In Ravenswood at 4636 N. Paulina, a green gingerbread Victorian built in 1886 faces demolition. Featuring unique bargeboard trim and carved wood window hoods, this is a unique and exceptional loss for Chicago’s historic housing stock.

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After a successful debut in 2017, the effort to crowdfund a 2018 Gary Preservation Tour has begun. Organizers intend to repeat open house-style access to a number of downtown Gary’s most notable buildings, while also expanding tours into two of the city’s distinctive residential neighborhoods, Horace Mann and Morningside.

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At noon on Wednesday, February 28, Preservation Chicago released its annual Chicago 7 list of most endangered buildings. Each year for the past 15 years, the local historic preservation advocacy organization has used this list to draw the public’s attention to threatened elements of Chicago’s built environment. Whether they face specific and urgent threats, or longer-term and more diffuse ones, failing to preserve these places would erase important parts of Chicago’s history and harm the distinctive and celebrated built environment of the city.

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On 63rd near Spaulding in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, 73 years of photography history came to a close with passing of Joseph Herbert, aged 93. Herbert ran Marquette Photo Supply, a small camera shop that stayed in business as most others closed in the face of digital photography, online sales, and the emergence of cell phone photography.

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