Newsletters 1989
1889 - 1989
One Hundred Years of Hyde Park in Chicago
The story of the annexation of Hyde Park is told concisely and wonderfully well in Jean Block's book, Hyde Park Houses. The story begins well before 1889 with much discussion and many meetings and certainly with many columns of print in THE HYDE PARK HERALD. In the spring of 1887, annexation was approved by voters in northern section
of Hyde Park Village but it was shortly declared invalid by the Illinois Supreme Court.
However on June 28, 1889, despite the continuing efforts of many to establish a city government for Hyde Park, and the opposition to change by others, annexation was approved by voters - though the area of present day Hyde Park-Kenwood voted against it.
Some excerpts from THE HYDE PARK HERALD chronicle these events.
October 14, 1887:
The total indebtedness of Hyde Park:
$434,000; indebtedness of Chicago
$19,000,000. Chicago says, "We will help you pay your debts." YOU help US pay ours!!
October 21, 1887:
We have been wondering for some time why Mayor Roche (Chicago's Mayor) doesn't turn the big bullies off the police force. Last week, a big Irish bully, who weighs at 180 pounds, attacked a little old man at least 70 years of age, and beat him unmercifully, for no crime, except he did not move fast enough to suit the bully.
This was done in the presence of a score of people, and when a gentleman expostulated with the policeman and begged him to stop beating the old man, he turned on him and after clubbing him severely, arrested him for interfering with an officer.
Great Scott!! Don't you want to be annexed to the city?
Do you want your taxes increased? Annex!
Do you want to help pay the
$19,000,000 the city owes? Annex!
Vote a straight Republican ticket, without annexation and be happy!
November 18, 1887:
The city (Chicago) officers say it will be at least three (3) years before any improvements can be undertaken in Hyde Park, on account of the large amount of work to be done in the city already ordered. We hope that the good people of Hyde Park, who are in favor of annexation, will recede from their position and let the Saloon Keepers Association fight the battle, for improvements we must have, and that at once!
Some of the saloon keepers are just jubilant and boastful over their annexation victory. Very well gentlemen; we concede you the victory; now get the spoils if you can!
December 9, 1987:
Some of the annexationists are so confident that the city is going to give them a large amount of improvements for nothing, that they are even expecting to have their homes painted at city
expense!!
We have always been and are now opposed to annexation, but humbly acquiese to the will of the people and will endeavor to make as loyal subjects to the city as we have been to Hyde Park, keeping ever in mind that our new situations are dangerous.
February 3, 1888:
Justice Ford, of Cottage Grove Avenue, near 39th Street, has been made Police Magistrate by Mayor Roche. Now the query is being made by those justices who worked so hard to hurl their town into the vortex of Annexation, what are we to have, why gentlemen you have received your reward. It was a privilege of falling after you had shook yourselves off.
Be content.
June 22, 1888:
"Saloon Keeper" writes to The Herald to know how to defeat the movement to close saloons on Sundays. The Herald responds:
The only way we can see for you is to get annexed to Chicago. Trust your interests in the hands of Appleton, Whelan, and Co. and you will not only run on Sundays but you may crowd your saloons up against our schools and churches. That is your only chance. As long as we are under village government, the fanatical idea of a "Sabbath for rest" will likely prevail. Get into line again for annexation again as soon as you can!
Annexation means the abolishing of our prohibitory districts and saloons scattered all over our town!
The Hyde Park Historical Society Centennial Gala
Our Annual Dinner Meeting on March 11th, took us back to 1889, the year that Hyde Park was finally annexed to Chicago. Strolling through Yesterday's Main Street in their Victorian finery, enjoying dinner in the shadow of the woolly mammoth in the South Court of the Museum of Science and Industry, our members and guests celebrated the centennial of that momentous vote.
The United Church Celebrates Its Centennial Building
By Carol Bradford
Among the centennials being celebrated in this "Year of Hyde Park" is that of the oldest church building in Hyde Park, the home of the United Church of Hyde Park at 53rd Street and Blackstone Avenue. The structure was built by the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church in 1889, over the strenuous objection of a prominent member, namely, Paul Cornell.
In the beginning, Paul Cornell developed a village called Hyde Park out of barren, swampy land south of a larger town called Chicago. He donated a small plat of land and had built on it a small wood frame chapel for the purpose of housing services of Christian worship. The Hyde Park Presbyterian Church was formally organized in May, 1860, and continued to worship in the wood chapel until 1869, when they moved into a handsome stone church which the congregation built at 53rd and Blackstone. The ensuing twenty years brought tremendous growth and prosperity to the community and the church. By 1888, there was talk of building a new, larger structure. The Board of Trustees began to consider various options and sought plans from local architects. At the annual congregational meeting in early 1889, the trustees proposed that a new structure be built on the site of the existing building, according to a proposal by architect, Gregory Vigeant. The old building was to be dismantled and some of the materials used in the new church. The total cost was not to exceed $35,000, excluding the purchase of an organ. Paul Cornell offered a substitute motion that "the present church edifice be enlarged according to the original design, which was to add a transept thereto. Which motion was put and lost. The original motion, to adopt said report of the Trustees, was then put and carried." Additional members were appointed to the Finance Committee. Mr. Cornell proposed another motion that potential
contributors be asked whether they prefer a new building or an addition to the
existing building. The members voted to table this motion, and the meeting was adjourned.
(From the Minutes of the Annual Meeting, Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, February 13, 1889)
Despite the lack of support for his proposal, Paul Cornell was not ready to give up. On April 17, 1889, he filed suit against the trustees and secured an injunction to stop construction of the new building. Though we have no record of the original suit, the trustees' sworn testimony in response suggests that Cornell claimed that his longstanding membership and contributions gave him special standing, that the 1869 building was a landmark to be preserved and charged that the trustees had threatened
to resign if their plan were not adopted.
The trustees responded that Cornell had no more standing in the court "than is common to all the other members of said church." They said the 1869 building was "plain and ordinary,..................................... [the] steeple is
more dangerous than ornamental, and is liable to be blown down, as has already been the case.'' They denied any threat or coercion of the congregation, saying that " opportunity was given to all
persons, but particularly to complainant, to plead, beg, and threaten, all of which complainant thoroughly did, and when vote was taken, the action of the trustees was ratified by an almost unanimous vote, there being but a few votes against it, perhaps not to exceed half a dozen."
(From record of Case #121822, Superior Court of Cook County, 1889).
In the end, the injunction was lifted, construction proceeded, and the first wor ship service in the new sanctuary was held January 5, 1890. Paul Cornell left the Presbyterian Church and became a charter member of Hyde Park Methodist Church, which was organized in September, 1889. It is ironic that eighty years later, those two denominations were part of a merger (along with Hyde Park Congregational Church) which formed the United Church of Hyde Park.
The authorwishes to thankFrankSchneiderfor his assistance in obtainingtheCircuitCourtrecordsofthismatter
The Trustees
George Bogue, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, was a charter member of Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, transferring his membership from North East Congregational of Chicago on May 6, 1860.
Walter C. Nelson joined on profession of faith on March 5, 1874. He lived at 5120 Harper and was a prominent real estate developer. He built several multiple unit buildings, including those at 5701-09 Kenwood, 5723-27 Kenwood, 5722-28 Dorchester and 1355-61 East 57th Street.
John C. Welling and his wife, Charlotte, transferred membership from Second Presbyterian of Chicago on March 1, 1878. He was a vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, and lived at 4950 Greenwood.
William C. Ott and his wife, Nancy, joined the church on June 4, 1880, on transfer from Unjon Park Congregational in Chicago. They lived at 5146 Harper. It is recorded that Mr. Ott always carved the turkey at church dinners.
Leslie Lewis transferred from First Presbyterian of Waukegan, Illinois, on February 29, 1884. He lived at 5605 Dorchester and was Superintendent of the Hyde Park Schools. In later years, after annexation, he was principal of Kozminski School until his retirement. He later
joined the South Park Congregational Church and was responsible for the preservation of historic records of that church.
William H. Ray and his wife, Martha H., also transferred from First Presbyterian of Waukegan on February 29, 1884. He was principal of Hyde Park High School until his death on July 30, 1889, at age 31. A large stained glass window, inscribed "Service" was placed in the new fellowship hall in his memory. The elementary school at 56th and Kimbark is named for him.
Henry H. Belfield and his wife, Anne, were transferred from Third Presbyterian of Chicago on October 19, 1884. He was on the faculty of the University of Chicago in later years and the
Laboratory School's Belfield Hall bears his name. He lived in the duplex at 5726-28 Blackstone.
John B. Lord and his wife, Annie E., also transferred from Third Presbyterian of Chicago, on November 30, 1886. They lived at 4857 Greenwood. He was president of Ayer and Ord Tie Company, which manufactured railroad ties.
Robert Stuart joined the church on June 5, 1887. He lived at 5206 Dorchester.
January 18, 1889:
Village Hall was packed Tuesday evening as it was never packed before. Every seat was filled early, and the hallways, aisles and corners were densely crowded by people who stood the entire evening. It was a grand response to the popular idea of city organization ....
Governor Hamilton, in taking the chair, made a graceful little speech referring to his interest in all that was for the welfare of Hyde Park and expressed his sympathy for this movement for a more efficient home government. He called on Mr. A.
G. Procter....... to speak on the proposition
to be submitted to the meeting for discussion. Mr. Procter said:
"We propose this evening to inaugurate a movement that has for its aim what we believe to be the best interest of Hyde Park. It is a question that concerns this community, and this community alone, and we propose that this community shall have the privilege of settling it for themselves.
"We realize the fact that we have outgrown the conditions that were anticipated by our lawmakers, when they framed the law for the government of villages; and we realize fully that the conditions before us are annexation to the city of Chicago, or a government of our own citizens ....
Public Sculptor: Lorado Taft and the Beautification of Chicago Timothy J. Garvey, University of Rlinois Press, 1988, 222 pp.
A Book Review by Devereux Bowly
If there are those who think it good policy to exchange a municipality in splendid financial condition for one that is not, they will likely oppose this project ... If there are some who are
afraid of the criticisms or influence of the Chicago press, they had better pack up now and be getting out. "
February 8, 1889:
Says a leading annexationist: "We do not want any swamp land. Sixty-seventh Street is as far as we want to annex "
Says a leading annexationist in the city: "Chicago is a doubtful Republican city, but if so much of Hyde Park as is strongly Republican, say from Thirty ninth Street to Sixty-seventh Street, is annexed, then that would make Republican success sure. The rest of the territory we do not want, as it is about evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans."
This is an interesting new book about one of our most famous residents, Lorado Taft, who lived and worked just south of the Midway. In the introduction the author, Timothy Garvey, a professor at Illinois Wesleyan University,
acknowledges assistance from several libraries and institutions in the state, including the Hyde Park Historical Society. He must have been helped by the late Jean Block, and by Adrian Alexander, who mounted a major exhibit
on Taft a few years ago at the Society and the Chicago Public Library.
Taft took a broad view of the reason for artistic expression. He viewed public sculpture as a way of establishing values and traditions of American culture. He wrote extensively, as a contributor to the Chicago Record, the art journal Brush and Pencil, and the author of the standard work, History of American Sculpture, published in 1903.
The book discusses at length Taft's Fountain of the Great Lakes, constructed in 1913 in the south garden of the Art Institute, and financed by the first grant from the Ferguson Fund. As a Hyde Park chauvinist 1 was most interested in the material on Fountain of Time, at the west end of the Midway, also commissioned by the Ferguson Fund in 1913, and constructed in 1922. His plans included the Fountain of Creation at the east end of the Midway, a canal down its center to connect the lagoons of Jackson and Washington Parks, Midway Bridges with sculpture for the cross streets, and a Hall of Fame including 100 statues of historical figures along the canal. None of this, of course, was realized.
It is a tragedy that at least the Fountain of Creation was never built, to complement the Fountain of Time, but we are probably lucky the rest of the plan
was not carried out. Even Daniel Burnham, a friend of Taft's from the days of the Columbian Exposition and colleague in the City Beautiful movement, ventured that the entire scheme was so massive it would prevent the work from achieving a necessary unity and only cause "visual confusion." We are fortunate to be often reminded of Taft by the Fountain of Time, and the presence in the community of his Midway Studios, although his archives and the ongoing study of his work is at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he grew up the son of a professor.
Sources: Membership records of Hyde Park Presbyterian Church Jean Block. Hyde Park Houses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, I 978.
From The Fiftieth Anniversary Book
Hyde Park Presbyterian Church 1860 - 1910
The present church edifice ... is it not a typical outgrowth of Protestantism as shown in its architecture? Not now, as formerly, is it sought to embody the reverence and godly gratitude of the community by an edifice of costly splendor ...This church edjfice is designed to afford helpful facilities for every function of an active church. We have a large auditorium of perfect acoustic properties, a large lecture and Sunday School room, many convenient class rooms for Bible Study, serving rooms for the social entertainments, a special place for little children, and ladies' parlors for all occasions.
John A. Cole, Historical Address
I am very glad I was not born when my father was. He was a Methodist minister in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. My father said that in his early days he never thought of inviting a Presbyterian pastor into his pulpit; and a Presbyterian pastor would no more think of inviting a Methodist pastor into his pulpit than be
would think of flying ... My father did not regard any young minister equipped for his job until he could "lay out" the Calvinists ... Now we are on friendly terms.
The truth is that Protestants, already bound together by the bond of love, are more a unit in the United States today than are the Roman Catholics, and especially is this true since we formed the Federation of Churches. Today, there are 33 Protestant bodies of America bound together, 16,000 ministers and nearly 20,000,000 communicants.
Rev. Charles Bayard Mitchell, D.D
St. James M. E. Church
The program began with a group of bird songs by Mrs. Charles Robbins, after which there was an address by Mrs. P.L. Sherman, who said, in part: "In 1858 my husband and I were at the Richmond Hotel ... when we received an invitation to attend the dedication of the little Hyde Park Chapel. The day arrived and we hired a horse and buggy and drove south to the little church. On our way we stopped at Kenwood, where my husband had recently purchased ten acres of ground on Lake Avenue in the vicinity of 47th Street. 1 was chiefly impressed by the beautiful wild flowers growing on the place, especially the great clumps of white and purple phlox ... The only thing left of the beautiful trees and flowers that used
to be there is one sickly little horse
chestnut tree in the court of a flat building."
"We drove on to the little church, and the first thing that greeted our sight was the decorated gate posts ... around these posts were the most beautiful wreaths of wild flowers, as large as a wagon wheel and as thick as my arm. Inside, the church was most prettily decorated with similar wild flowers. Thl!re my memory stops. I do remember though, that before we drove home we stopped at Mrs. Paul Cornell's and she gave us the most delicious cake. The sermon and text have escaped me, but the memory of that cake remains to this day."
Reception /or the Ladies
... The Hyde Park Presbyterian Church ... was born May 6, 1860. I well remember the bright sunny morning. The little frame chapel, white with green blinds, seemed a fair structure among the oak and hazel at the northeast corner of
53rd Street and Lake Park Avenue. There rested on the gate a generous wreath of the bright wild flowers so plenty then along the paths everywhere ... My mother said, "See, there is Grandma Ryan under the trees across the street, may be she brought it." She said, "Yes, I made it for your church. I can't go inside, but Jesus came for all of us and He will bless us all alike." The woman was an Irish Catholic working whenever she could for neighbors' families. Did the humble woman give our young Calvin band a comanding example against living in a narrow creed?
Hamilton B. Bogue, in an address at
the Men's Banquet
What is left of that early Hyde Park that was annexed to the City of Chicago in 1889? A surprising amount. More than 170 buildings built before 1890 are featured in "The Look of Hyde Park," an exhibit of photographs by Edward A. Campbell. The exhibit is on display through Sept. 29 at the Hyde Park Historical Society.
Documentary photographs establish how some of the landmarks of the past looked 100 years ago. The heart of the exhibit is the collection of crisp color photographs taken by Ed over the past year. Most are straightforward, detailed "portraits" of individual buildings, with some clear views of blocks in which historical buildings are clustered. All are arranged by street, so looking through the exhibit is rather like taking a neighborhood tour - you can proceed deliberately up one block and down another, or you can skip about visiting your favorites. No fear that you won't find them; all these photographs, like any good portraits, are immediately recognizable.
Ed Campbell's work is supported by painstaking historical research. He relied on Jean Blocks' Hyde Park Houses with its "Checklist of Existing Dwellings" of those built before 1910, and checked it against Rascher's Atlas of Hyde Park (1890), which features comprehensive plats with street layouts, individual lots and houses drawn in. In questionable cases, where Block and Rascher did not agree, Mr. Campbell had a practiced eye for style and structure, developed in many photographic studies of Hyde Park, to guide him. His catalogue for the exhibit, with its historical accounts of several especially well preserved blocks such as Rosalie Villas and Hyde Park Center, makes interesting reading in its own right. Many visitors to the exhibit will probably turn directly to its "Inventory: Century Old Buildings in Hyde Park."
Yet the photographs speak eloquently for themselves. Seeing these buildings partially lifted from their modern context enables one to scan the past communities which made up Hyde Park - the suburban mansions of Kenwood, set well off from each other and from any taint of commercial activity, on their large lots; the workingmen's cottages of Hyde Park Center between 51st and 55th streets, shoulder to shoulder, yet enlivened by cheerful, small-scale details and merging with their own business districts; the fanciful shapes of Rosalie Villas; the orderly series of ample townhouses on Dorchester's 5700 block. The exhibit makes one aware that there are whole blocks in Hyde Park which preserve the looks of the past - and the ideas of the good life which shaped those looks.
And the exhibit calls attention to individual relics which are easily overlooked. My favorite discovery was a pair of houses on Kimbark near 54th, one heavily disguised with additions and remodeling, the other still showing the world a modest but unapologetically Victorian face. Among the three-story walk-ups, the modern townhouses and the highrises in which most of us live, these bits of the Hyde Park of 1889 fit in quite nicely. Ed Campbell has done us a great service by helping us to see them so clearly.
The exhibit Hyde Park 1889 will continue through September 29, 1989, at Historical Society headquarters. Hours are from 2 until 4
p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Did you see Marshall Field's windows displaying "Images of Hyde Park, 1889" during the month of August? We were there!
Renaming Stony Island A venue
By Devereux Bow/y
The Society has announced its opposition to the proposal to rename Stony Island Avenue. In a resolution passed at its last meeting, and communicated to the Chicago City Council, the Board of Directors announced recently that it believes it would be ill advised for the city to change the name of Stony Island Avenue. It is one of only a limited number of streets in the city that describes a major physical historical site, and as such the retention of the name is important to understanding the natural history of the southeast side of Chicago.
Stony Island was created many millions of years ago at about 92nd Street, a short distance east of the present Stony Island Avenue, in the area later to be known as "Pill Hill" because of the large number of doctors who lived there. Glacial action, about 10,000 to 30,000 years ago left a major limestone deposit on the site. The waters of Lake Michigan later fell about 60 feet, again exposing the rock. A limestone quarry on the site well into this century, eventually was developed for homes. The area is about 25 feet above the surrounding plain, which is unusual in the mostly level City of Chicago.
The name Stony Island Avenue is thus important historically, not only because it has identified a major street for many years, but because it serves as a reminder that the history of the area, since there has been a city here, is a mere instant, as compared to natural history.
1989 Paynter Awards To Students And Faculty
The Julie Borst Paynter awards were continued this year under the aegis of the Hyde Park Historical Society and the family of Mrs. Paynter. In addition, the Society augmented these by making special awards to two teachers and two students in recognition of their contributions to the Metropolitan
History Fair.
The Paynter awards to teachers were made as follows:
To Linda Murray, Hyde Park Career Academy, $200 for the purchase of software for Apple computers "to provide students with another learning tool ... to enhance map, thinking, and problem solving skills.''
To Jill Wayne, Kenwood Academy,
$175, for classic films which present constitutional issues in this bicentennial year.Ms. Wayne plans "to develop ... a film series in which each film confronts an important legal or constitutional
issue ... and to expand this project to become a yearly event."
To Theresa A. Perry, Hyde Park Career Academy, $175 to help finance
passage to Senegal, West Africia for thirty students "to bring a better understanding of Africa to African-American children and to enlighten and educate our friends at home."
To Richard Kaleta, Kenwood Academy,
$150 for his ongoing project of familiarizing his students with Chicago's Loop and its famous buildings. The tour includes a questionnaire and worksheet
for each student on the location and identification of buildings and the types of architecture.
Mr. Kaleta noted in his letter of acknowledgement "The weather ... was great. The kids enjoyed themselves and I think ... feel a bit more comfortable about getting around the Loop. There was only one mishap: three of the students' worksheets blew into the Chicago River!"
To Victor Kader, Hyde Park Academy,
$175 to provide enrichment material in the Popular Culture section of the social studies lab. This is the second year Mr.
Kader has received this award which- he uses effectively in his classes to enhance his collection. In his note of thanks he says he is preparing a curriculum guide for the teaching of 20th century United States Popular Culture which he hopes will be·published by the Chicago Board of Education. He says, "It is a thrill to see students excited about learning!"
The Hyde Park Historical Society's awards of $50 each made to students for outstanding work in history were made to Ernestine Muhammed, Hyde Park Career Academy and to Inid West, Kenwood Academy.
Awards to teachers in the same amount went to Bonnie Tarta, Kenwood Academy "For outstanding contributions as a history teacher over many years." A similar award was made to John Bradley, Hyde Park Career Academy "In recognition of his extraordinary service
to students."
Recapturing Hyde Park's Village History: A Contribution From the Archives By Stephen A. Treffnian
A package containing perhaps 600 loose sheets of paper was among the material in Jean Block's estate presented to the Hyde Park Historical Society by her family. These turned out to be photocopies of a typed manuscript by an L. S. Harper dated variously from 1938 to 1939. There was contained within it no title page, no further identification of Harper, no explanation of how this document had come into being, and no hint as to where the original might lie. It was, however, a compilation of vignettes of Hyde Park history that ranged from its days as a village to the 1930's.
As processing of the Block collection progressed, an interchange of correspondence possibly providing information about the material and dating from 1986 was found in a separate folder. Mrs. Block had learned that during the 1930's, the Works Project Administration (WPA), one of the innovative New Deal programs created to deal with the Great Depression of the 1930's, bad sponsored local and regional historical studies around the country. One of the achievements of the WP A was its funding for the research that appeared in the famous guidebooks to the States published in the late I 930's and early 1940's. Apparently Mrs. Block suspected that records of WPA research on Hyde Park from that period might be found in the archives of the Library of Congress. Her inquiry to that institution brought a reply indicating that they did hold such material and would provide her with a statement as to the costs of photoreproduction. These approximately 600 sheets would appear to be the results of that contact by Mrs. Block.
An important problem with the Harper work is that it contains only limited reference to its sources of historical information. Because one cannot easily document the specific source of any portion of the study, the reliability of at least some of the information it contains is suspect. Moreover, little or no analysis was attempted by the author, resulting in the report tending to proceed without any natural conclusions. However, a close reading suggests that Harper was a long time resident of Hyde Park and was familiar with the community. While some of the ·nformation presented in Harper's work does not appear in Mrs. Block's own work, Hyde Park Houses, the latter is far superior in its cogency, organization, and sophistication.
Nonetheless, Harper's history of Hyde Park stands as a notable attempt at bringing together a wide variety of anecdotal information about this community, its early leaders and its institutions.
Village History
Harper's history attempts to sketch the growth of Hyde Park. After its incorporation in 1861, Hyde Park, reputedly the biggest village in the world, developed rapidly. In 1864, the value of Hyde Park's real property was set by its assessors at $50,000. Only six years later, in 1870, that valuation had risen to
$2,920,879. There were many horses, cows, and hogs, along with carriages and wagons and even a number of pianos valued at $5,800. The history also contains lists of village officials. The first supervisor of the Town of Hyde Park was Paul Cornell, who served one term from 1862 to 1863 and the last president, in 1888, of what had then become the Village of Hyde Park, was John Alexander Jamison, one of the town's early settlers and a prominent judge. Henry C. Work, who is remembered today as a composer of Civil War songs and the builder of what is now the oldest house in Hyde Park, is discovered as also having been town clerk of Hyde Park from the years 1865 to 1868.
George W. Waite, a real estate investor, must have been a rather well-regarded member of the community since he held a variety of official posts throughout much of the village's history. He was town clerk in 1863, assessor from 1864 to 1869, and supervisor from 1869 to 1870. He is listed as town collector for the years 1867 to 1869 and also for most of the years after 1880 until annexation.
Political careers built before annexation apparently did not continue immediately into the new local political environment. After annexation in 1889, the village was divided along Fifty-Fifth Street and Lake Park into three wards, the 32nd, 33rd, and 34th, each of them represented by two aldermen. Of the six aldermen elected from the new wards, however, none had held office in the era of the village. The transition to a new urban era had begun.
Procedures For Using The Archives
The Harper document along with some allied material contains drafts of essays on community history, civic organizations, clubs, hospitals, parks, churches, and leading citizens. These will be available for viewing in late September when their processing into the archives is completed.
All the material in the Society's archives is
available to researchers by application in person to The University of Chicago Special Collections Department of Regenstein Library, University Avenue and east 57th Street. The Department is located on the library's first floor and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9:00
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. A guide to the collection must be requested at the Special Collections desk. After informing the Special Collections staff of the material which the researcher wishes to view, that material will be delivered to the patron and may be inspected in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Beginnings - A Series On Hyde Park Organizations
By Zeus Preckwink/e
In a city of many neighborhoods, Hyde Park-Kenwood possesses a distinct identity. Part of this can be traced to the University of Chicago; Hyde Parkers are proud to point to the many.Nobel Prize winners who have made this community their homne. However, Hyde Park is more than a college town in the city.
Hyde Park also possesses some distinctive architecture, but its reputation goes beyond the architecture. Hyde Parkers are noted for their political independence and for their strongly held and often widely divergent opinions.
Of course, Hyde Park's identity has developed over a long period and it is more than the sum of all its well-known individuals. If one looks at the organizations within Hyde Park and the issues around which they developed, one can get a better sense of the community. Issues such as urban renewal or the Vietnam War led to a number of organizations unique to Hyde Park.
Next October the Hyde Park Historical Society will begin a lecture series focusing on the creative moments in which local organizations were formed. The Blue Gargoyle Youth Agency which began with a coffee house in 1968 during the Vietnam War will be the first in this series along with The Resource Center which began its first recycling at the Gargoyle in 1970.
The history of an organization may be a nostalgic return to a past time, but it can serve some very useful functions too. The early period can give insights into the purpose of the organization, its structure, its relationship to other organizations and its funding. The reasons that an organization had for coming into existence are often related to social movements or the vision of an individual.
How an organization is able to survive often depends on bow it deals with changes in such movements and how its vision is retained. There are, of course, many organizations that make Hyde Park a unique community. Members should look for notice from HPHS regarding further programs in this series.
"Wheels of Time"
By Zeus Preckwinkle
During the 1970's a number of murals were painted in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community. The viaducts underneath the Illinois Central tracks were the focal areas for much of this work. They not only had long walls that might otherwise be covered with graffiti, but they were also areas which pedestrians, commuters, and car passengers frequented. The last of these murals was completed in 1980, and the weather has slowly taken its toll.
This year in commemoration of Hyde Park's annexation centennial, Regents Park and the Clinton Company commissioned artist Barbara Westerfield to work with the community to paint "Wheels of Time" under the viaduct at Hyde Park Boulevard and Lake Park Avenue. On June 24, 1989 the mural was dedicated; and on July 13 Barbara Westerfield presented a slide/lecture at the Historical Society headquarters during which she described the mural and the planning that went
into it.
While Barbara Wester field was the artist in charge of the mural, she was quick to point out that nearly 900 people were involved in one way or another with the mural's production. Regents Park had requested that the theme of the mural be transportation in the past, present, and future and it is from this theme that the mural's title was derived. Along the wall there are more than a dozen large colorful wheels which school children in the neighborhood painted. Wheels, of course, are central to our transportation systems today but these wheels refer also to something more specific in Hyde Park's history, the Ferris Wheel from the 1893 World's Fair.
How the Ferris Wheel came to be such an important part of the mural is an interesting story in itself. Early in her planning for the mural, Ms. Westerfield talked with local educator, Mary Hynes Berry, who is an accomplished storyteller. Mary Hynes-Berry told her and later told children throughout Hyde Park - the story of her grandmother who had visited the World's Fair in 1893 as a young woman in her 20's. The story, entitled "The Chicago Spoon", is a delightful one which tells how the Ferris Wheel carried 1,000 people at a time on its half-hour trip. Mary Hynes-Berry quotes her grandmother, "I could see what the birds see," and "There were more people there than there is corn in Iowa."
Two neighborhood young people, Madeline Klein and Angelica Hernandez, produced winning posters which were used in making the broad outline for the mural. The selection of the Ferris Wheel as a form of transportation is an interesting one. As adults we tend to think of transportation as a means of getting us
to work or carrying freight from one place
to another. The selection of the Ferris Wheel points out that transportation is also a way providing new perspectives on the world.
Because Ms. Westerfield wanted to keep writing on the mural to a minimum, she asked children to identify their work with their handprints and numerous prints can be seen in the mural. She also observed how children and adults developed a sense of the mural being their own work. In addition, there were a number of people who simply watched the production of the mural who also felt involved in it.
The site of "Wheels of Time" had, prior to April, been the site of the mural "Seasons in the City". "Seasons in the City" had been completed in 1973 under the direction of artist Nina Ward and included the four seasons portrayed by students from Ray School, Laboratory School at U. of C., Harvard-St. George, and Shoesmith. When it became clear that the mural was going to be sandblasted,
the Historical Society's newly established committee, Friends of the Murals, had color slides made to keep a record of the old mural. One panel from the mural showing children skating had been used as an illustration in a Scott Foresmen social studies text during the 70's. To show a link between the old mural and the new one, Barbara Westerfield saw that this scene was recreated in "Wheels of Time".
Friends of the Murals was suggested as a committee of the Historical Society by Professor William Pattison from the University of Chicago. In addition to establishing photographic records of "Seasons in the City" and "Wheels of Time'', the committee has put together a brief historical record of public response to some of the murals. Photographic records of all the murals are being sought, and the committee is attempting to contact the artists to see whether there are plans to restore their works or whether they should be replaced. Anyone
interested in being a part of Friends of the Murals should contact Zeus Preckwinkle at 288-5148.
Excerpts from The Hyde Park Herald
Continued from our last issue ... February 8, 1889:
We publish the following from a prominant citizen who has lived in Hyde Park ever since it was organized as a Village, knows what he is talking about, and don't want an office:
"I am decidedly of the opinion that we should have a city government at the earliest day possible. If we do not organize such a government for ourselves, the day is not far distant when we will be annexed to the City of Chicago. Our Village is now practically out of debt, while the City of Chicago has a large bonded indebtedness. Our Village has water works, paid for by special assessments, and worth about $2,000,000 with an income from water works annually, of about $100,000. We are far better able to improve our own territory than the City of Chicago would be, were we annexed. Why complicate our interests?
Respectfully yours, "Paul Cornell"
Never was a worthy cause so malevolently misrepresented by the hirelings of the Chicago press as has been the cause of independent city organization for Hyde Park - "Tax-eaters," "office seekers," "chronic kickers," "cormorants," etc., have been and are the epithets hurled at the men who desire to save Hyde Park from the domination of the greedy city hall politicians and their corrupt Common Council. Intelligent men are not deceived by such argument-the usual resort of men with a cause before which reason stands ashamed. Why
should Hyde Park surrender her autonomy? What has she to gain by passing under the yoke of the notoriously corrupt and saloon-ridden Chicago Council? How will she profit by a partnership with a city with an empty treasury and an enormous and constantly
accumulating debt? Why should she pay hundreds of thousands of dollars annually into the Chicago treasury on a very slender chance of getting back a paltry ten thousand for her local impropvements?
Why should she seek to increase her taxation by fully 33-1 /3 per cent? Why jeopardize, nay, surrender her prohibition districts at the behest of an unholy political combination whick seeks simply to use Hyde Park, her wealth and her mercantile and political greatness for the purposes of plunder and to subserve the designs of certain unscupulous satrops (SIC) in the grand army of Chicago rascality?
March 8, 1889:
The saloonkeeper is not, as a rule, a great thinker or an intellectural giant, but he is a man of power. Ambitious poUticians crawl at his feet and acknowledge his supremacy. Slow, but steady and persistent has been the growth of his power. You dare not prohibit the saloon. On the floor of the senate grave senators made haste to admit that the saloon lords are so mighty that prohibitory laws could not be enforced against them. They admitted that the saloon ought to be prohibited, but they say that the State of Illinois had not power to stand up against this American aristocracy-this class that is mightier than the law. Here then is a class that is mightier than the people, that can defy our laws, ride rough-shod over courts and treat with contempt the verdict of our judges. It is true they own a great many of our legislators by the best of
titles-they bought and paid for them. We
have no nobility, no blooded aristocrats, all people here are equal before the law, with this one exception. This on·e class are above the law-mightier than the law, the law cannot be enforced against them.
These toddy-mixers, these beer-slingers are your only American aristocrats. Law, so mighty, so puissant, is able to bring all other classes to obedience, but the saloonkeepers and bartenders cannot be made to obey the law, and for that reason tJ1e law must be made in obedience to their arrogant demands. Shame-eternal shame-to every American citizen who consents to the rule of such a vile aristocracy as this.
Quoting The Springfield News
March 22, 1889:
A man that advocates the right of a baseball club to violate the sanctity of the Sabbath by playing matched games on their grounds, to the utter disgust of the moral and religious element of the community, undoubtedly is a proper advocate of annexation, but hardly a model speaker at church festivals.
The Tribune, under the head of "Boodleism Rampant," says of the recent nominations for Aldermen: "There seems to have been a preconcerted scheme to pack the next City Council in the interest of corruption," and asks "What shall be done?"
This is one of the serious problems that Chicago has to deal with every year. The last Council was a disgrace to Sodom and now what few reputable members of the Board there were of the past seem to have been dropped to give place to the very worst and most dangerous element. That's one of the reasons, Mr. Medm, why Hyde Park prefers to stay out. We are in no danger from this source as long as we are by ourselves. Our government here is clean, honest and economical and responds to the wants of our people. If you lived in Hyde Park you would say as we do: "No annexation for us."
Pursuing the Plantagenets
by Kitty Picken
No Plantagenets, as far as I know, live or have ever lived in Hyde Park. So much for local history.
But this story begins in Hyde Park. One snowy afternoon, umpthing years ago, in Western Civ class at U-High, Margaret Fallers turned to me and said, "Kitty, give me a time line of English history.''
You might boggle. As far as I am concerned, it was the first and possibly the only time that a teacher really cared what I knew independent of classroom work. There'd been no homework assignments for this specific project, no note cards or crib sheets, no preparation unless six years of reading historical fiction is allowed as preparation. Mrs. Fallers knew that I knew that I could do it.
I have been pursuing the Plantagenets ever since Peter O'Toole said "Who will rid me of that meddlesome priest, " referring to Richard Burton. In other words, in the movie Becket in the mid 60s. (By the way, the 60s are history now. Sneaky how it creeps up on us.)
I'm still pursuing Plantagenets-and it's more fun than ever.
To refresh your memories. In the 12th century, it is said, Goeffrey of Anjou stuck a branch of the bristly yellow broom plant, called in French "plantagenet", in his helmet. From then on, his family was called the Plantagenets-when members weren't being called other epithets such as "Spawn of Satan," (That's another story.)
Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (picture Peter O'Toole and Kathryn Hepburn in Lion in Winter) ventured from the heart of their holdings at Angers, Poitiers, Chinon, into the "wild west"-Windsor, London, Westminster.
They stayed there as little as possible, only sufficient for Henry to perform those tedious tasks of King of England. Then, back to Aquitaine without benefit of car phone or fax machine. No wonder King Henry crossed the English Channel at
least four times in weather no dog would swim in. The fact that he survived only added to the "Spawn of Satan" mystique.
My five hour crossing last month, from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, Normandy, a route Henry would have used, was only rough if, like me, you are not attuned to such things. The wind was brisk; the sky was blue. As a teacher, tour leader, and writer of English history, I was venturing for the first time into ''the other side of the story"-France, in pursuit of
the Plantagenets.
I found them in a golden diadem of a Norman chapel at Fontevrault Abbey near Tours. Henry, Eleanor, their son Richard Coeur de Lion and their daughter-in-law (wife of son John) Isabella of Angouleme.
The tombs are smaller than I imagined from pictures. Perhaps it's the graceful draperies in the style of carving. Maybe its the monumental stature of Henry and Eleanor in history. The tombs are
painted. At one time the colors must have been intense because they have mellowed to a soft crimson and sky blue flecked with stars. Henry clutches a sceptre; but Eleanor is reading a book. The effect is startling, as if at any moment, she'll glance up and take up life where she
left off.
In Tours, at a store dedicated to regional specialities, we found reproductions of a ring given by Henry to Eleanor with the saying "Carpe Diem." The French translate it "Profite du jour". We might say "Seize the day," but my traveling companion immediately quipped, "Go for it!" How like Eleanor!
Eleanor, remember, was wife of 2 kings (Louis Capet of France and Henry II), and mother of 2 kings (Richard and John). She outlived Henry by 15 years and made it to 82 before she died
at Fontevrault.
She was heiress of a rich countryside. This summer it was planted primarily with corn and sunflowers, dotted
with vineyards.
Henry was no slouch. He carped the diem as much as anyone. When he wasn't hopping across the channel as if it were a creek, he was insisting on greater jurisdiction for the king's courts in England. That's how he came up against Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
I've made my pilgrimage to Becket's tomb at Canterbury. This was Henry's turn. The church where he did his penance for Becket's murder is gone, but his castles remain.
We walked the monumental walls at Angers where Henry grew up and from where he administered his dukedom. We saw Chinon where Eleanor proclaimed her Court of Love. And we drank wine and dined on local melons steeped in Pernod in Poitiers.
Henry's title was King of the English, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Duke of Aquitaine, Poitou and Auverge. Geographical distinctions between England and France meant little.
It's past time that a Plantagenet chaser such as I should venture into the heartland of their realm. Henry and Eleanor would not have understood why it took so long. Neither do I.
Ah, well-Carpe Diem.
P.S. Kitty plans to lead a tour to the Land of the Plantagenets in Spring of 1990.
DO YOU REMEMBER ..............
. . . Eggers Grocery at the northeast corner of 55th and Dorchester? Here the Brothers Egger always wore long, white aprons covering them from chin to toe, and always waited carefully on each customer. No do-it-yourself in those days!
... Mike Hanley's Tavern (saloon) on the north side of 55th Street, near Harper, with its polished mahogany bar one quarter block long? Hanley's was the students' Jimmy's in the 1930's, but the bar itself dated from the 1890's and served the workmen from the Columbian Exposition.
... The Morgan Sisters' Ballet School in the Chicago Beach Hotel? Ethel and Gertrude Morgan guided the awkward steps of Hyde Park's prospective ballerinas until the hotel was demolished and the school moved to 67th and Jeffrey. Each spring the school held an
outdoor recital in the park adjacent to the old hotel. At one of those recitals HPHS member, Betty Borst, was a featured dancer - to Mendelssohn's "Spring Song", under a bower of real apple blossoms!
Were you there? Don't you wish you were?
What do you remember? Send in your remembrances!
This Newsletter is published four times a year by the Hyde Park Historical Society, a not-for profit organization founded in 1975 to record, preserve, and promote public interest in the history of Hyde Park. Its headquarters, located in an 1893 restored cable car station at 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue, houses local exhibits. It is open to the public, Saturdays, 2-4 p.m., Sun days, 2-4 p.m. Telephone: HY-3-1893.
President.......................................... Jay Mulberry
E.clitors................................ Theresa McDermott
Rita Dukette Betty Borst Margo Criscuola
Regular membership in the Society is $10 per year; contributing membership, $25; sponsors,
$50; benefactors, $100.