Flipping through the latest Time Out, we read a bit about The Spindle in Berwyn (the stacked car sculpture by Dustin Shuler in Harlem-Cermak Shopping Plaza). The buzz: The Spindle is approching its demise to make way for Walgreens.
This stack of cars was a visual icon of our youth - of the many summers and weekends spent at two sets of grandparents' places (one a bungalow and the other a two flat, both a few blocks away from each other and The Spindle). We thought both homes and Berwyn life were so wonderfully odd, definitely an urban switch from our rural Missouri youth.
Just as odd, we thought, was The Spindle. But we loved it and thought that's what city life meant: stacked cars and inexplicable placement of stores, homes, and "art." Spending time in Berwyn was our first exposure to Czech restaurants, "gangways" (how my grandmothers referred to alleys), and talking to your neighbors out back because you practically shared a yard.
This brought to mind other landmarks of our youth: The brick Heather Hill sign in our Quincy, IL neighborhood; the looming Boonville watertower around the corner at our place in Missouri; the abandoned church across the street in Weldon, IL (population 550), temporarily occupied in the basement by a traveling religious cult and a bunch of pigs. No joke!
We'd love to hear about what landmarks most stand out in your memories. Whether a town of a few hundred from long ago or an urban neighborhood - it's the visual recognition of places near home that help us shape our own space - and encourage us to make our homes healthy, beautiful, and useful.
(Image: The Spindle by Axel Guillebastre via Photo.net)
Read more about the Spindle here:
• The Consumerist
• Chicago Tribune
More from Apartment Therapy:
• AT:Chicago Inspiration
• Apartment Therapy on...
LAME!
view pxlchk1's profile
Suburban Life has really lead the change on the Spindle story (they're the ones who broke the story in the first place), so if you're looking for all details great and small related to the Spindle coming down, that's probably the best place to look. Unfortunately right now they don't have all the stories grouped on a central "Spindle" page and individual stories don't link to other related ones but, uh ... I'm married to someone who has the ability to make that happen, and I've alerted him to the oversight :)
view girl.deconstructed's profile
I'm really just sick and tired of Walgreens. They are building way too many stores. I don't know what it is like in Chi town, but here where I live there are 10 Walgreens for a town of 100,000 people.
view Brian Everett's profile
The Berywn Arts Council and Critical Mass are both working to save this landmark.
You can sign the petition here: http://www.berwynartscouncil.org/SpindlePetition.html
http://chicagocriticalmass.org/savethespindle
view tableandchairs's profile
I'm no big fan of the Spindle, but does the world really need another Walgreens?
view Cherry Ride's profile
There's a Walgreen's THERE ALREADY! Stupid Walgreen's...
Unfortunately, it will cost $300,000 to move it and our mayor says we can't afford it.
view Alex's profile
> it will cost $300,000
Yeah, well Walgreens CAN afford it. GRR.
It would be right of them to either incorporate it into the structure somehow or pay to move it.
Heck! Illinois was using this image for their tourism campaign just a year or two ago. Doesn't that stand for something? Obviously it's an important icon, tacky or no!
view pxlchk1's profile