Crews digging in Streeterville uncover artifacts tied to Chicago’s origins

Crews digging in Streeterville uncover artifacts tied to Chicago’s origins

A construction crew struck paydirt while digging the foundation for a new skyscraper, uncovering artifacts tied to Chicago’s origins.

CHICAGO - A construction crew struck paydirt while digging the foundation for a new skyscraper, uncovering artifacts tied to Chicago’s origins.

In a FOX Chicago special report, Joanie Lum takes a look at what’s buried beneath the city.

What we know:

Construction crews dug deep trenches along East North Water Street to feed utilities to a massive skyscraper being built near Lake Shore Drive and the Chicago River.

Streeterville resident Dave Roberts stepped around the holes outside his home for weeks, until crews stumbled upon something unusual — what looked like part of a boat. Roberts witnessed it firsthand.

"It's just this old piece of wood," Roberts said. "Except for the fact that it's curved. You wouldn't think it was anything but lumber, but the curve tells you it's a boat at the bottom of a boat."

They also found vintage construction nails, medicine bottles, and stylish boots — artifacts from the 1800s — all buried beneath the street.

"They could date where the boat probably washed up on shore because of where the lake ran through our property. They could date it to 1820 or whatever," Roberts said.

The artifacts are now being preserved for a future museum.

The backstory:

He called historian Gail Spreen, known as the "Queen of Streeterville," for her deep knowledge of the neighborhood.

Spreen says that spot once marked the shoreline.

"That actually, right in that spot. It was a late 1800s that that was actually the shoreline," Spreen said.

It’s widely known that in 1886, Captain George Streeter ran his ship aground at Lake Michigan and what is now Superior Street.

The wreckage became landfill, with rubble from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, expanding the valuable shoreline.

Streeter used his boat as the base for a landfill, inviting everyone to dump their garbage there — turning trash into Streeterville.

The upscale neighborhood was named after a reputed showman and a scallywag.

"He was a renegade," said 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins. "He was an outlaw. He was a violent man, too. He was a criminal. But the harm that he caused largely has been lost to history. And what's left is this very colorful folklore and a story that, in a lot of ways, captures Chicago's spirit during those early days as a city."

Spreen also acquired what’s believed to be the anchor from Streeter’s ship. Her late husband, artist Dennis Downes, created the sculpture of Captain Streeter located at McClurg Court and Grand Avenue.

The couple produced a documentary about Streeterville.

What we don't know:

So could the bottles, boots, and boat parts have belonged to Streeter or his fellow mariners?

"You think of Captain Streeter and his gang of guys and everybody that lived in the Shanty town in Streeterville and what they had to incur. They're sitting around little bonfires for their heat, you know, they just had very small little shacks that they lived in," Spreen said.

Why you should care:

"That's something we can tell, you know, with a wink and a nod and maybe a mischievous smile as we talk about his exploits. It really gives this neighborhood a certain flavor, and a direct tie to our history as a frontier town," Hopkins said.

Chicago’s history lives beneath the foundations of its tallest buildings.

And the digging that’s paving the way for the future is also uncovering the city’s colorful past.