What is the history of the apartment building on the northwest side of Chicago at 4039-4051 N Laporte?

Answer 1

The building was originally called "Laporte Arms Apartments". It was built in the 1920's and may have originally been connected with the building direct to the east on Belle Plaine which has a similar architecture. There used to be evidence (as late as 1989) that the alley behind the building (at one time private) was connected to the east building by a brick archway. The Laporte building was originally one bedroom and two bedroom apartments, today there are a few studio units that were added at a later date. When new, the building featured interior ice delivery doors, later used for milk delivery, and today now sealed. The original kitchens featured a wall hung cast iron sink and some of the units had decorative wood cabinets with glass front doors. All of the apartments featured wall sconces in the living room which were removed in the 1940's. A few were missed and still remained in the late 1980's. The common areas of the building consist of basement storage (4039 Section), Basement storage, boiler room, and workshop (4045 Section) and more basement storage (4051 Section). All three of the sections offered incinerator shoots for garbage disposal that were later converted to garbage chutes. These were closed in the early 1990's for pest control reasons.