STREETERVILLE.

STREETERVILLE. The Calatrava-designed Chicago Spire and parts of the Magnificent Mile are located in Streeterville. Chicago is unusual among major cities in owing so much of its land area to one man, Cap Streeter. My father used to tell us the story of Cap Streeter over the dinner table. Cap (for “Captain”) Streeter ran his steamboat aground on a sand bar off the coast of Chicago in the 1880′s. Streeter remained on the steamboat and made his home there. Silt gradually surrounded the boat. Streeter claimed the land was his, encouraged contractors to dump their wastes on his site to expand it and issued deeds to homesteaders. He fought off a number of attempts by police to evict him until he died in 1921. My father said that Chicago Title and Trust had unusually large reserves because claims arising from Cap Streeter’s claims, although weak, had such a large potential monetary value. The John Hancock building is on the site of Cap Streeter’s claim.