I once heard that Chicago’s Central Camera Company was founded at around the time that the flames of the great Chicago Fire was finally put out. As colorful as that may sound, it isn’t true. According to the sign on the store itself, it has only been in business since 1899. By Chicago standards, that’s positively ancient. The company’s founder, Albert Flesch, would be impressed that his small company still operates in the twenty first century, but the relatives he left in Hungary would probably not be too impressed. There are “new” constructions in the Central and Eastern Europe that date back centuries; in fact in some parts of Europe, if a building (or company) is under 400 years old, it’s still considered new. Oh well…by Chicago standards, Central Camera Company is not only venerable, but it’s one of the few living companies that has come to define an element of the city’s cultural legacy. I don’t know if the store/repair shop holds any kind of protected historical icon status, but in my opinion, it should. It’s 111 years old and boasts three generations of same-family ownership. I snapped this picture during the first hints of autumn in 2010; I was on my way from work to Corey’s, as I was helping during his initial recovery period. I found it quite heartening that a place as obviously old (by US-American standards) could still exist, and that it wasn’t torn down so that more overpriced, generic condominiums could be built. Chicago has enough of those; in fact, Chicago has a surplus; we could actually generate city revenue by selling them to countries with a distinct ugly-condo deficit. I somehow think that idea won’t work, however. Oh well… At any rate, I took this photo on a particularly historical stretch of Wabash Avenue. It’s an area of the city defined by old things. The elevated train tracks just out of frame here, look their age. Central Camera Company looks its age—though with substantially less rust than the El tracks. Other buildings along the same stretch of Wabash Avenue boast facades (and rear portions) of real stone, cramped elevators with brass fittings, and dust as old as the city itself. We still have nothing on Prague and other Central/Eastern European cities of truly ancient pedigree, but we do have old and undisturbed dust; that counts for something, I suppose. I have yet to actually do any shopping at Central Camera Company; it’s not exactly a cheap place, but it’s a nice one to photograph. Maybe I’ll just learn to say something in Hungarian (other than a bit of dialogue from Blade Runner and say it to the current owner. I doubt that it would get me a free camera, but one never knows. I do know, for certain, that they’ve got antique European cameras for sale there, so maybe I might find a reasonably priced, old-school Lomo, or a classic Leica…or maybe not. And so here you have it, 111 years of Chicago history and with a sign that still works. I somehow doubt that the sign is 111 years old…it might only be 110, but still…it’s an old-school sign. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a fantastic, somewhat warmer week, if your weather is anything like Chicago’s at the moment.