Geoffrey Baer investigates the history of Asylum Place, the explosive story behind a 1930s death caused by a manhole cover and what happened to magical Chicago restaurant chain.

I came across a bizarre story in a 1937 Chicago Tribune about a manhole cover blowing up out of the street, smashing through an elevator shaft in a nearby building and killing a man in the elevator. Why would such a thing happen? Was it widespread in Chicago at that time?

–Patrick Dunne, Portage Park

This story really puts the freak in freak accident. An underground explosion blew a 150-pound manhole cover five stories into the air. It came crashing through a skylight and plummeted down an elevator shaft in the adjacent Hollander Storage Warehouse just north of Fullerton on Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square.

The elevator was on the first floor when the manhole cover crashed through it, killing the operator, A.C. Day. Two others in the elevator escaped unharmed. The explosion was so big it blew off 17 manhole covers along Milwaukee Avenue between Kedzie and Western. Debris from the blasts also injured two women in their apartments and narrowly missed a streetcar.

Here’s the illustration that accompanied the Chicago Tribune story our viewer is talking about.

According to the article, witnesses said that the area had smelled like gasoline for days. Just before the explosions, the ground rumbled, then white vapor shot from the sewers propelling the manhole covers into the air. Investigators speculated that the culprit was gas from cleaning solutions illegally dumped into the sewers by nearby businesses that somehow ignited.

While we found a few reports of similar events over the years in other neighborhoods, it’s probably not fair to call it common. In 1920, a “pillar of fire” burst from a manhole in Bronzeville fed by gas from a leaking main. In 1939 in the Austin neighborhood, sewers there exploded in flame, severely burning one woman when the catch basin caught fire and shot a sheet of flame through her home, breaking all the windows. And in 1955, a manhole cover in the Irving Park neighborhood blew off of a ComEd manhole due to a short circuit in the electrical cables underneath it. Today, most manhole covers have holes in them that let gas and air escape, preventing potentially explosive gas buildup.

It does still happen occasionally. There are videos all over YouTube of exploding manhole covers, particularly in New York, where there were 32 reported “manhole events” in 2014.

As for Chicago, the most recent manhole event was in 2012, when an explosion in a ComEd vault blew off a manhole cover near Grand and Armitage. Luckily, no one was injured in that event.

As a child I remember eating at a Peter Pan restaurant here in the city. What was the history of the chain? What was their menu and when did they close?

–Patricia O’Connor, Lincoln Park

Peter Pan Snack Shops was an early hamburger chain in Chicago, with eight locations across the city. The first location was opened in 1945 in the Edgewater neighborhood by Chris Carson, who also owned other Chicago restaurants over the years. We spoke to his son, Dean Carson, for the story.

Based on Dean’s description it seems like Peter Pan was on a mission to restore the reputation of hamburgers in an era when ground beef was considered kind of low class or even suspect. Peter Pan burgers were served open-faced to showcase their high-quality beef, and the menu included innovative burger toppings like olives and banana peppers. According to Dean, Peter Pan also invented the local favorite known as the Francheezie – a hot dog split down the middle, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon. The Francheezie still turns up on Chicago diner menus today. (We hear the famous Manny’s Deli has a fine version.)