HYDE PARK — Architectural buffs can get a whirlwind tour of the building boom that created the opulent storefronts on 71st Street during a free architectural tour on Saturday.
“Starting in the 1910s, South Shore experienced a stunning real estate boom centered around the train line that still runs down 71st Street,” said Eric Allix Rogers, one of the organizers of the tour. “The area became a small city unto itself, with restaurants, retail stores, movie palaces, banks, and more, all built in a variety of the day’s most popular architectural styles.”
Starting at 1 p.m. at Give Me Some Sugah Bakery, 2234 E. 71st St., participants can get a concentrated dose of the elaborate terra cotta and brickwork that defined the city’s building boom at the beginning of the 20th century.
The tour will include stops to view the elaborate cream terra cotta frieze on the Jeffery Theater at the corner of 71st and Jeffery Boulevard and the art deco details of the Jeffery Terrace apartment building at 7130 S. Jeffery.
“This tour will step into South Shore’s past, visiting many of the landmark buildings from that period which still stand today,” Rogers said. “The tour will also explore 71st Street’s more recent history of community and political activism, including a stop at a storefront which was home to Barack Obama’s first campaign office.”
The tour will run for about an hour and will be moved to Sunday in case of rain.
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