GILLMAN’S ACE HARDWARE, ON MILWAUKEE AVENUE IN LOGAN SQUARE, WAS A relic of an older Chicago. Opened in 1948, when the neighborhood was primarily Polish, Jewish, and German, Gillman’s sold hammers, nails, keys, and caulk for generations, thriving through the influx of Latinos, then “artists and tech people,” as owner Alan Gillman, whose father and uncle founded the business, puts it. A hand-lettered sign read “Asile #3: Light Fixtures, Fuses, Brakers, Screws.” Despite the misspellings, Gillman kept the sign up. It gave the store character.
Gillman’s closed over the winter, unable, its owner says, to survive an innovation of a newer Chicago: protected bike lanes. In October 2020,
