Preservation of Chicago's Elston Electric into arcade is an homage with a throwback feel
The North Branch of the Chicago River has become a haven for revitalization. Mostly in the Goose Island area, breweries, riverfront patios, and other creative businesses are repurposing facilities of what's long been an industrial corridor. The latest of these? Elston Electric, an arcade bar located on its namesake, Elston Avenue, adjacent to the Salt Shed, a music venue and bull's-eye of the area's preservation push.
With a throwback feel and a sign that serves as an homage to electric motor shops, Elston Electric just opened this month in the boiler room area used to power the entire Morton Salt factory now occupied by the Salt Shed. Just as the Shed retained the trademark Morton Salt logo painted on its steel roof, the arcade kept mechanical nods to the old boiler room.
Business names formatted in the "Town Electric" style have long signified the electro-mechanical repair industry. Many of them are family-owned electric motor repair shops that originated in the 1950s following the Second World War; scores of American servicemen had come back from the war with technical expertise and saw a niche for service and maintenance providers. In this case, the homage substitutes a street name for the town portion, common in major cities with multiple shops.
And as we learned from Stern Pinball (EA's May 2023 cover) the arcade's staple pastime epitomizes the electro-mechanical intersection. Inside a pinball machine are tons of switches and connectors, paired with meticulously arranged lights that bring the games to life.
