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.
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
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