The Siren Board

So a few nights ago, Logan (Tbolthurricane on Youtube) contacted me stating that through some research, he found a website that showed documents of the old Chicago Civil Defense siren system from 1958! As you could expect I was speechless! The documents even showed the locations and models of Chicago's 99 sirens at the time. According to the list, there were...

5- 180HP Chrysler Bell Sirens (Later replaced with Thunderbolt 1000)
5- 40HP H.O.R. Super Sirex's (All in Downtown)
23- 10HP STL-10
15- 7.5HP Model 7
1- 5HP Model 5
57- 10HP Thunderbolt 1000
14- 2HP Model 2 (All in the loop, were loaned to Chicago for testing purposes)
2- Steam Powered Foster Engineering Sirens (Number as of the early 1950's)

I could not believe it. I take no credit with finding this info, its Logan who found it, I am simply writing this info here with his permission since he doesn't have an account. Anyway last night, we started a map, mapping all of the location. This morning, it was finished and the link is https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl ... g7jGnE89mE
A few years ago, one of the members found what appears to be a H.O.R. on top of the Field Building in Chicago. With the documents I received, I can confirm it is indeed one and is still standing, and is the only one still standing. Another interesting thing is the documents show that Chicago installed Thunderbolts in Evanston, IL which is a neighboring suburb. We do not have a clue on why they did but can say all of the Thunderbolt's in Evanston were part of the former Chicago system. Again, I'm really amazed at the info I received, and it shows the history of the old Chicago system no one was really 100% sure about. Thank you Logan for finding all of this info!

At the moment, I do not have a link to the documents. When I get them, I will add them here.

Very cool. I know there was a Chrysler on a sewage pumping station on 38th and racine. I work there from time to time and sadly there is no sign of it. But I still enjoy running the big 2000 horsepower pumps from 1939!

This is very interesting. I am very impressed by the amount of factual information we are finding on the history of siren manufacturers, systems, and locations. This is exactly what the Siren Board was built for and I encourage members of this board to keep digging deeper to find more of this great information!

An article about the Field Building Siren:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1951 ... lding#text

This thread is intriguing to me. I have been curious about this photo of a Super Sirex featured in the article about Civil Defense in the 1969 World Book encyclopedia. The photo is credited to the "Chicago Civil Defense Corps. The documentation apparently not only verifies that Chicago had Super Sirex sirens, but the map also shows where they were located!

Thank you Stevan Z and Logan!

Posted for noncommercial educational purposes.
Text attribution: 1969 World Book encyclopedia
Photo attribution; Chicago Civil Defense Corps

It would have been not a surprise for Evanston, to Have Chicago install a system in Evanston and than Evanston to pay Chicago for them running and maintaining them lots of cities do this with others services.

he found a website that showed documents of the old Chicago Civil Defense siren system from 1958! As you could expect I was speechless! The documents even showed the locations and models of Chicago's 99 sirens at the time. According to the list, there were...

So why no link to this site with the documents so we can all look it over???

CDV777-1 wrote:

he found a website that showed documents of the old Chicago Civil Defense siren system from 1958! As you could expect I was speechless! The documents even showed the locations and models of Chicago's 99 sirens at the time. According to the list, there were...

So why no link to this site with the documents so we can all look it over???

I'm waiting on him to send the link. Should be soon. Sorry for the wait!

One thing I find interesting about this is the amount of sirens. There were major coverage issues with the old system. However, the city was still basically the same footprint then as it is now, with the exception of some areas near O'Hare, which were not built up until the 60's.

Brendan Ahern wrote:One thing I find interesting about this is the amount of sirens. There were major coverage issues with the old system. However, the city was still basically the same footprint then as it is now, with the exception of some areas near O'Hare, which were not built up until the 60's.

We are trying to find the maps post 60s to see if any sirens were added in the Ohare area. I personally live half a mile down the road from where the Oriole Park STL-10 was. Shame it was taken down.