Posted: Friday, February 13, 2015 10:06 pm | Updated: 10:06 pm, Fri Feb 13, 2015.
In 1929, it was just a nondescript red brick garage for the SMC Carthage Company. But by 1949, it had become a packing-and-shipping facility whose famous interior wall attracted far more tourists than it did actual customers, much to its owners’ chagrin. And then by 1967, it was demolished into nothing but a pile of rubble.
These days, the only thing still standing at 2122 N. Clark St. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood are a few lonely trees and a wrought-iron fence dotting the lawn in front of a nursing home parking lot.
But barren as it is, the place is still plenty busy this time of the year.
“This is where history happened!” a young man dressed in black coat and 1920s-style fedora shouted last Saturday evening to a couple dozen bundled-up gawkers as they crowded around him on the sidewalk.
“Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!” he added, mimicking the noise of a tommy gun.
The demonstrative guide and his rapt group were in the midst of a historical “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” walking tour. And as the sightseers listened to the details of the bloody event that took place at 2122 N. Clark St. around 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, 1929 — 86 years ago today — I passed by them on my way to get a taste of the massacre’s last surviving vestige, both figuratively and literally.
Across the street at 2121 North Clark Street stands a two-story brownstone that reportedly served as a lookout when five of Al Capone’s henchmen, disguised as police officers, burst into the SMC garage, lined seven associates of rival gangster Bugs Moran up against a brick wall and opened fire with machine guns, killing them all.
The alleged lookout location is one of the few surviving structures on the block from that era. And since 1972, its cozy, dimly lit basement has served as the home of the Chicago Oven Grinder & Pizza Company, which is a great spot to feast on one of the restaurant’s famed pizza pot pies while enjoying a taste of the city’s famed mob history across the way.
Just inside the door of the pizza parlor hangs a framed photo from the 1930s showing a crowd of men milling outside the vacant garage at 2122 North Clark and featuring a caption that read, “Just like Hollywood’s maps of the stars, Chicago’s tourism industry features highlights from the city’s Gangland heyday. Even in the Prohibition era’s "Roaring Twenties,” tourists to Chicago felt their ‘trip was a failure unless it included a view of Capone out for a spin.’”
Capone was out for a spin in Florida when the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre went down, but the incident served as the climax of his reign as it soon brought the unwanted attention of federal authorities upon him.
When the old garage was finally torn down, Canadian businessman George Patey purchased 414 of the bullet-marked bricks from its wall, intending to use them in a restaurant. Instead, he re-created the wall in a wax museum before later touring malls and exhibitions across the U.S.
Eventually, the bricks were installed in the men’s washroom of a Vancouver nightclub and shielded with Plexiglass, which featured targets for, well, men to aim at. Today, the surviving bricks are more appropriately displayed at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, which opened Feb. 14, 2012.
Besides the framed photo inside its door, the Chicago Oven Grinder & Pizza Company doesn’t go over the top in its homage to the legendary event across the street. But the place does only accept cash payments.
And, surely, that’s something Capone would appreciate.
These days, the only thing still standing at 2122 N. Clark St. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood are a few lonely trees and a wrought-iron fence dotting the lawn in front of a nursing home parking lot.
But barren as it is, the place is still plenty busy this time of the year.
“This is where history happened!” a young man dressed in black coat and 1920s-style fedora shouted last Saturday evening to a couple dozen bundled-up gawkers as they crowded around him on the sidewalk.
“Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!” he added, mimicking the noise of a tommy gun.
The demonstrative guide and his rapt group were in the midst of a historical “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” walking tour. And as the sightseers listened to the details of the bloody event that took place at 2122 N. Clark St. around 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, 1929 — 86 years ago today — I passed by them on my way to get a taste of the massacre’s last surviving vestige, both figuratively and literally.
Across the street at 2121 North Clark Street stands a two-story brownstone that reportedly served as a lookout when five of Al Capone’s henchmen, disguised as police officers, burst into the SMC garage, lined seven associates of rival gangster Bugs Moran up against a brick wall and opened fire with machine guns, killing them all.
The alleged lookout location is one of the few surviving structures on the block from that era. And since 1972, its cozy, dimly lit basement has served as the home of the Chicago Oven Grinder & Pizza Company, which is a great spot to feast on one of the restaurant’s famed pizza pot pies while enjoying a taste of the city’s famed mob history across the way.
Just inside the door of the pizza parlor hangs a framed photo from the 1930s showing a crowd of men milling outside the vacant garage at 2122 North Clark and featuring a caption that read, “Just like Hollywood’s maps of the stars, Chicago’s tourism industry features highlights from the city’s Gangland heyday. Even in the Prohibition era’s "Roaring Twenties,” tourists to Chicago felt their ‘trip was a failure unless it included a view of Capone out for a spin.’”
Capone was out for a spin in Florida when the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre went down, but the incident served as the climax of his reign as it soon brought the unwanted attention of federal authorities upon him.
When the old garage was finally torn down, Canadian businessman George Patey purchased 414 of the bullet-marked bricks from its wall, intending to use them in a restaurant. Instead, he re-created the wall in a wax museum before later touring malls and exhibitions across the U.S.
Eventually, the bricks were installed in the men’s washroom of a Vancouver nightclub and shielded with Plexiglass, which featured targets for, well, men to aim at. Today, the surviving bricks are more appropriately displayed at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, which opened Feb. 14, 2012.
Besides the framed photo inside its door, the Chicago Oven Grinder & Pizza Company doesn’t go over the top in its homage to the legendary event across the street. But the place does only accept cash payments.
And, surely, that’s something Capone would appreciate.