Still stuffed from Thursday? It's an ideal time to play armchair tourist and Geoffrey Baer is a fine tour guide for the recliner-inclined.
The WTTW host is hitting the town again in "Hidden Chicago 2," premiering at 7:30 p.m. Monday on Channel 11. Like predecessor "Hidden Chicago," the sequel whisks viewers through a treasure trove of unsung landmarks in the Windy City.
Think the smallest park (the length and width of a park bench), a forgotten lagoon, and the world's first movie palace, now a West Side church.
Writer-producer Baer unearthed many of these gems as a longtime Chicago Architecture Foundation docent. His network of sources, ranging from pop culture zealots to history profs, steered him to others. Who knew the Chatham neighborhood is home to "garlows," Depression-era garages occupied as homes?
"You bought a plot of land, and built a garage-sized home where you lived until your bungalow was built," Baer explained. "Later, you converted it into a garage. But no one ever built the 'big house,' so all over this South Side neighborhood are blocks with tiny houses the size of garages."
Our region pops up in this salute to overlooked fragments of the past. The Calumet Park Fieldhouse in the East Side neighborhood makes a cameo.
If you're into trainspotting, pop into the basement.
A dozen World War II vets founded a model train club and built the Lakeshore Model Railroad, an elaborate set-up with all the bells and whistles. At least one surviving charter member and next-generation train junkies operate signals and switches like they're running the Orient Express.
The display is probably second in size and scope only to the Museum of Science and Industry's exhibit.
"I'm a train geek," Baer admitted. "I had a huge train set when I was a kid, so it was a huge thrill to see these guys, living and breathing this thing."
Marktown in East Chicago also made the cut.
Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw based this 1917 company town on an English village complete with narrow 16-foot streets. Many of the 200 Tudor Revival stucco cottages are crumbling, but their charming sloped roofs evokes a sense of Brigadoon in the shadow of steel mills. Locals park on the sidewalks and use the streets for foot traffic, a quirk recorded by Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Besides covering obscure landmarks, the program includes a segment on Chicago-born inventions. The Windy City and 'burbs are home to the Oscar statuette, the zipper, the fireman's pole (courtesy of Chicago's first black fire company), the window envelope, and Lincoln Logs (the brainchild of John Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright's son).
Other notes ...
Grapevine Producers may have slipped up, firing the leads of "Banana Shpeel" and writing the love story out of the script. Preview audiences are more baffled than charmed to date by the neo-vaudeville show ... You know the holidays are here when the Art Institute lions are wreathed and beribboned ... Goodman Theatre's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" opens Sunday.
The opinions expressed are solely the writer's. Reach her at molly.woulfe@nwi.com or 219.852.4329
