Darius Girenas American Legion Post

Darius-​Girenas American Legion Post #271 was originally built, literally, by hand by returning World War I Veterans, primarily of Lithuanian descent, at 4416 South Western Avenue on the South Side of Chicago Illinois.
The Post was named in honor of two Lithuanian-​American Pilots, Steponas «Stephen» Darius and Stasys «Stanley» Girenas, whose ill-​fated flight in the early days of Transatlantic aviation, garnered considerable attention for its contribution to the history of aviation as well as for its tragic ending. On July 15, 1933, the pair left New York and flew non-​stop across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 3,984 miles (6,411 kilometers) in their single-​engine, modified Pacemaker plane Lituanica (Latin for Lithuania). The duration of their flight, a total of 37 hours and 11 minutes (107.1 mph) ranked fourth in the aviation record books of the day; the distance travelled was second to record holders Russel Boardman and John Polando. The flight is regarded as one of the most precise in air navigation history, a remarkable feat considering Lituanica lacked sophisticated navigation equipment and encountered severe weather en route. Lituanica entered the record books for carrying the first Transatlantic airmail delivery, a bag of letters postmarked for Lithuania from the Brooklyn Post Office. The flyers were believed to be shot down by German Nazi artillery, who said the flyers had engine problems and crashed. Despite having enough fuel to complete the journey and the proven skill of the pilots, Lituanica crashed in a forest near the town of Soldin, northeast of Berlin, just 650 km short of Kaunas, Lithuania, its final destination. (The crash site was located in pre-​WWII Germany, but the area is considered part of present-​day Poland.) An investigation by the Lithuanian government attributed the crash to adverse weather conditions and pilot and/​or instrument error. Rumors that the plane had been shot down, on suspicion of being a spy plane or for flying too close to a German concentration camp, were never substantiated. An autopsy completed in Lithuania revealed no evidence that the pilots had sustained bullet wounds. Whether or not the plane had been fired upon could never be ascertained because not all pieces of the aircraft were returned to the Lithuanian government. The Lithuanian-​bound mail, nevertheless, was recovered and ultimately delivered. The two heroes are buried in the Aukštieji Stančiai military cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania. The wreckage of Lituanica is on display at Kaunas’s Vytautas the Great War Museum.
The post was a Chicago landmark with an actual World War II artillery piece next to the flag pole in the front yard of the Post grounds.
The membership was further bolstered by the huge number of returning World War II veterans, replacing the World War I Veterans who had gone to heaven, and the Post was for many years the largest American Legion Posts in the State of Illinois and one of the largest American Legion posts in the USA.
This post had a very proud heritage with a stellar Landmark facility on Western Avenue, which was used as a site for a Hollywood movie.
The brick and flagstone– front facility had banquet rooms and a huge lower level facility, called the Rathskellar with another banquet room, a kitchen, a huge bar and offices.