebuilt in 1958, along with all of CNW's other Baldwin switchers, with an Electromotive 1200 hp 8-567 prime mover and a new long hood that is the same as the SW1200, NW2, SW1201, SW1300 & SW1500. So the looks are deceiving! Robert Burnett Those guys looks fake. whats going on with this pic? look how long the red guys left arm is, it looks like an HO train locomotive and people, but the background looks real. Sunny Dhillon I'm guessing someone at the warehouse behind had some manikins and decided to put them on the engine for the fun photo. Bill Barden Robert Burnett real people I worked that job with them. Patrick King Robert Burnett ... that’s what I thought.... look like a couple a Ken dolls. [I don't follow this group. Is Bill Barden a troll? I'm going with the manikin theory.] |
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| William Shapotkin posted We are the east end of C&NW's Navy Pier Line in Chicago. Loco #1018 is seen near a boat alongside the dock -- presumably having just picked up a load (of what appears to be a bulldozer (?)). View looks east in this July 1973 photo by Jim Bartke. William Shapotkin Collection. (aac532) |
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| Sarah Johnson posted When the Taste was Chicago Fest at Navy Pier! |
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| Growing up in Chicago posted 1981 - When Navy Pier was open air: A crowd of more than 125,000 gathered at the Pier for fun, food, and music at ChicagoFest. |
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| Historic Chicago posted Chicagofest (1979) Rell Walker: I remember our parents taking us to Chicago Fest as a kid. Fond memories. Unfortunately politics and the insensitivity of Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne to social justice issues related to public housing killed it leading to boycotts of the event. Her successor Mayor Harold Washington canceled it. It lasted from 1978 (started by Mayor Michael Bilandec) and ended in 1983 never to return. |
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| Grand Ballroom "Now named the Aon Grand Ballroom, its interior has an 80-foot, half-domed ceiling and an 18,000-square-foot floor space. The room holds up to 1,400 people." |
Ed Zoller contributed the following photos as comments on a post. If any of them are new, leave a comment and I'll make it bigger.
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More pictures of the interior thanks to Chicago Fest 1981.
During the 1970s and 1980s there was a concerted effort to move shipping and industry south to the Calumet Lake area. C&NW tracks were removed from the Ogden Slip and thus the pier. The pier has now been redeveloped a couple of times as a tourist attraction, and it has been a successful draw of tourists. Now passenger boats dock along the south side instead of freighters.
During the 1970s and 1980s there was a concerted effort to move shipping and industry south to the Calumet Lake area. C&NW tracks were removed from the Ogden Slip and thus the pier. The pier has now been redeveloped a couple of times as a tourist attraction, and it has been a successful draw of tourists. Now passenger boats dock along the south side instead of freighters.
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