Upon returning home from my trip to Chicago I found an invitation from Preservation Chicago (I am a member) inviting me to attend the 2008 Preservation Celebration on September 26 at The Marmon Grand located in the Motor Row Historic District. There will be live blues, a silent auction, and Motor Row mini tours. This Spanish revival style building by architect Alfred Alschuler was built in 1922 and has recently been restored and reconstructed. Motor row is the nation's largest early automobile row and was added to Chicago's Landmark District in December 2000. This area of South Loop is slowly being revitalized. It's wonderful to see restoration of buildings that still exist.

I spent the weekend of August 23 and 24 in Chicago at my daughter's townhouse on Calumet Parkway, the street behind historic Prairie Avenue. After reading an article a couple of months ago, I have become obsessed with old water tanks so I decided to take digital photos of any I could find in South Loop. My trek took me to Cermac and the Motor Row Historic District. As I walked around the area, water tanks seemed to appear everywhere, somehow missed in my earlier jaunts around that part of the city. I snapped quite a few pictures and have been researching further about these iconic structures that are slowly being lost to urban sprawl modernization.