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Lady Topham Catt

@ladytophamcatt.bsky.social

1.6K followers 440 following 3.7K posts

Short. Black. Mom. Wife. Fighter against the tyranny of pants with waistbands. Classic film, plus Chicago history & architecture. Lotsa cussin’. Mainly pictures of things I like peppered with the odd rant or two. she/her

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 14d

I wrote about the incredible collection of modernist architecture in Chatham commissioned by Black professionals looking to make their mark on Chicago in the midcentury

Best Former House of Royalty: Mid-century modern home of ‘Soul Queen’ Helen C. Maybell Anglin — Chatham

hicago history is often hidden in plain sight in the structures that surround us. From the extraordinary terra cotta-clad buildings standing sentinel over Cottage Grove to the bungalows marching along...

southsideweekly.com

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 7h

This is so cool!!! My son loved Fever 1793 when he read it.

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Reposted by Lady Topham Catt

Bill Savage @rogersparkman.bsky.social · 9h

Today is the 154th anniversary of the end of the Great Chicago Fire, and the beginning of Chicago’s “Regeneration,” the title of this sculpture by Henry Hering on SE Du Sable Bridge bridgehouse at Michigan & Wacker. The I Will Maiden personified Chicago’s energy. We will need that energy again soon.

Bas relief sculpture showing the I Will Maiden, a Greek Goddess of sorts, in armor, a cape, and flowing skirt; in one hand she holds rolled up blueprints for, presumably, new buildings; other hand wields a carpenter’s square. She has a tiara on as well; she treads on an unhappy dragon (the Fire?) beneath her sandals. She is flanked on each side by muscular tradesmen rebuilding the city.

See first picture alt text. Closeup of the I Will Maiden.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 12h

Wholly unexpected, but so, so good!

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 13h

I did this shirt for @tudoraf.bsky.social based on some guy’s ads from the 1930s, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me adapting it for the Collective. Can we also get brass knuckles in the shape of the Chicago skyline c1930?

Photo of a white t-shirt on my messy desk. It features a guy with an enormous head extending his disconcertingly long arm to present a Tudor style residence.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 14h

I'm at Graceland all the time, but don't always visit Eternal Silence. I'll try to remember to grab a pic when he's back from the spa or the plastic surgeon or whatever.

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Reposted by Lady Topham Catt

making art @marigoldmimsy.bsky.social · 16h

a chicago public schools with incredible metalwork and stained glass artwork, inside and out

this school building is an amazing mixture of the chicago school style and prairie style architecture, designed by Dwight Perkins and opened in 1910

a copper vent plate inside carl schurz high school

a two toned brick building with high tables, long rectangular windows and columns on its front

there is metal exterior gratework on the high exterior windows

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 16h

It's such a lovely book! I told them the Chicago Building Nerd Collective had been waiting on it. I know I'll turn to it again & again as a reference, but it's also just a really great read! Informative & thought-provoking, but also really funny.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 16h

I wait on your radiator blessing every year 🙏

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 17h

It me! With movies & otherwise. Oh, did someone build this gorgeous, cherished thing 100+ years ago & now it sits neglected & forgotten? I am going to research every damn thing about it. Who built this? Why? Who lived here next? Who wasn’t allowed to live here? TELL ME EVERYTHING.

Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 17h

If silents were as popular as talkies and talkies were as unpopular as silents, I would probably be writing about talkies.

I an fascinated by the obscure and forgotten, especially if it used to be ubiquitous and beloved. Trying to unravel why it was beloved is fun.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 17h

Either way they want to keep Eternal Silence from slaying

Reposted by Lady Topham Catt

Jim Daley @jimdaleywrites.bsky.social · 18h

Pass it on: If you FILE A COMPLAINT about police activity, it flags the body-worn camera video so reporters can obtain it later via FOIA requests.

City: www.chicagocopa.org/complaints/i...
County: apps.cookcountyil.gov/oiig/
State: oeig.illinois.gov/complaints/o...

The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 20h

State troopers just dragged three people out of the crowd.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 17h

Exhibit A:

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · Oct 12

I can only assume folks are being vaporized on the spot when they step up to see Eternal Silence & will accept no other explanation for the bald patch in the grass front of it.

A color picture of a remarkably creepy cemetery monument that features a bronze statue that has developed a green patina with age and is dramatically offset by a slab of black granite. The hooded and robed figure stands upright, peering over a draped arm that covers the lower part of their face. There is a noticeable bald patch in the grass directly in front of the monument.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 17h

Sick of everyone going along with this cover story when we *know* Eternal Silence tells everyone the hour of their death. How, exactly, would he have that info if he wasn't involved?! I'll tell you what Big Cemetery doesn't want you to know: ETERNAL SILENCE FORCIBLY RESTRAINED BEFORE HE KILLS AGAIN

Adam Selzer @adamchicago.bsky.social · 18h

Lorado Taft’s “Eternal Silence” statue, marking the plot of Henry Graves at Graceland Cemetery, currently mummified for restoration work.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 18h

It’s incredible, & absolutely commands the intersection at street level. As a kid, I always had my little face plastered to the car window like WHAT IS THAT?!

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 20h

Using Lee Bey's great column (buff.ly/OKF5bVy) as an excuse to re-up my thread on this incredible building. Though often overshadowed by the nearby Avalon Regal, it deserves to have a line of folks prostrating themselves before it every day & throwing huge sacks of money towards its preservation.

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · Apr 28

1/2 This 1928 building originally housed Raphael's, a 2 story 450 seat restaurant of such excess that it could only have been built in the 1920s. You entered through a space meant to mimic an outdoor garden, complete with trees & fountains. At night, colored spotlights bounced off the 60 ft minaret.

Extreme wide angle photo of a Persian-influenced building of tan brick and absolutely incredible polychrome terra cotta ornament. A minaret-like tower extends up above the roofline.

Color close up of the ornament above the entry. Inside of a large horseshoe arch formed by rows of intricately designed polychrome terra cotta fashioned into geometric designs in dark yellow, blue and green, is another incredibly complex circle/star element in a lighter yellow, green and blue terra cotta. Below this, twin designs in pale green and dark pink that seem to mimic in miniature the curving arches common in Islamic architectural designs. Even this element is made extraordinary as it is filled in with tiny, dark pink terra cotta tessellations.

Color close up of ornament atop the building. From this angle can be seen part of the minaret-like tower, which is made up of tan brick and layers of intricately designed pale green terra cotta. Beneath this is some gorgeous terra cotta cresting; a dark green on light yellow calligraphic design. The facade also features a row of five dark yellow terra cotta polylobed arches highlighted by dark blue tessellations and bands of pale green horizontal tiles alternating with tan brick.

Crooked color close-up of terra cotta ornamentation on the building's first level. Straight dark green bands alternate with lovely bands of stylized foliate and geometric designs in blue.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 20h

I have loved this building my entire life. I really hope the congregation is able to get what they need to preserve & restore it.

Reposted by Lady Topham Catt

Lee Bey @leebey1.bsky.social · 20h

Today's architecture column. That fantastic Moorish Revival building at 79th and Stony? Its longtime owner, Haven of Rest Missionary Baptist Church, is making moves to get the structure landmarked and restored.

South Side church seeks to reawaken Stony Island's architectural slice of ancient Persia

The Haven of Rest Missionary Baptist Church congregation is making plans to restore and landmark its Mideast Revival fellowship hall, a structure that was built in 1928 as a swanky restaurant.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 20h

My son was doing a "I like people who don't lose the Nobel peace prize" routine on the way to school today

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

I lost track of how long I was in there, jealously glaring at anyone who tried to spend too much time with it

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

It’s always gorgeous, but when you can catch the sun glinting off the top at just the right angle… 😍

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

I LOVE THAT THING!!!

Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · Jun 4

Chris Hytha’s incredible photos of Art Deco skyscrapers are back at the Chicago Architecture Center, but this time they’ve also got his model of the top of the Carbide & Carbon Building. I’m a miniaturist myself & admittedly a sucker for this stuff, BUT LOOK AT THIS THING!!!

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

Hello, beautiful

Color photo taken at night. Several buildings are only partially captured, but the Carbide and Carbon, the Art Deco-est of skyscrapers, rises to its full height in the center of the image.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

And not just some random white criminal, it’s Al Ca-fucking-pone three months after the St Valentine’s Day Massacre

Chicago Collections @chicollections.bsky.social · 1d

This is a great read from @chicagocovenants.bsky.social The parallels to today--a white criminal preferable to a black homeowner . . .
www.chicagocovenants.com/research/al-...

Al Capone’s Covenant — Chicago Covenants

By Ben Miller In the late 1920s, covenant fever swept the South Side of Chicago. As the city’s Black population boomed, white residents mobilized to prevent their neighborhoods from becoming integra...

www.chicagocovenants.com

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

Oooh, interesting & I always love your work! Bookmarking to read later. Perkins was also Marion Mahony Griffin’s cousin, & she worked in his office when she was a baby architect. So many great Chicago connections through one guy!

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 1d

Every time I read this exchange I hear “this is no Carrie Underwood song” in Gary Oldman’s Dracula voice