Dispatch No. 9, Chicago Surface Lines: Linking Chicago's Neighborhoods II
Dispatch No. 9 is Chicago Surface Lines: Linking Chicago's Neighborhoods II, edited by Richard F. Begley, with George E. Kanary and Walter R. Keevil. This 100-page publication includes 20 color pages, 149 photos (28 in color), and two maps (both in color), as well as detailed narratives of 26 streetcar routes.
Chicago is a city where the everyday events of life occurred in its 77 semiofficial neighborhoods. Education, entertainment, shopping happened in "the neighborhood" — be it South Chicago, North Park, Garfield Park or elsewhere. The common denominator: the streetcars of the Chicago Surface Lines and later the Chicago Transit Authority. The streetcars provided transportation within the neighborhood and linked the neighborhood with other neighborhoods, both like and unlike, both near and far.
Building upon the success of Dispatch 8, Chicago Surface Lines: Linking Chicago's Neighborhoods, Shore Line announces the availability of Dispatch 9, Chicago Surface Lines: Linking Chicago's Neighborhoods II. Dispatch 9 covers 26 streetcar lines in the 1945-1958 period. The Dispatch includes a section on Eight Distinctive Lines of Southeast Chicago (including "the Hegewisch line" and South Deering); coverage of Diagonal Lines in a Grid City (including Elston, Archer and Lincoln); as well as information on such routes as Kedzie, Cicero, 18th Street and Chicago Avenue. The routes used about 630 streetcars daily and carried 162 million originating revenue passengers in 1945.
Dispatch 9 includes detailed narratives on each route and a wonderful article by George Kanary on his recollections of life on Division Street in Wicker Park.
Dispatch No. 9 is available from Shore Line for $20. Add $8 for postage to a U.S. destination. Shore Line members pay $12 plus $8 postage to a U.S. destination.
