Newsletters 1992

June 1992

October 1992

Volume 14 Number 1 and 2, June 1992

Annual Meeting Recalls

Hyde Park and the University of Chicago

 100 YEARS TOGETHER

At our Annual Meeting on February 8, 1992, members of the Society were treated to a most interesting look back at the University's 100 years in Hyde Park, by speaker Margaret Fallers, Associate Provost of the University and long-time member of our Historical Society. Her remarks follow:

THE RELATIONSHIP

You know what a "relationship" is. When you are not quite sure what the connection between two people is, you say that they have a "relationship." I am going to say a few words - cautiously - about a relationship which has lasted 100 years. I speak of the relationship between the University of Chicago and Hyde Park­ Kenwood.

There is nothing ordinary, calm,

typical, or easy about Hyde Park - maybe you've noticed. And, there is nothing ordinary, calm, simple, or easy about the University of Chicago. The miracle is that there ever was a relationship, let alone one that lasted 100 years! But, of course, the other way of looking at it is that really, the two parties can't exist without one another, that they cling to each other, even if occasionally spitting in each other's face while clinging, if you get the picture...

1890-93

This clinging started with the conver­ gence of vision, patronage and good luck. The relationship had the good fortune to blossom in a burgeoning new town. Part of this burgeoning was the establishment, through a combination of private and public foresight, of a set of beautiful parks, Washington Park and Jackson Park, with a long promenade between them.

Along the promenade, there was mostly swamp, but certainly room for develop­ ment. Hyde Park had already become a growing town but I just want to tell you that the relationship I am seeking to tell you about his evening, in its incipient stage, like many incipient relationships, almost didn't get off the ground. Half was ready to begin, the Hyde Park half, but the other half of the relationship, the Univer­ sity of Chicago, was very iffy at first.

v

The American Baptist EducationSociety had already seen a Baptist college fail in Chicago and there was much doubt about the viability of another. In fact, it looked very much as if the Baptist institution would be placed at or in New York City. It is wonderful to read about those three years between 1889-91; it was remarkably on-again, off-again. In fact, only at the last minute did the Society's mind, the money, the choice of the first President and the gift of land all fall together to allow the relationship to get off and running. And I mean, running. Between the time President Harper finally agreed to come, on his terms; and Mr.Rockefeller gave the first large sums, on his terms; and Mr. Marshall Field gave the first 10 acres, on his terms; and the Society agreed to support the undertaking, on its terms - between that confluence of events and the opening of the University of Chicago, only 18 months passed! The other half of the relationship was ready to begin.

I don't need to remind you that the World's Colombian Exposition was also coming into being during these same three years, and in just as iffy a fashion. The United States wanted to have a world's fair, but the national commission was very iffy about whether to put it in Chicago or in some other city. Furthermore, when the powers that were in Chicago finally persuaded Washington to have it in Chicago, these same powers couldn't decide whether to have it in the city center or out in the town of Hyde Park, taking advantage of the park system. Once the decision was taken to have it in Hyde Park, the fair also was created in whirl­ wind time - only a few months from beginning to end.

During the last two weeks I had the fun of reading the two most detailed contem­ porary accounts of the founding of the University of Chicago and one about the Columbian Exposition. The most remark­ able thing I found was that the University was not mentioned, not even one mention, in the book about the fair and the fair was not mentioned, even in passing, in the two accounts about the founding of the University! I have to guess that they didn't mention each other because both founding groups were so incredibly involved in

their own affairs during these years that they didn't have a moment to spare.

The relationship had ignited - and the world came to see.

Now if you're going to start a relation­ ship - that's the way to do it. Invite 25 million people on the first date.

FOOTBALL

I know it is only possible to smile now when football in Hyde Park is mentioned. But let me tell you that in those Stagg years, football greatly assisted the rela­ tionship to thrive - Big Ten teams, raccoon coats, the bells in Mitchell Tower playing each evening at 10:00 p.m. to indicate that athletes should be in bed, parties all weekend. If I am understanding it right, football dominated the fall both for the University and for the community, with the north and west stands filled with Maroon supporters and the south stand with those of the opponent.

Of course, it is true that by the time I can remember football in Stagg Field, anyone who could walk up the bleachers could get a ticket, usually for free, to sit in the west stands along with all the newspaper boys of Chicago. But football still needs to be mentioned here.

HOUSING AND BUSINESSES

Many of you know a great deal about the growth of Hyde Park and Kenwood. You know about styles and decoration as well as architects and planners. You know about businesses and restaurants which supported our community and our relationship as it grew. And, of course,

President had in mind not a college but a new creature called a graduate university and not a denominational institution but a secular and universal one. Except for the Board of Trustees, the Articles of Incorpo­ ration said that there would be no religious test "or particular religious

profession... held as a requisite for admission to the University or to any department belonging thereto."

Right after the turn of the century and up to the period of the Second World War, for the affluent families in Hyde Park there were increasingly fewer young women recently over from Europe to be house servants and the community  had very few restaurants of style, so families long accustomed to house servants and cooks, moved into the newly built apartment hotels which had family apartments and dining rooms. These apartment hotels ranged from rather modest ones like the Beatrice or the Blackstone to the Shoreland which was sumptuous. Jean was collecting informa­ tion about  these apartment  hotels when she died. She thought that it was an interesting, if brief, period in the history of our community and it was one of the many adaptations which the community made to keep itself diversified and comfortable.

CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES AND SEMINARIES

Now this relationship has had a religious aspect  too. The  University started out to look like any other 19th century college established by a denomi­ nation to increase the number of educated brethren and to train clergy.  That  was what a great many of the Baptists thought they were doing when they pressed in the 1880's for a Baptist Training School in the Midwest to replace the one which had recently failed. However, partly through guile and slight of hand and partly in response to the new scientific spirit of the times, as the plan developed it became clear that the newly appointed first

He also committed the institution to sexual equality. The community liked it and the churches and synagogues which came to the community reflected the com­ munity's tolerance, ecumenicalism and expectation of learned clergy. In fact many denominations located their seminaries in Hyde Park at least partly because of the tone and atmosphere of the community and the University. We have Meadville­ Lombard Theological School, Chicago Theological Seminary, McCormick Seminary, Catholic Theological Union, Lutheran School of Theology, etc., and even more fun, (only in Hyde Park?) the Jesuits moved in with the Lutherans, the students from CTU take classes with the Baptists and the student clergy from these seminaries offer services, help and enthusiasm to the local churches and synagogues.

The seminaries and their faculties and students have greatly added to the sophis­ tication, ecumenicalism and diversity of the community. The connections with the University's divinity school and other academic units have added to the strength of the religious institutions of Hyde Park­ Kenwood. It is another part of the relationship.

The churches and synagogues have been stronger and more diversified because of the tone set by the relationship we are celebrating tonight. Important clergymen and rabbis came to lead these churches and synagogues because the University was here and because of their challenging congregations. And these churches and synagogues were not exclusive; many connections were made by the clergymen themselves as they combined to assist the community and each other. Students took, and take, courses in each others' seminaries and young people go to various churches or synagogues depending upon the program. I always like to tell people from outside Hyde Park about the Young Peoples' Church Club I belonged to when I was in high school in the Hyde Park Baptist Church at the comer of Woodlawn and 56th. Our president was at various times an Episcopalian, a Jew and a Catholic, as well as a Baptist. It was this kind of

community and understanding which

SOCIAL AGENCIES

From the first days of the University and the first days of Hyde Park there has been a mutually supportive effort to contribute to the community and the city with help for those less fortunate. In the early years, there was both University and community support for the University Settlement House, the Neighborhood Club, the Child Care Society and more recently, the Blue Gargoyle and Ronald McDonald House. The University has contributed faculty to help train social workers, it has provided a forum for discussion of social policy, and its faculty and students have been active in assisting in the social endeavors, along with many talented neighbors.

JAPANESE RELOCATION

Recently I went to Dr. Walter Palmer's 90th birthday party - many of you were there. At the party, I met an old friend of mine, an artist who lives in Hyde Park, the mother of a close friend of one of my daughters. I said to her "Natsuko Takehita, how do you know Dr. Palmer?" She said, "When I came out of the camps, I lived at the Palmers." That is a reminder of one of the times that Hyde Park and the Univer­ sity had an opportunity to use their unique talents effectively. As you know, after the shameful detention of the California Japanese in camps at the beginning of World War II, public opinion finally came to its senses and asked that those in the camps be relocated. The government chose 4 or 5 communities which had

major institutions to be pilot relocation areas; Hyde Park was one of those. In the beginning only young people could leave the camps and only when the community to which they were going could guarantee a job and a place to stay. Many of the detainees came to Hyde Park and we have benefited ever since by their many contributions.

URBAN RENEWAL

Any relationship has some features about which the parties are not proud or are even ashamed. The restrictive cov­ enants of the period from after the first world war to the second are such a feature; contracts which denied open housing to Jews and later to Blacks. But after the war, the University and the community agreed to take steps to eliminate these practices although it is probably necessary to say that in some cases prodding from the law was required.

But that said, problems remained.

Buildings in the neighborhood were deteriorating, there was a rise in crime and the nature of the community was chang­ ing. There was a short period when our relationship threatened to come apart; separation was considered. But as half the people here can testify, in spite of dis­ agreements as to what to do and even more disagreements as to how to do it, both halves of the relationship decided to buckle down and undertake urban renewal to try to stop the deterioration and to build and rebuild to make us a proud, integrated, diversified and open community. We have not solved all problems but we couldn't have done as much as we have done so far if it hadn't been for our solid relationship.

 SCHOOLS

There is so much to say about this relationship and schools that I dare not start. University and community members have worked endlessly to keep ahead of troubles. University students and others from the University work daily in the local schools to be of help. To keep our schools, public and private, supportive of, and helpful to, young people in the modem world is the greatest challenge this relationship has. We have done many things well in the schools, but we see much to do. We must not be overwhelmed or discouraged because we must do better. If it were the only thing the two halves of this relationship did in tandem for the next 10 years, it would justify the relationship.

BOOKSTORES

Our community has the best bookstores in the city, possibly in the United States, because of our relationship. Jack Cella tells me that someone from another city approached him with the idea of setting up a franchise of the Seminary Coop Book­ store and 57th Street Books. He explained to the man that it couldn't be done because they don't have Hyde Park!

CONCLUSION

On that note I will conclude, aware of the many things unsaid. What has made this relationship even more difficult over time, not to mention difficult as the conceit of my talk, is that the parties to the relationship are impossible to define.

What is the University? You know the wonderful story about the students in the 60's who had a huge petition with numerous signatures who wanted to give it to the head of the university. They took it one night to President Levi's house and he told them that he wasn't the head of the University, the faculty were the people who ran this university. The next day they approached the Spokesman for the University Senate to give it to him. He told them that he didn't head the Univer­ sity; the Trustees were the people in charge. They went to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and he said that at this university the Board of Trustees does not have anything to do with running the university, that they only devote them­ selves to the fiscal support of the univer­ sity. The petition didn't get delivered.

That may be confusing enough, but as we

all know faculty and students represent a wide range of opinions and characters; certainly they don't speak as one. What should I say when people approach me in the Coop and ask me, "What does the University think about parking permits?" "What is the University doing about the shopping center?"

Well, what about the other half of the relationship? Even you wouldn't claim that Hyde Park can speak as one. What does Hyde Park think about the new park on 53rd Street?

We will bring this to an end by saying that this relationship over the last 100 years has been one in spirit, not in opinion, and we trust that it will be thus for the next 100 years.

 Cornell Award to Augusta Bloom

by Stephen Treffman

The Board of the Hyde Park Historical Society has bestowed upon Augusta G. Bloom a Paul Cornell Award for her gift to our Society of many hundreds of photographic negatives produced by her late husband, Charles G. Bloom. The vast majority of these negatives are views of Hyde Park buildings and residents and date from the 1970s to 1980s. Enriching the gift were sixty photographs produced by Mr. Bloom, most of them views of Pullman but also some of Hyde Park.

Mrs. Bloom's gift is a very important addition to our archives and will, doubt­ lessly, be one of its more significant holdings. The negatives in this collection have been well-protected, and many of them are dated and labeled.

Charles Bloom was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 8, 1920, and he died September 16, 1987. He attended the University of Cincinnati but left in 1942 to serve as a flight navigator in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He attained the rank of First Lieutenant and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal with three clusters.

He capie to live in Hyde Park in 1946

and worked for many years as a New York Central Railroad switchman and yard conductor in the road's Englewood yards. In 1963 he received a master's degree from the University of Chicago and began teaching, first at Hyde Park High School and later at Kennedy-King College. He was very active in railway worker and teacher unions throughout his careers.

The political life of the community also drew his interest and he served in the campaigns for office of Abner Mikva, Leon Despres, and Robert Mann, and was, himself, an officer at the state level of the Independent Voters of Illinois. He became a professional photographer during the 1970s, working for the Hyde Park Herald and the University of Chicago. He exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Fair and locally.

Editors Note:

Another Cornell Award went to Janet Burch and Joel Juillory, who beautifully restored their 1903 home after it was ravaged by.fire in 1989. More on their

excellent work in our next issue.

Officers Were Elected/or 1992...

The Nominating Committee presented the following slate which was unanimously elected:

President               Carol Bradford Vice President    Bert Benade

Vice President        Zeus Preckwinkle Treasurer      Ed Campbell

Secretary               Mary Lewis

Juli Borst Paynter Teacher Grants, announced by committee chair Alice Mulberry, were awarded to two teachers from Hyde Park Career Academy: Elizabeth Kilburn and Elaine Weber.

Congratulations!

Double House Wins Cornell Award

by Mary C. Lewis

One of the Paul Cornell Awards presented at the Hyde Park Historical Society's annual meeting was given to Sheila and Robert Bator for the exterior restorative work done on their 1886 double house at 5418-20 South Blackstone. Since the Bators' double house is also owned and occupied by Alta and Robert Blakely, they were awarded honorable mention for sharing in the labor. Alta Blakely is a board member of the Hyde Park Historical Society and hence was not eligible for a full award.

Before the Bators and Blakelys began the work of applying a varied palette of colors, the two couples stripped 100 years of tan and brown trim paint from the front of the building. Then the two couples discussed various choices and agreed on six colors: royal blue and light blue, light and dark grey, cream, and bordeaux red. During July and August, 1991, with the help of Dan Smith, a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, nine coats of paint were applied meticulously to the siding, trim, porch posts and other decorative spots to both halves of the building. The result of their joint effort is a lively palette of colors in the style of a Queen Anne "painted lady" widely popular in San Francisco and growing in appeal among owners of Victorian homes in this area.

The joint venture is noteworthy for several reasons. Alta Blakely believes that double house owners need a great deal of neighborliness and consensus to team up for a project like this; she notes that even though she and her husband left on vacation during the summer of 1991, the work proceeded smoothly while they were gone. In addition, the couples undertook some further restoration when they decided to remove the oval medallions over the front porches. Hyde Park carpen­ ter Steve Cory built new frames for the medallions, hand scraped them to remove the former paint, and repainted them using the six new colors. The additional effort reveals a great deal of cared detailing and lends an eye-catching charm to the exterior.

The Cornell Award is the second prize won for the Bators' and Blakelys' efforts. Last fall the double house won first place in the South Chicago region of the "painted lady" competition sponsored annually by the Chicago Paint and Covering Association. The competition features winners from around Chicago and its collar counties.

Alta Blakely credits her daughter with getting them started on the idea of redoing the house in the "Painted Lady" style. She made drawings to show some ideas for color schemes, and that helped the two couples discuss the combinations they wanted. Although a few books exist about Victorian exteriors, Alta says that they relied mainly on their own brainstorming and other given notions. "We had to start with grey as a basic color," she explained, "because the siding is grey and we weren't interested in replacing that. We also like blue as a basic color." Most Victorian exterior restoration lends itself to basics such as those; brighter colors - such as the bordeaux red used by the Bators and Blakelys - are added to the details.

The paint job on the 1886 double house compliments that of a growing number of Victorian exterior restorations in Chicago, including three other houses in the 5400 block of South Blackstone. The Blakelys and Bators are glad that the colors they chose fit in well with others in Hyde Park. Now that spring has arrived, a walking tour of the neighborhood might give home owners some ideas for ways to brighten the exteriors of their own houses. For lists of houses to see, consult Jean Block's book, Hyde Park Houses, or a self-guided walking tour brochure, both available for purchase at the Hyde Park Historical Society, Saturdays and Sundays, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Correspondence

I had seen this show with Edgar Esson. I then had gone to Ottawa, Illinois, for a visit with Vera La Clair, whose brides­ maid I was to be in June.

I had been up all night, nearly, at a ball which announced the engagement of Vera

Sam Hair, from whom we have had such wonderful tales of early Hyde Park, has sent another of his mother's historic recollections. We are enormously grateful to Mr. Hair for his willingness to share these documents with us.

Please send us any of your family's (or your own) accounts of events which are important or interesting ( or both) for our collection and documentation of Hyde Park history.

Dear Editor:

You mentioned that you might be interested in my mother's account of the Iroquois Theater fire in 1903, so I am enclosing it herewith.

Considering that she was then 20, and her sister Irene 17, it is a singularly unemotional account. She and Irene were closest in age in the family of four daughters and one son, and were constant childhood and teenage companions, yet she says little about her own feelings in this tragic event where she was the one who had to identify the body.

Also enclosed is a brief biography of my mother. They then lived at 5135 Madison Ave., now Dorchester.

FLORENCE CUMMINGS HAIR, was

born April 11, 1883, in Clifton, Illinois. She went to local schools, and when the Cummings family moved to Chicago in 1894 she went to Hyde Park High School, Ferry Hall (Lake Forest, IL), and the University of Chicago. She married Thomas J. Hair in October 1906. They lived in Chicago until 1945, when they moved to Tryon, North Carolina. Her husband died March 1973, age 93 years, 11 months. She died in March 1975, age

92. There were three children - Thomas, Eleanor, and Sam. She kept a diary every day for 60 years, and also left some written reminiscences, of which the following survives.

WHATIREMEMBERABOUTTHE IROQUOIS THEATER FIRE IN 1903

by Florence Cummings Hair

In 1903, I was 20 years old, and my sister Irene was 17. My father, Robert Fowler Cummings, was graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1867, never losing his interest in this fact, so it was natural that he should send his daughter, Marion, to do two years of college in Ferry Hall, graduating in 1897. I was also booked for my two years of college at Ferry Hall, to graduate in 1904.

That summer, Irene and I found a "Fortune Teller" who for $1.00 each, was said to be -    It was an awful price to pay, in those days. I think my "fortune" said I'd be the "power behind the throne" idea for a husband. But Irene's "fortune" said she was to have a very serious illness and her life would be saved by our family doctor.

The Iroquois Theater was new - what was called "an extravaganza." The key fact is that the entrance was at one side, not in front, and this confused the audi­ ence. The ingenue was seen to be in a huge swing. In flimsy, inflammable gauze, she was swung from back stage way back and out over the audience. When the swing became ignited, the audience did not know how to get out, and many deaths were caused by this confusion. Ralph Stevens' two sisters (friends of mine) were there and were saved from being trampled to death by pulling themselves up by grabbing a man's belt. Their clothing was burning but help was at hand for those two anyway.

Irene and Adelaide Baker and a third girl had bought first balcony seats.

Adelaide was living with an elderly aunt who was ill at this moment, and Adelaide insisted that she (Adelaide) stay home with the sick woman, who refused to let her. The third girl was living with her widowed sister (a Ferry Hall friend of Marion's and mine). This girl had had repeated dreams of being in a burning building, unable to get out. Perhaps it was natural for the older sister to talk her out of this repeated dream and to go to the theater as planned.

and Luther Perkins, so when I got an early start from Ottawa, that morning, I was very tired. When I heard about the fire, I sat in our parlor at 5135 Madison Ave. waiting for Dr. James W. Walker to call from some hospital saying that he had found Irene. When he did call, he said, "This is going to be a matter of identifica­

tion. ·no not let Mr, Cummin s come down to the "Loop" or there will be another to seek. I shall want Florence at 5

a.m. if she can get an hour or so of rest

until then."

That trip to the "Loop" was a horror.

Dreadful details were being told all around us. We heard later that 50 people were alerted to look for Irene.

Our first stop was at a building where some scores of bodies were awaiting identification. I saw our dentist's mother - a good friend of ours. From there we'd buy the last flash-editions of the papers, and we'd tramp in melting show, or take a streetcar, hour after hour. Finally there was just one more place to see - only four bodies there. And I said "And then what?" and the doctor said, "We'd have to start all over again."

I was able to recognize what was left of Irene's clothing (underwear, etc.) at twelve o'clock noon (we'd been looking since 5:30 a.m.). The doctor called mother and we got an lliinois Central train for 51st Street. I saw someone on the street that I knew and the doctor said, "You are not to say anythin to anybody about what we've done. I will tell your mother all that is necessary."

I remember that I went up to the 3rd floor front room (Lenore's bedroom) and slept for hours. Later the doctor called and said, "Someone has identified Irene's body as her sjster's bo<ly. Does that worry you?" and I said "No. I know that girl well. There is no mistake." The doctor said, "Those in the first balcony died of suffocation from smoke. The fire came later."

My father wanted to take mother away and planned a West Indies tour. At Ferry Hall, I was expecting to graduate in June and still had one paper to write. Miss Sargent (head of F.H.) insisted that I should go on the West Indies Tour and write that paper later.

Correspondence

Our Archivist, Steve Treffman, whose postcard photo of the old Ray School Annex (presently the site of the Brete Hart school) was pictured in our last newslet­ ter, shares this interesting correspondence from his fellow collector, Harold T. Wolff:

Dear Steve,

While researching a totally different topic, I came upon the following architec­tural references:

"Architect M. L. Beers:...For District No. 1, Hyde Park, four-room schoolhouse, to be erected on Fifty-sixth street, east of

I.C.R.R. track. The peculiarity of this building will be that it is to resemble in appearance a private dwelling, it being located in a private dwelling quarter, and the location being secured on these terms. It will be three stories high, with an area of 96 by 45 feet; the exterior construction will be stone, basement high, followed by pressed brick to the second story, and the remainder will be of slate; the interior finish will be in Georgia and clear white pine; cost about $15,000."

-"Synopsis of Building News," Inland Architect and News Record , Volume 13, Number 7, June, 1889,

page 91, column 2.

Note also the following, which appears on another page of the same issue and may be an earlier or later press release on the same building:

"Architect M. L. Beers: For District No. 1, Hyde Park, two-story school building, 30 by 90 feet; to be built at Fifty­ sixth street; cutstone exterior, slate roof; cost $15,000."

-"Synopsis of Building News," IM

Inland Architect and News Record, Volume 13, Number 7, June, 1889,

page 92, column 1.

Jean Block, in her book Hyde Park Houses

also recognizes Beers for his work in Hyde Park. She writes:

Beers was born in Ohio in 1847. His father was a builder and named his son after the French architect and writer Minard Lefever, known in this country for his Modem Builders' Guide (1833); Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835); and The Architectural Instructor (1856).

His father's ambitions for him being apparent from birth, Beers learned carpentry at home and then studied with Joseph Ireland, an architect in Cleveland, Ohio. Arriving in Chicago in 1871, he worked as a draughtsman for Otis Leonard Wheelock, and then went into partnership with Oscar Cobb for a few years. When he came to Hyde Park in 1877 he went into practice on his own. He built a number of houses in the area as well as schools and other public buildings. Unfortunately, only a very few examples of his work remain; unpretentious, simple family homes, dating from the late eighties and early nineties, they are representative of a much larger number, now demolished.

Minard Lefever Beers (1847-1918) 5411 Harper      1889

5318 Blackstone        1880

5410Harper              b. 1880 Beers, Clay and Dutton

5247 University         1891

5601-03 Dorchester    1892 

Volume 14 Number 3 and 4 October 1992

SHIPWRECKS OFF HYDE PARK

Jim Stronks, HPHS member, brings us some wonderfully interesting research about serious happenings right off Hyde Park's lake shore and some concurrent goings-on in the town as well. We are grateful to Jim/or his contribu­ tions (remember his follow-up on Brookins' prize-winning airplane flight?) to our store of Hyde Park history. lfyou have a story to tell, please share it with us

by Jim Stronks

One of our sister institutions is the Chicago Underwater Archaeological Society, an organization of scuba divers who locate and explore sunken ships. In a recent program at the Chicago Historical Society, their spooky underwater videos whetted my curiosity: were there shipwrecks in our Hyde Park waters? I found that there are indeed; they are lying out there this minute. I checked the divers' records against a variety of sources, especially old newspapers at Regenstein Library, to learn the story of these sinkings.

We do not realize the volume of shipping in Chicago's early decades. In one month, October 1869, four years after the Civil War, 1721 vessels docked in the Chicago River and its branches, sometimes double-parked. On November 15, 1869, which I cite solely because the microfilm of the Chicago Times happens to be legible for that date, no fewer than 119 ships put into Chicago in one day, and on some days there were over 300, most of them compara­ tively small ships, it is true.  Most were sailing ships, that is under canvas, and of shallow draft, thus vulnerable to Lake Michigan's hard blows from the northeast, which broke many a ship against the western shore and sent others to the bottom with all hands lost. In fact, on the very next day, November 16, 1869, there were 35 sailing ships wrecked on Michigan and her sister lakes, plus ten steam­ ers. Two days later the Times said the storm from the northeast "has been almost terrible beyond example," and reported a wreck not far from Hyde Park, at the foot of 35th Street, where the Ringgold had smashed ashore upon the property of the late Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Most early wrecks were well north of Hyde Park because shipping was usually headed for the river, bringing in mountains of lumber and coal (and once a young woman from Holland who became my grand­ mother). Later, the rise of Gary and Calumet Harbor meant more ships passing Hyde Park, and some of these ended on the bottom too.

For example, did anyone here see the Tacoma sink off Jackson Park on November 4, 1929? Lying today in 32 feet of water, the Tacoma is a favorite of underwater archaeolo­ gists (I love that name) because most of her hull and deck, 73 feet long by 18 feet wide, remain intact. Her blunt proportions tell her role in life; the Tacoma was built, in Benton Harbor in 1894, to be a dredge tug. And on the day when "the ancient tub sprang a yawning leak," as the Tribune elegantly put it, she was plying her honest trade, pulling two scows at a point 1.1 mile from the 68th Str et crib. It was12:30, noontime, when her wooden hull spht open and Captain Fred E. Stubbins blew four blasts, a distress signal. The Coast Guard at Jackson Park heard, dashed out, and saved the crew of six, while another tug arrived to take over the tow.

(But the sinking of the Tacoma and the storybook rescue won only two inches at the bottom of page 2. Bycontrast, the Tribune gave reruns of breathless copy that day to the Chicago Civic Opera's first performance in tis new skyscraper home on Wacker Drive. Hyde Parkers who missed the gala "Aida" could have gone instead to see Loretta Young in "Fast Life" at the Piccadilly, adults only, or down to 63rd Street to see Lionel Barrymore in "Myste­ rious Island" at the Tower, or Richard Arlen in "Four Feathers" at the Maryland, or Claudette Colbert in ''The Lady Lies" at the Tivoli.)

For a body of water seemingly so calm and beautiful, Lake Michigan has been a terror for killing ships and sailors, especially during that frightful autumn of 1929.

On September 9 the Andaste sank in a storm with 25 lives lost. On the 24th the ferry Milwaukee, loaded with 26 railway cars, went down in mid-lake with a loss of 52 lives. On the 29th the Wisconsin, combined freight and passenger, which had left Navy Pier for Milwaukee with a cargo of new automobiles, sank off Kenosha with 12 lives lost. On October 30th the Tribune summed up: "Three Shipwrecks on Lake Claim 89 Lives in Fifty Days"-but the lake was not finished. At noon on November 1, the freighter Senator, loaded with shiny new Nash cars, was rammed in the fog by the ore boat Marquette and sank in minutes off Port Washington at the cost of another 12 lives. Compared to these disasters, the sinking of the tug Tacoma four days later was small potatoes.

But it was big news when the majestic David Dows gave up the ghost off Jackson Park in 1889. A 5-masted barkentine of 1347 tons, 278 feet in length, 38 in beain, built in Toledo in 1881, the David Dows was designed to carry 140,000 bushels of grain from Chicago to eastern ports on the Great Lakes. On November 29, 1889, she was returning with 2053 tons of anthracite in bitter cold weather when, "SWEPT BY ICY GALES," her hold flooding, and "one mass of ice from stem to stern,'' she settled in 40 feet of water at 2:45 p.m. Her crew had time to lash themselves to the rigging, which extended well above the lake level, so were taken off safely by the tug Chicago. except that many of their severely frozen hands and feet would have to amputated. Later the Coast Guard dynamited the five masts sticking up out of the lake so as to clear that traffic lane for navigation, but the huge hull and deck, and some of the anthracite, are still down there right side-up and regularly visited by admiring scuba divers.

Four more shipwrecks off Hyde park have been mapped, but I have been unable to find their stories in the blurred microfilm of old newspapers. It is a matter of record that the schooner Hercules, 60 tons, the first known Lake Micpigan wreck, went down 3/4 mile off what is now 63rd Street on October 3, 1818. The lumber schooner

McKay sank 3-1/2 miles off 51st Street in November 1856. The tug E. L. Anthony burned and sank off 59th Street on July 8, 1885. And the Teddy. a little 8-ton steainer built in 

Manitowoc in 1903, foundered and sank off 79th on April 24, 1918, when all the papers were delirious with war news.

But the shipwreck closest home, and truly a Hyde Park event in its day, was the death of the Silver Spray only 200 yards off 49th Street. There, on Morgan Shoal, on the north edge of what was called Chicago Beach, she met her end on July 15, 1914. Her pathetic remains are still visible from the shore today.

A strong northeast wind had pounded the lakefront with waves on July 14, and four Chicagoans had drowned, but the wind seems to have subsided and was apparently not a factor on the 15th. Whatever the cause, the helmsman of the Silver Spray would seem to have been- unaccountably, amazingly- ignorant of the Hyde Park Sands, that extensive cluster of shallows and sandbars clearly marked on every sailor's chart, visible from high-rise apartment windows, and marked by a red buoy today.

The Silver Spray. actually the fifth boat of that name on the Great Lakes, was built in Ludington in 1894 and had at first been gaily christened Bloomer Girl. She was a pleasure craft, as the Tribune called her, the kind which people rode from the Chicago River to the Columbian Expo in 1893, or which later they boarded at Navy Pier for a Sunday ride upon the lake. Pictures of such craft suggest that she probably fit Mark Twain's adjectives for another boat, "long and sharp and trim and pretty."

Specifically, Silver Spray was a wooden passenger steamer of 95 tons, 109 feet in length, 22 in beam, valued at $10,000-but uninsured at the time of her death. On that day she was running close to shore because she had been chartered to carry 200 University of Chicago students to Gary to see the steel mills. From exactly which pier they were to embark is unknown; perhaps some Society member can fill in the story for us.

No passengers were aboard when Silver Spray (nee Bloomer Girl) ran aground in only eight feet of water in full sight of hundreds of bathers at Chicago beach. A powerful launch from the life-saving station at Jackson Park harbor and two excursion boats were unable to pull her free-and then it happened. She turned over, and according to one account killed three crewmen. Sailors will tell you it is considered unlucky to change a boat's name.

(On July 16 the Tribune gave the event only two inches on page 4- "Bathers See a Shipwreck; Silver Spray on Reef'-and the Daily News said nothing at all. Not that the papers were preoccupied with the approach of World War

I. The guns of August would explode soon enough, but Hyde Parkers might still have gone to the movies that July night with a light heart, if they liked the jittery 2-reelers of 1914. Summer people at the Chicago Beach Hotel on 51st Street could walk two blocks west to the Beach movie house to see a Keystone Comedy and "The Night Hawks," an Essanay film probably shot in Chicago. The Hyde Park Theatre, at 5314 Lake Park, where the bank drive-in is now, was showing "Lillian's Dilemma" with Wally Van; the Jefferson, at 1523 East 55th, where the Deco Arts Building is today, advertised simply "Feature Photo Plays Daily," 5¢ and 10¢; and the Campus, at 1316 East 61st Street, was showing "Women Against Women.")

But to return to the wreck of the Silver Spray on Hyde Park Sands, eventually the lake tore her top off, then slowly beat her to pieces, but her heart lies out there yet, that is to say her boiler and propeller. Richardson's    .

Chartbook and Cruisin Guide (1979) indicated that the wreckage extended above the surface. Today it lies ten inches below, but when the wind is right you can see the boiler heave into view, as big as a car, if you know exactly where to look and are patient. The best vantage point is looking straight out 200 yards from the "No Alcoholic Beverages" sign which is fifty paces north of the public telephone at 49th Street.

No buoy marks the spot, but on certain days when all the rest of Lake Michigan is quiet and smooth, you may be startled to see frothing white rollers mysteriously tumbling over each other for no visible reason at 49th Street. It is very striking. It seems a ghostly commotion. And indeed it marks the reef that killed the hapless Silver Spray. Hyde Park's own shipwreck.

Watch for it.
 

The South Shore Country Club was founded in 1906. On its 50th Anniversary in 1956, the Club published a very impressive Anniversary Book, a copy of which was recently given to the Historical Society by a thoughtful friend. Below we reprint from that book the story of the Club's beginnings as told on the Club's 40th anniversary by the founder himself, Mr. Lawrence Heyworth.

The Founders Own Story

Back in 1905 when I was President of the Chicago Athletic Club I conceived the idea of having a Country Club in connection with the Athletic Club so the members of the Athletic Club could enjoy dining and wining in a beautiful place out in the country instead of having to resort to dives and saloons, which at that time were about the only avail­ able suburban places.

This idea was taken from the New YG>rk Athletic Club which owned Travers Island, a beautiful country club about fifteen miles from New York City, situated on Long Island Sound.

The grounds of the South Shore Country Club were at that time owned by Elisha W. Willard of Providence, Rhode Island. On my trips out in the country I used to take the children to this spot and have old man Barnes, a fisherman, fry perch for us on the spot where the shooting lodge now stands. It was from these trips that I came to the conclusion that this would be an ideal spot for the country club.

I sent out letters to members of the Chicago Athletic Club with this project in view, but received only a few acceptances, not sufficient to carry out my plans on this project. Still determined to build the club on this very advantageous site, I asked Mr. Honore Palmer, son of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Harry Honore, her brother, Mason B. Staring and W. C. Thorne to join me as a committee and help promote the club.

We then sent out about 1,000 letters to the most promi­ nent people in Chicago and received only twenty-one acceptances, nearly all from members of the Calumet Club. This was a K.O. after I had already negotiated for the property through Bert Winston, and agreed to pay person­ ally $30,000 down and $245,000 in twenty-four years with interest at 4½% on deferred payments.

I was certainly holding the bag and upon thinking the matter over thoroughly as to what to do next, conceived the idea of getting some better known and bigger names as directors. I telephoned Ogden Armour and asked him if he would be a director of the proposed Country Club to be built out at Seventy-First Street and the Lake, and if I could use his name as a director on one circular letter only. This I wished to use for promotional purposes to help finance the club. He laughed and asked me what other obligations he would be under and I told him he would have to buy a perpetual membership in the club, if the club was success­ fully organized, and he replied, "All right, go ahead and use my name."

After I obtained Mr. Armour's consent to directorship I telephoned Mr. Black, who at that time was President of the Continental National Bank, and I asked him if I could use his name also. Mr. Black consented and then in the same manner I obtained the consent of Mr. Forgan of the First National Bank, Mr. Smith of the Merchants Loan Bank and Mr. John J. Mitchell of the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank. In fact, the presidents of seventeen loop banks consented to their names being used as directors on the second letter sent out to the public.

About this time a committee of irate Bryn Mawr-South

Shore residents walked into the Mutual Bank of which I was president, and threatened to stop the South Shore Country Club completely and to niake matters worse, they had the right to do so. This committee, as I remember, was com­ posed of State Senator Clarke, Aid. Bennett, Mr. French, a lawyer, and Mr. Brandenbury, who was Commissioner of Public Works, and several other prominent citizens. They said they were going to put a stop to the organizing of the Country Club, that 67th, 68th, 69th, and 70th Streets were to be extended through to the lake, that the City of Chicago owned this property and the City was going to open up these streets.

I asked all of them to step into the director's room of the

Mutual Bank and asked each of them individually where he banked and then told them that the presidents of their banks were directors of the Club. I then said to them, "Are you going to fight the presidents of your banks where you borrow money and stop the organization of a club of which these same gentlemen are directors?"

I then showed them the letter that was about to go out upon which appeared the names of the directors, headed by Ogden Armour, and consisting of all the Loop bank presi­ dents. After seeing this letter with the names of the directors listed thereon, they decided not to fight the Club and I told them that if they did not join the Club before they left the room not one of them would be allowed to step upon the grounds of the club so long as I lived which would be very detrimental to the social standings of their families.

They all joined and were very instrumental in passing an ordinance through the City Council trading the property owned by the City of Chicago located inside of the present fence for a forty-foot strip of land bordering the west side of the grounds from 67th Street to 71st Street. This particular strip was used for widening the present South Shore Drive to 60 feet from the old Bond Avenue 30 foot width. This also increased the ten foot grass plot bordering the club on the west side of the grounds to twenty feet.

The results from the second letter sent out were over one thousand acceptances for membership in the club, and in each letter of acceptance was enclosed a check for $100.00 as a initiation fee.

Thereupon we closed the real estate deal through Bert Winston who, at our request, showed his good fellowship by donating his commission of $7,000.00 as a fund to be used for promotional expense of the club.

We engaged Marshall and Fox as architects and copied a picture which I had in my possession of an old Mexican Club in the City of Mexico, leaving out th expensive embellishments shown in the picture.

The solarium of the club was originally developed from an open porch which was glassed in between the columns for protection from severe storms. This is how the beautiful solarium in both buildings originated.

The present ballroom is the original ballroom which was left in its present site when the new building was built. The acoustics of the ballroom were pronounced by Walter Damrosch and his orchestra as the best in America. In a comer of the ballroom, Mr. Damrosch played a high note on his violin which could be heard in any part of the ballroom and which he said was impossible in any auditorium in which he had played. This, of course, was just a lucky break in our favor.

We then started erecting the first South Shore Country Club. It was necessary to build it rapidly as we could not collect the club dues until we had the grounds and the building finished. Every member was called upon to donate his services, material and time towards the completion of the club.

About this period the Washington Park Club closed. I told Lawrence Young, president of that club, that if he would give us the greens and the lockers of the Washington Park Club we would make him a director of the South Shore Club later on when a charter was taken out. He was another loyal fellow and sold us the greens and lockers of the Washington Park Club, which was considered the finest English turf a that time.

We paid I¢ per square yard for the greens and fifty cents each for the lockers. We then used delivery wagons from the Loop stores to haul all of these greens and lockers over to the grounds of the South Shore Country Club. This line­ up of wagons was a quarter of a mile long and consisted of wagons from Marshall Field, Mandel Brothers, the Fair Store, Montgomery Ward and many others, and with their help we succeeded in sodding the grounds in a few days.

The club house was finally finished within two and one­ half months. Mr. H. I. Miller, who was then president of the Rock Island Railroad and had rebuilt the Pennsylvania road through Johnstown in twenty-four hours after the famous Johnstown flood, was the fellow we persuaded to finish up the terraces. We told him that if he would put in all the sod, grass and trees around the club within seven days we would make him president of the Club the second year of its existence. He put in temporary railroad tracks and with gangs of men finished the entire grounds in six days and gave all this to the club as a donation.

Mr. Worcester, the Vice-President of the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, put in all of the lights and pipe lines for lighting up the grounds and building.

We opened up the club at the end of September, 1906, with a grand party which was a great success. The kitchen was not yet completed at that time and Mr. Southgate of the Congress Hotel and Mrs. Potter Palmer, owner of the Palmer House, sent out wagonloads of food, a manager and all necessary waiters and service for the opening party. It made a regular New Year's Eve celebration look like a tame affair.

CORNELL AWARD WINNER, AFTER THE FIRE

by Margo Crisroula

On Dec. 22, 1989, Hyde Park almost lost an historic house. 1361 East 57th Street, the end of a handsome brick row of professors' townhouses (built in 1903 by Mann, MacNeille, and Lindberg), suffered a serious fire. Walls and floors in the rear half of the house on all three stories were destroyed. The tile roof was breached, the windows shat­ tered, stairwell and millwork on the first floor charred beyond use. The homeowners, Janet Burch and Joel Guillory, were left with a wreck that many homeowners would have consigned to destruction. Instead, they brought their house back to vibrant life.

A great part of their task was replacement. Burch, who considers herself a "detail maniac," found a congenial collaborator in Cerwe Construction Co., a small firm with expert craftsmen able to rebuild cabinetry, fireplaces, and doorways, replace the diamond paned windows in many custom sizes, and produce a variety of beautiful wall treatments. They rebuilt the livingroom fireplace as an exact copy of the original, and duplicated millwork from a neighboring house to create a perfect match between replacements and survivors of the fire.

The plentiful woodwork on the first floor was-and is-oak.

For the upper storeys, Burch and Guillory replaced bass­ wood with basswood, despite advisors who argued for more oak. ''Though it is cheaper, to me it has a wanner, softer look for the upstairs," Burch says. The new wood has been stained and varnished to make a meticulous match with the old. All the original door hardware was spared. The only major casualty was the built-in hutch in the dining room, which was not replaced. An antique open cupboard does very well instead-maybe better.

The couple seized many opportunities large and small to improve upon the original.

The staircase had always been a grievance. Though close to the entrance, it was a narrow switchback that exuded a backstairs aura and exercised a stringent veto over furniture for the second and third floors. It was replaced with a more commodious square stairwell, its millwork coped from a neighboring house, that makes a graceful entrance directly into the living room.

The new stairwell opened an inviting path to the kitchen, which also benefited from the fire. ''With the kitchen and bathroom, you don't want to go back to the past," Burch says. The kitchen gained space from the old butler's pantry, and lost its "nasty old linoleum," which Burch had not replaced only because she dreaded a disruptive kitchen renovation, to Mexican quarry and decorated tiles. The breakfast nook, an earlier add-on at the back of the house, was given an eastward window; its sunny view of the backyard garden, with deck and patio, could never be improved. Second- and third-floor bathrooms were given modem fixtures, space-saving showers, lots of mirrors and light. Yet the feel of the house was preserved here too, with richly decorative tile.

Most imaginative of the changes was the addition of a half-bath next to the kitchen. The wall and French doors

between living and dining rooms were replaced by a deep archway, a shape echoing exterior decoration on other houses in the block. One of the spaces became a tiny but most convenient powder room. On the other side, the paneling lining the archway conceals built in storage for china and linen. Adding even a small space seems a near miracle in a house only twenty-five feet wide, yet the dignity of the living and dining rooms was actually en­ hanced.

Finally, the overall floor plan was opened up. Originally, rooms had been small and chopped up with doors. "It was the klutziest house of the row, with doors in all the wrong places," according to Burch. Now, the separate tiny entranceway is gone. The second-floor study, which had been divided by an unnecessary wall and French doors, is now opened out into a single expanse, lined on three sides by built-in shelves and drawers and the original fireplace (a surprise survivor), and on the fourth by variously sized windows. (The architects of the block favored lots of windows in lots of sizes for a picturesque look that probably seemed quite luxurious in comparison with the standard­ sized windows, one per wall, common in cheaper homes of the period.) Among the windows is a pair of French doors; the former sleeping porch, itself a later addition, has been updated as a sunny open deck.

The finished house now looks good for another 90 years.

It offers some practical lessons for those of us faced with the less drastic damage inflicted on older homes by age and changing modes of life. Watch the details, have a clear picture of the lovable and the unlovable of what you have to work with. And remember that your house is not alone. It has a peer group-other houses in the row or up the block, in Hyde Park/Kenwood or, at farthest, somewhere in Chicago­ that can suggest materials, motifs, large plans or small particulars. With their help, your house can run with the old gang forever.

A TOUR OF PULLMAN

by Mary C. Lewis

A unique area of great significance to Chicago's past was the site of a tour sponsored by the Hyde Park Historical Society, August 8. Several Hyde Parkers traveled to Pullman on that summer Saturday and were led by a volunteer from the Historic Pullman Foundation, which conducts tours for groups.

The first stop on the tour was the headquarters of the Historic Pullman Foundation on 113th Street, founded in 1973 and housed in a former "block" or boarding house. The group was shown a 30 minute slide show which provided background information about the formation of Pullman.

In 1881, railroad company president George M. Pullman began his official plans for the town, with Solon Spencer Beman as architect and Nathan F. Barrett as landscape designer. One year later, the town's population had reached 3,500 and by 1885 the number of residents had almost tripled, to 9,000. In 1889, although the majority of Pullman's residents voted against the decision, the town was included with Hyde Park when annexation laws made Pullman part of Chicago.

Within five years, economic upheaval and labor union struggles caused Pullman to emerge in the national news. The Pullman Strike of 1894 and subsequent violence brought a veil of notoriety to Pullman, and although the town won an 1896 international prize as the "most perfect town," the area began a downward slide. Sixteen years after he founded the town, George Pullman died. In 1898 the Illinois Supreme Court ordered all non-industrial property in Pullman to be sold, effectively ending the company's control. During the early 1900s, many workers bought the houses that they had been renting from the Pullman Com­ pany and they continued to live in the area.

By 1960 only a few owner-occupied homes were still well maintained and Pullman was designated a blighted neighborhood. Community residents then spent several years successfully fighting efforts to tear down the area's buildings or construct what residents viewed as undesirable developments. The residents' efforts also resulted in triple landmark status: state (1969), national (1971), and city (1972). In 1991, the State of Illinois purchased Pullman's Administration Buildings and Hotel Florence for a proposed Pullman State Historic Site.

After the slide show, the group of Hyde Parkers were given a tour of the area. This began with an interior visit to one of the renovated row houses for sale in the neighbor­ hood. (The Historic Pullman Foundation provides free listings and an informational exchange for interested buyers and sellers.) The Hyde Park group then strolled the sur­ rounding blocks while the tour guide described the shifting ethnic makeup of the town. During the late 1800s, when Pullman's sleeping cars were constructed of wood, the workers and their families were mainly of Swedish and Danish descent; then around 1910 when steel became the required building material for the railroad cars, the town's ethnic makeup changed to those of Polish, Italian and Greek ancestry.

As the group continued walking, several kinds of residences were noticed: workmen's cottages, the foreman's house, which was always placed at a comer of a block; and the larger residences of the plant manager, bandmaster, and town manager.

Across from the town's church was another large residence, built in the 1890s and meant to house a doctor for the town. The red brick Quadrant Building, constructed for Pullman's special guests who attended the Columbian Exposition of 1893, stands across from the Market Hall (a shopping area and bakery) and now houses apartments.

The group's next stop was the town's Greenstone Church, constructed of green limestone from Pennsylvania. The church's first minister was George Pullman's brother. Among the church's noteworthy details were its antique Steere & Turner Tracker organ, which included a plaque from the National Organ Historical Society, and the lack of any denominational or religious symbols-due to George Pullman's desire that the building be non-denominational so that all residents would feel comfortable attending services.

The final stop on the tour was the Hotel Florence, named after George Pullmans's favorite daughter. On the second floor of the hotel are several items of historical interest.

George Pullman's personal suite has been preserved to show the bedroom and sitting room furniture he used whenever he stayed at the hotel, and several photographs show his residence in the Prairie Avenue District. Also on display on the second floor are another, smaller hotel room and some artifacts from a Pullman sleeping car.

The Hyde Park group then enjoyed a lunch in the hotel dining room, which gave us a chance to discuss the many items of interest which had been seen that afternoon.

On-going at HPHS Headquarters

A Photo Exhibit by Edward Campbell "Readings from Our Past: Structures in Jackson Park"

On Sunday, November 15, 2pm "Henry Clay Work:

Hyde Park's Civil War Songwriter"

A Musical Program by Margo Criscuola