A Pilson Icon for 21 Years and Counting

LOCATION

2149 S. Halsted Street

Chicago, IL 60608

CONTACT

312.624.8583

HOURS

Mon – Thu: 4 pm to 2 am

Friday: 3 pm to 2 am

Saturday: 12 pm to 3 am

Sunday: 11 am to 2 am

 

KITCHEN HOURS

Mon – Wed: 4 pm to 11 pm

Thu – Fri: 4 pm to Midnight

Saturday: 12 pm to Midnight

Sunday: 11 am to Midnight

The History of Skylark

Built in 1910 by Harris Huehl and Richard Schmid

For over a century, 2149 S Halsted St has been a hub of labor, leisure, and everyday life. The address is the current home of the Skylark, an artsy dive opened in 2003 by Bob McHale and sold in early 2024 to 6 longtime workers.[1] Above the bar are two large apartments owned and inhabited by two workers/new owners.

The building’s overall form came to be in 1910, commissioned by the Birks Brothers for their new Tied House.[2] Tied houses gained popularity in pre-prohibition America due to rising license fees for saloons and strains on tavern owners fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment.[3] In a tied house model, a tavern would exclusively serve the beer of a certain brewery, and the brewery would compensate with supplies, fees, and often distinctive architecture. On the current building at 2149 S Halsted, one can still see vestiges of that identity in the form of an elegant B emblem above the door, a few letters remaining of an intricate but well-worn floor mosaic at the entrance.

The building resembles a classic bohemian style. A tour guide from the early 80s describes how the neighborhood was built by Bohemian Immigrants and “how Pilsen’s architecture still shows clear signs of its origins.” he describes a “typical building is a solid brick structure, usually two stories and finished off at the top with a fancy false facade that often stands off of the roof itself, just like those in the streets of a central European city.”[4] The building was designed by Shriners Architects Huehl & Schmid, who would come to make the famous Moorish Revival Medina Temple at 600 N Wabash Ave a couple of years later.

The building would go through many phases: breakdowns and buildups shaped, sometimes slowly and sometimes suddenly, the tides of the city’s history. Pubs at the turn of the century were a site of democratic discourse, an important source of food, and a site of labor resistance and organizing. With prohibition in the 20s, the house continued to operate as a saloon.[5]

Rand McNally & Co publishers, Map of Chicago No. 3. Published 1891

In 1929, the American Janitor Supply Co, two residents, and Androgg E J Meats occupied the upstairs units, likely a lunch counter. [6] From 1932-1952 the building housed ‘Kaufman’s Tavern.’[7] For the next couple of decades, it became a public lunch counter, where hungry workers would post up at a barstool in the morning, get recruited for work at the stockyards, and then cash their checks at the end of the day at the register behind the bar they arrived at. [8] The hole in the wall is still where the old teller was, covered by scrap drywall and a kitschy, beloved painting.[9] The proximity to the stockyards made for a bustling hub of local workers ready to be recruited and to take the edge off a long day’s work. The worlds collided in many ways: a 1954 building resident caught a runaway cow.[10]

Kaufman didn’t have an easy time running the place. In March 1937, two bandits stole $1,192 ($27,465 in 2024 dollars) from the register with the threat of a sawed-off shotgun and a revolver.[11] In December 1950, two others stole at least $600 ($7,859 in 2024 dollars) from a register when Kaufman was cashing a check. They shot a customer on their way out, who didn’t seem to notice the commotion. The driver was revealed to be a former English teacher and current drill press operator. She claimed she drank 25 beers and a pint and a half of whiskey per day. It spun on the ice when she tried to drive the getaway car. Kaufman fired five bullets. They still escaped.[12] In 1952, Kaufman was living in the unit above the bar. One of his bartenders schemed with a fellow burglar to rob Kaufman of $10,700 ($127,457 in 2024 dollars) in payday cash. The conspiring bartender left the door open at night so that two burglars could enter. When they entered, they tortured: burning a cigarette lighter into Kaufman’s ear until he disclosed the hiding place of the cash, and beat him and his wife with pistols.[13]

Edward Kaufman retired at age 57 after running the bar for 20 years. He died three years later of a heart attack in his new home.[14] In 1956 Kaufman’s Tavern remained there, even though its namesake had died a year before. The building also housed two doctors: John J Kerwin MD and Dr PE Armstrong.[15, 16].

Cabinet Isometric 2147-2149 S Halsted Illustration by Rosa Gaia

Pilsen underwent a significant demographic change from primarily Czech/Bohemian to predominantly Mexican American communities in the middle of the century. A major driver was the residents' mass displacement by the UIC campus building, which was also paired with positive opportunities and cultural developments in the Pilsen neighborhood.[17] During this time, a mix of medical and administrative offices would continue to occupy the floors above the tavern, and the main floor would soon become a neighborhood pub called Cozzies Corner, a place of community gathering and more grizzly crime. In 1971, two robbers stole $15,000 ($116,912 in 2024 dollars) from the bar prepped for payday.[18] A customer called security, but the police accidentally went to the nearby currency exchange.[19]

In 1973, a loading dock worker went to get sandwiches for his fellow workers at Cozzie’s Corner and was fatally shot on the way home through the front door car window. He was found with 12 sandwiches in the front seat and his wallet still in his pocket.[20] No motive is known. 59-year-old Cozzi’s Corner Bar Manager John Morin was shot in a holdup in 1974.[21] Eleven thousand dollars was taken from 60-year-old bartender James Wolf in 1975. A news article in 1977 describes blood streaming down Cermak Street after Adolph Cozzie shot a potential burglar to death and his bloodied accomplice ran away.[22]

By the late 80s, the stories had gotten a bit fluffier. The next big news story came up in 1988 when a man walking home from the Cozzie's at 3:30 am got trapped in a deep pile of wet cement but was rescued by other late-night revelers.[23] A kafkaesque image of a changing city gobbling up its residents.

Bob McHale would take over in 2003 and take on the work of repair without radical change. The new injuries from patrons were more benign: a stage was removed only a decade ago because people kept falling off in drunken revelry, and insurers insisted that they get rid of it. Bob had to fill some spaces under the main floor with modern concrete blocks. Sadly, some history got buried in the process. Only a few years ago, one could walk into small alcoves underground through the basement.

To this day, you can see windows against packed earth and concrete. They were likely the basement of the streetcar station in 1890, the prologue of the building's story.[24, 25]. Pilsen was spared the great Chicago fire of 1870, so it enjoyed great prosperity for a while and would soon be the site of the battle of the Viaduct.

As such, the building started not as a place to stay a while but to arrive and go again, an interstitial space on the edges of a city risen from flames, alive and ferocious. The building that houses the skylark is a century of tragicomedy, a story that intersects with many types of labor. Doctors seeing patients. Stockyard workers lunching and cashing checks. And the many acts of the multiple iterations of workers/owners: beers poured, sandwiches wrapped, bullets fired, fluids cleaned, rules enforced, comforts offered. What beautiful and heavy labor it is: to create a place for others to gather. What a powerful building it is to hold all the mess and miracles.

Photo courtesy thetrolleydodger.com.

Thank you to Rosa Gaia for generously allowing us to share her research our our website.

    1. Savedra, Madison. 2024. “Skylark Employees Buy Popular Pilsen Dive Bar, and They’re Keeping It the Same.” Block Club Chicago. January 24, 2024.

    2. Chrucky, Serhii . 2009. “Tied Houses | Forgotten Chicago | History, Architecture, and Infrastructure.” For- gotten Chicago. January 11, 2009.

    3. Grossman, R. (2015, Sep 27). Chicago's lager beer riot proved immigrants' power. Chicago Tribune Tavern Culture of the late 1800s was robust, but not without contention. In 1855, Mayor Levi Boone from the Know-Noth- ing Party was elected on an anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic platform. Boone aimed to restrict the pleasures of immigrants, particularly the Sunday tavern tradition. He enforced a Sunday-closing law selectively, targeting immigrant neighborhoods and raising liquor license fees from $50 to $300. This led to clashes which came to a climax in the Lager Beer Riot in 1855, where immigrants protested against these measures.

    4. Grossman, Ronald P. Guide to Chicago neighborhoods. Piscataway, NJ: New Century, 1981.

    5. “Male Help Wanted” Chicago Daily News (Chicago, Illinois), July 8, 1920: 29. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. A classified ad searched for a Porter at a saloon for the address in 1920.

    6. Polk's Chicago (Illinois) City Directory. Chicago: R.L. Polk, 1929.

    7. “Death Notices” Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, Illinois), December 17, 1955: 47. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    8. Mesick, Sam (Business and property owner), in-person interview with author, Skylark Bar, February 7th, 2024.

    9. Mesick, Sam (Business and property owner), in-person interview with author, Skylark Bar, February 7th, 2024.

    10. Photo, TRIBUNE. "Runaway Heifer Trapped by Two." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Jul 04, 1954.

    11. Daily Times (Chicago, Illinois), March 24, 1937: 64. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    12. "BANDITS WOUND TAVERN PATRON, FLEE UNDER FIRE: TWO GUNMEN, WOMAN ELUDE POLICE CHASE." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Dec 12, 1950.

    13. $10,700 TORTURE ROBBERY BRINGS LIFE TERMS TO 2. (1952, Jan 09). Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963)

    14. “Death Notices” Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, Illinois), December 17, 1955: 47. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    15. Polk's Chicago (Illinois) City Directory. Chicago: R.L. Polk, 1951.

    16. “Death Notices” Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, Illinois), December 17, 1955: 47. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    17. Gallardo, Michelle. 2022. “How Pilsen Transitioned from a Bohemian Neighborhood to the Heart of Chicago’s Mexican Community.” ABC7 Chicago. October 10, 2022.

    18. Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, Illinois), March 27, 1971: 96. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    19. Crimmins, Jerry. "News Briefs: 4 Rob Tavern of $15,000." Chicago Tribune (1963-1996), Mar 27, 1971

    20. Haramija, F. (1973, Nov 21). Truck firm employee shot fatally. Chicago Tribune (1963-1996)

    21. Seize 2 in bar holdup. (1974, Jun 22). Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition)

    22. Wattley, Philip. "Tavern Owner Slays would-be Holdup Man." Chicago Tribune (1963-1996), Dec 17, 1977

    23. “Pothole? No, this was a real manhole” Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, Illinois), April 12, 1975: 14. News- Bank: Access World News – Historical and Current.

    24. Between 1891 and 1910 Map, an additional streetcar line appears going east-west on Halsted and 22nd, where the building would have been before Cermac Street was created in 1931.

Skylark in the Media

“With more than two dozen mostly local beers on tap and a food menu ranging from pierogi with applesauce to vegan Sloppy Joes and cod po’boys, this neighborhood joint seemingly offers something for everyone”
— Nikki Roberts, Chicago Magazine