The giant Pabst Blue Ribbon sign that once towered over downtown Chicago
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The llinois Central Railroad freight cars in the South Water Street freight terminal in 1943. Photo: Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images
This week's "History Mystery" features a long-lost photo of a neon beer sign that once welcomed people to downtown Chicago.
- The Pabst Blue Ribbon billboard lit up the night sky at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue decades before Millennium Park existed.
The intrigue: The nighttime photo doesn't offer many clues, but a daytime shot gives us everything we need.
- When this photo was taken in 1943, the Carbide & Carbon Building was one of the few prominent towers along that stretch of Michigan Avenue.
- You can see the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower in the distance.
- The railroad depot sat below Randolph Street, but it was filled in for the park, which now sits at the same level as the street.
State of play: The sign sat above the Illinois Central Railroad's South Water Street freight terminal, which stretched to the corner of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue.
- It was mostly freight trains, bringing goods to the famed South Water Street Market and other downtown locations.
- The sign was removed in the early 1950s for construction of the iconic Prudential Building.
- Freight trains stopped operating there in the 1970s.
Today, Millennium Park covers what was one of the country's largest downtown rail yards, but Metra Electric and South Shore trains still run beneath the park.
More History Mystery photos solved: