The Best Period Parking Lot Photo- Grant Park in Chicago Circa 1929

[Randy in Illinois]

Many buildings were still heated with coal, no emission regulations on factorys/ cars.

[Bruce of MN]

I worked in the tallest building on the left 33 yrs ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35_East_Wacker

[big job]

Boy I was way off on this one. I thought this was at the capitol and those were all the
polititions high buck cars.

[dean from bozeman]

There are two Sedans with landau irons. Did they actually work? Does the rear section of the roof act like a convertible? What make of car might these be?

Thanks.
Dean

[mccsix]

Winter in Chicago = dirty slush till Spring.
I used to (along with my bumper buddies) hide behind parked cars and wait for a slow car going by. In the heavy snow we would crouch down and grab hold of the bumpers and go for a ride, dropping off at different places and catch another ride back to a starting point. We would wear buckle up goloshes(sp).
Everything was OK till you hit one of those warm/steamy manhole covers which would send you head over tea kettle into a curb or a parked car. Some drivers would figure out what we were up to, stop get out and chase us others would speed up and try to shake us off....never did understand at that age who was dumber!

[DougVieyra]

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Dean from Bozeman - ". . . Sedans with landau irons. Did they actually work?"
_____________________________________

No, the sedans with the Landau Irons did not work - the were for ornamentation to add a bit of 'class'.

However, they were made to emulate the extremely rare 'Laundaulette' , which DID have it's rear quarter fold down to expose the riders in the rear seat to the open sky. More commonly seen in European marques, they did occasionally show up in custom-made American cars, and even a few in production cars. I have seen even the lowly Chevrolet with a few examples of this unique body style. But FAR more often the fake Landau Irons were non-functioning, for 'style' and ornamentation only.

I have always like them, and had installed a pair on my 1928 Blind-Back Sedan back in the 1960's. My 1928 Chevrolet Coupe had them on as well - a factory item, as in the Ford Model A 'Sport Coupe' - factory fake, put on for style.

[fourspeedwagon]

Originally Posted by mccsix

Looks like a parking lot for the "swells". That's a lot of fancy cars in one place!

That's exactly what I thought when I looked at it. I'm not that good at IDing cars from the 20s but when I saw they were mostly big (BIG) sedans I figured - now this is some sort of executive parking lot!
Dad would've loved this pic and probably would've named off nearly every car there.

[lookin-backtexas]

Originally Posted by dean from bozeman

There are two Sedans with landau irons. Did they actually work? Does the rear section of the roof act like a convertible? What make of car might these be?

Thanks.
Dean

Dean:
Lots of mid-20's car makers used the landau irons to dress up different body styles. Here are some photos of '25-'28 Buicks with them. Obviously they were purely ornamental and the top did not go down.

Ford also used them on Model A Sport Coupes which were nonfunctional and purely decorative.

Fred

[old car guy]

Also if you look close there appears to be a plane on the right side at about the 2 o'clock area that would have to have been a rare site even then . Wonder what the value of that lot would be today in 2013 dollars. Who would need the mega millions lottery money if you had all of those cars. Amazing picture

[mccsix]

This is one of things that are there now..."the bean" a massive polished 110 ton s/s sculpture. I believe Buckingham Fountain would be on that site as well.