A plucky little survivor that outlived the railroad that brought it to life, this little manufacturing building from 1894 abutted the now built-over Chicago & Evanston branch of the Milwaukee Road railroad that once wound its way through Lakeview. The Gunderson Manufacturing Company undoubtedly selected this site for its rail access when they built this facility in 1894. A bunch of light manufacturing companies cycled through the building over almost a century, including the Russian Oil Company from the 1920s to the 1970s, but service on this section of the railroad ended in the 1980s. With industry leaving Lakeview and the neighborhood gentrifying, there were only two realistic options here: demolition or a loft conversion. Thankfully, we got the latter–Kenneth Schroeder of Schroeder Murchie Associates (now SMNG A) converted it into residential lofts in the late 1980s.
