Fishin For A Livin (Ain't No Livin At All) - Joe's Fisheries

If you're normal like me and often take the time to walk the weird industrial wasteland that occupies the area around Elston and the "Lincoln Yards" on the near north side, you may have noticed a small cluster of roughly hewn buildings immediately north of Cortland St. They aren't that interesting in themselves, the larger one appears to be vacant, and the lower-slung one closer to Cortland is occupied by an Asian restaurant and a private boat charter company. But even uninteresting buildings like these can have interesting histories, and the story I found here starts with this collection of signs around the back.

Facing the current glum and desolation of the Cortland St Bridge and the Lincoln Yards site are 3 signs advertising various businesses located on the other side. The two on either side are for modern, operating businesses, but in the center sits a faded red, white, and blue "ghost sign" for Joe's Fisheries - "THE PLACE FOR SEAFOOD".

Joe's wasn't your run of the mill smoker & fryer of imported coastal fish, but an actual commercial fishing operation, trawling Lake Michigan with 3 boats, the SEEKER, SPIRIT, and SURVEYOR, catching tens of thousands of pounds of fish from Lake Michigan each year to be sold retail and wholesale from this humble brick building off Cortland St, tracing back to 1922. While pollution and invasive species decimated traditional money makers like trout and herring in the latter 20th century, Joe's held on as one of a few dozen fisheries on Lake Michigan by catching yellow perch and bloater chub. By 1994, when it was profiled in the Chicago Reader, Joe's was the very last commercial fishery in the city, pulling in 93,000 pounds of fish a year (68,000 of perch and 25,000 of chub). 

Sadly the same ecological mechanisms continued to wreak havoc on the lake, and perch populations- the last truly profitable catch on the lake- continued plummeting into the 90s. The very next year the limit was slashed to a meager 24,000 pounds, and by April 1st, 1997, Illinois had banned commercial harvesting of perch entirely in an effort to allow the populations time to recover. Joe's would continue catching chub and smoking & processing imported fish for a year or two, but by 2000, the business had collapsed into bankruptcy and it's assets were being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

I don't know how this sign survived 26 years of business turnover, but I'm glad it has. I would have never in a million years bothered to research this address otherwise. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn this is not the only surviving remnant of Joe's- all 3 ships they operated by the 90s remain in service under new owners. SEEKER is now the ELEANOR B. for Hoops Fish Market in Bayfield, Wisconsin, and nearby SPIRIT works in the Red Cliff area. SURVEYOR is now RITTER BROS for Petersons Fish Market in Hancock, MI.

Sources

• A Disappearing Species by David Witter for the Chicago Reader, December 8th, 1994
• YELLOW PERCH: ONCE NOT PROFITABLE ENOUGH FOR COMMERCIAL CATCH, NOW MAINSTAY OF LAKE MICHIGAN FISHERIES by Nancy Riggs for The HELM, Fall/Winter 1996, republished in The Michigan Riparian, February 2004
• Changing ecology of lake kills perch, fishing business by Peter Kendall and Lisa Black for the Chicago Tribune, January 6th, 1997
• Precarious Perch by Susan DeGrane for the Chicago Reader, March 30th, 2000
• Joe's Fisheries, 2000, UIC Library of the Health Sciences – Chicago Special Collections (information attached to photograph record)
• Wild Chicago - Joe's Fisheries, for WTTW (PBS), 1997
• NOTICE OF U.S. MARSHAL'S SALE, Chicago Tribune, July 11th, 2000
• 
  

The below were used specifically for information about the boats and their later whereabouts

• Port State Information Exchange, U.S. Coast Guard
• Peterson's Fish Market, Visit Keweenaw
• Fishing Vessels of the Great Lakes by Harvey Hadland
• ELEANOR B. (JEAN MAUR B., EWIG II, SEEKER), by Harvey Hadland

Further Reading

The Toxic Sands Threatening Fish in Lake Superior by Shantal Riley for Undark, December 28th, 2023

On the fringes of history: the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald almost claimed another boat here in the Apostle Islands by Bob Nelson for Friends of the Apostle Islands, November 10th, 2025

Chicago Minor Demolitions Survey No. 1

 This is a series I'm starting to "round up" smaller demolitions I photograph that aren't worthy of a full blog post. My hope is to give these buildings a short little digital gravestone that's better search-indexed than my BlueSky posts. This one will cover a wider gamut, photographed from 7/30 to 9/11, in the future I plan to put these out about once every 1-2 months.

2438 N Burling - Lincoln Park

I am generally not a big fan of this kind of faux-stone front (despite living in one), but this is a bonafide 1890 2-flat underneath of it, and some of the details are still nice, such as the porch and stained glass. Wreck-and-remove granted August 26th, photographed September 9th.

1113 W Drummond - Lincoln Park

A very simple 1903 brick 2-flat, relatively unadorned. Wreck-and-remove granted August 28th, new construction of a 3-story single family home permitted September 3rd. (insert negative emoji here), photographed September 9th.

634 W Aldine - Boystown

A blockier 2-story residential building, with a nice and large porch. Nothing yet permitted to replace. Photographed September 11th.

1939 N Larrabee - Lincoln Park

No demolition permit for this one yet, but it's been flagged for a 90-day demolition delay as it is an "Orange rated" building. That doesn't guarantee it much though, see the 2-orange rated structures torn down as part of DePaul's new athletic center, and future blog subject 950 W Willow. Photographed September 11th.

1839 W North Ave - Wicker Park

Unconventional entry here, as this one kind of demolished itself.. 1839 W North collapsed abruptly on August 25th, 2026 while undergoing heavy renovations. It was a heavily modified 1890 workers cottage, and had already had conservation complaints pointing to structural problems several years ago. As of 9/9 , the latest permit is still a renovation permit for turning it into a restaurant. Photographed August 26th.

909 W Webster - Lincoln Park

A sadly very pretty stone-faced 1888 3-flat here, with a funky mid-century addition eating into the sideyard. Wreck-and-remove granted 8/24 , with a permit for a 4-unit building under review since July 17th. Better than SFH, but still under-use of the property. Photographed August 26th

911 W Diversey - Lincoln Park

Another simple Victorian brick 2-flat, like 1113 W Drummond, this one from 1898. Wreck-and-remove was granted back on July 17th, but I came up it being actively demolished here on August 16th. 4-story 3-units permitted to replace. Photographed August 16th.

3724 N Bosworth - Lakeview

I honestly do not usually stop to photograph wood-frame demolitions. I have enough to photograph already, and generally we can still build new ones. 3724 N Bosworth however was blurred on Google Maps, so I stopped to take a picture so it has some kind of internet record. Demolition permitted 8/14 , permit to replace with 3-story single family home under review. Photographed August 15th.

858 N Marshfield - East Village

A quite heavily sanded-down 1888 2-flat. Wreck-and-remove granted 8/13, 3-story/3-units permitted to replace. This one has a levy of open complaints for noise violations relating to the demolition and bricks hitting the neighboring properties. Photographed August 14th; by the time of a ground survey on September 11th, it was completely demolished.

714 N Kedzie - Humboldt Park

714 is an old city firehouse with a few fun municipal details. After at least a decade of reuse as a storage building, it's being demolished to make way for a new fieldhouse and expansion of the neighboring Kells (George) Park to the north. Permit given July 1st. Photographed July 30th.

1800 N Clybourn - Lincoln Park

Long, long ago a cohesive factory building, this property had been carved up six ways to Sunday first into an indoor mall and then a sort of "urban strip mall". It's now being replaced with a newer, sleeker strip mall, only preserving the tower seen to the left, a remnant of the original factory. This photo was taken August 16th, by a later site visit on September 1st, the building chunk at the rear had been reduced to a half-demolished ruin.

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

Sometimes, you're slow on the draw. Life happens, you lose the lighting, the CTA catches fire and you miss a connection, and when you circle back, the reaper's already come to collect. I still include these as neighborhood snapshots, and because the buildings did still have some story to them.

2121 W Cortland - Bucktown

This was a 1902 tan-and-cream 2-flat, with some nice corbelling detail along the roofline. Wreck-and-remove was given August 5th, and it was wiped by the time I got there on the 14th. No new construction permit yet, but with it absorbing a second lot that had been a sideyard, it'll likely be a mansion or multi-family. Photographed August 14th.

4143 W 21st St - North Lawndale

This block of the K-Town Historic District was a complete, uninterrupted block for probably close to a century. 4143, an ornamented red brick 2-flat went through demolition court after a series of abandoned building complaints despite appearing in good shape on Streetview, and was finally culled by an emergency wreck-and-remove on August 19th. Photographed August 22nd.

3619 N Magnolia - Wrigleyville

One of two neighboring greystones to be felled on this block this year. Wreck-and-remove was granted on August 26th, in the wake of a new construction permit given July 10th. It's to be replaced with a 3-story, 2-unit condo building, presumably identical to the one visible to the right at 3617 N Magnolia, which was a 1910 2-flat demolished in March of this year. While I've mostly talked about this in Lincoln Park, demolitions have begun to hit Lakeview hard as well; last year another greystone was demolished at 1300 W Newport, leading to a proposal for a landmark district to protect uninterrupted greystone frontage. Photographed September 11th.

That's all for now! Like I said, I'm hoping to get these out about every 1-2 months, depending on the number of demolition permits and my ability to scoot around town after work. Detail shots for some properties may be uploaded to Flickr in the future; at that time they'll be linked here.

DePaul Demolition Night - Sheffield-Belden Group Demolition

It would be a grave understatement to say colleges in Chicago have a troubled relationship with the neighborhoods they reside in. Progressive on their face, they became a first choice for sweeping urban renewal efforts across the city, though perhaps most infamously on the south and near west sides, where the University of Chicago and UIC have displaced thousands in the name of blight clearing progress. 

While things have thankfully slowed down since those heavy-handed days, incidents still continue. Even in this blog’s short history we’ve seen this old playbook re-emerge, with Loyola purchasing a blighted property just to demolish it, with no effort to offset the housing lost. In that case, there were at least some chips you could give Loyola- the building *was* in noticeably poor shape, deteriorated to the point demolition may have been the only viable option. The crime there was in the previous slumlord who let it get to that point, and Loyola’s knuckle-dragging on any worthwhile replacement. No such charity can be extended to DePaul in today’s case however, concerning a nearly postcard-perfect half block of Chicago brick and block at the corner of Sheffield & Belden. For convenience, I’m going to borrow the name “Sheffield-Belden Group” from Preservation Chicago’s coverage of the buildings.

2310, 2314, and 2316 N Sheffield

2308 and 2310 N Sheffield

2300-02 N Sheffield/1000-12 W Belden

Photoset above taken on November 25th, 2025

This small group of 5 buildings comprised 4 1890s 3-and-4 flats and 1 1926 courtyard apartment building across about half a block. While not necessarily notable, they stood out as an example of well-preserved Chicago streetscape in an area heavily and continuously modified by DePaul's heavy hand. Despite much of it falling within the NRHP Sheffield Historic District, this area directly west of the ‘L’ is dominated by 21st century construction with little regard for the Victorian and 20th century streetscape that made Lincoln Park famous. 2 of the 1890s buildings in the Sheffield-Belden Group were even considered important enough to be Orange-rated under the 1995 Chicago Historic Resources Survey (“Possesses potentially significant architectural or historical features”), but as any architecture enthusiast sadly knows, these sorts of listings are never as strong protection as they sound in the face of developer lobbying.

DePaul began lobbying to raze the properties for a new athletic center as early as 2022, and while receiving pushback from neighborhood groups, it gained formal support from Alderman Timmy Knudsen in 2024 after minor design revisions and an agreement to formally landmark Byrne Hall (1907) and Cortelyou Commons (1930), as well as a commitment to preserve O’Connell Hall (1938), considered more than equal trades for the two Orange-rated structures facing the claw. I ultimately disagree- these “landmark” structures are important architectural history, but they do not have the same impact on the streetscape as these smaller structures, and they do nothing to make up for the housing lost (being offices, an events space, and a school building, respectively). There are, ultimately, thousands of 3 & 4 flats and courtyard buildings elsewhere in the city, but housing in Lincoln Park is a red hot market with a very limited supply, possibly even a declining supply, depending on how the rate of teardowns and downconversions balances against the sluggish rate of new construction. 

Rubble spills from the former site of 2308 N Sheffield on August 11th

The easy retort is that in an urban core like Lincoln Park, you're always going to have to tear down something to build anything new, and a city can't stay static forever. I would agree with you, hypothetical reader, on this if there were not other under-developed lots in close proximity. The prime example can be found just on the other side of Fullerton at 2400 N Sheffield, a former malaise-era supermarket with a full-size parking lot, totaling ~93,000 sq ft if the entire lot was redeveloped, bumped to around 115k sq ft if you loop in 1050 W Fullerton, a non-historic industrial building DePaul owns but doesn't obviously use for anything (I assume it's storage). This was even brought up during some of the neighborhood pushback in 2024, at which point DePaul responded that this site was being kept aside for an undetermined future major development such as a hotel and convention center, but nothing has moved forward since. 

The torn open remains of 2300-02 N Sheffield on August 26th

I admit past that low-hanging fruit, the options quickly become more complicated- the combined gas station, convenience store, and auto repair shop at 1108 W Fullerton are a terrible use of urban space, but redeveloping it would require costly and time consuming remediation of the underground tanks and 50 years of spilled gas and oil leaks on top of the cost of acquisition. Replacing a parking garage, like the one at 2331 N Sheffield is also an easy choice from an urbanist perspective, but with Lincoln Park's higher car ownership rates, they may be more heavily used than I like to imagine. Still, none of these are impossible, and redeveloping 2400 N Sheffield may even be cheaper, since you'd only be tearing down a parking lot.

Speculations on unchosen futures aside, the project (and it's associated demolitions) were formally approved by the Chicago Plan Commission in a reluctant unanimous vote in November 2025, which was when the site first came to my attention. The actual wreck-and-remove permits finally came through in July 2026, with demolition starting shortly after, and by my final site visit on August 26th, only one corner of 2300-02 N Sheffield remained standing.

I actually don’t have very strong opinions about the design of the athletic center itself. For the modern school of glass and brick, it’s not terrible, and I’ve certainly seen worse. But I’ll always look at it with a quiet disdain, because of what was torn down to make way for it.

That's all, folks!

Sources for this post can be found here, with a special thanks to Preservation Chicago
My full 100+ photo set will be uploaded to my Flickr Soon:tm: