“The Carl B. Roden Branch of the Chicago Public Library” by S.M. O’Connor

The Carl B. Roden Branch of the Chicago Public Library, located on Northwest Highway in Norwood Park (Community Area #10), is named after the longest-serving Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library. It is situated in the middle of a block on the north side of Northwest Highway between Raven Street to the west and Newark Avenue. [There are two branches of the Chicago Public Library in Norwood Park on the Far North Side (or Northwest Side) of Chicago: Roden and Oriole Park.] The address places it in the neighborhood of Norwood Park East, but only a few feet from the boundary with the neighborhood of Old Norwood Park.

The Roden Branch Library is about one block northwest of the Norwood Park Metra Station. It is also very close to a firehouse.

As there are no Chicago Public Library (C.P.L.) branches in Edison Park, and the Roden Branch of the C.P.L. is in the northern part of Norwood Park, it is the closet C.P.L. branch for Edison Park residents.

Previously, the Roden Branch Library had been located in a series of storefronts, dating back to 1950. The Carl B. Roden Branch was the twenty-fifth branch of the Chicago Public Library. The current branch opened on September 16, 1968.

It was named in honor of Carl Bismarck Roden (1871-1956) who served as Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1918 to 1950. Carl B. Roden began work as a Library Page in 1886 and was a lifelong resident of Norwood Park. He worked his way up the ranks to become chief of catalog division. Though he never practiced law, Roden graduated from law school and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1891. He was appointed chief librarian in 1918. During his administration, the CPL’s branch library system increased 50%; the staff more than doubled; the book stock increased threefold; circulation doubled; and total expenditures rose more than 400%. Under his leadership, the Chicago Public Library System became the largest circulating library in the world. Upon his retirement in 1950, Roden took on the task of writing the biography of Dr. William F. Poole (1821-1894), the first Librarian of, successively, the Chicago Public Library and The Newberry Library.

The Community Meeting Room can hold up to sixty people. One can apply to book the room up to three months before the event, but not less than seven days before the event. The branch manager must approve the event. An applicant will be notified whether or not his or her application has been approved within three days.

In the recent past, the Roden Branch Library was open from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Mondays, from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Like other branch libraries, it was closed on Sundays. Now, the Roden Branch Library is closed on Sundays and open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The address is 6083 North Northwest Highway in Chicago, Illinois 60631. The phone number there is (312) 744-1478.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.