About the work

A closer look.

You name one address, corner, or building. I find what is actually documented about it and write it back to you. You get a short written finding, 400 to 800 words: roughly when it was built, who built it, what has stood on the site since, and the specific things the record shows that a summary would miss. Every claim carries the source I checked, so you can verify it yourself. What I cannot confirm, I name plainly. I came to this the hard way. I walked five corners of Chicago's South Side in five straight weeks and verified each one against primary sources before writing a word: property records, national register listings, the institutions' own archives. Chicago is my home ground; the method travels anywhere the record is readable. A first verified fact is free, before you pay anything. If I cannot verify the place, I tell you and you owe nothing. Delivered within 5 days, one revision included.