LOGAN SQUARE — For Flashback Friday, learn about the history of the Logan Square Auditorium site.
More from Logan Square Preservation’s Andrew Schneider:
Almost nothing about this view is familiar to modern eyes.
Most people in the neighborhood would remember this corner as the home of the lost and lamented Johnny’s Grill. This one story building was the original one on this site. Home to the Geannopoulos Market, the Greek immigrant family leased the land from the Gilbert Family and built the Logan Square Auditorium, once the largest Greek-owned building in the United States, according to the owner. The original 100-year lease would have run out in 2008.
The larger building in the background is the Logan Square Terminal for the Metropolitan Elevated service which first arrived in 1895. Just past it on the southern corner of Linden and Kedzie (then Humboldt Boulevard, as all of the boulevards north of the Park were known) is Cedric Hall, a large banquet hall that was demolished and replaced with the modern Advocate Health Care building.
This Throwback Thursday/Flashback Friday feature was produced by Block Club Chicago and Logan Square Preservation. The newsroom and Logan Square-based group are reviving a partnership that started at DNAinfo which aims to share photos from Logan Square’s Preservation’s archives. When possible, we’ll work together to share photos that are topical and relevant to the news of the week.
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