NORTH CENTER — Time travel is real.
We discovered a portal to the past at the corner of Hutchinson and Campbell, where it's possible to transport oneself to Chicago circa 1900 simply by standing on the sidewalk.
A pair of brick and stone pillars at the intersection welcomes visitors to Aubert Avenue, which has long since ceased to exist.
What's with the street's dual identity?
Like hundreds of Chicago streets, Aubert Avenue was a victim of the city's effort more than a century ago to standardize numbering and streamline naming.
Streets were renumbered in 1909, when Madison and State became the baselines for Chicago's grid.
A comprehensive directory of the new numbers, published at the time of the switch and now available online, shows that Aubert Avenue was still alive and well in 1909.
It was, however, confusingly listed as both a street and an avenue, and therein lies a clue to Aubert's demise.
Edward Brennan, architect of the numbering system, wasn't content to stick to numerals. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Brennan also tirelessly campaigned to eliminate duplicate street names — Did the city need two Auberts? Brennan thought not. He also sought to maintain consistent names for "broken-link" streets.
In 1913, he got his wish when a pair of ordinances changed the names of more than 500 Chicago streets, with many of the new names recommended by Brennan.
Aubert Avenue became Hutchinson, which not only swallowed up Aubert but other "broken links" like Kenesaw Terrace and Melville Place on its continuous march from 640 West to 5599 West.
Other casualties included Robey Street, now known as Damen Avenue, and Lincoln Street, now known as Wolcott Avenue.
The Aubert pillars are a tangible remnant of this key moment in Chicago's past, but it's worth noting that the street's current name preserves an equally important piece of the city's history.
If Charles Hutchinson's name doesn't ring a bell like Montgomery Ward, Daniel Burnham or Marshall Field, it should.
Hutchinson's resume: founding president of the Art Institute of Chicago, founding trustee of the University of Chicago and chairman of the fine arts committee for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
He also founded the Corn Exchange Bank, which has gone through a few name changes of its own. You might know it better today as a little institution called JP Morgan Chase.
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