Friday, December 14, 2012
St. Laurence Catholic Church was built in 1911. The cornerstone was laid on June 11, 1911 and it opened for service on December 26th, 1911.
The archdiocese closed the church in 1999, citing 3 million dollars needed in repairs.
St. Laurence was demolished in the summer of 2014.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Joliet Maximum-Security Prison was opened in the mid-1800's. It was constructed through the use of convict labor. In the 1860's, it housed prisoners of the Civil War. By the late 1800's, it was the largest single prison in the U.S.
In the early 1900's, one of the inmates murdered the then-currrent warden's wife and lit their house on fire with her inside.
In the mid-1970's, one of the cell blocks was taken over by gangs which held several correctional officers hostage. One inmate was killed during this riot.
The prison (which was a fully self-sustained facility, providing its own water and electricity) employed inmates in the manufacturing of goods and equipment for use at other correctional centers, mental health facilities and state universities. Additional "computer input" training was also later offered for the inmates, a program which was designed to serve the state government. Prison labor was limited early on to state institutions so as to not compete with wage labor in the open market.
Despite being labeled "obsolete" as early as the 1920s, this prison remained active for nearly 150 years, before finally closing in the early 2000's.
This visit occurred long before any such thing existed but now you can get tours of this location and that is awesome. I wish more historic locations were so lucky. Check out their site here and go see Joliet Prison for yourself!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
"The U-505 is a German Type IXC U-boat built for service in the Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). Her codebooks, Enigma machine and other secret materials found on board assisted Allied code breaking operations.
All but one of U-505's crew were rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret, her crew was interned at a US prisoner of war camp where they were denied access to International Red Cross visits. The Navy classified the capture as top secret and prevented its discovery by the Germans.
In 1954, U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois and is now a museum ship.
She is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, and one of four German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships. She is the only Type IXC still in existence." -WIKI
Originally, the plans were to use the Nazi submarine known as U-505 as target practice, but it was spared and sent to the museum in Chicago instead.
The following historical photos were taken at the time of capture by allied Task Group 22.3 and are courtesy of the website https://uboatarchive.net.
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