Walking today (October 9, 2020) across the 11th Street Bridge built in 2002, I happened to notice the retro streetlight and realized the designer had used another survivor from the Columbian Exposition—the Chicago Municipal Device--a stylized Y.
Once you know about it, you see the “Y” everywhere, especially on older buildings like the unused fire station at Dorchester and 62nd Place.
It’s even in the center of the Chicago Theater neon sign. The “Y” represents the heart of Chicago--Wolf Point--where the south branch and the north branch join and flow into Lake Michigan. Chicago owes its existence to the river.
The symbol dates from 1892 as the city prepared for the grand dedication of the Columbian Exposition on Columbus Day 1892. It was all about boosterism. The city planned to put up decorations everywhere, and they wanted a unified theme—both a color scheme and a symbol. They wanted Chicagoans to be proud--they said, way a Harvard student was proud to wear crimson and represent his alma mater. They realized that a way to boost that kind of love of the city in the citizens (and get everyone willing to come spend money at the fair) was to run a contest, so the Tribune offered a $100 award.
Some of the opinions expressed on what color should represent Chicago were interesting. A businessman pointed out that yellow would remind everyone of cholera (which the city was still struggling to combat) and that red flags were illegal because they were associated with Communism and labor unrest. It after all just six years since the Haymarket killings. One person interviewed in the Trib thought yellow would symbolize the grain shipping through the city or the golden rod that was still growing everywhere in the undeveloped lots on September while the contest was on.
They got 829 entries. The winner was Alfred Jensen Roewad, who suggested an upside down “Y”—white on a background of red. The city decided the background would be terracotta red for the clay that was so important in rebuilding Chicago and white for the silvery waters of the river. Millet, the head of design for the fair and head of the judges, liked the colors because he said the red and white of the banners against the deep blue of the October sky would make the national colors.
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| Roewad’s Banner (from https://chicagology.com/2015/12/22/origin-of-the-y-symbol/) |
They put it everywhere.
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Triumphal Arch, Columbian Exposition Dedication Ceremony, October 20, 1892 ( from https://chicagology.com/2015/12/22/origin-of-the-y-symbol/) |
Alfred J. Roewad was an interesting case. He told the Tribune that he had come to Chicago just two years before from Denmark at age 42—because the Fair would be here and that meant Chicago was on the cutting edge of engineering. He wanted to work in steel and got his wish, first with a bridge-building company, then at the fair working on the design for the monstrous steel trusses of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building.
The runner up also chose red and white but his design was a red phoenix rising from a nest of flames against a white background. Now where have I seen that…
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| Seal of the University of Chicago |
In 1917, the City Council voted to make Roewad's symbol the official Municipal Device for the City of Chicago. The ordinance said it should be on everything the city owns. They decided, however, that it had to be reversed because the city had reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900.
At some point in the 20th Century it fell out of favor—perhaps it was when Chicago turned its back on its reason for being-- the Chicago River. Maybe the restoration of the river restored the “Y” so that it once more appears on places like the 11th Street Bridge, a souvenir of the Columbian Exposition.
The rival newspaper, the Inter-Ocean, also ran a contest for a symbol of the spirit of Chicago--Miss I Will. She has faded from memory but she did survive long enough to show up again for the Century of Progress. I knew about her from the middle room of the Eagle, the best Hyde Park bar ever. They had two long murals facing each other on opposite walls—the 1933 version of Miss I Will staring down New York’s Miss Liberty with the cities’ 1930s skylines in the background. Here's the 1892 version.
If you are wondering what the heck is on her head, it’s a phoenix in a nest of flames.
