Post #624403 by Ragbag Comics on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 8:41 PM

I know Broadway and Wilson was voted dry some time in the 1960's or early 70's, but Harry's would've moved to Wilson way before that (in fact, it likely closed in the 1960's, as most of the ephemera I've seen from there dries up around the mid-to-late 1950's. Anybody know exactly when it closed?)

Even if Harry's HAD made it deep into the '60's, by the 70's the neighborhood had gotten so bad people were razing their buildings for insurance money. The 1980's saw a new alderman and a massive influx of social services and public housing that was still going on up to her retirement a year ago.

My assumption is the building that housed Harry's was probably torn down during the mass exodus of more affluent folks from the neighborhood in the 60's and 70's. Many neighborhood business shuttered their doors around that time. By the 1980's, even the noble, classic Chicago gem that is the Green Mill (Al Capone's ACTUAL old hang out) was more or less abandoned and full of junkies until the current owner bought and restored it in 1989 (leading to a kind of slow renaissance that's still going on today.)

But I digress... no way Harry's was gonna weather that perfect storm.

--Pete