Thursday, February 9, 2012

Busiest Corner in the World - State & Madison, Chicago



The corner of State and Madison in Chicago was once known as the busiest corner in the world. I wish I could have seen it back then. The building on the right was designed by architect Louis Sullivan and is the former home of the Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. department store. This historic building will soon be the home of a City Target store, scheduled to open in the summer of 2012.

The Theme-Thursday theme this week is CORNER. Here is a CORNY verse I wrote, inspired by the theme and my postcard, and based on the Little Jack Horner nursery rhyme.
OLD MISTER HORNER

Old Mister Horner
Stood on the corner
Dreaming of days gone by.
He looked all around
And somberly frowned,
Because the world had passed him by.
(Coincidentally, Illinois had a governor named Henry Horner who was born in Chicago and served from 1933 to 1940).

The corner looks busy, but not as attractive, in this video filmed in 1897 by Thomas Edison.



Visit Theme-Thursday for February 9, 2012
for links to blogs with corner posts

or go here for a definition of corner post,
pictures, lexicographical neighbors, and literary usage


8 comments:

  1. Great post! Thanks for the Target update!

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  2. Very cool! I lived in Illinois as a child and we shopped at Carson, Pirie, Scott! :)

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  3. Great card, narrative and poem. "Corner" was delightfully covered!

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  4. I'll be going there soon, but I don't expect it to look like that!

    P.S. Having trouble with you word verification. Spelled it right, but it still didn't like it.

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  5. Oooh I very much enjoyed your historical "corny" verse... Delightful :)

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  6. I liked all the corny things you did here with corner. That postcard is really cool and so is the poem. It is also interesting to see very old movie clips of how life used to be. Geez, that was truly a busy corner.

    Thanks for playing with us this week at Theme Thursday.

    God bless

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  7. I've only ever been to Chicago in transit on a flight between the UK and Seattle, so only saw the inside of an airport, but this postcard makes me want to go to the city ... now!

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