UPDATED CHAPTER 2 of THE COOLEST SPOT IN CHICAGO:
A HISTORY OF GREEN MILL GARDENS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF UPTOWN
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UPDATED! This chapter now includes more pictures, maps, and historical documentation, which I’ve found since originally posting this in March 2023. (You can read an archived copy of the original version here.) New and revised portions in this March 3, 2024, update are marked with a Chicago star: ✶
Let’s try piecing together same basic facts about the place: Where exactly was it during its early years? And how did that change as time went on? And who owned it?
What follows is a chronological outline of key moments … supported with cartographic and photographic evidence … and sprinkled with some puzzles and unanswered questions. It’s a tangled and complicated history.
✶ The pictures above include a photo from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s archives. Taken on June 17, 1930, it shows the Green Mill building. As you can see, a drugstore occupied the building’s corner at that time. And Wolf’s Jewel Shop was at 4802 Broadway, where the front portion of the Green Mill is located today.
This is one of many pieces of evidence showing that the Green Mill wasn’t located during the Prohibition Era exactly where it is now.
In the close-up below, you can also see the sign for the Green Mill—above the entrance at 4806 North Broadway, where the Fiesta Mexicana Restaurant is today. That was the venue’s main entrance during this era.
Let’s begin with a brief orientation on where the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is located today (and where the jazz club has been for nine decades).
As you can see in the above photo from 2024, the Green Mill is near the northwest corner of Broadway and Lawrence—but not right at the corner. The building’s metal-sheathed corner, 4800 North Broadway, is where the Birrieria Zaragoza restaurant opened in 2023, taking over a space that had been occupied for many years by Broadway Grill & Chicken.
Immediately north of the restaurant, the Green Mill’s iconic façade faces east at 4802 North Broadway. As you walk in, the nightclub’s front portion—including the bar—fills the space north of the restaurant. But as you get farther back, the room widens, extending south to Lawrence Avenue. The bar essentially wraps around the smaller restaurant space.
This diagram of the Green Mill’s layout is posted near the front entrance:
When you’re in the Green Mill looking toward the stage at the nightclub’s west end, the Carmela’s Taqueria is on the other side of that wall, filling out the ground floor’s southwest corner.
And now, onto the chronology…
October 8, 1889: Charles E. “Pop” Morse purchases three vacant lots at the northwest corner of Lawrence Avenue and Evanston Avenue (now called Broadway) for $4,420 ($150,000 in today’s dollars).1
May 13, 1897: A building permit is issued for a two-story frame building containing a store and residential flats at 2059 Evanston Avenue.
✶ The Morses hire J. Speyer & Son, of 164 La Salle Street, to build it for $3,500.2 Julius B. Speyer was a well-known architect who’d designed the Donohue Building, the first large printing factory in the Printers Row district.3
1898: The Chicago city directory lists Charles E. Morse as the owner of a saloon at 2059 Evanston Avenue.
March 10, 1904: Morse purchases the two lots immediately north of the three lots he already owned, paying $5,000 (or $167,000 adjusted for inflation).4
A 1905 Sanborn map of Pop Morse’s roadhouse.
Chicago, Volume 17 (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1905), 79, via the Library of Congress.
November 12, 1908: Morse dies.5 His estate is inherited by his daughter, Catherine Hoffman.6
1909: Catherine’s husband, Charles Hoffman, takes over the Morse saloon, running it with his brother Frank. The 1909 city directory calls it the Hoffman Bros. saloon. The brothers open a small beer garden on the property.
✶ On April 30, 1909, they receive a permit to build a frame pavilion—24 feet wide, 67 feet deep, and 15 feet high—for outdoor entertainment, spending $6,000 on the project.7 The precise location of this pavilion is unknown, but it seems likely it was on the land that the Hoffmans owned just north of their saloon along Broadway.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s addresses are renumbered, and the saloon’s new street number is 4800.
September 22, 1910: The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that Tom Chamales is leasing the property from the Hoffmans. It’s a 15-year-lease, with an aggregate rent of $158,000 (around $5 million in today’s money). As part of the deal, Chamales is required to make improvements on the property worth at least $30,000 within six months. He also purchases the stock and fixtures of the Morse roadhouse for $20,000.8
✶ May 24, 1911: Tom Chamales files paperwork with the Illinois secretary of state’s office to form a corporation called Morse’s. Chamales owns 298 of the company’s 300 shares in capital stock, or $29,800. His brother William Chamales and Peter Malakates each own one $100 share. The company’s mission is “to maintain and operate coffee houses, restaurants, eating houses, taverns, buffets, or other places of enjoyment and refreshment.” (To read the complete, absurdly detailed list of the company’s objectives, see Chapter 7.)9
1911–1914: The establishment is listed in city directories as the saloon of Thomas Chamales at 4800 Evanston Avenue. At the same time, newspaper advertisements call it Morse’s Cafe & Garden.10 Even though Pop Morse is no longer alive, Chamales seems to understand the value of the Pop Morse name.
February 28, 1913: Chamales signs a new lease with the Hoffmans, which runs from March 1, 1913, to April 30, 1938.11
✶ The new lease gives him the right to use the name “Morse” for the business. The Hoffmans agree that they won’t use the Morse name for any business of their own (even though it’s Catherine Hoffman’s maiden name). If they do use the name, they’ll owe Chamales $10,000.12
May 23–September 12, 1913: In a series of transactions, Charles Hoffman acquires the land west of the roadhouse property, extending over to Magnolia Avenue.13
August 15, 1913: Evanston Avenue is renamed Broadway.14
January 27, 1914: Chamales signs an agreement with John F. Butterly, who has been running a saloon in a leased building at 1216–1218 West Lawrence Avenue, west of the Morse roadhouse. Chamales pays Butterly $4,500 to take over his lease, while promising to give Butterly a space within the new Green Mill Gardens building. As part of the deal, Butterly will move his saloon to the north wing of Chamales’s new building along Broadway.15
February 16, 1914: The city issues a building permit to construct Green Mill Gardens, a two-story brick restaurant building 110 feet wide along Lawrence Avenue and 138 feet long along Broadway.
The architect is C.S. Michaelson.16 Six years after designing Green Mill Gardens, he will form a partnership with Sigurd A. Rognstad. Together, they design a number of iconic Chicago buildings, including Garfield Park’s “Gold Dome Building,” the North Side Auditorium (which houses the Metro concert venue), and a few of Chinatown’s most distinctive structures.17
Catherine Hoffman is listed as the property owner on the building permit. Although Catherine and her husband still own the land, it’s Chamales who constructs the building. He later says he spends $250,000 on the construction (the equivalent of $7.5 million in today’s money).18 The Hoffmans say that their agreement with Chamales is that they will own the buildings after the lease ends. 19
The contractor is O.W. Rosenthal & Co., a company run by Oscar W. Rosenthal and Joseph B. Cornell.20
March 21, 1914: The New York Clipper, an entertainment newspaper, reports: “Tom Chamales is re-building Pop Morse’s, and will have one of the best cafes in Chicago, for the North Side. It will also be re-named and will be known as the ‘Red Mill.’”21
Was the Clipper mistaken about the name? Or did Chamales originally plan to call it the Red Mill before changing his mind and settling on green as the color? The name was clearly an allusion to the famous Moulin Rouge, which opened in Paris in 1899. Moulin Rouge literally means “red mill.” (For more about that, see Chapter 7.)
June 13, 1914: An advertisement in the Chicago Examiner says that the Green Mill Sunken Gardens and a restaurant within it called the “Della Robbia” Room are opening tonight.22 (For more about the grand opening, see Chapter 8.)
June 26, 1914: An advertisement in the Chicago Daily Tribune says that tonight is actually the opening night of the “Green Mill” Sunken Gardens.23 As the illustration shows, the gardens west of the building extend all the way over to the next street, Magnolia Avenue, covering the land that Charles Hoffman acquired a year earlier.
Note how the picture in the Tribune ad shows letters saying “GREEN MILL GARDENS” on the roof, while the Examiner’s ad shows “GREEN MILL SUNKEN GARDENS.” Did either version of the sign like this exist, or was this artistic embellishment? Note that although the “sunken” name appears in some ads, the place is usually called Green Mill Gardens in sources such as phone books.
Both pictures show a big windmill on the roof near the corner of Broadway and Lawrence.
I still haven’t found any photos showing the Green Mill Gardens building in the era from 1914 to 1924, other than these two postcard images that other people have posted online.
The Jazz Age Chicago blog credits this one to E.C. Kropp Co.
This one is from Chuckman’s Photos on WordPress: Chicago Nostalgia and Memorabilia.
✶ Today, you can glimpse where people once walked out into this garden space. It’s hard to see from the Lawrence Avenue sidewalk, but the Green Mill building’s west wall shows some traces of what it looked like in 1914.
“The remnants of a series of French doors, which faced the outdoor beer garden, can be seen, although bricked up to facilitate the installation of windows,” David Syfczak, who has been the Uptown Theatre’s caretaker since 1996, told me. “Their concrete sills at the interior floor level remain in the exterior masonry wall.”
✶ It seems pretty certain that a large two-story space for dancing and entertainment was in the building’s northwest portion. “A rooftop view shows the truss roof, which eliminates the need for support columns, indicative of vast floor space below it which would be required for dancing and entertainment purposes,” Syfczak said.
That curved roof is visible in this 2023 aerial photo, from Cook County’s NearMap website.
The original layout of the rooms inside the building is unknown. Where exactly was the Della Robbia Room? And what was in the space near the corner of Broadway and Lawrence, where the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is today? Tim Samuelson, the city’s cultural historian emeritus, told me that his research indicates that this space “was basically a spiffy storefront drinking establishment that was connected to gain patrons from the larger hall.”
Samuelson also says that the “interior spaces on the first floor included large rooms that allowed the Green Mill to operate during the winter when the rear beer garden could not be used.”24
An early Green Mill Gardens ad promises: “Cool weather accommodations for all in the beautiful Della Robbia room.”25 While this room is promoted as dining area, Green Mill Gardens begins advertising it in in October as a space for “Public Dancing.”26 In November, the indoor space is advertised as the “Green Mill Winter Gardens,” featuring public dancing every evening, along with exhibitions of the latest society dancers, plus afternoon teas (with free instruction) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.27
The business doesn’t use the “Della Robbia Room” branding for very long; after 1914, the phrase shows up in only one ad, from 1918.28
July 1914: Green Mill Garden is listed in the Chicago telephone directory at 4800 Broadway. Two phone numbers are listed: Edgewater 8240 and Ravenswood 3010.
1915: The city directory lists the saloon of Thomas Chamales at 4800 Broadway. Is this a listing for the overall Green Mill Gardens complex? Or is it referring to a saloon within the complex? That isn’t clear. The directory does not seem to include any listing under the name Green Mill Gardens.
Meanwhile, John F. Butterly’s saloon is listed at 4812 Broadway, in the north wing of the same building.
✶ August 16, 1916: The Morse’s corporation formally changes its name to Green Mill Gardens. The corporation also authorizes an increase in its capital stock from $30,000 to $250,000—but papers filed with the state don’t make it clear whether the corporation ever issues the additional stock.29
✶ February 1, 1917: Chamales proposes an amendment to his lease, trying to get the Hoffmans to approve changes he’d made to the building—including the removal of stairways “to connect the first and second floors of the corner building located at the North west corner of Lawrence Avenue and Broadway.” Why did he remove stairs and where had they been located? My guess is that he was already planning some of the changes that would happen when he expanded the building in 1921 and 1922.
Chamales is also asking the Hoffmans to let him make even more alterations. But it’s unclear if the Hoffmans agree to this amendment. When Chamales finally submits the document to the Cook County recorder of deeds—four years later—it doesn’t include the Hoffmans’ signatures or notarization from 1917.30
1917: The address of Chamales’s saloon now appears as 4802 Broadway in the city directory—with a second entrance at 1210 Lawrence Avenue. His brother William is listed as the manager.
✶ June 30, 1919: On the final night before the Wartime Prohibition Act takes effect, ending the sale of alcohol, Chicago Daily News reporter Eugene E. Morgan visits a “corner saloon” at Broadway and Lawrence. Later in the same article, Morgan mentions “the Green Mill garden,” but he doesn’t make it clear if that was connected with the corner bar. Although the article is vague about these details, it seems to indicate a bar was located inside the Green Mill Gardens complex, at the same spot where the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge and Birrieria Zaragoza are today.31 (For more about the citywide drinking binge on June 30, 1919, see Chapter 20.)
✶ 1920: After the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution takes effect on January 17, prohibiting the sale of alcohol, Green Mill Gardens seems to vacate the former space at the northwest corner of Broadway and Lawrence. Here’s the evidence for that: In June 1920, the Riviera Drug Co. is listed at 4800 Broadway in the Chicago phone book.
The drugstore uses 4802 as its address when it places classified ads between August 1920 and June 1921.32
The store will change names and ownership in the following years, but the corner continues to be occupied by a drugstore throughout the rest of the Prohibition Era.
However, for the next four years, Green Mill Gardens continues to be listed at 4800 Broadway in Chicago phone books.
Is this an oversight? Or is the venue still using that address to guide visitors to Broadway and Lawrence, despite the fact that the actual entrance is a few doors to the north?
Meanwhile, John F. Butterly closes his saloon at 4812 Broadway. By the time of the 1920 U.S. census, he has moved to Los Angeles.33
✶ February 16, 1921: United States district judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis rules that a search warrant he’d issued earlier for Green Mill Gardens is invalid, because it doesn’t accurately describe the nightclub’s location.
“Tom Chamales and his Green Mill Gardens wriggled out of one of those dangerous indictments before Judge Landis because of the wrong street number being mentioned in the instrument,” Variety reports.
Federal prosecutors had been alleging alcohol was sold at Green Mill Gardens, but they end up dropping all charges. Did the warrant use the 4800 Broadway address, where the drugstore had taken over the saloon space? That’s a strong possibility. But the surviving documents from this litigation at the National Archive don’t say anything about the address. 34
✶ February 25, 1921: Green Mill Gardens Inc. files two copies of its annual report with the Illinois secretary of state. One of the reports, listing 4800 Broadway as the address, is incomplete. The other one is a “corrected” report, listing the address as 4804–10 Broadway. Those numbers match the portion of the building that’s set back from the street.35
✶ June 28, 1921: The city of Chicago sues Green Mill Gardens Inc., alleging that the nightclub violated the city’s cabaret ordinance by allowing music and dancing to continue after 1 a.m.
In a stipulation, lawyers for the city and Green Mill Gardens agree that the nightclub’s location is “4804-10, inclusive, Broadway.” (A municipal court judge finds Green Mill Gardens not guilty, but the Illinois Supreme Court later reverses the verdict.)36
August 18, 1921: The city issues a building permit to construct an addition to the Green Mill Gardens building, filling in the 79-by-30-foot courtyard space between the building’s two wings that extend to Broadway. Chamales is listed as the owner. The architect’s name appears to be D.S. Klaplin, but it’s actually David Saul Klafter, according to a Tribune story.
The Tribune describes this as a 150-by-50-foot addition, but that’s clearly wrong—the entire complex is less than 150 feet wide. Noting that the new construction will include an “elaborate new entrance to the gardens,” the Tribune reports: “The café will be enlarged 50×100. The present stage will be wrecked and a new one will be built on the north line of the building. The café seating capacity will be increased by nearly a thousand. The outdoor garden also is being altered.”37
✶ January 1922: Druggist Oscar Stone is listed in the phone book at 4802 Broadway, while the drugstore is listed at 4800 Broadway.38 Four months later, a newspaper ad mentions “Stone’s Riviera Drug Co, Broadway, N.W. Cor. Lawrence Ave.”39
March 13, 1922: The construction project is completed.40 According to a report by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, “the Green Mill’s courtyard facing Broadway was filled in with a two-story building connecting the north and south buildings. The addition contained offices, shops, a year-round ballroom, and restaurant, but within a year the Green Mill Gardens had closed.”41
✶ April 26, 1922: An advertisement appears in the Tribune: “TO RENT—STORE, CORNER BROADWAY and Lawrence; busiest N.S. transfer corner; excellent for jeweler and any high grade business. Inq. 4802 Broadway.”42
✶ June 1922: Variety reports that Green Mill Gardens has a seating capacity of 2,000;43 a week later, the newspaper says the number is actually 2,300.44
July 25, 1922: Catherine and Charles Hoffman sign a warranty deed, turning over a one-half share of all their properties at this site to Sicilian American businessman Otto L. Annoreno for a nominal fee of $10.45
August 5, 1922: As federal authorities sue Green Mill Gardens for allegedly violating Prohibition laws, Chamales and his business associates submit a court document describing the space occupied by Green Mill Gardens.
They say that Green Mill Gardens includes the first floor of 4806 Broadway, as well as the “summer gardens” in the building’s rear. It also includes “the two-story brick building with the exception of the front rooms thereof, facing said Broadway and Lawrence, which excepted rooms are forty feet in length, measuring from said Broadway and Lawrence Avenue.”
In other words, the storefronts facing Broadway and Lawrence—extending back 40 feet from the sidewalk—were not part of Chamales’s Green Mill Gardens business, other than the venue’s entrance at 4806. These spaces were occupied by other businesses. The Green Mill Gardens entertainment space was in the building’s northwest quadrant.46
September 19, 1922: The Hoffmans sign another warranty deed, turning over the other half ownership of their properties to Annoreno for another $10.47 The Hoffmans later allege that they received no “consideration”—the legal term for the value that changes hands as part of an agreement between two or more parties. They say these transactions were “only executed by reason of the threats, intimidations and misrepresentations.”
The Hoffmans deny that they ever intended to give it to Annoreno. They say they were merely giving him a deed as a security for money he was advancing to them, and that they didn’t realize they were losing control of the property. 48
In a legal filing, Charles and Catherine Hoffman will claim that Annoreno and Chamales “were for many years close friends, and were business partners in various enterprises.”49 The Hoffmans allege that these two men “conspired and confederated together to discourage” the Hoffmans about the value of their real estate, “with the intent … to eventually get the possession and ownership … and to divest these defendants wholly or in part of the title.”50
Chamales denies that any of this is true. Even the story that he’s Annoreno’s longtime friend and business partner is false, Chamales says. And he “denies that he entered into any scheme with … Annoreno” to cheat the Hoffmans.51
September 30, 1922: Now that Annoreno has full ownership of the properties, he signs a warranty deed, conveying a half-ownership to Tom Chamales “for and in consideration of the sum of $10, in hand paid.” 52
✶ December 10, 1922: Joseph G. Glaser, a used car dealer from the South Side, takes over as the new owner of the Green Mill Gardens nightclub business,53 while Abe Arends,54 the former floor manager of the Torrio mob-connected Colosimo’s restaurant,55 becomes the Green Mill’s manager. Tom Chamales seems to be stepping away from running the venue.
The federal authorities who are suing Green Mill Gardens for allegedly breaking prohibition laws add three handwritten names to the list of defendants: Otto L. Annoreno, Joseph Glaser, and Julius Braun, who is described as a manager. The government says Annoreno now holds title to the property—but it also notes that Chamales “has some equitable interest in the … real estate through some private arrangement between him and … Annoreno, which does not appear of record.”56
✶ February 20, 1923: Henry Horn, Green Mill Gardens’ former manager, is found not guilty of violating prohibition laws.57 In the wake of this verdict, this federal lawsuit against the nightclub is dismissed.58 And around the same time, Green Mill Gardens shuts down, ending Glaser’s short stint as its owner. (Glaser later becomes known as an associate of Al Capone, but it’s not clear if he had any connection with Capone during his brief time running the Green Mill.)
May 20, 1923: The Tribune reports that the Balaban & Katz company plans to build “a gigantic … moving picture playhouse” in an L shape north and west of the Green Mill Gardens building.
According to the Tribune, Tom Chamales and Otto Annoreno sell a portion of their land to Barney Balaban, Sam Katz, and Herbert L. Stern59 for $400,000, or $7 million in today’s money.60 The Hoffmans later allege that Chamales and Annoreno owe them “a very large sum … from the sale of said property.”61
The land purchased by Balaban et al cuts across the lot lines. It encompasses the entire western area where Green Mill Gardens’ outdoor space was located, as well as a 10-foot-wide slice of the property under the building’s north end. Balaban buys the west 48 feet of the lots along Broadway, while Chamales and Annoreno retain ownership of the east 110 feet of those lots.
Balaban buys an L-shaped chunk of the lot at the northeast corner of the Green Mill Gardens building. (It’s labeled “2” on the map. Confusingly, it’s one of two lots called “Lot 2,” the result of an earlier resubdivision.) Chamales and Annoreno retain ownership of this lot’s southeast corner, a piece that’s 110 feet by 15 feet.
June 1923: Tom Chamales and his brother William are listed in the Chicago phone book with a real estate office at 4802 Broadway, apparently on the second floor.
✶ July 12, 1923: William C. Weihe buys the corner drugstore, taking over the lease at 4800 Broadway. At the same time, he takes out a $35,000 chattel mortgage on the store’s furnishings, which include 13 stools along the store’s counter and a 33-feet-long case on the store’s north wall, as well as a 40-foot-long wall case located elsewhere.62
This document lists the drugstore’s furnishings:
July 14, 1923: The Chicago Daily News reports that former Green Mill Gardens manager Henry Horn—recently acquitted of federal criminal charges that he’d illegally sold alcohol—is reopening the venue under a new name, the Montmartre Cafe, on July 20.63
November 1923: The Montmartre Cafe appears in the phone book, listed at 4806 Broadway. At the same time, the Green Mill Gardens office and buffet are still listed at 4800 Broadway, as they had been earlier, but there’s no longer a listing for a Green Mill Gardens “dining room.” One of the phone numbers listed for the Montmartre (EDG wtr-0024) is also the phone number for the Green Mill Gardens office.
✶ Circa 1923–1924: Around this time, North Side gambling mobster Michael Crowe runs the Up-Town Social Club inside the Green Mill Gardens building, according to a later report in the Chicago Daily News. Gamblers use an entrance at 4812 Broadway (also the address of the Broadway Thor Shop, which sells washing machines64). After going up a staircase to the second floor, they reach a space where they can “gaze over the balcony into the corridor of the entrance to the Montmartre,” and then they enter the gambling club through a door with a peephole.
During a police raid, many gamblers escape “through specially contrived exits.” Around early 1924, the club moves a block north, to 4866 Broadway, where it’s shut down after a man is killed during a robbery.65
✶ January 1924: Henry Horn turns over his share of the Montmartre’s ownership to Isadore Bookshester, the New York Clipper reports.66
✶ February 4, 1924: Isadore Bookshester, Robert S. Strauss, and Nicholas J. Pritzker (great-great-grandfather of Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker67) file papers with the state, forming Montmartre Cafe Inc. Most of the company’s $40,000 in capital stock is owned by Strauss and Bookshester’s wife, Clara.68
February 1924: Work begins to construct the Uptown Theatre, as it takes over the space once occupied by the garden of Green Mill Gardens.69
These pictures by the Chicago Architecture Photographing Company (now in the Theatre Historical Society of America’s collection) show the early stages of the Uptown Theatre’s construction in February and March 1924. This picture shows the old garden area behind the Green Mill building being prepared for the project. An outdoor stage is visible along Magnolia Avenue.
In this picture, looking west from Broadway across the land where the Uptown Theatre would be constructed, the northern wall of the Green Mill Gardens building is visible to the left, showing how a 25-foot-wide portion of the structure had been demolished to make room for the theater project. As a result, the length of the Green Mill Gardens building’s frontage on Broadway is reduced.
The small chunk of property just west of that lot (labeled “Q” on the map) had been an alley. But the City Council passed an ordinance vacating it on April 5, 1923—the month before this land deal.70
✶ Variety later reports that the “large green lighted prop windmill” perched atop the Green Mill building was removed during this time period when the Uptown Theatre was being built.71
✶ August 1924: A Sanborn fire insurance atlas in the Chicago History Museum’s collection shows the building’s configuration while the Uptown Theatre is under construction. It’s a 1905 map, but updates have been pasted—rather sloppily—on top of the page through August 1924.
The map shows a “Cafe & Restaurant” filling a large section of the building’s northwest portion, covering roughly 5,600 square feet of the ground floor (approximately 66 by 85 feet, according to the map’s scale). A second-floor balcony runs along all four sides of this space, with a rectangular opening in the center. It’s not clear where the stage for entertainment was located. And what’s that dotted line on the balcony’s east side? Perhaps a section of sloped seating?
“Toilet Rooms” are in the far northwest corner, behind the storefront at 4812 Broadway. This appears to be the new “ornate, two-story terra cotta commercial building … constructed to fill the space between the demolished portion of the Green Mill Building and the new theater,” as the Commission on Chicago Landmarks describes it. The commission considers this roughly 15-foot-wide Spanish Baroque Revival structure—designed by Rapp & Rapp, the same architects who’d designed the Uptown Theatre next door—to be a separate building.72 But the Sanborn map treats it as if it’s a portion of the Green Mill building.
The map shows a narrow entrance corridor (roughly seven or eight feet wide) between 4808 and 4810 Broadway. This doesn’t match the entrance shown in later maps and photos at 4806. But note the curious street numbers shown on this map—starting with 4802 at the corner instead of 4800. These numbers don’t match other sources. The storefront labeled here as 4808 is the same space where the 4806 entrance appears on later maps. Were the mapmakers wrong about these numbers? Or were these addresses used for a while and later revised?
The word “Drugs” indicates the location of the drugstore near the building’s southeast corner. It’s an L-shaped space of roughly 2,000 square feet, with an entrance at 4802 Broadway (where the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge’s entrance is today). The drugstore wraps around a separate, smaller store at the building’s corner. This space—roughly 20 feet by 20 feet—is simply labeled “S,” indicating it was a store. Perhaps this was the cigar stand mentioned in other sources. The map seems to indicate it had an address of 1200 West Lawrence.73
What’s that unlabeled space in the building’s southwest corner, along Lawrence Avenue? I wonder if it may have been an exit for the café space north of it.
At left above, a close-up of a 1925 photo shows a series of four round arches. This is the spot where Carmela’s Taqueria is today, at 1206 West Lawrence Avenue. You might not notice it at first, but you can see the traces of those four curved arches here. The one on the left still functions as a doorway. The two in the middle were cut away to create the restaurant’s windows and doorway, but the top portions of the brick arches are still visible. And the one over on the right end has been bricked over.
The north end of Carmela’s Taqueria is two steps higher than the rest of this small restaurant. Is that a remnant of steps leading into the entertainment space? “There is a large corridor/hallway to the rear of all of the storefronts that runs the length of the building north to south,” Syfczak said. “In the northwest and southwest corners of that rear corridor are wide staircases.”
In this diagram, I took a Sanborn map (the 1924 iteration) and added lines approximating the various portions of the Green Mill Gardens complex—and showing how it changed over the years. (This is a corrected version of a map I posted in 2023.)
November 1924: Green Mill Gardens finally disappears from Chicago phone books, a year and a half after the entertainment venue with that name shut down. Meanwhile, the Montmartre Cafe is still listed at 4806 Broadway. These phone book listings remain the same through mid-1926.
✶ Also in November 1924, Wolf’s Jewel Shop Inc. at 4802 Broadway appears for the first time in Chicago phone books, apparently moving into a portion of the space that was labeled “Drugs” on the Sanborn map just a few months earlier, while the drugstore continues to operate at 4800.74
On a 1928 Sanborn map, the jewelry store’s space at 4802 will look roughly 15 feet wide and 60 feet deep. Imagine walking into the space where the Green Mill is today, but seeing a jewelry shop filling up the front portion of the nightclub—with a rear wall standing roughly a dozen feet in front of where the stage is now.
Harry Iglow, who lived at 821 West Sunnyside Avenue (five blocks away), owned a small chain of stores called Wolf’s Jewelry.75 Court records identify Iglow as a tenant with space in the Green Mill Gardens building.76 His jewelry shop will remain at 4802 through 1933, appearing in various photos of the building.
Geoffrey Baer, the host of many great WTTW shows about Chicago, told me he’d heard family stories about his maternal grandfather, Samuel Sherman, running a jewelry store in the Green Mill building.
“My mom said she vaguely remembers the name of the business as Wolf’s and also vaguely remembers the name Iglow,” Baer said. In the 1930 U.S. census, Sherman was living with his wife and daughters at 4805 North Hermitage Avenue, Apartment 2W, and was occupied as a jewelry store manager.77
✶ April 1925: Danny Cohen becomes a manager and part-owner of the Montmartre Cafe, Variety reports.79
✶ May 14, 1925: Harry Shrago, the new owner of the corner drugstore, appears for the first time in Cook County’s property records for the location.80
August 18, 1925: The Uptown Theatre opens.81
This close-up of a Tribune photo from the theater’s opening day shows the entrance of the Montmartre Cafe, with a nearby sign for Yellow Cabs. A hat shop is visible just north of the Montmartre, and a sign in the window south of the cafe says “Duffy’s.” Upstairs, the words “REAL ESTATE” appear to be painted on an office window. See the full Tribune photo in a “Vintage Chicago Tribune” article.
In two other photos from around the same time, awnings are visible around the corner on Lawrence Avenue, saying “DRUG STORE” and “ICE CREAM.” And a sign is above the sidewalk at 4802 Broadway saying “JEWELER.”
The frame for a billboard is on the roof (at the corner spot where the windmill used to be), but there was no billboard at the time this photo was taken.
November 20, 1925: A Fanny May Candy Shop opens in the new building at 4812 Broadway.82 (In more recent years, the building was occupied by Shake Rattle & Read and, later, by the Provisions Uptown liquor store, which closed in 2024.)
Left: A drawing from a Fanny May advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, November 20, 1925. Right: The building in 2023.
June 4, 1926: United States district judge Adam C. Cliffe issues a permanent injunction, shutting down the Montmartre Cafe for violating Prohibition laws. The decree notes that the club was “the first floor, i.e., the ground floor of the building located at 4806 Broadway.”83 During this prosecution, Chamales and Annoreno acknowledge that they’re the owners and proprietors of the business, though it’s not clear if they’ve taken any active role in running the café.84
✶ September 4, 1926: Leonard Boltz (reputed to be a member of a Northwest Side mob), Daniel Cohen, and William Meirz form a new corporation, New Green Mill Cafe Inc. Boltz owns nearly all of the company’s $15,000 in capital stock.85
✶ October 11, 1926: A court decree dissolves the old Green Mill Gardens corporation, which hasn’t been filing paperwork or paying fees to the state since late 1922, when Tom Chamales stepped aside from running the nightclub.86
November 1926: The Montmartre Cafe is no longer listed in the phone book, but there’s now a place called the New Green Mill Cafe at 4806 Broadway. The Daily News reports: “The new Green Mill cafe … will blossom forth with a lavish production Wednesday evening, Nov. 17, featuring Joe Lewis, who reigns as the king of jesters, with a strong supporting cast.”87
✶ January 1, 1927: The Tribune publishes this photo showing the interior of the Green Mill during New Year’s Eve celebrations, which appears to be taken by a photographer looking down from the balcony:
✶ Circa early 1927? At some point during the prohibition years, Tribune reporter James Doherty visits the Green Mill with an editor. They’re shocked when they get a bill for $40—an exorbitant price for the soft drinks and ice they’d ordered. Doherty refuses to pay, and then a cop arrives and arrests him.
A week later, Doherty is summoned to sit down with mobster Ted Newberry at the Green Mill. Newberry apologizes to Doherty for the way he’d been treated by the Green Mill’s manager and head waiter. “I gave them both a damn good beating,” he says. This episode convinces Doherty that Newberry—a member of the North Side gang fighting against Al Capone—is “one of the owners of the Green Mill.”
When Doherty writes about this episode three decades later, he says it happened in early 1920. But some of his story’s details indicate it must have happened later—for example, he mentions a prohibition official who didn’t begin serving in that role until September 1925. It seems more likely this happened around early 1927, after the New Green Mill Cafe opened.88
✶ Early 1927: Vincent “Schemer” Drucci, a leader of the North Side mob, is a regular at the Green Mill, according to Joe Lewis, the master of ceremonies.
Lewis’s recollection about this suggests that Drucci and the North Side mob are running the place.89 Drucci is killed by a police officer on April 4, 1927, leaving George “Bugs” Moran in charge as the mob’s new boss.
✶ June 25, 1927: Broadway Drug Co., the new corner drugstore, appears for the first time in Cook County’s property records for the 4800 Broadway location.90 The owner is Lewis D. Levitt.91
November 1927: Joe Lewis ends his gig at the Green Mill, and begins performing instead at the Rendezvous Cafe at Diversey Parkway and Broadway. Soon afterward, Lewis is stabbed and beaten at his hotel room.
Before the attack, Lewis had told Chicago police captain Joseph Goldberg that he was being threatened by Jack McGurn. “The way Lewis put it was that McGurn had an interest in the Green Mill and was going to take him for a ride if he went to the other café,” Goldberg tells the Tribune.
Lewis’s statement to Goldberg lends credence to the stories about McGurn owning a share of the Green Mill. But the Green Mill’s manager, Danny Cohen, insists: “McGurn hasn’t a nickel in my place. If he went after Lewis, it wasn’t on our account. McGurn is a customer of the Green Mill, but that’s all.”92
✶ McGurn is becoming known around this time as a henchman and killer working for Al Capone. However, Lewis apparently believes that McGurn is actually working for Bugs Moran’s North Side mob, before McGurn switches sides to work for Capone. According to Art Cohn’s 1955 book The Joker Is Wild (based on interviews with Lewis), when Lewis gets out of the hospital in December 1927, he says, “I hear McGurn switched to the South Side” (i.e., Capone’s mob).93
✶ December 13, 1927: Variety reports: “Danny Cohen’s Green Mill has closed. Business terrible.”94
✶ January 18, 1928: A new corporation called Green Mill Gardens Inc. forms, with Ralph Burke, Edith L. Johnston, and William B. Meirz serving as the board of directors.95 Burke reopens the Green Mill on January 25,96 but it’s barely mentioned in newspapers and seems to shut down within a few months.
✶ April 29, 1928: The Tribune reports that the Middle West Photomaton company will lease the space at 4806 Broadway that was “formerly used as the entrance and lobby of Green Mill Gardens.”97
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✶ 1928: Seen above, a Tribune photo taken around this time (digitized in 2023, with a posting on Instagram) shows a large sign on top of the building, spelling out “NEW GREEN MILL.” But the awning over the old nightclub entrance at 4806 shows the name of the Photomaton, along with the message: “New Uptown Home. Photomaton. The Million Dollar … 8 pictures in 8 poses in 8 minutes.”
The Broadway Drug Co.’s awning extends around the building’s corner, with signs above it on either side of the corner saying “LA PALINA CIGAR.” A “JEWELER” sign juts out from the building above the door at 4802, where the awning says: “WOLF’s JEWEL SHOP | 4802.”
Chicago Tribune photo archivist Marianne Mather kindly shared this close-up of the photo, making it easier to see the details of the jewel shop and the adjacent door (which was also numbered 4802) leading to the building’s upstairs rooms.98
1928: That Tribune photo is taken around the same that R.L. Polk & Co. publishes a reverse street directory (accessible online via the Chicago History Museum), which lists all of the businesses occupying spaces in the building. At this time, there’s no business called the Green Mill or anything similar, and no entertainment venue in the building.99
✶ Rather than listing Broadway Drugs in the corner space, the directory shows the name Frank Pendergast. He’s apparently a manager for the store—according to the 1930 U.S. census, his occupation is a soda fountain manager. M.B. Siegel Inc. is apparently operating a cigar stand inside the drugstore.100
A Sanborn map from 1928 (in the ProQuest collection that’s accessible via the Chicago Public Library website) shows the Green Mill building’s configuration at the time.
The big café area in the building’s northwest section is now simply labeled “S.” The second-floor balcony overlooking it has a different shape, running along just two sides of the room, the west and south sides.
And the storefronts near the corner of Broadway and Lawrence have been reconfigured: The drugstore is now a rectangular space at 4800 Broadway, while another storefront is north of it at 4802. Although it isn’t indicated on the map, that’s where Wolf’s Jewel Shop was.101
Wherever the word “TILE” appears on these maps, “That’s tile clay tile wall,” Samuelson explains. “That’s how you would make a temporary wall that you could remove. It was designed that you could take it out easily.”102
✶ September 10, 1928: Ye Old Green Mill Inc. forms as a corporation, with Leonard Leon, Leon Sweitzer, and Estelle Leon serving as the board of directors. Sweitzer owns a bit more than half of the company’s $10,000 in capital stock103
October 10, 1928: Otto Annoreno signs a warranty deed, conveying his half-ownership of the property to Catherine Hoffman.104 On the same day, Catherine and her husband take out a trust deed on the property to secure a $168,000 loan from Chicago Title and Trust Company (nearly $3 million in today’s money).
November 1928: The phone book lists Ye Old Green Mill Cafe at 4806 Broadway. There’s also a business in the same building called the Green Mill Beauty Shoppe at 4802 Broadway. (That must have been in one of the upstairs spaces.) These listings remain the same through 1929.
December 29, 1928: Writing in the Chicagoan magazine, Francis C. Coughlin describes the Green Mill’s space at 4806 Broadway: “A tall room done in the Aztec (or is it Inca?) manner with two guardian Indians on illuminated glass flanking the orchestra platform, a double stair down either side of the stage, ceiling and walls in red and yellow, a populous balcony on three sides, and brisk tables in military formation around the central dance floor—such is the Green Mill. A cross between dance hall and night club, and a rallying place for dancing couples who would rather dance than eat and—one would imagine to the chagrin of a club management—probably do.”
This article is headlined “Adventures in Insomnia: Those Wilson Avenue Hells.” Noting that the venue’s capacity is 785, it refers to it simply as “the Green Mill.” The Chicagoan continues using that phrasing in entertainment listings and other articles about the venue over the next two years.105
April 29, 1929: Tom Chamales files a lawsuit against Catherine Hoffman, her husband, and other parties, asking the Cook County Circuit Court to partition and divide up the property—so that Chamales and the Hoffmans would no longer share ownership of it.106
Chamales is essentially seeking the real estate equivalent of a divorce.
The Hoffmans respond with allegations of fraud against Chamales and Otto Annoreno.
September 11, 1929: Leonard Leon and Leon Sweitzer reopen the Green Mill.107 (It’s not clear when it had closed.)
December 12, 1929: The Daily Times reports that Texas Guinan, a popular nightclub hostess in New York, “has purchased the Green Mill cabaret” and will begin performing there on December 20.108 According to later reports, Guinan was actually leasing the venue from Leon and Sweitzer.
March 23, 1930: During a performance by Guinan, her manager, Harry Voiler, allegedly shoots and wounds Leon Sweitzer, who was trying to collect rent from him. When Sweitzer describes the incident, he says that he walked “upstairs to the offices on the mezzanine floor.”109
The Tribune reports that he “ran down a stairway from a balcony pursued by two men shooting at him.” Almost as soon as the police arrive at the shooting scene, city officials shut down the Green Mill.110
May 2, 1930: Unable to pay back the $200,000 loan to Chicago Title and Trust Company, Chamales borrows more money, taking out “two extension coupons of $7,000 each” to cover the interest payments that are due. The due date for the $200,000 (plus interest) is extended until May 3, 1931.111
Summer 1930: The Green Mill is not listed in the new Chicago phone book. But there is now a proliferation of businesses in various parts of Chicago using the Green Mill name: Green Mill Beauty Shoppe, 4802 Broadway (upstairs?); Green Mill Cigar Shop, 4525 North Clifton Avenue; Green Mill Fruit Store, 1208 West Lawrence Avenue; the Green Mill Hotel, 518 North Green Street; and the Green Mill Lunch Room, 638 North State Street.
✶ June 17, 1930: A photographer for the Metropolitan Sanitary District takes photos at the corner of Broadway and Lawrence.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, plate 16388, June 17, 1930.
Why, you might ask, is the Sanitary District taking photos of the Green Mill? The building just happens to be in the background as a photographer documents the intersection during surveys for sewer work. Note the low angle of the photo, showing the streets’ brick surface. (Thanks to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Daniel Wendt for looking up this photo and sending me a scan!)
The photographer also takes the picture below, looking east on Lawrence Avenue from a point slightly west of Broadway. The drugstore is visible on the left side.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, plate 16387, June 17, 1930.
October 18, 1930: An ad in the Daily Times announces the opening tonight of the Lincoln Tavern Town Club, formerly the Green Mill Cafe, at Broadway and Lawrence.112
✶ C.D. “Jack” Huff, the longtime owner of the Lincoln Tavern on Dempster Street in Morton Grove, appears to be opening this new location in the city as a wintertime counterpart to his suburban roadhouse, which often shuts down during the colder months of the year.
✶ April 4, 1931: The Daily Times reports that the Lincoln Tavern Town Club, “dark for the last couple of weeks,” has shifted operations back to the Lincoln Tavern in Morton Grove.113
May 23, 1931: The Tribune reports that Walgreens has signed a 10-year lease for a 2,200-square-foot space in the building’s corner at Broadway and Lawrence Avenue.114
By summer, Walgreen Drug Stores is listed in the phone book at 4800 Broadway.
November 15, 1931: The Tribune reports that new Green Mill Ballroom, run by Earl J.F. Stein, is leasing “the old Green Mill Garden.”
The newspaper adds: “The old cabaret floor is being ripped up and the establishment is being converted into a ballroom.”
It’s not clear exactly what that means. Does it continue to occupy a two-story-high space? Or is it converted into a ballroom just on the second floor? The ballroom opens in late November.115
March 24, 1932: Judge Stanley H. Klarkowsi rules that Chamales and the Hoffmans each own half of the Green Mill Gardens property, but both parties owe large debts on it. He orders that “a division and partition of all of the said premises be made.”116
Summer 1932: The Green Mill Ballroom is listed in the phone book at 4806 Broadway.
June 30, 1932: The Illinois Supreme Court dismisses the Hoffmans’ appeal of Judge Klarkowsi’s ruling. The Hoffmans complain that the local court never even considered their allegations of fraud.117
December 27, 1932: The property is sold at a public auction, going to the highest bidder, Chicago City Bank and Trust Company as Trustees under Trust No. 1157, for $300,000 (the equivalent of $6.6 million in today’s money).118
Trusts obscure the identity of the people who own a property, but the Tribune later reports that John L. Patten becomes the new owner as a result of this sale.119
Patten is the son of the late James A. Patten, a Chicago Board of Trade member known as the “wheat king,” who’d left an estate of $18 million when he died. Earlier in 1932, the younger Patten made news when he “let it be known that he is retiring from business,” even though he was only 36 years old.120
In spite of this court-ordered property sale, Tom Chamales somehow manages to stay involved in his old building, although the details about this are unclear.
April 26, 1933: A fire causes a reported $100,000 damage ($2.3 million in today’s money) to the Green Mill Gardens Building.
Chicago History Museum, DN-A-0821, Chicago Daily News, 1933.
The fire is front-page news in the Chicago Daily News, whose photos are now in the Chicago History Museum archives.
✶ Here is another photo the Chicago Daily News took of the fire:
Chicago History Museum DN-A-0823, Chicago Daily News, 1933.
Reports about the fire list the businesses occupying the building: Walgreens, 4800 Broadway (where the fire reportedly began); Wolf Jewelry, 4802; the Stop and Eat restaurant, 4804; the Green Mill restaurant, 4806; a vacant store, 4808; and the Excell Photo Studio, 4810.
Portions of the ground floor cave in, collapsing into the basement. The Green Mill Ballroom suffers “a total loss” from the fire.121 According to the Tribune, Wolff Jewelry, Stop and Eat, Excell Photo, and the Green Mill Ballroom are all “destroyed.”
The newspaper also describes the building itself as “destroyed,” adding: “Tom Chamales, owner of the two story structure, announced that he planned to replace the building with one of similar proportions.” (Was the Tribune unaware that Chamales had recently lost the building? Or was Chamales somehow clinging to ownership?)122
Here are some details from the Daily News photos.
The sign above the entrance at 4806 Broadway says: “GREEN MILL BALLROOM / DANCING”
The Stop & Eat restaurant is visible at 4804.
Smoke obscures the part of the building at 4800 and 4802 Broadway. That sign at 4802 is likely for the jewelry store. Note that the building’s façade here is peaked, as just at it had been in this drawing of the 1914 Green Mill Gardens complex.
The Walgreens sign hanging at the corner can be seen amid the smoke.
The above photo shows details of the building’s second-floor windows.
The fire hits just as Prohibition is coming to an end. On the same Daily News front page with the Green Mill fire, another story runs under the headline: “Repeal Bill Is Passed by Legislature; Beer Law Awaits Horner Approval” (referring to Illinois governor Henry Horner).
Prohibition would be repealed at the federal level on December 5, 1933, when the 21st Amendment was ratified.
November 1, 1933: The city issues a building permit to “repair fire damage” at 4800 Broadway.
Only the index card for the permit is available, so we don’t have information about who paid for this repair work. Was it Chamales? Patten? Someone else? 123
✶ October 18, 1934: A building permit is issued for alterations to the storefront at 4802 Broadway.124
February 1935: The Green Mill Tavern, 4802 Broadway, is listed in the yellow pages, along with the Green Mill Restaurant, 4804 Broadway.
When I interviewed the Green Mill’s current owner, Dave Jemilo, he mentioned that “the doorway behind our coat rack went into the restaurant for the Green Mill.”
✶ August 26, 1935: The Illinois Liquor Control Commission issues a license for 4802 North Broadway. The name of the business receiving the liquor license is the R and M Corporation, with Tom Chamales’s brother William listed as the company’s president.125 It’s unknown what “R and M” stood for.
✶ 1936: Tom Chamales’s wife, Helene, files for bankruptcy, reporting that she has $2,934,962.42 in debts and only $175 in assets. Her husband isn’t part of this bankruptcy, but he shares virtually all of these debts with her, including $354,750 in unpaid loans on the Green Mill property.126 Meanwhile, the Riviera Building Corporation—the Tom Chamales company that owns the Riviera Theatre, across the street from the Green Mill—also goes bankrupt.127
1937: Tom Chamales’s brother William appears in the Chicago white pages, with “tavern, 4802 N Bway” listed after his name, indicating that he was the proprietor. Tom is listed with a real estate office at the same address.128
April 28, 1938: A lawsuit filed by John L. Patten against Tom Chamales and his wife ends with a court-ordered public auction for the Green Mill building’s property. Patten makes the highest bid, $210,335.57 (or $4.5 million in today’s money).129 (Other details of this litigation are unclear. The archives department at the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court was unable to find the file, other than a few pages.)
Seven months later, Patten transfers the property to City National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, as Trustee Number 21739.130
1939: The building’s former cabaret and ballroom space is renovated, reopening as the Paradise Ballroom.131 An older Paradise Ballroom was still operating at the time on the West Side,132 and it’s unclear how long the space on Broadway operated under this name. It does not seem to appear in any telephone books, even the ones for 1939 and 1940.
“The larger hall space was actually rebuilt following the fire,” Samuelson told me, “and although no longer a cool customer destination due to competition from places like the Aragon, it still limped along largely as a rental event space for banquets, club meetings, dances, etc.”
By 1939, Tom has disappeared from the Chicago phone book, leaving his brother William as the only Chamales with a listing in the city.133 (Tom Chamales had been living in north suburban Wilmette since at least 1930.134)
August 11, 1939: As the 1938 transaction selling the property becomes official, the Tribune reports: “It is understood that the property was purchased for investment and the new owner has no changes in contemplation.”135
Just before the sale becomes final, a court-appointed receiver files a report listing the building’s tenants and how much rent they’re paying. A company called R.M. Corp. is running the Green Mill Tavern at 4802 Broadway and paying $235 a month in rent. Next door, John Batsis is paying $250 monthly for the Green Mill Restaurant. And the Paradise Ballroom is paying $400 a month for the space at 4806.
✶ The building’s most expensive rent seems to be for the corner space at 4800 Broadway, where Hartman Inc. pays $775 in June (but pays no rent in July).136 This is the corporate name for Hartman Drug Stores—indicating that this corner space was still occupied by a drugstore.137
Around this time, Steven Brend begins working at the Green Mill Tavern. On his draft registration card in 1940, he lists his employer as RM Corporation, 4802 North Broadway.138 Brend, who later became the Green Mill’s owner, described three Chamales brothers—Tom, Bill, and George—as “the owners I worked for” when he’d started working there in 1938 or 1939.139
October 24, 1941: R and M Corporation, the business run by William Chamales, receives its final annual state liquor license for 4802 North Broadway.140
✶ 1942: “The design of today’s Green Mill Lounge interior was done in 1942, when the Chamales brothers, who owned it through its golden years, sold out,” according to a 1982 Chicago Reader article by Robert Ebisch. The article was based largely on an interview with Brend, so it seems likely that Brend told Ebisch this information about 1942. In another interview, Brend told Jacki Lyden: “There’s been entertainment here since 1942.”141
The Green Mill’s current owner, Jemilo, said he believes that much of the space’s decor was actually in place before 1942. “The ceiling was lowered in 1942 for the air conditioning. That was the last major reconstruction of anything,” he said. “I bought the joint from Steve Brend. He was working there since 1938, and he’s the one who told me it was the same except the ceiling was lowered in 1942.”
If 1942 is when the R and M Corporation’s liquor license expired, this appears to be when the Batsis family, who’d already been running the restaurant next door at 4804, took over the bar at 4802.
When Andrew Batsis dies in 1946, his brothers John and Ambrose will take out an advertisement, paying tribute to him as “our beloved brother and co-founder of the Green Mill Restaurant & Lounge, 4802 Broadway.” In what sense had they “founded” the Green Mill? They’d started the restaurant and taken over the bar. And, if Brend was correct about entertainment beginning in 1942, the Batsis brothers may have been the first owners to offer live entertainment in the post-Prohibition Era tavern space.142
✶ June 23, 1942: A building permit is issued to “repair store front.”143
✶ 1947–48: More building permits are issued for 4802 North Broadway, indicating that some of the work inside the Green Mill—creating the space as it appears today—might take place at this time. But only sketchy details are available. And it’s possible these permits could refer to upstairs spaces in the building, which used the same 4802 address. A permit is issued on April 28, 1947, for “New Partitions, lath to plaster.” Another permit, approved on March 8, 1948, allows the Green Mill to replace its plumbing. And then a permit is issued on May 7, 1948, for alterations and ventilation.144
1949: The Palladium Ballroom at 4806 North Broadway—the old space where the Green Mill Ballroom was in the early 1930s—is mentioned for the first time in newspapers. The last time it’s mentioned is 1956.145
✶ Later revisions of the 1928 Sanborn map present a confusing series of changes in the Green Mill building. A copy updated through 1949 has a mysterious note from 1944. “I suspect that handwritten notation dated 1944 is a marking for an upcoming paste-over update that never was applied,” Samuelson told me.146
This version of the map seems to show the drugstore occupying an L-shaped space—including the building’s corner as well as the rear portion of the area where the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is today.
By 1972, this L-shaped space had a new wall dividing it—creating the corner space at 4800 North Broadway where is Birrieria Zaragoza is today. The same configuration appears on copies of the map updated through 1975 and 1989. (I did not include the 1975 and 1989 maps in the above illustration because they’re identical to the 1972 map.) But none of these maps show the Green Mill’s space in its current configuration. Was that an error or an oversight by the mapmakers?
Also note how “BALL RM” was added to the ballroom space sometime between 1928 and 1949, along with “ENT.” at 4806 Broadway, apparently indicating that was an entrance for the ballroom. By 1972, “BALL RM” was pasted over, with a new line indicating that portion of the building had been divided up. But the mapmakers never removed the notations showing a balcony—it was still there on the map in 1989, even if it no longer existed.147
My suspicion is that the people updating Sanborn fire insurance maps became less thorough and careful as time went on.
“I think this proves the point that the Sanborn canvassers eventually never bothered to update their maps for interior changes,” Samuelson remarked after seeing these maps. “It has always been a mystery as to how the Sanborn canvassers updated the maps with their paste-overs—especially for inaccessible interiors. It’s hard to believe that they would inspect the buildings inside and out.”148
When Art Cohn was writing The Joker Is Wild, his 1955 book about Joe E. Lewis, he visited Chicago and stopped into the Green Mill. He described what he found:
It was an ordinary bar, as standardized as its tens of thousands of counterparts throughout the land. In the window, next to a box of faded pink paper flowers, was a sign: “Scotty Highlanders—No Cover Charge—Lilyan Cole Nightly at the Hammond Organ.” Inside, a Stan Kenton record was spinning on a one-hundred-record player. Four people were drinking, three of them beer, at a long bar on one side of the narrow room. Only one of the booths that lined the other wall was occupied, by a young couple, intently tapping the beat of the music.
Cohn seemed to find it hard to believe that this “little cocktail lounge” was the same place where Lewis had performed in 1927. Cohn apparently didn’t realize that the Green Mill of 1927 had been in a different location, just up the street.149
In 1982, Ebisch initially made a similar mistake as he was sitting in the Green Mill and interviewing Brend, who’d bought the venue in 1960 and would run it until 1986. As Brend regaled him with stories about Texas Guinan, Ebisch asked, “She used to stand at that door right there?”
Brend corrected him. “No, no,” he said. “This wasn’t the main door then. Come on. I’ll show ya.”
As Ebisch recounted in his Reader article, Brend took him outside and showed him the entrance to the Fiesta Mexicana restaurant at 4806 North Broadway. That’s where the Green Mill’s entrance was in the 1920s, Brend explained. Ebisch wrote:
One would hardly suspect that … the tuxedoed celebrities of a gilded age used to pass through a doorway that now gives entrance to the Fiesta Mexicana fast-food joint. But look at the sign and you see, engraved in the old pitted stone of the building face, Green Mill Gardens. And then you realize that the original two-story entrance is still there, with concrete scrollwork around the top and stone gargoyles on each side. The door was much larger then, the entire taco shop front now occupies it. You can see the original stone trim around its perimeter.
Those words etched in the building’s façade were apparently visible when Ebisch wrote his story in 1982. Now, they’re hidden behind the Fiesta Mexicana sign150 … another piece of history obscured from public view.
The building used to have a peaked brick façade above 4800 and 4802 North Broadway, but that no longer exists. The photo above shows how the building looked in 2023, with a flat top to the façade in that portion of the building.
✶ Thanks to reader Larry Butler, for pointing out this 1976 photo by Bob Rehak, in which that peak is clearly visible. That means it must have been removed sometime after that. Note how the 1976 photo also shows a large billboard on the roof, at the same spot as the billboards of the 1920s.
That portion of the building above 4800 and 4802 has some decorative masonry below the roofline—a wide horizontal line, with a squarish shape at its center. This same element appears in pictures of it from 1914, 1925, 1933, and 2023.
So, what’s the upshot of all this? There’s a widespread perception that the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge has been in the same space since the Prohibition Era of the 1920s, or even longer. The evidence shows that isn’t true—but in my opinion, this doesn’t diminish the historic importance of this spot.
That space at 4802 North Broadway was part of the large Green Mill Gardens complex that opened in June 1914. A saloon apparently operated in this corner of the building. But the corner space became a drugstore in 1920, with a jewelry store taking over another portion of the space around 1924.
The main entertainment space at Green Mill Gardens was in the building’s northwest corner. After the building was expanded in 1921 and 1922, an entrance at 4806 led back into this two-story space.
So, if you visit Fiesta Mexicana (which is not a “fast-food joint,” as the Reader called it in 1982), try picturing it as the corridor where crowds entered during the Roaring Twenties.
And toward the back part of the restaurant is where you would have walked into the space described by the Chicagoan magazine as “a tall room done in the Aztec (or is it Inca?) manner with two guardian Indians on illuminated glass flanking the orchestra platform.”
This space continued operating as a cabaret off and on during the 1920s, under various names—the Montmartre Cafe, the New Green Mill, Ye Old Green Mill, and the Lincoln Tavern Town Club, and the Green Mill Ballroom.
Did a secret speakeasy ever operate somewhere within the Green Mill Gardens Building during this era? Maybe. The Up-Town Social Club on the second floor sounds like it was a speakeasy of sorts, but it was a gambling joint, not a bar.
“The big Green Mill venue was never a secretive ‘Joe sent me’ clandestine speakeasy,” Tim Samuelson told me. “The booze flowed freely throughout—just as it did before Prohibition. There was just more discretion on how it was offered and served—and the Chamales Brothers had the connections and payoffs to operate fairly freely without interference. When occasionally closed down, there was no reason for patrons to flee or hide. It was all pretty routine for entertainment and booze-seeking patrons.”
The fire in 1933 caused extensive damage to the drugstore, jewelry store, and ballroom. After repairs, the building was open again by 1935, when the Green Mill Tavern opened at 4802, the same space where the jazz club is now. And according to the Green Mill’s longtime former owner Steve Brend, it was decorated in 1942 with many of the furnishings that have been there in the decades since then.
Does any of this history make the room any less interesting? I don’t think so!
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Footnotes
1 “Local Real Estate Transactions,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 10, 1889, 9; Tract Book 543 A-2, 217, Cook County Clerk’s Office, Recordings Division.
2 Real Estate and Building Journal, May 29, 1897, 431. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t0ps1fv78?urlappend=%3Bseq=435.
3 “Donohue & Henneberry,” Chicagology, accessed February 27, 2024, https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage044/.
4 “Real Estate Transfers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 24, 1904; Tract Book 543 A-2, 225.
5 Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922, Ancestry.com.
6 Estate of Charles E. Morse, 4-8818, Probate Court of Cook County.
7 Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Landmark Designation Report: Uptown Square District, October 6, 2016, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/chicago-landmark-designation–uptown-square-district0.html,13; Building Permit 10739, April 30, 1909, Chicago Building Permit Ledgers Reel UID CBPC_LB_09, 213; Street Index Reel UID CBPC_IND_012, 3898, Chicago Building Permits Digital Collection 1872-1954, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, https://researchguides.uic.edu/CBP.
8 “‘Pop’ Morse Roadhouse Leased,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 22, 1910, 13.
9 Proposal to form corporation, May 24, 1911; subscribers meeting, May 27, 1911, Morse’s corporation papers, Secretary of State (Corporations Division): Dissolved Domestic Corporation Charters, 103/112, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
10 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, December 31, 1911.
11 Samuel Kersten v. Tom Chamales et al, Circuit Court Case B86710C, 1922, Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Archives.
12 Document 7048590, Book 16543, 500-510, lease agreement between Catherine Hoffman and Tom Chamales, February 28, 1913, recorded January 28, 1921.
13 Tract book 543 A-2, 249, 252, 253.
14 “Evanston Avenue Becomes Broadway With Midnight,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 15, 1913.
15 Document 5382042, Book 12722, 560-561.
16 Permit 20109, February 16, 1914, Chicago Building Permit Ledgers Reel UID CBPC_LB_14, 246.
17 Julia Bachrach, “Michaelsen & Rognstad: Architects of Fanciful Jazz Age Buildings,” Julia Bachrach Consulting, November 1, 2019, https://www.jbachrach.com/blog/2019/10/31/michaelsen-amp-rognstad-architects-of-fanciful-jazz-age-buildings.
18 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1, Equity 2842, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
19 Catherine Hoffman, Charles E. Hoffman, and their solicitors, Hutson & Traeger, cross-bill of complaint, September 25, 1929, 9, Tom Chamales v. Catherine Hoffman et al, Circuit Court Case B180140C, 1929, Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Archives.
20 1914 Chicago city directory, 1385, Fold3.com.
21 “Chicago Vaudeville,” New York Clipper, March 21, 1914, . https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC19140321.2.172&srpos=2&e=——-en-20–1-byDA-img-txIN-%22pop+morse%22———
22 Advertisement, Chicago Examiner, June 13, 1914, 11.
23 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, June 26, 1914, 4.
24 Tim Samuelson, email to author, February 1, 2023.
25 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, August 26, 1914, 9.
26 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, October 11, 1914, 56.
27 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, November 11, 1914.
28 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, March 13, 1918, 38.
29 Certificate of change of name, etc., August 16, 1916, Morse’s corporation papers.
30 Document 7048590, Book 16543, 510-514, proposed agreement between Catherine and Charles Hoffman and Tom Chamales, February 1, 1917, recorded January 28, 1921.
31 Eugene E. Morgan, “Joy, Gloom Mingle in Last Wet Hours,” Chicago Daily News, July 1, 1919, home edition (5 o’clock), 1.
32 Advertisements, Chicago Daily Tribune, August 29, 1920, part 10, 4; September 24, 1920, 25; June 12, 1921, part 10, 2; June 15, 1921, 29.
33 1920 U.S. Census, California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Assembly District 63, Enumeration District 0149, Sheet 6B, Ancestry.com.
34 “Green Mill in Luck,” Variety, February 18, 1921, 9, https://archive.org/details/variety61-1921-02/page/n103/mode/2up; “27 Cases Booze Vanish Under Eyes of U.S. Men,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 5, 1921, 10 United States vs. Thomas Chamales, et al, Commissioner case 7343, 1921, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, U.S. Commissioner’s Dockets, Commissioner Mason (Commissioner Lewis F. Mason, Cases 7200-7399, Container 89), National Archives, Chicago.
35 Annual reports, February 25, 1921, Morse’s corporation papers.
36 Stipulation, Municipal Court of Chicago, Quasi-Criminal No. 1185472, Aug. 29, 1921, City of Chicago v. Green Mill Gardens, Illinois Supreme Court files, Illinois State Archives; City of Chicago v. Green Mill Gardens, 305 Ill. 87 (1922), https://cite.case.law/ill/305/87/.
37 Al Chase, “World’s Famous Midway Gardens to Be Reopened,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 4, 1921, part 8, 22.
38 January 1922 Chicago telephone directory, classified.
39 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, May 29, 1922, 7.
40 Permit 61297, file 95994, Aug. 18, 1921, Chicago Building Permit Ledgers Reel UID CBPC_LB_20, 173.
41 Landmark Designation Report: Uptown Square District, 23.
42 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, April 26, 1922.
43 “Cabarets,” Variety, June 16, 1922, 23, https://archive.org/details/variety67-1922-06/page/n127/mode/2up.
44 “Cabarets,” Variety, June 23, 1922, 30, https://archive.org/details/variety67-1922-06/page/n183/mode/2up.
45 Judge Stanley H. Klarkowsi, decree, March 24, 1932, Chamales v. Hoffman.
46 Answer of Green Mill Gardens, Thomas Chamales, William B. Wierz, and Henry Horn, August 5, 1922, 2, Equity 2842, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
47 Document 7690076, listed in Tract Book 543 A-2, 226; copy in Chamales v. Hoffman.
48 Catherine Hoffman, Charles E. Hoffman, and their solicitors, Hutson & Traeger, answer to the bill of complaint, June 28, 1929, 8, Chamales v. Hoffman.
49 Catherine Hoffman, Charles E. Hoffman, and their solicitors, Hutson & Traeger, cross-bill of complaint, September 25, 1929, 3, Chamales v. Hoffman.
50 Catherine Hoffman, Charles E. Hoffman, and their solicitors, Hutson & Traeger, answer to the bill of complaint, June 28, 1929, 8, Chamales v. Hoffman.
51 Tom Chamales and his solicitors, Simons, Godman & Stransky and Rathie, Weseman, Hinckley & Barnard, answer of cross-defendant, October 10, 1929, 6; Tom Chamales and his solicitors, Simons, Godman & Stransky and Rathie, Weseman, Hinckley & Barnard, answer of cross-defendant, October 10, 1929, 2, Chamales v. Hoffman.
52 Klarkowsi, decree; Document 7838476, listed in Tract Book 543 A-2, 218; copy in Chamales v. Hoffman.
53 Equity 2842, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens et al, Answer of Joseph Glaser and Julius Braun, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
54 Advertisement, Chicago Daily News, December 13, 1922, 42.
55 “Seized in Federal Liquor Raids,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 3, 1922, 24; “Cabaret,” Variety, December 15, 1922, 35, https://archive.org/details/variety69-1922-12/page/n117/mode/2up.
56 Equity 2842, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens et al, Supplemental Bill, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
57 “Henry Horn Freed by Jury,” Chicago Daily News, February 20, 1923, 1.
58 “Yaselli ‘Bulls’ Compel U.S. to Drop Rum Cases,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1923.
59 Document 7972230, Book 19075, 87, warranty deed (grantors Tom and Helene T. Chamales, and Otto L. and Beatrice Annoreno; grantees Barney Balaban, Sam Katz, and Herbert L. Stern), May 25, 1923, recorded June 9, 1923.
60 Tract Book 543 A-2, 219, 226, 250, 252, 254
61 Catherine Hoffman, et al, answer to the bill of complaint, June 28, 1929, 10, Chamales v. Hoffman.
62 Document 80200559, book 19071, 189.
63 “Fun Spots Around Town,” Chicago Daily News, July 14, 1923, 11.
64 Advertisements, Chicago Daily Tribune, August 20, 1922, 20; February 23, 1923, 5.
65 “Cripple Shot by Bandits in Gaming House,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1924, 1; “Threaten Gamblers as Aids to Murder,” Chicago Daily News, July 21, 1924, 5.
66 New York Clipper, January 11, 1924. https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=NYC19240111.2.391&srpos=94&e=——-en-20–81-byDA-img-txIN-%22green+mill+gardens%22———.
67 “Pritzker Family,” Wikipedia, accessed November 23, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_family.
68 Montmartre Cafe Inc. corporation papers, Illinois State Archives.
69 Al Chase, “Start Work on City’s Biggest Movie Tomorrow,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 3, 1924, part 9, 23.
70 City of Chicago 80-Acre Maps, https://gisapps.chicago.gov/gisimages/80acres/pdfs/esw084014r.pdf.
71 “Night Club Reviews: Green Mill (Chicago),” Variety, October 19, 1927, 58, https://archive.org/details/variety88-1927-10/page/n185/.
72 Landmark Designation Report: Uptown Square District, 25, 50.
73 Chicago, Volume 17 (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1905; updated through August 1924), 79, Chicago History Museum.
74 Chicago Telephone Directory, November 1924.
75 “Kidnaping Story Investigated,” Chicago Daily News, October 2, 1930, 3.
76 Tom Chamales and his solicitor, Francis E. Hinckley, bill of complaint for partition, April 29, 1929, 5, Chamales v. Hoffman.
77 1930 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago (Districts 1751-1976), District 1951, 14B, Ancestry.com.
78 “Facts About the Uptown Theatre,” Balaban & Katz Magazine, August 17, 1925, https://web.archive.org/web/20071011143952/http://www.compassrose.org/downloads/UptownOpening.pdf, 17.
79 “Chicago,” Variety, April 22, 1925, 14, https://archive.org/details/variety78-1925-04/page/n197/mode/2up.
80 Tract Book 543 A-2, 219.
81 Landmark Designation Report: Uptown Square District, 21.
82 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 20, 1925, 2.
83 Equity 5147, U.S. v. Montmartre Cafe Inc., Otto L. Annoreno and Thomas Chamales, decree for permanent injunction, June 4, 1926, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
84 Answer of Otto L. Annoreno, October 6, 1925, snd Answer of Tom Chamales, December 28, 1925, Equity 5147, U.S. v. Montmartre Cafe et al.
85 New Green Mill Cafe Inc. corporation papers, Illinois State Archives.
86 Notices, September 1, 1922, April 14, 1923, October 4, 1923, November 15, 1923; receipt, October 26, 1922; Clerk of the Cook County Superior Court, notice to Illinois secretary of state, November 4, 1926, in case 26593, in Morse’s corporation papers, Illinois State Archives.
87 “Fun Spots Around Town,” Chicago Daily News, November 13, 1926, 29.
88 James Doherty, “Portrait of a Gangster,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 1951, magazine, 6–7, 10.
89 Art Cohn, The Joker Is Wild: The Story of Joe E. Lewis (New York: Random House, 1955; New York: Bantam, 1957), 11.
90 Tract Book 543 A-2, 226.
91 Tom Chamales and his solicitor, Francis E. Hinckley, bill of complaint for partition, April 29, 1929, 5; Tom Chamales, transcript, October 8, 1930, 23, Chamales v. Hoffman.
92 “Cabaret Man’s Fears Told as Stabbing Clew,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 9, 1927.
93 Cohn, Joker Is Wild, 29–30.
94 “Green Mill Closed,” Variety, December 14, 1927, 55, https://archive.org/details/variety89-1927-12/page/n117/mode/2up.
95 Green Mill Gardens Inc. (1928) corporation papers, Illinois State Archives.
96 “Burke Reopens Green Mill,” Uptown Citizen, January 27, 1928, 1.
97 “Quarter-in-Slot Photo Studio for Broadway,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 29, 1928, part 3, 3.
98 Chicago Tribune photo, circa 1928, @vintagetribune, November 30, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/C0P4eyptz5M/.
99 Polk’s Chicago (Illinois) Numerical Street and Avenue Directory, 1928–1929 (Chicago: R.L. Polk & Co., 1928), 93, http://chsmedia.org/househistory/polk/menus/polkb.pdf.
100 1930 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago (Districts 2877-2908), District 2887, 4B.
101 Chicago, Volume 17 South (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1928), 100, ProQuest Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970.
102 Tim Samuelson, interview, February 24, 2024.
103 Ye Old Green Mill Inc. corporation papers, Illinois State Archives.
104 Document 10195740, listed in Tract Book 543 A-2, 226; copy in Chamales v. Hoffman et al.
105 Francis C. Coughlin, “Adventures in Insomnia,” Chicagoan, Dec. 29, 1928, 11. http://chicagoan.lib.uchicago.edu/xtf/view?docId=bookreader/mvol-0010-v006-i07/mvol-0010-v006-i07.xml#page/13/mode/1up.
106 Tom Chamales and his solicitor, Francis E. Hinckley, bill of complaint for partition, April 29, 1929, 1, Chamales v. Hoffman.
107 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, September 9, 1929, 35.
108 “Come On Suckers! Guinan Buys Club,” (Chicago) Daily Times, December 12, 1929, 43.
109 “Charges Shots at Guinan Club to ‘Hood’ Rule,” Chicago Daily News, March 24, 1930, 1, 3.
110 “Little Club Must Close,” Chicago Evening American, March 24, 1930, 2.
111 Document 7972232, listed in Tract Book 543 A-2, 226; copy in Chamales v. Hoffman.
112 Advertisement, (Chicago) Daily Times, October 18, 1930, 20.
113 “Dancing Clubs and Cabarets,” (Chicago) Daily Times, April 4, 1931, 18.
114 Al Chase, “Walgreens Gets Broadway and Lawrence Site,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May, 23, 1931.
115 “Old Green Mill Leased for Use as a Ballroom,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 15, 1931.
116 Klarkowsi, decree.
117 Supreme Court of Illinois, order dismissing appeal, June 30, 1932, Chamales v. Hoffman.
118 Judge Hugo M. Friend, decree approving master’s report of sale, December 27, 1932, Chamales v. Hoffman.
119 Al Chase, “Famed Uptown Night Spot of ‘Dry’ Era Sold,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 12, 1939.
120 “John L. Patten,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 24, 1932, 2.
121 “Fire Sweeps Green Mill; Six Injured,” Chicago Daily News, April 26, 1933, 1, 3.
122 “Acts to Rebuild Green Mill, Lost in $100,000 Fire,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 27, 1933.
123 Chicago Building Permit Street Index Reel UID CBPC_IND_012, 3903.
124 Chicago Building Permit Street Index Reel UID CBPC_IND_012, 3914.
125 R and M Corporation, Liquor Control Commission: License Record, ID: 404/002, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
126 Helene T. (Keilbach) Chamales, bankruptcy case 63106, filed March 16, 1936, Record Group 21, Records of the U.S. District Court, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, Bankruptcy Act of 1898 Case Files, 1898 -1978, National Archives Identifier 570838, National Archives, Kansas City, MO.
127 In the matter of Riviera Building Corporation, a corporation, debtor, 56269, Record Group 21, Records of the U.S. District Court, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, Bankruptcy Act of 1898 Case Files, 1898 -1978, National Archives Identifier 570838, National Archives, Kansas City, MO.
128 Illinois – White Pages – Chicago – June 1937 A through NAAF, 210.
129 Document 12156135, Book 34286, 314.
130 Document 12241790, Book 34751, 327–328.
131 Al Chase, “Famed Uptown Night Spot of ‘Dry’ Era Sold,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 12, 1939.
132 Charles A. Sengstock, That Toddlin’ Town: Chicago’s White Dance Bands and Orchestras, 1900–1950 (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2004), 164.
133 Illinois – White Pages – Chicago – June 1940 A through LAUFF, 222.
134 1930 U.S. census, Illinois, Cook County, New Trier, Enumeration District 2210, sheet 7A, Ancestry.com.
135 Al Chase, “Famed Uptown Night Spot of ‘Dry’ Era Sold,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 12, 1939.
136 John L. Patten v. Tom Chamales et al, Superior Court Case 37S12665, 1937, Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Archives.
137 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, October 19, 1939, 23.
138 U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, Ancestry.com.
139 Jacki Lyden, Landmarks and Legends of Uptown (Chicago: Jacki Lyden, 1980), 29, 31; Robert Ebisch, “Whatever Happened to Green Mill Gardens?” Chicago Reader, October 29, 1982, 1-2, 20, 22, 24.
140 R and M Corporation, Liquor Control Commission.
141 Jacki Lyden, Landmarks and Legends of Uptown (Chicago: Jacki Lyden, 1980), 31.
142 Advertisement, Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 20, 1946.
143 Chicago Building Permit Street Index Reel UID CBPC_IND_012, 3910.
144 Chicago Building Permit Street Index Reel UID CBPC_IND_012, 3911, 3915, 3916.
145 “Gemen Memorial Club to Hold Benefit Dance,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 24, 1949, 83; Herb Lyon, “Tower Ticker,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 14, 1956, 53.
146 Tim Samuelson, email, February 17, 2024.
147 Chicago, Volume 17 South (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1928), 100 — updated through 1949, Chicago History Museum; updated through October 1950, ProQuest Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970; updated through December 1955, History Museum; updated through August 1972, Illinois Regional Archive Depository, Northeastern Illinois University; updated through May 1975, Chicago History Museum; updated through October 1988, The Sanborn Building & Property Atlas of Chicago, Illinois, Book 1, 12th edition, (Miami: REDI Real Estate Information Service, 1989), volume 17S, 100.
148 Tim Samuelson, email, February 19, 2024.
149 Cohn, Joker Is Wild, 253.
150 “Whatever Happened to Green Mill Gardens?”