CBA Record November-December 2025

CHICAGO LORE BY RICHARD LEE STAVINS

The Chicago Bar Association, being a long-standing Chicago institution that promotes the law and those who practice it, is inaugurating an occasional column devoted to Chicago lore. We’ll make note of interesting tidbits from Chicago’s rich history, with an emphasis on the law and lawyers. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for coverage in future columns by sending an email to cbarecord@chicagobar.org. Abraham Lincoln and Al Capone: Lesser-Known Lore of Two Famous Sons

Lincoln I n 1860, Abraham Lincoln, now Illi nois’ most celebrated lawyer, was nominated as a presidential candidate by the then-new Republican Party at the first political convention ever to be held in Chicago. The convention’s venue was a new meeting hall called The Wigwam, which was demolished soon after the convention. Lincoln’s vice-presidential nominee? The now-forgotten Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Where was The Wigwam? It was located at what is now the intersection of West Lake Street and North Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. Today, a commemorative plaque stands at the site of The Wigwam on the Wacker Drive median, just south of the Lake Street El, to commemorate Lincoln’s nomination. Capone In 1931, Al Capone, Illinois’ most noto rious gangster, was tried and convicted of income tax evasion at the old federal courthouse and post office, located on the South Dearborn Street block where the Kluczynski federal office building now stands. The old courthouse was con structed in the Greek revival architectural

columns stand now? In the 1980s, the Outer Drive—now Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive—was rerouted eastward and a miniature park was created on East Randolph Street on the site of the old Outer Drive roadway. Two of the col umns that Capone once walked past from the old courthouse were hauled out of the lake and re-erected in the park. The park was a donation to Chicago by Henry Bloch—the “H” in H & R Block tax preparers—and is named the Cancer Survivors Garden. Mr. Bloch was then a cancer survivor. He subsequently passed on at age 96. Brides and grooms love to be photo graphed standing beneath the two mas sive columns, with the Field Museum in the distant background. Most are unaware that the columns sort of commemorate the conviction of mobster Capone by aggressive government lawyers and have nothing to do with surviving cancer or getting married. Long ago, these two Corinthian columns adorned the exterior of the now-demolished old federal courthouse. They currently grace the Cancer Survivors Garden on East Randolph Street in Chicago. (Photo: Richard Stavins)

style popular at the time. So, of course, massive decorative Corinthian columns adorned the exterior. When the old courthouse was demol ished in the1960s, a few of those col umns were unceremoniously dumped in Lake Michigan. This had the inadvertent effect of preserving them. Where do the Abraham Lincoln was nominated for Presi dent in 1860 at the Wigwam meeting hall on Wacker Drive and LaSalle Street in Chi cago; the spot is now commemorated by this monument. (Photo: Richard Stavins)

Richard Lee Stavins is of counsel to the Buchalter law firm in Chicago and is a CBA Record Editorial Board member. In addition to being an appellate practitioner, he is a 50-year member of the CBA.

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