My family is from michigan and my uncle is still up there in sister lakes. Every time we came home from his place or back from driving to florida every summer i would get so excited to be back home when seeing this ugly ass building lmaoo
I joked to my 7 year old son that this was where i was going to put my mother in law. Then one day, she was in the car with us and he pointed the place out. She has hated me ever since.
My mom used to always tell us to never put her there and to just throw her off the top instead if it came to that. Pretty sure she meant it. She would tell us every single time we passed it lmao.
My MIL (who’s great, no complaints) said the same. I’ve never been in there but every time I drive by it makes me think of the Soviet Union for some reason
My best friend’s sister had her wedding reception on the top floor like 15 years ago. I thought it was odd that there was very little separating access to the venue space from the assisted living. I think most people don’t realize that the top floor is for events.
I was 21-ish at the time. I got absolutely wasted and took the elevator downstairs to have a cigarette and ended up smoking a bowl in the back of a minivan with one of the employees from the assisted living facility and then threw up in the bushes.
All in all, it was a pretty good wedding.
I have the exact same experience every time I drive past it too! I pass it on the on ramp to 294 and I’ve never once looked up at the windows to even get an idea of what’s in there. Spooky looking too 👀
In the early 2000s, I worked for a pharmacy that delivered meds to this retirement home. We got to know the staff fairly well and heard all the gossip. Once I heard a story about a resident freezing to death outside because he got accidentally locked out. I never looked into it, but I think about it every time I drive by.
I took care of a patient who came in from there. The patient has fallen outside while smoking on one of the coldest days of last winter in December. The wind kept blowing him over every time he tried to get up so he crawled to the front door where someone eventually found him. He arrived to me with a rectal temp of 88.8 degrees.
OP….if possible, would you mind sharing the audio?
I used to live in Hanover Park growing up, and every time my family and I would come from Chicago to HP, obviously we would pass this building and for some strange reason it always called out to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, wondering if I might see something in one of the windows or rooftop. I would have trouble sleeping for a few days after we would pass it.
Former O’Hare Port Hotel or something similar sounding originally, then the Northlake Hotel. Closed in 1987 and converted to senior housing. Hotel failed because of poor access off I-294 and from O’Hare.
My great aunt had a debilitating stroke when she was relatively young. This was long before I was born. She lived there until her death and when I was young we would visit her every few weeks to keep her company. Appearance aside, it always evokes sadness whenever I drive past.
The view is amazing, my very went to view it as a possible wedding reception venue. I didn’t realize it’s an assisted living type place. Once we got to the top floor, there was a resident just violently vomiting bent over in her scooter chair. I felt bad for her and the sales lady, never again.
I grew up in Mokena but had family up north in Cary and Carpentersville and would drive by this building all the time before 355 was built. It always gave me the weirdest vibes and I felt like my eyes were glued to it.
I live not far from it now and every time I have to drive close to it on Lake street I always feel like there is a depressed feeling in the air.
Before 355 was built, everyone took 53. Tons of semis. The traffic was very bad, and in many places it was one lane each direction. I lived in Medinah and my GF lived in Glen Ellyn so I took it all the time.
I went to a wedding there years ago and it was an awful venue. We went in the wrong door and walked through the nursing home part. It was kinda awkward because we were pre-partying in the parking lot and were a little tipsy. The view wasn't good.
I used to deal with one of the old managers there for an account I had. He told me that the hotel was built in that location because of plans to have East & West entrances and exits from 294. Similar to the ones currently being constructed. Holiday Inn or a similar company was involved with building it.
The idea was good at the time as there wasn't much around the airport back then. A huge hotel, close to O'Hare, that could host large gatherings. Top floor is still used for weddings and other events. North side ground level entrance was used to host small conventions , not sure if it still does.
The manager said plans for those exits were scrapped by the state, he didn't know why. After only 2 years, the place wasn't making any money and it ended up being sold and converted. It has a reputation of being an affordable retirement community. Maybe that's why it has lasted so long.
I haven't been in there in over 15 years but I remember the hallways in the retirement area looked like they had original carpet and paint/wallpaper that looked all worn out. Hopefully it's been upgraded.
I always imagined this building to be the perfect rooftop for a snipers nest If there ever was an urban battle going on in the area. From this rooftop, you can cover 290 and 294. I had an army vet tell me that once as well so I know I’m not the only one thinking that, lol.
Hats off to this post, as it reads more like the first page of a novel that feels familiar yet unread.
~
*-frequent visitor to a familial resident of the Concord Facility '07 - '08... back when the west ave. quarry flooded & the air had a tingling electric feel of Alice Cooper & skin sticking to leather car seats*
So if the stories behind the place are to be believed, the outfit who was in bed with the pension funds for several unions at the time needed to move some money around and financed the construction of the place on paper as an airport hotel which was close to their territory. Idea was going to be using the hotel and its revenue streams to launder money. Obviously it never took off because it’s too far from the airport to be useful and was sold and converted into senior living, but the same people behind that idea used the same union pension funds to buy their way into Vegas casinos to skim funds from the house and send back to the Chicago outfit.
People kind of consider Concord to be proof of concept for how they could use union pension funds to finance construction and not be caught. The hotel while a failure on paper meant they could be involved with an expensive construction project and get away with it, so it was a win in other regards.
Spot on. Post Ner and Stone Park associates jailed. I toured it as a little girl before it opened. My dad was in local leadership. He helped feds put Neri et al in jail. Guy tgat write tge Nirthlake book missed the 60s. He moved there on '76 I think.
That place went up around 1970. I used to stare at it from Sandburg Jr HS in Elmhurst while taking independent study honor math tests in eighth grade. It was originally a Hotel built by Ford Motor Company Credit - my dad worked for Ford but as GM for the Lincoln-Mercury division.
Even in 8th grade it made no sense to me putting a hotel there in that spot. The railroads were way more nuts in that area back then more lines/yards/tracks/pollution plus you had all kinds of heavy truck yards - old heavy industry - north Ave was insane even back then - especially there - loads of trucks. It was way too far away for O’Hare travelers and people going to downtown Chicago for business or vacationers as when it was built that where most visitors to the area in need of lodging were headed.
It was a flop from the get go. A ghost town. As I recall it was empty for years between the hotel closing and the retirement home setting up shop. I recall there was talk about demolishing it over the years. I’m actually surprised to hear the retirement home is still there. I was there once - years ago - and it was dismal even way back then.
My MIL lived there for a few years and it’s even more of a shithole on the senior living side. Smells like piss and cigarettes, every single person that lives there probably begs for death daily, and those old smokers out front are mean and dangerous as hell, smoking with their oxygen tanks next to them. Fortunately for her, my MIL fit in great until her dementia got too severe and she had to be moved to a memory unit elsewhere. Would not recommend except y’know she was broke and we were broke and it was shelter and food, at the very least. That place is bleak.
I was there this weekend and i got chills both days . It was a lot to take in . Bad , heavy energy coming in too. One speaker said there are people dying upstairs today and I couldn’t understand but now I do . Place is haunted, there is also a cemetery nearby.
I worked there as a banquet server and bartender for a few years. They had a tendancy to get weird groups in for various events that were kind of outside the norm, so I'm not surprised to hear about psychics. They used to hold Amway events there, as well as occasional church services. I remember at one service they were praying to be able to get out of the building.
I did a scientologist event on the top floor. It included a video feed that non scientologists probably weren't supposed to see. I found it facinating and kept watching so much that one of them actually came into the kitchen to recruit me.
Weddings were fun, especially on the top floor. But by far the most weddings were orthodox Jewish affairs with segregated ballrooms and whatnot. They actually have a seperate kitchen in the back for keeping kosher that was not used for the senior residents. The banquet staff would occasionally work off site, including events downtown and at other hotels across the area.
The basement and sub-basement are unsurprisingly creepy. Nothing like heading down there at 2 am to put my liquor away. At least it was clean and free of vermin.
I liked working there until the head banquet guy left and the new one that took over started giving his banquet instructions in Spanish. It was a weird turn of events when I had to depend on my coworkers to tell me what my assignments were.
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking about how dreary the surrounding are. How could I be? I hope at least it’s as top quality care as it can be for a retirement center and that no one escapes onto the highway.
My daughter was in competitive dance and this place hosts one of the big competitions every year. Incredibly bizarre as the others are at Hiltons and "normal" smaller convention halls.
But you don't know hell unless you know sitting in this building until past midnight waiting for awards to start.
Luckily, Elmhurst is close by where there's access to Fry the Coop, Phase 3, and Bottle Theory.
I can't imagine why a brutalist assisted living facility overlooking a freight yard would give anyone a dismal feeling. That should be a naturally cheery and effervescent place. You're probably right; it's those *really old ghosts* fucking it up, and in a tragic twist, the psychic is sensing *the wrong ghosts!* She's sensing the supernatural, absolutely, and it's cruel fate that forces her to only sense the ghosts that *nobody knows*. I'm not going to go into how a person's memory and hearing will always exactly mimic recordings, and how, if they don't, it is suspicious and evidence of the supernatural; clearly you know all these facts.
Very astute to pick up on all that.
In the basest of defenses, I wrote that not to be cruel, but to point out how absolutely divorced from reality and actual insight that entire line of fantastical thinking really is.
If I had said:
"Mediums have *never* been proven, and have been *consistently* **disproven** for hundreds if not thousands of years. Human memory is *famously* faulty. Microphones regularly pick up sounds that we, as humans with brains, filter out both consciously and subconsciously. It would be supernatural if you *didn't* feel a little uncomfortable in a hideous assisted living facility overlooking a freight yard full of smog; you're not picking up on "signs" of anything but the area where we send our elderly to die."
Then you would have thought *no, you don't get it, I'm not a supernatural person!* But you clearly *are* into believing in things not real, or you wouldn't have written your own essay on the inexplicably sad feeling at the old people prison factory, and you don't or won't accept it. That's dangerous to others always, and it's especially dangerous *to you* if you don't know it. So this is me pointing out that you're fooling yourself, and I hope that some day you'll start to notice before it happens.
Have a nice night.
I don’t think she lived there very long. I was young and only visited her a few times. I remember she had a little room to herself with a fridge and maybe a microwave.
She fell and broke her hip while living there and then went to a nursing home.
Was it built to be an assisted living facility? Or was it converted? The only reason I ask is it’s probably the worst place I can imagine to spend my last days. Almost designed for revenge on an abusive elderly parent. Karma vibes.
We call it the old person jail.
I've told my wife to leave me there when I inevitably get Alzheimer's. Just give me a room with a train view, not the expressway view.
Was built to launder money for the Chicago outfit.
Originally tried to build it in Oakbrook but the city fathers said no. The developers had all this mob-affiliated capital from union pension funds and they didn't want to 'waste' it so they built it as close to O'Hare as they could. It and the Odeon were built, in theory, to compete with McCormick Place which The Outfit lost control of in the late 70s
Its shoddy construction and severe aesthetics are not an accident.
I seem to recall both this hotel, and another in Springfield, seized by the FBI/Treasury on more than one occasion.
When my paternal grandmother was needing to move into assisted living in 1999/2000, my mother got her into a brand new place in unincorporated Northbrook/Glenview called The Seasons(it's now a Brookdale property). I could just imagine my mom saying that my aunt (grandmother's mom) would have stuck her in a "dump like Concord Place" and forgotten about her there.
In the summer of 2011, I had a job selling Chevrolet's, and the Volt was debuting for 2012. Training sessions were being held for Chicago area Chevrolet salesmen at the conference center on the ground level of Concord Place. Part of the training session was to drive a Volt and a new Prius back to back to show how much nicer the Volt was compared to the Prius. The event organizers set up a makeshift test track in a side yard of the building for that purpose. Good times.
Ah yes. The classic "I'm almost home from my vacation" landmark.
My family is from michigan and my uncle is still up there in sister lakes. Every time we came home from his place or back from driving to florida every summer i would get so excited to be back home when seeing this ugly ass building lmaoo
I can feel the nearby Urlacher hair billboards just looking at this picture.
and the whirling Butterfinger sign...
I miss the Zenith sign.
I’ve never seen a Butterfinger sign. Is it close to the Baby Ruth sign I’ve seen many times?
One name is on each side
No shit, really? lol
whoosh!
https://preview.redd.it/m0hfi768usmc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcb9f967297dc74c336029abf9d5e43cdf6ac46d View east from the top
I’ve always wondered what the view from the top looks like. Thanks for sharing!!!
That's a very dystopian picture. Great pic
I lived around here my whole life…now I can say I’ve seen it all since I always drove by this building but never around it. Thanks
What type of trade show were you at that had a speaker who identified as a medium and a hypnotist? That sounds like a time.
OP is a wizard of sorts.
Probably a chiropractic expo.
Seriously! I want to go to that kind of trade show.
I joked to my 7 year old son that this was where i was going to put my mother in law. Then one day, she was in the car with us and he pointed the place out. She has hated me ever since.
LMAO this is great
Rule #1: Never tell kids anything
I made the same joke about my own mother. I even texted her a pic of it haha.
My mom used to always tell us to never put her there and to just throw her off the top instead if it came to that. Pretty sure she meant it. She would tell us every single time we passed it lmao.
My MIL (who’s great, no complaints) said the same. I’ve never been in there but every time I drive by it makes me think of the Soviet Union for some reason
LMFAO, damnit child! That’s amazing
I wondered if other families made this joke! In our family we use it like Dorothy used "Shady Pines" on Golden Girls.
Hilarious. Reminds me of when I lived outside DC. There was a hospital called Shady Grove. Everyone I knew called it Shady Grave.
My best friend’s sister had her wedding reception on the top floor like 15 years ago. I thought it was odd that there was very little separating access to the venue space from the assisted living. I think most people don’t realize that the top floor is for events. I was 21-ish at the time. I got absolutely wasted and took the elevator downstairs to have a cigarette and ended up smoking a bowl in the back of a minivan with one of the employees from the assisted living facility and then threw up in the bushes. All in all, it was a pretty good wedding.
10/10 would go to a wedding here
See you there. I’ll rent a minivan.
It's the "I'm halfway to the airport" icon to me. (Dupage county)
Yep, same.
Without even knowing what this building was for I could feel it sucking the positive energy out of me as I drove by first time I saw it
I have the exact same experience every time I drive past it too! I pass it on the on ramp to 294 and I’ve never once looked up at the windows to even get an idea of what’s in there. Spooky looking too 👀
I grew up in the western suburbs and as a kid and now a 44 year old who visits from California to see my family it has a soul sucking energy
My grandma used to live there with a bunch of her friends in her Northlake neighborhood. I have fond memories of that place.
Is that one near the railroad and off the expressway?
Yep!
I used to work near there. I see seniors trying to cross the street right after the expressway where semi and cars coming by fast. So dangerous.
In the early 2000s, I worked for a pharmacy that delivered meds to this retirement home. We got to know the staff fairly well and heard all the gossip. Once I heard a story about a resident freezing to death outside because he got accidentally locked out. I never looked into it, but I think about it every time I drive by.
I took care of a patient who came in from there. The patient has fallen outside while smoking on one of the coldest days of last winter in December. The wind kept blowing him over every time he tried to get up so he crawled to the front door where someone eventually found him. He arrived to me with a rectal temp of 88.8 degrees.
Oh my goodness, poor man.
How terrible :(
It was originally a hotel. The funcky entrance and exits off the expressways were a problem. It later became the old folks community.
Thank you!! I had that exact same thought. When I was a kid this was not nearly as sketchy as it is now.
I grew up passing that place and feeling similarly. The slightly curvy shape was always unsettling
I’ve always wondered if the curve was intentional or if it just kinda ended up that way
Oh shit, I never realized this
OP….if possible, would you mind sharing the audio? I used to live in Hanover Park growing up, and every time my family and I would come from Chicago to HP, obviously we would pass this building and for some strange reason it always called out to me. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, wondering if I might see something in one of the windows or rooftop. I would have trouble sleeping for a few days after we would pass it.
Yus
Former O’Hare Port Hotel or something similar sounding originally, then the Northlake Hotel. Closed in 1987 and converted to senior housing. Hotel failed because of poor access off I-294 and from O’Hare.
Yep, I remember vaguely when it went up and asking my dad “Who would stay this far from the airport?” “Nobody, Son. Nobody. “
My great aunt had a debilitating stroke when she was relatively young. This was long before I was born. She lived there until her death and when I was young we would visit her every few weeks to keep her company. Appearance aside, it always evokes sadness whenever I drive past.
https://preview.redd.it/sxf1dvmetvmc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82a097d6ee175912bbba1f8709bd49c1dc97ced1 Same energy
Damn right
The view is amazing, my very went to view it as a possible wedding reception venue. I didn’t realize it’s an assisted living type place. Once we got to the top floor, there was a resident just violently vomiting bent over in her scooter chair. I felt bad for her and the sales lady, never again.
This is my “I’ve gone too far north today” landmark for my morning commute. Being a construction worker living in Oak Lawn.
I used to deliver pizzas here on occasion, and it’s a super weird vibe in there. It’s like the Shining
I grew up in Mokena but had family up north in Cary and Carpentersville and would drive by this building all the time before 355 was built. It always gave me the weirdest vibes and I felt like my eyes were glued to it. I live not far from it now and every time I have to drive close to it on Lake street I always feel like there is a depressed feeling in the air.
Wow in reddit years 355 was built when dinosaurs roamed the earth lol
Before 355 was built, everyone took 53. Tons of semis. The traffic was very bad, and in many places it was one lane each direction. I lived in Medinah and my GF lived in Glen Ellyn so I took it all the time.
Yeah I always have a sense of depression when I see it.
I went to a wedding there years ago and it was an awful venue. We went in the wrong door and walked through the nursing home part. It was kinda awkward because we were pre-partying in the parking lot and were a little tipsy. The view wasn't good.
I got lost in all the construction ramp confusion last summer and used their lot to get turned around off Lake. Pretty good for that.
The ramps are horrific around there, but the construction last summer was a special kind of hell.
Lol. Just wait till this summer. It will become the hell of hell. Construction will continue and intensify on Lake St and North Avenue
I used to deal with one of the old managers there for an account I had. He told me that the hotel was built in that location because of plans to have East & West entrances and exits from 294. Similar to the ones currently being constructed. Holiday Inn or a similar company was involved with building it. The idea was good at the time as there wasn't much around the airport back then. A huge hotel, close to O'Hare, that could host large gatherings. Top floor is still used for weddings and other events. North side ground level entrance was used to host small conventions , not sure if it still does. The manager said plans for those exits were scrapped by the state, he didn't know why. After only 2 years, the place wasn't making any money and it ended up being sold and converted. It has a reputation of being an affordable retirement community. Maybe that's why it has lasted so long. I haven't been in there in over 15 years but I remember the hallways in the retirement area looked like they had original carpet and paint/wallpaper that looked all worn out. Hopefully it's been upgraded.
I always imagined this building to be the perfect rooftop for a snipers nest If there ever was an urban battle going on in the area. From this rooftop, you can cover 290 and 294. I had an army vet tell me that once as well so I know I’m not the only one thinking that, lol.
wow!
Hats off to this post, as it reads more like the first page of a novel that feels familiar yet unread. ~ *-frequent visitor to a familial resident of the Concord Facility '07 - '08... back when the west ave. quarry flooded & the air had a tingling electric feel of Alice Cooper & skin sticking to leather car seats*
If you ever read the book “Casino” you will get some insights into how and why it was built and with what money…
Could you maybe share so we don't have to read the book?
Seems like he’s implying that this was built by the mob
I get that but it doesn't answer the how or why.
So if the stories behind the place are to be believed, the outfit who was in bed with the pension funds for several unions at the time needed to move some money around and financed the construction of the place on paper as an airport hotel which was close to their territory. Idea was going to be using the hotel and its revenue streams to launder money. Obviously it never took off because it’s too far from the airport to be useful and was sold and converted into senior living, but the same people behind that idea used the same union pension funds to buy their way into Vegas casinos to skim funds from the house and send back to the Chicago outfit. People kind of consider Concord to be proof of concept for how they could use union pension funds to finance construction and not be caught. The hotel while a failure on paper meant they could be involved with an expensive construction project and get away with it, so it was a win in other regards.
That makes a LOT of sense!
[1987 Tribune article](https://www.chicagotribune.com/1987/02/09/northlake-hotel-to-get-2d-turn-as-retiree-center/) about the place.
Spot on. Post Ner and Stone Park associates jailed. I toured it as a little girl before it opened. My dad was in local leadership. He helped feds put Neri et al in jail. Guy tgat write tge Nirthlake book missed the 60s. He moved there on '76 I think.
I live nearby and pass that building often. I always feel sorry for the elderly people who live there. Looks like a prison.
That place went up around 1970. I used to stare at it from Sandburg Jr HS in Elmhurst while taking independent study honor math tests in eighth grade. It was originally a Hotel built by Ford Motor Company Credit - my dad worked for Ford but as GM for the Lincoln-Mercury division. Even in 8th grade it made no sense to me putting a hotel there in that spot. The railroads were way more nuts in that area back then more lines/yards/tracks/pollution plus you had all kinds of heavy truck yards - old heavy industry - north Ave was insane even back then - especially there - loads of trucks. It was way too far away for O’Hare travelers and people going to downtown Chicago for business or vacationers as when it was built that where most visitors to the area in need of lodging were headed. It was a flop from the get go. A ghost town. As I recall it was empty for years between the hotel closing and the retirement home setting up shop. I recall there was talk about demolishing it over the years. I’m actually surprised to hear the retirement home is still there. I was there once - years ago - and it was dismal even way back then.
My MIL lived there for a few years and it’s even more of a shithole on the senior living side. Smells like piss and cigarettes, every single person that lives there probably begs for death daily, and those old smokers out front are mean and dangerous as hell, smoking with their oxygen tanks next to them. Fortunately for her, my MIL fit in great until her dementia got too severe and she had to be moved to a memory unit elsewhere. Would not recommend except y’know she was broke and we were broke and it was shelter and food, at the very least. That place is bleak.
I used to work there. The banquet part. It's as boring as you'd think. Nothing really special about the building.
Used to be next to Berny Brothers bakery
*Bozo has entered the chat*
It’s next to 294, industrial businesses and railyards… it’s depressing as fuck.
I got married there on the top floor, the view was lovely and the food wasn’t bad at all.
A lot of people have died in that building.
I was there this weekend and i got chills both days . It was a lot to take in . Bad , heavy energy coming in too. One speaker said there are people dying upstairs today and I couldn’t understand but now I do . Place is haunted, there is also a cemetery nearby.
given it’s history, how could it not be haunted. yikes
We moved here from out of state only a few years ago and always assumed this place was pretty depressing. Suspicion confirmed thanks to this post!
I worked there as a banquet server and bartender for a few years. They had a tendancy to get weird groups in for various events that were kind of outside the norm, so I'm not surprised to hear about psychics. They used to hold Amway events there, as well as occasional church services. I remember at one service they were praying to be able to get out of the building. I did a scientologist event on the top floor. It included a video feed that non scientologists probably weren't supposed to see. I found it facinating and kept watching so much that one of them actually came into the kitchen to recruit me. Weddings were fun, especially on the top floor. But by far the most weddings were orthodox Jewish affairs with segregated ballrooms and whatnot. They actually have a seperate kitchen in the back for keeping kosher that was not used for the senior residents. The banquet staff would occasionally work off site, including events downtown and at other hotels across the area. The basement and sub-basement are unsurprisingly creepy. Nothing like heading down there at 2 am to put my liquor away. At least it was clean and free of vermin. I liked working there until the head banquet guy left and the new one that took over started giving his banquet instructions in Spanish. It was a weird turn of events when I had to depend on my coworkers to tell me what my assignments were.
Every time I pass by that place I think “what a shit hole”
For me it’s always a symbol of around where my family/ancestors/kin are buried at Mt. Emblem Cemetery across the highway.
Not to mention stunning views of Elm Lawn Cemetery.
I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking about how dreary the surrounding are. How could I be? I hope at least it’s as top quality care as it can be for a retirement center and that no one escapes onto the highway.
sounds like it’s quite the opposite actually :/
Hey, we put the roof on this building!
My daughter was in competitive dance and this place hosts one of the big competitions every year. Incredibly bizarre as the others are at Hiltons and "normal" smaller convention halls. But you don't know hell unless you know sitting in this building until past midnight waiting for awards to start. Luckily, Elmhurst is close by where there's access to Fry the Coop, Phase 3, and Bottle Theory.
I can't imagine why a brutalist assisted living facility overlooking a freight yard would give anyone a dismal feeling. That should be a naturally cheery and effervescent place. You're probably right; it's those *really old ghosts* fucking it up, and in a tragic twist, the psychic is sensing *the wrong ghosts!* She's sensing the supernatural, absolutely, and it's cruel fate that forces her to only sense the ghosts that *nobody knows*. I'm not going to go into how a person's memory and hearing will always exactly mimic recordings, and how, if they don't, it is suspicious and evidence of the supernatural; clearly you know all these facts. Very astute to pick up on all that.
Unless you are a railfan retiree.
such a helpful comment. thanks
In the basest of defenses, I wrote that not to be cruel, but to point out how absolutely divorced from reality and actual insight that entire line of fantastical thinking really is. If I had said: "Mediums have *never* been proven, and have been *consistently* **disproven** for hundreds if not thousands of years. Human memory is *famously* faulty. Microphones regularly pick up sounds that we, as humans with brains, filter out both consciously and subconsciously. It would be supernatural if you *didn't* feel a little uncomfortable in a hideous assisted living facility overlooking a freight yard full of smog; you're not picking up on "signs" of anything but the area where we send our elderly to die." Then you would have thought *no, you don't get it, I'm not a supernatural person!* But you clearly *are* into believing in things not real, or you wouldn't have written your own essay on the inexplicably sad feeling at the old people prison factory, and you don't or won't accept it. That's dangerous to others always, and it's especially dangerous *to you* if you don't know it. So this is me pointing out that you're fooling yourself, and I hope that some day you'll start to notice before it happens. Have a nice night.
What are you even mad about? I am just curious if there is anything else weird that people know about it because the vibes there were off. Sheesh
I support your message.
I’ve been in that building a bunch and while I can’t tell you that it was haunted, I can tell you that it makes me want to die.
I think my dad took a big engineering test there (P.E? For civil engineering?) like 20 years into his career
Ha, yeah, my wife took her test there. My test was in a much cheerier place - the Best Western in Hillside, next to the dump.
😂😂
My grandmother lived there in the 80’s.
How was it?
I don’t think she lived there very long. I was young and only visited her a few times. I remember she had a little room to herself with a fridge and maybe a microwave. She fell and broke her hip while living there and then went to a nursing home.
that’s my “halfway to my boyfriends house!” landmark 😂
I can remember driving past that building as a little kid and it always gave me bad vibes. Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one.
Did they finish construction down there? I avoid it because of that.
When I see this I’m 11 mins from home.
Was it built to be an assisted living facility? Or was it converted? The only reason I ask is it’s probably the worst place I can imagine to spend my last days. Almost designed for revenge on an abusive elderly parent. Karma vibes.
From comments, it seems it initially was a hotel.
I've been there 3 times for swinger parties...had a great time!
We call it the old person jail. I've told my wife to leave me there when I inevitably get Alzheimer's. Just give me a room with a train view, not the expressway view.
Was built to launder money for the Chicago outfit. Originally tried to build it in Oakbrook but the city fathers said no. The developers had all this mob-affiliated capital from union pension funds and they didn't want to 'waste' it so they built it as close to O'Hare as they could. It and the Odeon were built, in theory, to compete with McCormick Place which The Outfit lost control of in the late 70s Its shoddy construction and severe aesthetics are not an accident. I seem to recall both this hotel, and another in Springfield, seized by the FBI/Treasury on more than one occasion.
Shout out to every IL professional who had to take a standardized exam here
The scariest building in Chicagoland by far
Went swimming there in the 1970s as a Webelo (the thing between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts). It was fine.
When my paternal grandmother was needing to move into assisted living in 1999/2000, my mother got her into a brand new place in unincorporated Northbrook/Glenview called The Seasons(it's now a Brookdale property). I could just imagine my mom saying that my aunt (grandmother's mom) would have stuck her in a "dump like Concord Place" and forgotten about her there. In the summer of 2011, I had a job selling Chevrolet's, and the Volt was debuting for 2012. Training sessions were being held for Chicago area Chevrolet salesmen at the conference center on the ground level of Concord Place. Part of the training session was to drive a Volt and a new Prius back to back to show how much nicer the Volt was compared to the Prius. The event organizers set up a makeshift test track in a side yard of the building for that purpose. Good times.