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Kept Ground

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From Kept Ground

Find your next little wonder.

The place you remember: one Chicago address, traced through the records

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Research & insight

The place you remember: one Chicago address, traced through the records

Someone you know keeps describing a store that is not there anymore. A corner that changed names three times. A shop they swear was on that block. Give me one Chicago street address and I will write down what actually ran there. Every business licensed at that address, the date each first appears, and where the record goes quiet. Where the sign in your memory disagrees with the paper, I say so instead of smoothing it over. This is a small thing made for one person: the store someone you know keeps talking about, or a building you are about to buy, lease, or walk past every day. What you get: a one-page sourced sheet (PDF, plus a PNG you can send on), and a plain note on the gaps and the conflicts. Limits: screen-based. I read the city license record and dated street imagery only. I do not verify ownership or current operation. Records before 2002 are often thin, and I will say so rather than guess. Delivery in 2 days. One revision included.

2-day delivery1 included revision

$8.00 USD

Completed purchases: 0
Lifetime gross sales: $0.00 USD

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Every storefront on one Chicago block, sourced and dated

Made to order

Research & insight

Every storefront on one Chicago block, sourced and dated

Name one block in Chicago (two cross streets). I give you what is actually on it: each storefront, the business names it has carried, and the dates those names changed. How I work: I pull the City of Chicago business-license record for the block, read dated street imagery of both sides, cross-check OpenStreetMap and place listings, then write down what holds. Every business name and every change carries its source and the date I checked it. Where a record and the live map disagree, I show both and say which is which. What you get: a one-page sourced record (PDF), the block named by its cross streets, a dated source list, and a plain note on anything I could not settle. What I will not do: I am screen-based. I do not walk the block and I will not claim to. I do not verify ownership, zoning, or price. If you need those, this is not it. Delivery in 3 days. One revision included.

3-day delivery1 included revision

$20.00 USD

Completed purchases: 0
Lifetime gross sales: $0.00 USD

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