Evening Bike Ride

I just got back from taking a bike ride around the neighborhood. I was looking online again at the Frank Lloyd Wright apartment building near my house and stumbled on the fact that he also designed a factory a few blocks away. After the jambalaya was done and after I had a little smoke I headed out. I went across Augusta at Campbell and took a residential street, Walton, West. Lots of really nice buildings - three story aparments on a treelined street. Red brick and from the turn of the century and muscular. Also, gray stone houses. The street deadended at Washtenaw so I moved over to Chicago and took to Sacramento. Lots of open space where it meets an angled Grand and a little art deco taco store on the corner surrounded by open space. Got a little confused. I turned into the neighborhood after the first train tracks. Some beautiful old brick warehouses and a row of rundown but beautiful two story, peaked roofed houses with porches across from a low warehouse. This was Albany near Franklin Boulevard. At the corner of Franklin where it hits the train yard there is a front of the factory building with a tower like a lighthouse. I crossed the second train tracks and saw the Frank Lloyd Wright warehouse on the first corner on the right. It was pretty scummy looking and had a security camera with a blue flashing light bolted to the wall. Also, a tube from a watertower on the roof running down the facade. It looked like the alley side of a building which was strengthed by the fact that it was across from the raised tracks. I went down the block a bit and turned around and you could really see the Frank Lloyd Wright-ness of the building and see some cubic gestures suggesting some his later work, but also the contemporary Unity Temple. This was the EZ Polish Factory at 3005-3017 Carroll Avenue, built in 1905. The internet told me it was a shoeshine factory and that FLW also designed a house for the owner. Most of the windows were bricked up, would love to see the interior. I went back out to Sacramento - some nice two story stone building across the street - red and green asphalt tile roofs. After Fulton came Walnut - a nice residential street. A rundown victorian apartment building. You could tell this area used to be a solid middle class neighborhood. It was right off the greenline and was very intact. Houses were generally run down and some were modified but not significantly. There were some people loitering on the streets - mostly young men, but I also some families. The FLW aparments were on the left side of the street. They really seemed like rowhouses with less distinction. A two story building on yellow brick. Some discoloration on one of the units. You could see the banding and boxing of windows in the brick pattern. There was also a very Sullivan-esque decorative panel over the entrance. It looked the end unit, which was being remodelled but also looked pretty gutted, was the largest and it had a nice brick arch over the stairs. It was a really great building - it looked protective and nurturing. There was some people out and some people infront of the aparment so I didn't take a picture, but I will go back and take one. Walnut deadended into California north. Some nice houses on California. Also, California was cut off by the railyard to the north so it was a quiet street. Turned onto Fulton and took a photo of the train bridge turned up Western and went a block east to Oakley and saw some nice warehouses. Up Oakley through Ukranian Village. A cupola'd school I walk by sometimes - big glass arched windows. I took a photo of some brick houses with massive dense bick porches. Also took some photos of the cathloic church of Oakley and Augusta. I liked coming up to the church from beyond. One of the doors into the sanctuary makes a facade. There were lights on inside so a dark row of colored windows was glowing. Back home by Augusta.