Our photo post on the Uptown Broadway Building, at Leland and Broadway, prompted an entertaining insider’s view from Commenter “Why require when I can lie?” about the finer points of the historic structure and life in Uptown (word has it that Realtor and developer Thad Wong deos plan on using the basement for a bar / nightclub, as the commenter suggests):
The Uptown Broadway building was rehabbed (sort of) by a company named Preservation Chicago in the late ’80s. I have a friend who had an office there, and I am ashamed to say that I ended up crashing there for a few weeks. So I know the building well.
It was built by Capone, and there used to be a speakeasy in the basement. When I was there, the basement was an abandoned beauty parlor with no windows and very garish purple paint job.
A bar would still probably be the best use of the basement space — someone could probably get a lot of mileage out of the Capone / speakeasy connection. There was also a scary medical clinic in one of the above ground spaces.
The building has a couple of problems, though. The main one is that the trains run so close to the back of the building that things literally shake inside. My computer (an old pre-Dell PC’s Limited 286) used to reboot every now and then when trains passed. It’s got a funky shape, too — the South end of it comes down to a point, which is impractical. But it’s a beautiful place.
There used to be a bar in the neighborhood — I think it was called Sherri’s Hillbilly Haven. And I remember coming out of the Uptown Broadway one night, and getting accosted by a hillbilly with a baseball bat who asked me if I was ready to fight for white people in the coming race war. He was a very scary guy.
And there was a bum on the block who used to hold his arms out and run down the street, through traffic — he called it “flying”. He was famous for going up to people and shouting, “Give me 10 dollars!” No beating around the bush for that guy. He was a big too, and pretty intimidating.
But balancing all of that off was a place that sold some of the best spring rolls I ever had, for $1.50. I wish I had some now.