A few months ago I had the fortune of making the virtual acquaintance of Pat FitzGerald. Pat is a prominent architect in Chicago who has done much to revitalize many parts of the city over the last 45 or so years. One of his projects was the renevation of an old factory located at 910 W Lake St. The building now houses the office of FitzGerald and Associates on the first floor and the upper five floors are luxury loft apartments. This building was built in 1886 and was occupied by Rankin and Davis who provided supplies for dairy farms. In 1895 Arnold, Schwinn and Co established their bicycle manufacturing operations here and would remain for the next five years until moving to the Kildare plant in 1901.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic places and, from the outside, looks very much like it did when Ignaz moved in in 1895. Pat was careful to retain the integrity of the building and the first floor offices still have the timber columns and some vestiges of the original factory such as one of the overhead belt drives.
I had sold Pat a couple of 1897 Gormully and Jeffery bicycles (also Chicago built) and the original plan was to deliver them to the Ann Arbor Classic Bicycle Show planned for late April. The COVID-19 pandemic squashed any hopes of that happening so I decided as soon as things cooled down I would personally deliver the bikes to Pat in Chicago. I had something of an ulterior motive as well. I own an 1898 Model 22 “The World” Schwinn and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to bring this bike for a photo op at it’s birthplace 122 years earlier.
These photos of the bike made it worth every bit of the 16 hour drive. Pat was an exceptionally gracious host and took time to show us the building as well as downtown Chicago–I’ll call it the “Architectural Tour” and his first hand knowledge of many of the buildings made it special. Unfortunately our time was short but we certainly hope to return and spend more time getting to see the sites, do some shopping , and enjoy some restaurants!
Enjoy the ride!
Don Christie