Coliseum

Chicago Coliseum
The "Libby Prison" from Richmond, Virginia. April 10, 1982
Picture courtesy of Sun-Times 86,000 sq. ft. Completed 1982
The Coliseum was originally built as a Civil War prison in Richmond, Virginia, the capitol of the Confederacy. During the 1880's, 200,000 stones were marked, shipped and reassembled in Chicago as a Civil War Museum. In the 1890's it was reconstructed as the Coliseum, the scene of many national political conventions. In 1908, future President William Taft was nominated there. Although it was succeeded later by the Chicago Stadium and the Amphitheater, up until the 1920's, this was the place in Chicago. It continued in operation until the early 1970's. Also, the 1967 Chicago Bulls played there.

The Coliseum on South Wabash provided a convenient site for all kinds of large civic affairs. Throughout the country it was famous because both political parties had chosen it many times for national conventions. But Chicagoans knew it best at this time as the site of the notorious annual First Ward balls staged by the amiable and corrupt "bosses" of the central city - "Hinky Dink Kenna and John "The Bath" Coughlin - to raise money for the democratic organization. On these joyous occasions, the city's political swells mixed with hoi polloi at the levee, and thousands would frolic far into the night. In 1908 one reporter counted two bands, two hundred waiters, one hundred policemen, 35,000 quarts of beer and 10,000 quarts of champagne. All of this was easily consumed before the hosts "sent for reinforcements." "It's a lollapalooza," said Hinky Dink with measured understatement. "All the business houses are here, all the big people. Chicago ain't no sissy town." Not many other places could have handled the crowds so easily, and perhaps no other townspeople could handle the refreshments so comfortably.

Chicago Coliseum The "Libby Prison" from Richmond, Virginia. April 10, 1982 Picture courtesy of Sun-Times 86,000 sq. ft. Completed 1982	The Coliseum was originally built as a Civil War prison in Richmond, Virginia, the capitol of the Confederacy. During the 1880's, 200,000 stones were marked, shipped and reassembled in Chicago as a Civil War Museum. In the 1890's it was reconstructed as the Coliseum, the scene of many national political conventions. In 1908, future President William Taft was nominated there. Although it was succeeded later by the Chicago Stadium and the Amphitheater, up until the 1920's, this was the place in Chicago. It continued in operation until the early 1970's. Also, the 1967 Chicago Bulls played there.

The Coliseum on South Wabash provided a convenient site for all kinds of large civic affairs. Throughout the country it was famous because both political parties had chosen it many times for national conventions. But Chicagoans knew it best at this time as the site of the notorious annual First Ward balls staged by the amiable and corrupt "bosses" of the central city - "Hinky Dink Kenna and John "The Bath" Coughlin - to raise money for the democratic organization. On these joyous occasions, the city's political swells mixed with hoi polloi at the levee, and thousands would frolic far into the night. In 1908 one reporter counted two bands, two hundred waiters, one hundred policemen, 35,000 quarts of beer and 10,000 quarts of champagne. All of this was easily consumed before the hosts "sent for reinforcements." "It's a lollapalooza," said Hinky Dink with measured understatement. "All the business houses are here, all the big people. Chicago ain't no sissy town." Not many other places could have handled the crowds so easily, and perhaps no other townspeople could handle the refreshments so comfortably.