chicago one of america's most popular cities as it  covers 234 000 square miles and there are hundreds  

of secrets and mysteries held on its premise  we've already explored the forgotten tunnels  

l lines and waterworks but did you ever wonder  what might be hiding in plain sight well several  

buildings in chicago's downtown area the loop  appear to be normal at a distance complete with  

windows and doors or even decorated in a stylish  construction however upon closer inspection one  

finds that the doors do not open and the windows  are not windows at all instead they are lures this  

is the story of chicago's fake buildings i'm your  host ryan sokesh and you're watching it's history

today we will discuss the so-called fake buildings  of chicago structures necessary to conceal vital  

power grid elements and with all the news we  hear about climate change this is a topic bound  

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back to the fake buildings of chicago in short  these buildings house electrical substations  

built to provide power to the downtown chicago  area discreetly a topic we've actually covered  

in our video about new york's secret substations  however the history behind the chicago buildings  

are far more interesting these utility buildings  are the culmination of electrical progress in  

chicago dating back as far as the late 1870s 1878  saw chicago's first demonstration of the arclight  

which generated a continuous spark across  two carbon rods emitting light equal to  

approximately two thousand candles arc lights  easily lit the streets and other public spaces  

but were unsuitable for homes and shops though  in 1880 a man stepped forward with a solution  

thomas a edison and his incandescent light bulb  finally brought domestic electrical lighting  

into a state of commercial practicality producing  a flameless light in the fire safe container  

provided a perfect lighting source for the  electrical age these new light sources along  

with street railways and the developing rapid  transit cars or even l trains significantly  

increased the city's electrical consumption 1878  also marked the beginning of the so-called battle  

of the systems a time of great technological and  political conflict with the electrical industry  

suddenly revolutionizing there was an enormous  demand for energy in the area and initially these  

demands were met by one of illinois's primary  economic activities coal mining the 1880s saw  

co-production at the central braidwood mines at  its absolute peak however it also saw its mining  

company cnw and its workers at their most dire  point of conflict yet tensions between the miners  

primarily scottish immigrants and the company had  reached a boiling point extreme enough to make  

national headlines ever since the creation of  the mines the miners built workers associations  

eventually climaxing in a brief minor strike  in 1868 tensions continued and in 1874 another  

uptick of conflict occurred during a nationwide  economic downturn putting a quarter of the  

miners out of work at this point cnw brought the  pinkerton national detective agency of chicago  

in as a private security force as they hired  replacement workers the pinkertons were notorious  

during the time for their highly ruthless approach  to strikes and protests often pacifying resistance  

with violence the pinkertons and illinois troops  fought against the workers as they rose up  

losing in 1877 1889 and 1894 however by the 1900s  coal production started to drop the most easily  

accessible deposits had been drained dry and  mining activity steadily declined after that  

by 1892 the decline had reduced coal production to  a fifth of what it was in the decade before in the  

will county mines this was highly problematic as  energy consumption only grew in 1882 the western  

edison light company began operation in chicago  it rebranded to chicago edison company in 1887  

and in 1892 a significant figure in public  utilities took the lead of the company as  

the president of chicago edison samuel insell once  edison's secretary rapidly began monopolizing the  

city's central electrical services consolidating  the commonwealth electric light and power company  

under the new corporate title of the commonwealth  edison company insole's low rates and marketing  

schemes undercut his competition allowing him  to secure an exclusive franchise with chicago  

making the commonwealth edison company the only  company operating within the city by securing the  

state commission the commonwealth edison company  gained favor with the governor when chicago's gas  

companies fell into hard times during world war  one insole applied low rates brought technological  

advancements and consolidated the city's network  into one by 1920 generators of the commonwealth  

edison company consumed more than 2 million  tons of coal every year the generators at  

5th street and west 22nd on crawford avenue  and the sanitary canal generated the most  

energy for the company's plants employing 6  000 people the companies served around 500  

000 people reaching annual revenues of 400 million  dollars after leading efforts to connect texas and  

the midwest via a gas pipeline in the late 1920s  things would sour significantly for insole the  

stock market crashed wiping away most of his  funds leaving him bankrupt in fact and so he  

fled the country though the commonwealth edison  company did not exactly survive the depression  

it eventually became a leader in nuclear power  as the city's power grid took shape and developed  

its physical structure also fully came into form  it starts with the power plant which generates the  

power that runs the grid the energy runs into  power lines taking it wherever it needs to go  

but before it gets there it visits a substation  transforming the energy into quantities that local  

power outlets can use substations in suburban  environments today are pretty small basically  

being a telephone pole suspended cylinder called  a transformer since the transformers are generally  

stepping the energy down into similar levels it  can get away with being small however a simple  

transformer is insufficient with something like  the chicago downtown area which powers the 8 l  

train lines and hence an entire substation is  needed a complete substation is not exactly an  

eye-pleasing sight at best it's an ominous  looking box with many mechanical protrusions  

at worst it's a complex of towers that look as  deadly as they are neither option is very scenic  

and in a location as dense as the chicago loop  there aren't exactly places for them yet with the  

energy demands they are completely non-negotiable  so the city needed another answer and the  

previously mentioned sam insel had a solution  all the way back in 1899 the commonwealth edison  

substation on the near north side was the first  substation constructed in chicago and it blended  

right in with the city this substation worked  wonderfully disguising the gritty machines of  

electrical equipment behind a facade or i mean  a facade of a typical building insult bought out  

more buildings to convert them into substations  as the power grid expanded by 1901 construction  

began on new buildings with the sole purpose of  housing substations these fake buildings had doors  

that did not open and windows covered in shutters  however the buildings were otherwise works of art  

built in art deco classical revival style and one  in the river north area was constructed similarly  

to a georgian mansion the 1910s saw many of the  most beautiful of these substations come about  

various architects lent their designs to these  projects including holly bird and root rootin  

and coolidge one especially notable architect  was herman van holst who owned van holst and fife  

his firm an independent practice designed most of  the substations built from the 1910s to the 1930s  

they constructed most of their buildings in a  unique take on the perez school of style on scene  

anywhere else in the city but despite the  artistry the buildings were primarily made  

out of durable materials to house the heavy  electric equipment that made up the substations  

regardless of the location or purpose of  the substation whether they were serving a  

neighborhood a streetcar system or an l train line  they had both flair and functionality some of the  

antiquated sites were refurbished or repurposed  for modern use but construction did continue some  

as recent as the 1990s and surprisingly their  artistry has not decreased if anything the focus  

on the aesthetic has seemed to increase that's not  to suggest that the older ones don't hold up it's  

just surprising when you consider how degenerate  most modern architecture can be when compared to  

the times of the old so now that we have our  history lesson settled let's have a look at  

what's left of chicago's fake buildings first up  is 6155 south prairie avenue construction on the  

washington park substation began in 1928 and ended  in 1939 well it currently sits empty and abandoned  

its electrical equipment remains compared to  most of the other substations it is a massive  

building since it served a large neighborhood with  smaller substations to which it distributed energy  

its ornaments resemble electrical equipment with  light bulbs carved into its limestone facade  

it currently faces demolition by neglect but  there is a small glimmer of hope as preservation  

movements wish to refurbish it next up is the  commonwealth edison substation at 119 north  

dearborn street this one designed by halliburton  root in an art deco style and constructed in 1931  

is defined by its enormous black doorway topped  with a carving of a man bearing lightning bolts  

hinting at its purpose the limestone building  is small compared to its neighboring steel  

glass and concrete structures but it once fit in  seamlessly with those around it at the time of its  

construction another substation with a great deal  of history is the well street terminal substation  

located at 321 south franklin street the building  opened alongside the 5th avenue terminal which  

opened on october the 3rd 1904 it was  less of an art piece underneath the tracks  

than the station itself as not to draw attention  away from the building it existed to serve but  

much like the station it had gerber architectural  flourishes while the terminal no longer exists  

today the substation remains serving the loop  l long after its parent building's demolition  

in august of 1964. the att equipment building  at 10 south canal street is another building  

designed by holly bird and roof unlike the others  we have spoken of previously this building opened  

in 1970 and is 23 stories tall the doors at the  bottom are functional and the top seven floors  

contain actual windows though the other 18 floors  contain the electrical equipment and as a result  

are windowless in place of windows groove concrete  pallets fill the window sills to some degree this  

building may be a product of the nuclear fears of  the 1960s the building obviously wouldn't survive  

a direct blast but its walls would protect the  equipment and people from a nearby detonation  

the telephone services it provides would  be invaluable in the event of a war so  

structural integrity was paramount at the time  of its creation allegedly the building also  

hides an oil tank with a million gallon capacity  turbine generators and a water well allowing it  

to operate for over two weeks without any outside  contact but again let me emphasize this is just  

speculation lastly one of the most recent  buildings is the n-wave chiller plant  

at 137 south state street constructed in 1995  using designs of eckenhoff sounders architects  

one of its primary purposes is to inspire  curiosity about its interior the building  

has a cvs pharmacy at the bottom but it's topped  with four near windowless floors the building  

contains ice and water tanks in nearly all of its  hidden areas for various purposes massive fans and  

cooling towers lay at its top designed to preserve  the cold that makes the water more efficient  

you see the water that this building contains  supplies the entirety of the loop with coolant  

condenser water chilled water so on and so forth  these strange buildings.chicago's downtown area  

fitting in perfectly with neighboring structures  and only with a curious eye will you ever notice  

just how out of place they really are which  begs the question what other mysteries does  

the windy city contain chicagoans let me know  in the comments section below and perhaps i will  

make a video on your topic otherwise support the  channel by subscribing share our chicago history  

playlist and check out our video about new york's  fake buildings this is ryan socash signing off