David G. Hays: May 2010 Archives

Battle of Halsted Viaduct

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Two Sundays ago, I joined a crowd at the viaduct at 16th Street and Halsted, in the Pilsen community. There were men in (fake) bloody butchers' aprons, three piece suits, an Alan Pinkerton (with squirt gun), and a brass band on a carriage drawn by a white horse. I donned a Keystone cops helmet & trenchcoat, grabbed a fake billyclub and waded into the mob of angry workers.

All of this activity was organized by UofC grad student Paul Durica, whose Pocket Guide to Hell tours and reenactments treat participants to little known pieces of Chicago's history that illuminate a larger picture of the city.

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