Though my father, his sister and four brothers were born in Chicago, they grew up in Berwyn, in a similar neighborhood to the "one flat" street pictured in the link.

The extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins in the area all worked at Western Electric at one time or another.  I'm sure it helped get them through the Great Depression.

My uncle delivered laundry to one of the Capone households in Cicero, and when my dad, the most self-sufficient of the bunch, was +/- 21, he consumed mass quantities of bootleg hooch and helped get it to speakeasies during prohibition.  They both used to tell some great stories.

I also learned long ago that you're never in Cicero.  The proper term is by Cicero.  I don't know if that's a mob thing or a Czech/Bohemian thing.

Roger,

Truer words have never been spoken typed.

Here's a link to another site featuring lost Chicago manufacturing, and also other long lost sites and experiences from the Windy City area.

I remember the Curtiss candy factory along the Chicago River, and how the aroma of Butterfingers wafted over the surrounding area.

I didn't know that Frango Mints weren't still being made in the original (even if no longer Field's) kitchens.  I'm glad they've survived regardless.  So light, yet buttery!