Montrose Harbor on Chicago’s North Side was once the site of a remarkable set of rock carvings on the limestone blocks that ran down in steps to the water.
The large blocks were put in place when the harbor was built in the late 1930s, as they were in locations up and down the Chicago waterfront, and removed when the Montrose Harbor lakefront was rebuilt in the early 2000s. The remarkable carvings — dozens of them — were demolished along with the blocks that hosted them and are lost forever.
At that time the lakefront carvings were virtually unknown in Chicago, so it’s not surprising that the physical carvings vanished without a trace. But fortunately Aron Packer photographed many of the most impressive examples in the late 1980s. Here is a selection of his photos:
Carvings on the blocks that lined the waterfront south of Montrose Harbor lasted a bit longer before they too were demolished — indeed, a few have survived on the one stretch of undisturbed shore immediately opposite the entrance to the harbor.
The gallery below contains my photos of the carvings south of the harbor that were lost to reconstruction. You also can click here for a gallery of Montrose area carvings that includes the surviving sculptures at the harbor entrance.
