Newsletters 1999
Volume 20, Number 4 1998-1999 Edition
Hyde Park Houses: An Enduring Gift Twenty Years Later from Jean F Block
Written by Steven Treffman
Twenty years have passed since The University of Chicago Press published the lace Jean Friedberg Block's groundbreaking Hyde Park Houses: An
Informal History, 1856-1910 in the Fall of 1978. It is as
well, the tenth anniversary of her death.This presents an opportunity to look back at the significance of this book and at Jean Block's life.
When introduced to the public, Hyde Park Houses was characterized by its publisher, on one hand, as a "detailed architectural history of Hyde Park's first fifty years" and, on the other, as "a charming and informative guide to the historical domestic architecture of one of Chicago's oldest
neighborhoods." Thar these are not guire the same things may have reflected some difficulty on the part of this world-class academic press about just how to characterize the book. In fact, it was the first book of its type ever published by the UC Press. The book consists of four distinct sections: first, a general history, with illustrations and maps, of the development and evolution of nineteenth century Hyde Park-Kenwood; second, photographs by Samuel W. Block Jr. of seventy-six houses as they appeared in 1978, accompanied by a contemporary map showing their locations; third, in an appendix, biographical notes on more than forty architects along with listings of their Hyde Park buildings; and fourth, in a second appendix, a checklist of over nine hundred dwellings in Hyde Park and, where known, their architects and the names and occupations of their original owners organized by streets and street numbers. The book concludes with a bibliographic essay that reflects the wide and unusual range of sources she used and remains instructive to this day.
The book, which had a printing of 10,000 copies, was well-received and found wide distribution.
Currently it may be found in at lease fifty-five academic, state, and municipal libraries in Illinois alone and may be found in many major libraries throughout the United States. Several years ago, the Hyde Park Historical Society gave copies of the book to public schools in the community and also maintains a copy in its headguarcer's library. The Blackstone Library catalog lists eight copies in its collection and The University of Chicago's Regenstein Library has copies at several locations.
As a guide to histori chomes in Hyde Park and Kenwood, it was to many a revelation of the rich and accessible architectural history chat existed throughout the community. There simply had never been any publication on Hyde Park quire like it before. Familiar old houses now had names and daces attached to chem: they had their own histories. In addition, for the first time and for an audience beyond local boundaries, a general history of Hyde Park now existed that provided a narrative context not only co the houses but to the community in which they stood. It is chat which transformed Hyde Park Houses from what might otherwise have been viewed only as a guidebook into something more substantial and, as well, historic in its own right.
The publication of Hyde Park Houses in 1978 may be
viewed something of an unofficial proclamation of the end of the great period of urban renewal in Hyde Park. Beginning around 1950, local forces frorri religious institutions, The University of Chicago, community
• organizations and political activists drew together co hale the physical deterioration of the community's housing stock, revitalize its infrastructure and establish a more inclusive and constructive social situation. The long years of economic depression and war had stifled new construction in Hyde Park and a combination of housing shortages, social conflict, discrimination, and population changes appeared co threaten the viability of the entire community. The result, funded in part by federal grants, was the demolition, during the 1950s and 1960s, of large areas of residential and commercial property in Hyde Park and, perhaps co a somewhat lesser extent, in Kenwood.
Visitors to our exhibition of Vi Fogel Uretz' paintings and her slide presentations on urban renewal in Hyde Park at our headquarters in the 1995-96 season could only marvel at the images of sheer physical destruction that she recorded. It was almost as if the ravages of war in distant lands chat had been seen only in newsreels and magazines had somehow, incredibly, been visited upon Hyde Park. While the resulting new development was lauded nationally as a remarkable achievement in urban revitalization through federal and local partnership, the human impact was substantial.
Several hundred small businesses were affected. Many of
them simply closed while ochers scrambled to find new locations in Hyde Park or left the community. Some residents, by choice or by circumstance, found homes elsewhere in Chicago or fled the city entirely and moved co the suburbs.
Forthose HydeParkerswho remained,thoughbuoyedbyhope, idealismand determination, as thesmall shops, grocery stores,restaurants,houses,hotels,apartmentbuildings,houses of worship,theaters,gasstations and garages, eventhepost office andthepolicestationthathadbeen so much a partof thelandscape oftheirlivesdisappeared;theywereleftonlywith memories of what had been. Whether or nor one favored the course and effects of urban renewal, the changes it wrought were, for many people, undeniably painful and, for some, accompanied by a sense of loss chat only mellowed over the years. It is no surprise chat Vi Urecz' talks in 1995 and 1996 were to standing room crowds.
What Jean's book did, in effect, was to celebrate chat portion of Hyde Park-Kenwood that had survived the tumult. That success could be attributed co the combined efforts of a range of community institutions, a mobilized citizenry, enlightened political leadership and investments of large amounts of time, effort and, especially, money, government and private, in the community. Although Jean alludes only briefly to these developments in the preface, an important aspect of the philosophy that propelled Hyde Park's urban renewal effort does make its way into the text. At one point, in describing the emergence of activist
community organizations at the turn of the century, she writes (page 70): "Protection, improvement, betterment-the words imply that the community was less than perfect, and yet they also carry with them the implication that its citizens believed in their own power co affect the physical and moral conditions of life." That underlying subtext, the connection between the long-past and the then-immediate past, spoke co anyone familiar with--or who had lived through Hyde Park history during the third quarter of this century.
Also reflected in the book was the emergence of new attitudes regarding the preservation of older buildings. During the most intense period of urban renewal, postwar modernism dominated new construction design and older buildings were either physically eliminated or cast almost into a fashion shadow. In time, however, the idea of respecting and rehabilitating older housing designs and forms became a compelling value in the minds of many residents and homebuyers. Older homes and apartment buildings, they decided, had an aura and meaning worth nurturing. While this development was not unique to Hyde Park-Kenwood, of course, Hyde Parkers were among chose who played pioneering roles in that process here in Chicago.
Recently, a letter from long-time Hyde Parker Richard Orlikoff appeared in our local newspaper, The Herald (December 9, 1998). In the letter, he claims that the oft-quoted comment about Hyde Park and urban renewal that entertainers Elaine May and Mike Nichols made famous, originally had been his: "Here we stand, black and white, shoulder to shoulder against the poor." Oversimplification or not, the line reminds us that there were winners and losers in the urban renewal process. It does not at all detract from the achievement that Hyde Park Houses represents to note that the houses chat appear within it belonged co many of the winners.
Houses and the HPHS
The idea of a local historical society was not new in Hyde Park but Jean's book played a role in helping to actually establish one. The Old Settler's Club existed for awhile in the early part of this century, apparently until the old settlers were no more. In 1939, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the annexation of Hyde Park to Chicago, Paul Cornell's niece, Alice Manning Dickey, an active participant in the event, publicly urged establishment of an historical society in the community. World War II and its concerns intervened, however, and the proposal did not progress. The vision was reborn, however, in the mid-1970s by resident Clyde Watkins who engaged Jean and Muriel Beadle in the project at its very earliest stages and then drew other prominent and committed residents into the planning and fundraising that led to t'he founding in 1977 of the Hyde Park Historical Society and its installation in our current headquarters on Lake Park Avenue.
Aside from Jean's personal involvement with the
HPHS, her book presented the tableau of a community whose history was worth remembering and, thus, bolstered the attempt to do so through an actual organization. Sensing the legitimacy and impetus the book would provide their organizing efforts, writers in early issues of the Society's newsletter expressed eager anticipation of the book's publication. After it appeared, the book quickly became the standard history of early Hyde Park and the starting point for anyone interested in studying the development of the community. The society stocked copies for sale to the public. Finally, and this cannot be overstated, the essential work that Jean Block did to produce her book made it possible for others not only to expand upon what she found but to strike out into other areas of research.
If Hyde Park Houses hadn't been written, we might still be bogged down in trying to uncover and connect the materials and details Jean spent at least three years of her life determinedly cracking down. There are local historical societies and community groups elsewhere, both near and distant from Hyde Park, caught in precisely that situation today.
Beyond the local community, Hyde Park Houses found its place in very respectable company. In the book's introduction, the distinguished historian Kenneth T. Jackson placed it within "the new urban history," a still emerging body of literature chat examines local or neighborhood history as a way to understand or illuminate larger issues in the development of
America's cities. The book appeared at a time when "documenting the built environment" was a clarion call among preservatists. Jean was conducting research that almost directly responded to needs articulated in such prominent publications as, for instance, The National Trust for Historical Preservation's America's Forgotten Architecture (New York, 1976). Since then, Hyde Park Houses has earned its way into the footnotes and bibliographies of a wide range of books and articles published by writers not only on local history but, as well, on various aspects of architectural, Chicago, and general urban history. Indeed, its seeming awkwardness, that segmentation of its parts, has provided hooks for researchers coming at topics from varying angles and allowed them to use the book in different ways. This book which, Jackson noted, used "neither the methodology nor the jargon of the academic profession" (something that troubled some professors on the Press' editorial board), has, nonetheless, served that profession-and other intelligent readers-well.
Hyde Park-Kenwood is not an ancestor-worshipping community. When I began to look into its past, I found few letters, diaries, or books annotating or commemorating it. Its first public buildings-the town hall, the churches, the public school, the original Illinois Central stations-have long since disappeared. But we do have the houses. They are the material remains of the early culture of the first fifty years ... They are the tale and signature of the past, unwittingly bequeathed by their owners and builders. Jean Block, in her preface to Hyde Park Houses
Who Was Jean Block?
Jean was identified in the book and accompanying promotional materials only as the president of Midway Editorial Research and a lifelong resident of Hyde Park. Samuel W. BlockJr., the book's contributing photographer, receives only an expression of gratitude for his photographs in Jean's preface, but no direct information about him appears anywhere in the text, on the flyleaf or on any of the promotional material. How much of this reflected Jean's choice or a university publisher's uncertainty about how to present a non academic author, an independent scholar, is difficult to assess. Looking back, however, one can only conclude that it was hardly adequate.
The inner workings of much of Hyde Park's history is women's history in the sense of the leadership, service and commitment women have given to o'ur local educational, charitable, religious, cultural, recreational, business and political history. A major problem in recalling women's history, however, is that so much of it has tended to be carried out quietly, unrecognized, unrecorded and neglected. One of Jean's important contributions in Hyde Park Houses is her documentation of some of the social and cultural activities that women organized and sustained in early Hyde Park-Kenwood history.
Jean Block's life, a life of service, was part of this local history and she was active in a variety of community organizations. She was a board member of The University of Chicago Laboratory School's Parents Association, serving a term as its president, and co edited its newsletter with Ruth Grodzin. She was one the voices in favor of greater democratization within the University Colony Club and actively supported the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, the Fortnightly Club and International House. She volunteered as a research associate at Regenstein Library. Already noted was her role in the founding of the Hyde Park Historical
Society and its early success. She served not only as one of our early presidents but also organized our archives and negotiated its home at Regenstein Library. She was also a member of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Congregation.
Since Jean has been described as a more behind the scenes type of person, the full extent of her community involvement-her public life, aside from her publications-has been difficult to document and is here almost certainly incompletely reported. That is a problem not just in Jean's case but, as well, for many other women throughout this community's history who have found or created roles for themselves in the community beyond the family. In that process they have devoted much of their lives to giving texture to our community's history, articulating its moral and ethical issues, and making this neighborhood, through all its years and its changes, a better and more vibrant place in which to live. Rendering that history remains a challenge.
It is instructive to examine Jean Block's life and
family history, not only because it provides some background about her but also because it has a rough similarity to the stories of other accomplished Hyde Park families. There is inspiration, too, because, as one soon learns, Jean was a very sturdy human being. Jean's grandfather on her father's side, Cass Friedberg (1848- 1924), came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Kovnos, Lithuania in 1861 at the age of 13. He outfitted himself as a peddler and worked his way west to Kansas. He opened a successful dry goods store in El Dorado, Kansas in the 1880s, but closed it in 1900 to become president of a wholesale bedding company in Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1875 Cass married Laura Abeles (1853-1882), born in Leavenworth, Kansas to Simon and Amalia Abeles. Cass and Laura Friedberg had three children, one of whom, ultimately Jean's father, was born in 1875 in Chicago and given the name Selig. Later, he would take the last name of Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War as his first name, Stanton.
Simon Abeles, Jean's great-grandfather on her mother's side, was born in Bohemia in 1817. His father had been a rabbi and his mother the daughter of one.
Simon, literate in both Hebrew and German, had started out as a teacher of Hebrew and the Talmud but in 1837 found employment as craftman of violin strings. He decided to start life anew in the United States, however, and immigrated to St. Louis in 1840. He ultimately settled in Leavenworth, Kansas and became a successful clothing merchant, founder of a bank and real estate investor. He died in 1890. Stanton Freidberg, Sr., Jean's father, grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas, where his family had returned after his birth, and attended its public schools. His higher education began with a year of study at the University of Michigan but, having decided to become a physician, he returned to Chicago in 1893 to attend Rush Medical School from which he graduated in 1897. He became an ear, nose and throat specialist of national reputation. He invented a number of specialized instruments, one of which facilitated the extraction of diaper pins from infant throats and was the first to remove tonsils and adenoids as a measure
to cure diphtheria bacillus carriers. He served and taught at several Chicago hospitals and medical schools including German Hospital, Rush Medical College, Anna W. Durand Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital (its first Jewish physician), and Cook County Hospital. He joined the staff of the latter in 1903, became attending otolaryngologist there by civil service examination in 1906, and was, from 1913 to 1919, chief surgeon in that hospital's department. The year 1906 also marked the date of his marriage to Aline Liebman (1886-1954), the daughter of Louis and Henrietta Liebman of Schreveport, Louisiana where her father was a prosperous merchant. They met while she was visiting relatives in Chicago.
Jean Friedberg--our Jean-was born in Chicago on June 12, 1912 to Stanton and Aline and was the second of three children. She had an older brother, Stanton A.,Jr. (1908-1997), who, as an adult, also became a prominent Chicago otolaryngologist, and a younger sister, Louise Friedberg Strouse (b. 1915 ), who now lives in California.
In 1912 the family resided at 4907 S. Washington Park Court, a short street a block from Grand Boulevard, now King Drive. Dr. Friedberg served as a medical officer during World War I but only eight months after returning to Chicago to resume his practice, he died in 1920, age 45, of a mastoid infection. Jean was eight years old.
During the 1920s, Aline Friedberg and her children lived at 5816 S. Blackstone. Adolf Kramer, Jean's uncle (he was married to Stanton Friedberg, Sr.'s sister Rachel) and founding partner of the real estate firm of Draper and Kramer, provided assistance to Aline and her three children. The children obtained their elementary and secondary education at the Laboratory Schools of The University of Chicago. Jean graduated from Vassar College in 1934, returned to Chicago and taught at the Francis Parker School until her marriage.
On November 7, 1940, Jean married Samuel Westheimer Block, born in St. Joseph, Missouri on February 14, 1911, the son of one of the owners of Block Brothers, a prosperous dry-goods store. Samuel had what could only be termed an elite education and prestigious career, then or now. He graduated from the Worcester (Massachusetts) Academy in 1929, obtained his A.B. from Yale University in 1933 and received
his LLB. fromHarvardUniversity's Law Schoolin1936.He cameto Chicago,was admittedto theIllinoisBar in1936 andjoineda law firmwhichevolved ultimatelyintoJennerandBlock.During World War II, he served as a member of the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain. After the war Jean and Samuel made their home at 5719 S. Blackstone.
He became a partner in his law firm in 1948. Throughout his career Samuel was active in pro bono work, particularly in the area of civil rights. In addition to sitting on several corporate boards, he was a board member and officer of the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, the Faulkner School, and the Community Music Program, sponsors of the Merit Music program. Samuel died suddenly in 1970 at the age of 59. Jean was 58.
In the almost two decades before Hyde Park Houses
appeared, Jean labored at honing her skills as writer. Her work on the Lab School parent's newsletter provided one such opportunity. She also enrolled in The University of Chicago and, in 1963; was awarded a master of arts degree in the Humanities. Jean was then 51. That same year Jean with Ruth Grodzins, Ruth Goetz and Elaine Halperin, formed Midwest Editorial Research. It provided university faculty, graduate students, business and civic leaders and organizations assistance in editing or developing printed materials and speeches. The partnership wound down when some of the partners moved out of town or took other jobs. Jean then turned her attention more directly to architectural research. Jean also took a course on writing while actually working on Hyde Park Houses. That the book, which was published when Jean was 66, is as gracefully written as it is was not an accident.
Samuel W. Block, Jr., the photographer for Hyde Park Houses, was the eldest of Jean and Samuel Block's three children. He was born May 2, 1943 in Dayton, Ohio, where his parents lived briefly. As did his younger sister, Elizabeth, and brother, Michael, he underwent his primary and secondary education at the Laboratory Schools of The University of Chicago. He received a B.A. from Knox College in 1964 and later completed a two year program in photography at Chicago's Columbia College. Described as brilliant even by persons not in the family, Sam was an early student of computer applications for business. During the 1970s he was employed by a large meat refrigeration warehouse company for which he wrote a complex and pioneering spreadsheet program that linked financial, storage and processing variables for management and audit purposes.
Photography,though,remained Samuel'sfirst love.Hiscameraofchoicewasatripod-basedlargeformat4x5" Burke and James (Chicago) View camerathatrequiredphotographicplates(ratherthanrollfilm)andtheuse of a black clothhoodby thephotographer.AlthoughhisseeminglystraightforwardphotographsinHydeParkHousesseemintunewiththe"informal World War II, he served as a member of the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of captain. After the war Jean and Samuel made their home at 5719 S. Blackstone.
He became a partner in his law firm in 1948. Throughout his career Samuel was active in pro bono work, particularly in the area of civil rights. In addition to sitting on several corporate boards, he was a board member and officer of the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, the Faulkner School, and the Community Music Program, sponsors of the Merit Music program. Samuel died suddenly in 1970 at the age of 59. Jean was 58.
In the almost two decades before Hyde Park Houses
appeared, Jean labored at honing her skills as writer. Her work on the Lab School parent's newsletter provided one such opportunity. She also enrolled in The University of Chicago and, in 1963; was awarded a master of arts degree in the Humanities. Jean was then 51. That same year Jean with Ruth Grodzins, Ruth Goetz and Elaine Halperin, formed Midwest Editorial Research. It provided university faculty, graduate students, business and civic leaders and organizations assistance in editing or developing printed materials and speeches. The partnership wound down when some of the partners moved out of town or took other jobs. Jean then turned her attention more directly to architectural research. Jean also took a course on writing while actually working on Hyde Park Houses. That the book, which was published when Jean was 66, is as gracefully written as it is was not an accident.
Samuel W. Block, Jr., the photographer for Hyde Park Houses, was the eldest of Jean and Samuel Block's three children. He was born May 2, 1943 in Dayton, Ohio, where his parents lived briefly. As did his younger sister, Elizabeth, and brother, Michael, he underwent his primary and secondary education at the Laboratory Schools of The University of Chicago. He received a B.A. from Knox College in 1964 and later completed a two year program in photography at Chicago's Columbia College. Described as brilliant even by persons not in the family, Sam was an early student of computer applications for business. During the 1970s he was employed by a large meat refrigeration warehouse company for which he wrote a complex and pioneering spreadsheet program that linked financial, storage and processing variables for management and audit purposes.
Photography,though,remained Samuel'sfirst love.Hiscameraofchoicewasatripod-basedlargeformat4x5" Burke and James (Chicago) View camerathatrequiredphotographicplates(ratherthanrollfilm)andtheuse of a black clothhoodby thephotographer.AlthoughhisseeminglystraightforwardphotographsinHydeParkHousesseemintunewiththe"informal nature of the book (e.g., some include automobiles parked on the street), in fact, like the rest of Jean's book, the photographs were carefully planned. Samuel and Jean selected times of the year when foliage did not obscure views of the houses and natural lighting could be optimized to help strengthen the images.
During the 1970s, Samuel moved to the Near West side of Chicago where he had purchased a duplex for renovation. On June 11, 1982, as he was alighting from his automobile near his workplace on Pershing Road, he was struck by a passing car and suffered severe head injuries. He lay in a coma for weeks at The University of Chicago hospitals, his mother at his bedside every day. On August 15, he died without ever recovering consciousness. He was 39 years old. The motorist who hit him and fled was never apprehended. Jean was then age 70.
Some of Samuel's Hyde Park House photographs have
appeared in other publications. Four of them may be found in Virginia and Lee McCalester's Field Guide to American Homes (New York, 1984) and another was used for the cover of a novel published in the early 1990s. The negatives for all the House photographs are in our archives at Regenstein Library. His portraits of relatives and friends are treasured by their owners and a series of his photographs of old Wisconsin barns remain in demand. Two views of the family summer home in Wisconsin are still on display at the refrigeration company for which he had worked.
Again, as she had done after her husband's death, Jean found solace in work and produced three important publications, two of them a result of her involvement as a volunteer with Regenstein Library's Special Collections Department preparing catalogs for their exhibits. The first, was The Uses of Gothic: Planning and Building the Campus of the University of Chicago 1892-1932 (1983), a now classic work which is still in print, and Eva Watson Schutze: Chicago Photo Secessionist (1985). The third, an outgrowth of some of her research for Hyde Park Houses, was a chapter entitled "Myron Hunt in the Midwest" in Jay Belloli and others, Myron Hunt 1868-1952: The Search fora Regional Architecture, (Los Angeles, 1984). Jean was 72 when Uses of the Gothic appeared. In the ensuing years Jean focussed on establishing our archives at Regenstein and planning a follow-up to Houses on apartment buildings in Hyde Park that was still in its early stages of development before her death, on June 16, 1988. She was 76. Houses went out of print in 1993 but staff from The University of Chicago Press have told me that the press is considering reissuing it in paperback but not before the year 2000 and then only if they can figure out a financially feasible way to do it.
I regret that Jean and I became acquainted only in
the last year of her life. Despite her physical discomfort caused by illness, she graciously took the time to walk me through the mechanics of organizing the archives and she talked a bit about Hyde Park architecture. She told me, for instance, that, as a rough rule of thumb, the presence of verandas distinguished Hyde Park's 19th Century suburban houses from those built after annexation. I used that idea in the recent exhibit on old Hyde Park hotels to suggest that one purpose of their verandas was to connect architecturally with the older residential setting within which they stood. When we discovered that we were both postcard collectors, for some reason she asked if I had a card depicting the Eleanor Club One on 59th Street, which ultimately became
Breckenridge House. I did not. About a year and half ago, going through a box of postcards at a show, I found an Eleanor Club One view and from sight to thought only an instant passed, "Got it, Jean!"
On the north side of Regenstein Library there is a small parklike enclosure, accessible to the public, which Jean's family sponsored. On the east wall there is a memorial marker: "This garden honors the memory of Jean Friedberg Block 1912-1988" and lists the library's call numbers for her three books. Her ashes were spread upon the grounds of her beloved summer home near Mill Pond, Wisconsin.
Thanks to David Aftandilian, Judith Getzels, Ruth Grodzin, Douglas Mitchell, Grace Mary Rataj, Ann Rothchild, Harold Wolff and, especially, Elizabeth Block for their assistance. Published sources include: Julia Kramer, The House on the Hill: The Story of the Abeles Family of Leavenworth, Kansas (Chicago: 1990); Hyde Park Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. 10, nos. 3-4 (October, 1988); History of Medicine and Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago (Chicago, 1922); Who's Who in America Vol. 34 (Chicago, 1966) and various city directories.
Steve Treffman is the Society's archivist and a contributing editor of Hyde Park History.
Volume 21, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 1999
History So Soon? Pioneer Days of the Hyde Park Historical Society
A talk given by ClydeWatkins,a founder of the Society,attheannualmeeting,February20,1999
The title of "founder" is probably undeserved, because it implies an image of some lone and far-sighted character doing things by himself.
That was never the case with us-we were a typical Hyde Park committee from the start. If the organization we celebrate was indeed my idea, I must assume that others had at least considered it long before I ever did. What spurred me to action, however, was the confluence of two forces in my life.
First, in the late 1960s after I was out of college and therefore it was too late to change my major one last time-I began to develop an interest in U.S. history, especially Chicago history, between about 1870 and 1910. Plenty of ochers were ahead of me in that, fortunately, and there is a lot of wonderful literature, plus many enthralling photographs, available for study.
Second, I always had a thing about that great little building. Throughout my undergraduate years at the University, whenever I would pull an "all-nighter" in yet another vain attempt to salvage some term
paper--or worse yet, an entire course-I would inevitably end up around 6:00am savoring the 42 cent special at Steve's Lunch. (For that price you got two eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast and coffee!) I loved the building, and continued to fantasize about what I later learned to call "adaptive reuse." No doubt my first notions were along the lines of a swingin' bachelor pad or the nightclub I yearned co run at that age. But as I matured, I continued to watch the building through its subsequent incarnations and its decline. I knew it was somehow associated with the great Illinois Central Station from the World's Colombian Exposition, but at that point I wasn't exactly sure how, and there was no one to tell me-or so I thought.
By 1974 the building had sunk to the level of a storage shed for the two-wheeled cares they used for
delivering newspapers, and it was clearly headed for ruin.
Coincidentally, Albert Tannler, assistant curator of special collections at Regenstein Library at that time, had just completed the first edition of One in Spirit the pictorial history of the University, and it captivated me, primarily because of its many references to the concurrent development (or disintegration and redevelopment) of the neighborhood. And that was the moment of my epiphany. A local historical society could undertake the research and preservation of its past in context of the ciry of Chicago and the nation. And such an
organization could house itself in my favorite structure (the true identity of which I now appreciated). Let the psycho-historians ponder which was the means and which the end; in my mind the two were linked from the start.
Here are a few dates and events that led to our eventual founding:
ï April/May, 1975.
Tom Jensen, a U-High classmate, and I organized the first public forum to discuss the establishment of a proposed "Hyde Park-Kenwood Hiscorical League." We met at St. Thomas Church and Len Despres was our speaker. (I cannot find the exact date, bur I believe a copy of the flyer from the meeting is already in our archives.)
ï June 24, 1975.
Several of us met at Jean Block's apartment for lunch ro discuss how to get organized and moving. It took a while, as it turned out...
ï January 13, 1976.
A larger formation was hosted by Victoria Ranney in her home.
ï March 22, 1976.
Another planning meeting was hosted by Thelma Dahlberg at her home, followed by yet another in April. These meetings continued throughout the following eight months.
ï June 15, 1976.
My calendar indicates that this was my first meeting with Win Kennedy to discuss acquiring the building.
ï November 8, 1976.
Jean and I called on Muriel Beadle to ask her to become our first president. She agreed on the spot and decreed that the name of the organization would be the Hyde Park Historical society. She hosted our first official board meeting at her home two weeks later on November 22.
January 28, 1978.
The Hyde Park Historical Society received its official charter as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation.
March 27, 1978.
Robert and Lucille Rouse, owners of 5529 South Lake Park, finally signed the bill of sale for the property, for $4,000, after continued and heroic efforts by Len Despres to close the deal. Kennedy, Ryan, Monigal Associates was our agent.
ï February 2, 1979.
Our first lease for the land under our building was signed with the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad - five years at $20 per year.
ï July 20, 1980.
The "Completion Fund," our $45,000 capital campaign to purchase and renovate the headquarters, kicked off on July 4, 1978, initiated by a "Charter Membership" drive for 100 members at $100 each. Encouraged by a $10,000 challenge grant from the Field Foundation of Illinois, the drive was successfully concluded. Jean Block was instrumental in this effort.
ï October 26, 1980.
The Grand Opening of our magnificently renovated and restored new headquarters took place, thanks to Dev Bowly's endless talent, work and sacrifice. We began with a parade down Lake Park Avenue and concluded with speeches that will live forever, assuming anyone remembered to keep notes, which I doubt.
Some of the earliest board members are still serving: Dev Bowly, Carol Bradford, Alta Blakely and Richardson Spofford. Other early members were Ted Anderson, Margaret Fallers, Gary Husted, Muriel Beadle, Jean Block, Berenece Boehm, Randy Holgate, Anita Anderson, Michael Conzen, Rory Shanley Brown, Thelma Dahlberg, Phillis Kelly, Betty Borst, Eleanor Swift, Leon Despres, Charles Beckett, Maggie Bevacqua, Malcolm Collier, Emma Kemp, Gerhardt Laves, John McDermott, and Clyde Watkins.
Papa John Remembered
by Devereaux Bowly, Jr.
When I was a kid at the Lab School and U-High in the 1950s and early 60s, there was a street vendor at 59th and Kenwood. He was called Papa John and sold delicious kosher hoc dogs for 25 or 35 cents. He had a small white painted wooden and glass push care with an antique copper alcohol burner to keep the dogs hoc and the rolls warm and moist.
Papa John was a small man, not five feet tall, who talked little, ocher than to ask what the customer wanted on his or her hot dog. His home base was a tiny brick building, which no longer exists, on the southeast corner of 56th and Lake Park, next to the IC tracks. The building lacer housed Chicken-A-Go-Go, run by Morry and his son, who developed
delicatessens on 55th Street, in Hutchinson Commons and elsewhere. PapaJohn's building should not be confused with the wooden hot dog shack which was located one block east, on the southwest corner of 56th and Stony Island, surrounded by a Yellow Cab dispatch station.
As I remember it, each school day in good weather Papa John, who seemed to me to be in his seventies or eighties, would slowly push his cart over co the Lab School at about 2:30, and stay for a couple of hours before returning. At some point he disappeared without explanation. We would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows more about Papa John.
Renovation of The Powhatan Lobby Wins Paul Cornell Award
The Powhatan is a 23-story residential co-op building, located on the lakefront at 4950 South Chicago Beach Drive in Hyde Park. The building was designed in 1929 by two architects, Robert Degolyer and Charles Morgan, in a thoroughly modern "skyscraper style" reflecting the structure of the building's skeleton beneath. This type of building style and construction is now associated with the "Art Deco" movement chat flourished during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. The colored spandrel panels on the south and ease sides of the building, along with all of the ornamental features of the Powhatan and the adjacent Narragansett building are the work of the building's co-architect, Charles Morgan, who was an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright. In recent years The Powhatan has been designated an official Chicago Landmark.
Vinci/Hamp was hired by a committee of individuals from the building to repair the original terrazzo floor which had been obsrnred by wall to wall carpeting, concealing its rich auburn colored field bordered with black terrazzo. This work included the repair of cracks in the terrazzo as well as restoring the floor's luster. The existing furnishings and finishes within the lobby space were also re-designed at the same time.
.
Published historic photographs indicate that the lobby of The Powhatan was once a richly ornamented space, later obliterated by a series of remodelings. Investigations within the wall cavity by Ward Miller of Vinci/Hamp Architects, Inc., revealed the presence of original finishes, including pigmented plaster sgraffito mosaics by Morgan. Removal of the walls further revealed the original stepped terrazzo fireplace, fluted pilasters, decorative case-iron grills, and mosaics. All original finishes were repaired and restored in the course of chis project, including the stylized fluted pilasters, the figured walnut paneling and the original color scheme.
Two artists, Ms. Jo Hormmh and Mr. John Phillips of
Chicago ArchitecturalArcs, were hired to clean and remove subsequent layers of paint from the mosaics and to reinventMorgan's original techniques, which facilitated the repair and replacement of missing tiles. The original "stylized geometric" wood and glass entry doors were found by Mr. John Graaman, the building's superintendent, in an attic storage room and were reinstalled. On the east wall above the windows, an air conditioning system was integrated into a reconstructed office, which had been destroyed. All plaster surfaces were repaired or recreated by Luczak Brothers Plastering Company of Chicago.The original silver/gold paint colors with luminous metallic particles were supplied by the CresLice company, a Chicago firm, and applied by Onassis Painting and Decorating Company of Kenilworth.Furniture and carpeting were selected to complement the remaining original furniture pieces.
THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION offers tours
of the city and surrounding areas...
Hyde Park
HPHS board member, Doug Anderson, invites you to walk with him through the University Campus and along the streets of Hyde Park with its houses dating from the 1860s to the 1950s, including the interior of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.
Sundays, 1:30pm
June 20, August 15, October 17
Meet at Rockefeller Chapel, 59th & Woodlawn Cost $8 (CAF members $3)
Jackson Park - 1893 Revisited
A pictorial re-creation of the Fair of 1893 examines how Frederick Law Olmsted transformed marshes and dunes into the beautiful park which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also visit Osaka Garden.
Saturdays, 10:30am
August 14, September 25, October 9 Meet at Clarence Darrow Bridge
Cost $5 (CAF members free)
Call Doug Anderson, 773-493-7058, for information
Do you know how many birds live in-or visit-Hyde Park?
On May 8th, the 25th Annual Spring Bird Count for the area of Jackson Park, took place.
This year's report states:
Birds were generally in good numbers ...the total number of species was among the highest ever observed in a day at Jackson Park. Warbler diversity was especially high at 29 species, including several notably scarce species. During the course of a given spring one is lucky to find such species as Prairie, Cerulean, Worm-eating, Kentucky, and Hooded Warblers at all; and seeing all of them in a single day has little precedent.
Observers began at 5:10am at four sites along the lakefront ...Two pre-sunrise finds were a Nighthawk at Promontory Park and a Common Moorhen at 64th Street. The last observation of the day was at 7:20pm-a Worm eating Warbler feeding along the sidewalk at 56th and Harper'
Other highlights included four Great Egrets, the Park's first spring count Snow Goose, 115 Canada Geese, 16
Blue-Grey Gnatcatchers, and even one Tennessee Warbler1 Total number of birds counted: 3,542! To participate in
bird-watching, call Doug Anderson, 493-7058.
MEMO
To: HPHS Members
From: HPHS President, Alice Schlessinger Re: Update on our headquarters repairs
The Society has encountered a number of scmccural problems during the last year. Our roof badly needed replacing and our plumbing connection ro the outside sewer had become clogged with tree roots. Thanks to Devereux Bowly and Bert Benade, our Building Committee, these projects have been successfully completed. The handsome new roof, which is consistent with our 19th Century building, should last for many years. The plumbing obstruction has been removed-a major project which required investigation with a video camera and excavation below the office floor.
Our little headquarters building is ready for you to visit though we still have more work to do. We hope co complete it over the summer months.
Thanks co our members who responded to a single letter with such generosity-over $5,000 has been contributed-and co the University of Chicago which has awarded us a grant of $3,000, we have not had to dig too deeply into our reserve funds to cover the expenses incurred.
We thank the following contriburors to this Special Fund:
Mary S. Allan Ruth & Dick Allen
Douglas C. Anderson Bert Benade
Roland & Helen Bailey Marjorie Benson
Alta Blakely
Mrs. Charles Borst Devereux Bowly
Carol & Jesse Bradford Jim & Jane Comiskey George & Louise Cooley Mr. & Mrs. Paul Cornell Irene & Charles Custer Thelma Dahlberg George & Jackie Davis
Bernard J. Delgiorno
Leon & Marian Despres Dr. & Mrs. Jar! Dyrud Terry P. Ellis
Norah & William Erickson John & Sally Fish
Jay & Iris Frank Edlyn Freerks
Susan & Paul Freehling Roger & Madelon Fross Ethel Goldsmith
Sherry Goodman & Richard Watt Audrey & Ronald Grzywinski Samuel Hair
Chauncey & Edith Harris Albert M. Hayes
Jane & Roger Hildebrand Dorothy Horton
Mary E. Irons
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Jaffe Ruth T. Kaplan
Emile Karafiol Ruth & Gwin Kolb
Mr. & Mrs. Philip Luhmann Inge Maser
Margaret S. Matchett Jane & George Mather Theresa McDermott Louis & Joan Mercuri Janee & David Midgely Harold Moody
Aurelia Moody
Mr. & Mrs. Jay F. Mulberry Ward & Dorothy Perrin
Robert, Rica & Kathleen Picken George W. Placzman
Elizabeth M. Postell
.
Mr.&Mrs.JamesRatcliffe
Hope E. Rhinescine Robert Rigacci
Mr. & Mrs. Edward Rosenheim Mrs. Alice Rubovics
Harriet Rylaarsdam
Alice & Nathan Schlessinger Mr. & Mrs. Robert G. Schloerb Arthur & Carol Schneider Frank & Karen Schneider Mindy A. Schwartz
Kevin Shalla & Vicroria Ferrara Mr. & Mrs. Richardson Spofford Fred & Nikki Stein
Helm uc Strauss
Marcia & Stephen Thomas Dr. Paul W. Tieman
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen A. Treffman Antionette Tyskling
Vi Fogle Uretz
Frank & Betty Wagner Marcin Wallace
Mrs. Margaret Walters Clyde & Cheryl Watkins Mrs. Warner Wick
Kale & Helen Williams Ruch & Quentin Young
UPCOMING EXHIBIT...
THE BOOM YEARS: 1916-1930,
second in our two-part exhibition on Hyde Park's historic hotels, will present views from the second great wave of apartment hotel construction, the period in which much of the architectural landscape of modern Hyde Park took shape. The exhibit is scheduled to open later this summer after repairs to our headquarters are completed. In the meantime, we are still seeking printed materials, menus, photos, or souvenirs of these hotels for this exhibit. We will welcome any items our readers wish to contribute, loan, or allow us to photocopy.
For more information, please call
Steve Treffman at (773) 241-5528.
Volume 21, Number 3 & 4, Winter 1999-2000
On Cable Cars and Lunch Rooms
EARLY STREETCARS IN HYDE PARK
Stephen A. Treffman
ContributingEditor
The articles that appeared in the Spring and Summer, 1997 issues of Hyde Park History on an earlier occupant of the building in which the
Hyde Park Historical Society's headquarters are now housed continue to attract attention. As you may remember, Alta Blakely reported on "Steve's Lunch," a small restaurant run by Greek immigrant Steve Megales that occupied these premises beginning around, it was thought, 1948. A very interesting letter has recently arrived that provides insights into an even earlier period in the history of the building.
The letter, which appears on page 10, is from the granddaughters of Turney Keller, the man who, they report, converted what was a cable car waiting room into other uses. Mary Belle Keller Johnson and Judy Keller Levatino tell us chat, from as early as 1898 until 1952, the building was operated as a short order restaurant by the Keller family. Prior to 1898, they say, the building was used as a warming room for "trolley personnel." When placed within the context of the development of Hyde Park's public transportation systems, this new information adds greatly to our knowledge of the history and uses of our building.
CHICAGO STREET TRANSPORTATION ORIGINS
In the early years of Chicago's history, travel about the city's streets was accomplished on foot, by horseback or by horse and carriage. The latter could be hired with driver by the day or by the mile in cabs called hackneys or hacks. Omni buses, large horse drawn or enclosed wagons with seating for multiple passengers, first appeared on Chicago streets on regular schedules in 1850. The introduction of street rail transportation in the city, however, began nearly 141 years ago when a horse drawn car line began operations on April 25, 1859. It was built by the privately owned Chicago City Railway Company
(CCR), which had been awarded the city's franchise for the South Side of the city. Two other companies held franchises for the city's north and west sides. The CCR cars ran on rails along State Street from Madison
Street to 12th Street (now Roosevelt Road). In the
months following, the company built an extension of the line first to 22nd Street (now Cermak Road), then eastward down 22nd Street to Cottage Grove Avenue and, finally, from Cottage Grove to 31st Street. The immediate goal of these extensions was to provide transportation to the Illinois State Fair, which, in the fall of 1859, was located on land along Cottage Grove. The major advantage of using rails (originally wooden beams wrapped in iron sheetmetal) for hauling wagons with passengers was that the rails provided smoother, more comfortable and faster transportation than could be obtained from wheels rolling over the irregular unpaved roads of the time. Basic street car fares of a nickel a ride were sec by city ordinance in 1859 and kept at that same level until 1919.
The demands and opportunities of population growth and commercial and industrial development in the city and its suburbs encouraged expansion of the CCR. The increase in the number of cars, horses and track owned and maintained by the CCR grew exponentially, as did ridership. In 1859, for example, the company consisted of only four cars and twenty five horses operating at twelve minute intervals on about three miles of track and carried many tens of thousands of passengers a year. Annual ridership rose to 3.5 million only three years later. By 1867 the CCR owned fifty-three cars and 375 horses, employed 198 men and operated over 12. 5 miles of track. The number of passengers that year totaled more than five million. Six years later, in 1873, the CCR was running seventy-five cars and 600 horses operating at four minute intervals on twenty-three miles of track and was transporting at least six million riders a year. Only seven years later, at the end of 1880, the system had more than doubled in size to 46.679 single track miles traversed by a fleet of 292 cars and 1,468 horses. In short, in that twenty year period, from 1859 to 1880, the company experienced growth that involved 15 .6 times more track, 58.7 times more horses, and 73 times more cars carrying many millions of passengers annually!
As the CCR expanded the length of its horse carlines to meet demand, problems of keeping its system coordinated and its costs under control grew apace. The cars and rails, once installed, had long lives and were relatively inexpensive to keep up. Aside from the investment in manpower and supervision, the key variable in the cost of operating the system was the care and feeding of the horses. Although perhaps one or two horses might draw one car, they could only work four or five hours a day. This meant chat shifts of fresh horses had to be kept on hand for each horsecar in order to maintain a twelve or sixteen hour a day schedule. An entire system of men and equipment had to be developed around simply sustaining the horses. Moreover, the horse was relatively slow, not always reliable, susceptible to disease, and, glaringly apparent co one and all, associated with a "residue" on the streets chat raised public health concerns. One horse could produce as much as twenty-two pounds of manure a day. Its required disposal, in fact, actually became an ancillary business undertaking. All in all, then, there were problems associated with a large-scale system of horse drawn passenger cars chat were well recognized fairly early. This didn't mean that the CCR stopped building horse lines, only that its management was open to the idea of finding alternative forms of power to pull its cars. As it happened, Hyde Park would become the focus of the CCR's attention.
HYDE PARK AND ITS STREETCARS
There is more co the early history of streetcars in Hyde Park than cable cars. After the Civil War, the city's horse car lines began to look beyond Chicago's borders for their growth. On March 5, 1867, the Chicago and Calumet Horse and Dummy Railroad Company (CCHDRC), an affiliate of the CCR, was incorporated under Illinois law to establish street rail lines for "cars drawn by horses or cars with engines attached, commonly called dummy engines, for the carrying of passengers." Its focus of service was to be the area of Cook County south of the city's border at 39th Street and ease of State Street, in short, virtually the entire area of the Village of Hyde Park. A year later, in 1868, the Board of Supervisors for the Village of Hyde Park authorized this new CCR affiliate to lay tracks from 39th Street extending south from the CCR's preexisting tracks in Chicago proper.
Implementing this resolution launched the robust
expansion of the CCR in succeeding decades.
HORSE DRAWN CARS
Hyde Park's streetcar system apparently went through two phases prior to the introduction of the cable cars. The first of these, an unexpected finding, was that horse drawn streetcars seem to have run on rails down 55th Street in Hyde Park. A map that dates from chat period (Wright: 1870) specifically identifies a horse car line running down Cottage Grove from 39th Street and then swinging around to 55th Street east to what is now Lake Park Avenue.
This is, however, the only then contemporary source found so far chat suggests that a horse-drawn streetcar rail line ever existed along 55th Street. This line would have been pare of the expansion arising from that 1868 authorizing resolution. The CCR built tracks in Chicago further south primarily along Scace Street and Cottage Grove Avenue to then unstated terminal points. In ensuing years, lines were built on ocher streets both ease and west of Cottage Grove with 47th and 63rd Streets becoming the major ease/west routes to southwest Chicago. All of these new CCR streetcar lines were powered solely by horses. Thus was established the early outlines of the course public transportation would ultimately cake on the South Side of Chicago.
THE STEAM DUMMY
The reference to steam driven rail cars on city streets in the CCHDRC incorporation papers indicate chat replacing horse drawn street cars with an alternative system of motive power was already a possibility in the minds of the CCR's management at least as early as 1867. The usefulness of steam driven technology in manufacturing and, especially, in interurban rail transport was already well established throughout the country. In fact, a steam driven streetcar is said to have operated along Broadway on Chicago's north side as early as 1864. Ac some point after 1867 the CCR and its affiliate decided to introduce them in their system, not in the city itself but in and around Hyde Park. Assuming that a horse drawn line initially ran along Cottage and down 55th Street, this steam dummy would have been the second phase in the development of public streetcar transportation in the community.
While there is no question that steam driven streetcars chugged down Cottage Grove and 55th Street, there remains much that is unclear about their actual history. No picture of one, for example, has yet surfaced. The Hyde Park-Kenwood National Bank published a booklet in 1929 with a photograph purportedly that of Hyde Park's steam dummy.
Research, however, has revealed that the photograph is actually of an engine from an entirely different Chicago streetcar company. While the exact dimensions of the Cottage Grove/Hyde Park steam dummy are not known, information about similar vehicles from that period suggests what the one used in Hyde Park probably was like.
Commonly, to minimize terrorizing horses along the street, these small locomotives were built within frames chat resembled a shortened version of a regular horse drawn trailer. The car would have run on four wheels with probably no more than seven feet from the middle of the front wheels to the middle of the ones in the rear. Likely, it was operated by a two-cycle engine powered by steam from a vertical boiler heated by burning anthracite coal or coke to minimize smoke and soot. The engine carriage was designed ostensibly to muffle the noise of escaping steam and engine operation by means of shielding and roof top steam condensers. It was this latter characteristic, the reduction of noise, as well as the horse car appearance, that provided the underlying meaning to the name "dummy engine," that is, silent or "dumb," as in "unable to speak." These small locomotives pulled no more than one or two passenger trailers along the three miles of stronger steel track installed on Cottage Grove from 39th Street to 55th Street and east to Lake Park Avenue. When not in use, these engines and their trailers were probably stored in a car barn at 38th Street and Cottage, adjacent to the stables where the horses were kept. It is not known how many steam dummies operated on the Hyde Park
line nor how their return runs were accomplished, that is, by reversing gears or being turned on a platform.
Also in question is the date when steam dummies were actually introduced into Hyde Park. Block (1977) offers the date of 1869 for that event and cites as her source Pierce (1940). Pierce, in tutn, makes reference only to the governing legal authorizations and to Weber (1936). Weber, however, fudges on the date by noting those 1868 actions by the Village Board permitting the building of street rails in Hyde Park but not when the actual construction took place. As was earlier suggested, operating on that Cottage Grove/5 5th Street line in 1869 may have been a horse line rather than a steam dummy, two very different forms of power. At another extreme is a photograph from a 1943 collection at the Chicago Historical Society with a caption stating that a steam driven street car began running in Hyde Park in 1881. Indeed, a map dated 1881 in Bluestone (1991) clearly denotes a steam line running down Cottage Grove and turning east at 55th Street to Lake Park but this does not preclude the possibility that steam dummies were running there before 1881. Moreover, this would have been precisely the time that CCR officials were already planning to replace horse cars and steam dummies with cable cars. A more persuasive date emerges from an unpublished street transportation chronology developed in 193 3 now in the collection of the Chicago Transit Authority. It places the introduction of the Hyde Park steam dummy in the year 1874.
This date seems in reasonable accord with the state of Hyde Park's development and the known history of the CCR. It would also fit with the presumption that a horse car line preceded the steam dummy in time. Uncovering more substantial corroborating information in support of any one of these dates remains a challenge.
Usually overlooked in the few references to this steam car is that of the almost 46 miles of Chicago City Railway Company track existing in 1881, only those three miles of track along Cottage and 55th, the Hyde Park line, were used for steam driven streetcars. These steam dummies may have been an attempt by the CCR to compete directly with the Illinois Central's steam locomotives chat ran along the lake. The one-way nickel fare for a streetcar ride was half chat for a commute downtown from 55th Street on the Illinois Central but it was a much slower trip. In addition, these engines may have been considered somewhat more fitting, modern and substantial for
the prestigious community they served. Hyde Park's Trustees, recognizing the mess that accompanied horse drawn streetcars, may even have insisted on steam power. It was also on this portion of the line that the streets were paved with granite to support the heavier rails and engines required by the steam dummy. As a result, these were among the better-paved roads in the city and its suburbs.
Unfortunately, street locomotives produced a good deal more noise than advertised, frightening horses and annoying pedestrians. Worse, for a variety of reasons, street car companies found chat these steam dummy cars proved to be no less expensive to operate than had been the horse cars. CCR managers were spurred to look at another alternative, one being developed in California. The days of the Hyde Park steam dummy engines were numbered. The last one to run its route did so early in 1887.
THE CABLE CAR
In the early 1870s Andrew S. Halladie, a wire manufacturer in California, developed a system wherein passenger cars ran up and down the hilly streets of downtown San Francisco on rails by means of a moving cable buried under the streets. It began operations in 1873 and its success spurred further expansion there throughout the '70s. Chicago City Railway officers, alerted to that success, traveled to San Francisco in 1880 to study its cable system.
Realizing that if a system like that could operate on such variable terrain, it would probably work especially well upon the gentler topography of Chicago. They returned home and Charles B. Holmes, CCR's president, quickly obtained approval of the company's board and Chicago's city council to begin establishing cable car transport along many of the same Chicago streets on which they had run their horse cars.
Construction began in June, 1881 and by January, 1882, the CCR formally introduced cable cars into Chicago's public transportation system, the second such system in the United States. The first trains, usually consisting of a grip car and one or two trailers, ran on the State Street line; a second line was established on Wabash Avenue. These downtown cable cars traveled over a turnaround that went from State Street to Wabash Avenue via Lake Street and
Madison Street, a layout that Hilton (1954) and others have insisted first gave the "Loop" its name not, as is often assumed, the elevated train loop which came later.
The Wabash/Cottage Grove horse car line was converted in 1882 to cable car use from Madison Street to 39th Street. In 1887, the Cottage Grove line was extended from 39th to 67th Street and 55th Street was converted to cable use. In 1890, after the annexation of Hyde Park, the Cottage Grove cable car system was extended south to 71st Street, the building. In fact, there may have been no thought the Midway. The Hyde even given to constructing such a building in the first Park/5 5th Street line was place. It was only after 1890 when it was clear to all renamed the "Jackson that the Columbian Exposition would actually Park." The extended
cakeplaceinJacksonParkchatplansforthe ,lengthoftheCable
building likely were begun. The Court loop proved a
building itself was almost certainly \ • boon in loading and
built, probably by the Illinois '. #>• unloading passengers. On
Central Railroad itself, \ Chicago Day, October 9, during the year prior 1893, the day of the Fair's highest
to the Fair, that is, attendance, crowds of some 500,000
1892-93, when the people practically overwhelmed the system.
embankment and Many young men, dressed in suits, their heads viaducts elevating the topped by bowler hats, happily climbed up on the
railroad's tracks were roofs of the cable cars to make the trip to Jackson Park. being constructed. As a Cable cars and their associated equipment were on result there was a physical prominent display at the World's Fair but the year
separation of the waiting 1893 also marked the moment when electricity had
rooms and ticket selling sites already been recognized as a more efficient and flexible
for IC commuters and cable car form of power for street railways. Despite appearances, passengers. The great old 12th Street IC depot, now cable was on its way out. The initial introduction of demolished, was built at the same time and the red electricity to power Chicago's streetcars in 1893 led to brick and scone used in its construction may have been a progressive dismantling of the cable car system chat similar to chat used in building our headquarters. The finally ended in 1906. The 55th Street/Jackson Park main point here is simply chat the cable loop was not cable line was among the lase to go having served the a result of the opening of the Fair, but the building community for nearly twenty years. Overhead electric itself was. lines were installed and the cables and gears were
Probably the most vulnerable point in the cable car removed. The cable car era ended and the era of the system was the cable itself. The CCR cable consisted trolley car line began in Hyde Park. (The "trolley" is of a hemp core, surrounded by 96 steel wires wound the pulley attached co the pole chat touches and rolls into six strands of 16 wires each. The 1 1/4-inch chick along the electric wire strung above the street.) Cable line, however, was subject to wear and breakage from Court kept its name and electric streetcars and trolley use, age or accident. For example, the approximate life buses followed its loop well into the present century. It of the 10,856 feet long cable line along 55th Street finally was dismantled during the urban renewal era. was 167 days. If the grip were applied incorrectly it It should be noted that the emergence of each
could slice or dangerously damage the cable. When a succeeding street rail technology did not immediately major problem developed in one segment of the cable, preclude the existence of the ones preceding. By 1892, the entire system of which it was a part ground to an for instance, the year before the Fair, the CCR had abrupt hale while repairs were made. Cables were fixed 2,611 horses, almost double the number it had in
by splices made on site or replaced entirely by splicing 1880. Only one-third of the CCR revenues, however, a new line into the existing line, running it was derived from the horse car lines, the remainder completely through the entire system and then coming largely from its cable operations. Electric splicing together the two ends of the new line. lines, as well, were just being introduced. By 1895,
The impact of the cable car line on the economy of Chicago's streets, particularly in the downtown area, Hyde Park was immediate. The Economist (Chicago) for were filled with a melange of streetcars, some powered December 8, 1888 reported: "The development for by horses, others by cables, and still others by business purposes of Fifty-Fifth Streec... has been electricity. Steam also powered trains on the suburban largely due to the cable car line... The prices for commuter lines and, for several years during the mid- property on Fifty-Fifth have risen from $50 to $100 a 1890s, the city's elevated rail lines. This mixture was foot, and over twenty stores are in process of erection finally resolved in favor of electricity as the
on the street." The street's commercial past was set for predominant power source for streetcars by 1906 and the next sixty-five years. the Illinois Central commuter line, by 1926.
During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, Horses, moreover, remained a factor on Chicago's cable cars were a major source of transportation for streets. There were an estimated 120,000 horses in millions of visitors. Cable cars offered close access to Chicago in 1895. Though fading rapidly from use
the Fair'sentrancesat57thStreetand,onCottage,ataftertheturnofthecenturyaspowerforcity streetcars and fire engines, they remained important in the city's private transportation system well into the present century for recreational use and for hauling delivery wagons. Some of our readers may still remember the horse drawn wagons in Hyde Park that delivered ice and fresh vegetables to people's homes. A painting at our headquarters portrays an old horse drawn milk wagon that once operated in Hyde Park. The wagon stood abandoned for many years east of the IC tracks at 57ch Street.
IN CLOSING
While the street cable car today is often viewed merely as a quaint relic of the past, the scuff of charm bracelets, toys, advertising gimmicks and assorted other memorabilia usually associated with San Francisco, it has a quite legitimate and notable role in American, Chicago and, certainly, Hyde Park history. The story of the cable car in Chicago is most obviously tied to the evolution of public transportation and residential, industrial and commercial development in the city, in general, and to Hyde Park and its nearby suburban neighbors, in particular, both before and after annexation. Moreover, it provided the public access to the South Park system and may well have been a factor in establishing some of its boundaries. In essence, the horse-drawn and later the cable car performed the same function for these areas that the Illinois Central Railroad commuter line had played initially in the emergence of Hyde Park. Indeed, together the two spurred the growth of Hyde Park
and the South Side generally throughout that century and beyond.
Chicago has often been referred to as a city of neighborhoods. In earlier periods in Chicago's history, one of the things that helped define chose neighborhoods was the streetcar lines. The unintended effect, however, was, to a certain degree, their influence on the emergence and reinforcement of artificial social, ethnic and racial boundaries. The "other" side of the tracks was given a new, big city twist that could evoke social conflict, at times bitter or even violent. On the ocher hand, the elaboration of the public transportation system opened up to Chicagoans new opportunities not only for better physical mobility but also for enhanced residential, investment, employment and recreational choices as well.
The extension of public street and rail transportation in and around Hyde Park had an impact on the question of the annexation of Hyde Park to Chicago. It had the effect of drawing Hyde Park and its population closer to Chicago, both in a temporal and economic sense, while at the same time enabling the emergence of multiple centers of political, social and economic interests outside of Hyde Park Center. Each new line established, each new set of tracks laid, was yet another direct link between the city and villagers of Greater Hyde Park.
The political power that had been wielded by the pioneers in Hyde Park Center (who opposed annexation) was diluted in the face of population increases and the emergence of new and powerful economic and political interests elsewhere in the suburb. As a result, annexation proponents would claim that the old style of governance was outmoded and simply inadequate to the new situation. One may also speculate that the concentration of more advanced street transport in che northern section of Hyde Park contributed to a sense of deprivation expressed by citizens in the southern portions of the village. It is no surprise that when the annexation question was put to the voters of Hyde Park Village in 1887 and 1889, the voting majority chat decided the issue in favor of annexation came largely from the wards outside the old center of Hyde Park.
The cable car waiting room on Lake Park apparently directly served the transit system for less than a decade, perhaps as few as five years, if our correspondents' date for its conversion into a lunch room, 1898, is correct. The months of the Fair, then, would have been the peak period of its connections to the cable cars. In that sense, the building is a genuine artifact of both the Columbian Exposition and of the Cable Car era.
The building was located near the Illinois Central stops at 55th and 57th Streets, the Cable Court streetcars and the hotels and small shops along Lake Park and 55th and 57th Streets, all of which generated considerable sidewalk traffic. This location provided the logic for its more than half-century of existence as a lunch room. It became a working man's cafe that served large portions to customers at a reasonable price. The demise of the building's use as a lunch room probably was as much a function of residential and commercial changes occurring in Hyde Park as it was sheer obsolescence of the facility as an eatery.
Ownership of the building remained with the Illinois Central Railroad until it was sold to our Society in 1977.
There is something wonderfully resonant, perhaps
even ironic, that this working man's building has become the home of an historical society for a community driven by issues and conflicts generated both by elitist aspirations and social diversity. This same transaction, however, has practical consequences in the present as our Society seeks to respond effectively to the reality and complexity of our community's history.
Finally, assembly lines were offshoots of cable car technology as are ski lifts. A less obvious connection can be drawn between cable cars and another then contemporaneous technological development: the elevator. They had similar components such as cables, pulleys, gears, and rails and, originally, both were run by steam powered engines. The cable car operated horizontally while the elevator ran vertically.
Although cable driven street cars disappeared as a major urban transportation system, the related technology embodied by the elevator continued to power and be shaped by the emergence of new techniques for the construction of taller buildings for offices, commerce and residential living. The skyscraper, in general, and, particularly in HydePark, the large apartment hotel, were two of its results... but that is another story.
Steve Treffman is our Society's archivist and is preparing another exhibition on Hyde Park's hotels for display at 01,r headquarters later this year.
Thanks to the staff from the Chicago Transit Authority for its assistance.
Selected Sources:
Jean Block, Hyde Park Houses, (Chicago, 1977). Daniel
M. Bluestone, Constructing Chicago, (New Haven, 1991). George W. Hilton, "Cable Railways of Chicago," Bulletin Number 10, (Chicago: Electric Railway Historical Society, 1954). George W. Hilton, The Cable Car in America, (San Diego, 1982). James D. Johnson, A Century of Chicago Streetcars, 1858-1958, (Wheaton, Illinois, 1964). Alan R. Lind, Chicago Surface Lines: An Illmtrated History, 3rd edition, (Park Forest, Illinois, 1986). Milo Roy Maltbie, ed. The Street Railways of Chicago, (Chicago, 1901). John A. Miller, Fares Please/, (New York, 1941). Samuel W. Norton, Chicago Traction: A History Legislative and Political, (Chicago, 1907). Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, Vol. 2, (New York, 1940). Frank Rowsome, Jr., Trolley Car Treasury, (New York, 1956). Harry Perkins Weber, comp., Outline History of Chicago Traction, (Chicago, 1936). John H. White, Jr., "Steam in the Streets: The Grice and Long Dummy," Technology and Cttlture Vol. 27 (1986), pp. 106-9. John
S. Wright, Chicago: Past, Present, Future, (Chicago: Board of Trade: 1868, Second edition, 1870).
Letter to the Editor
To Whom It May Concern:
In 1898, our grandfather, Turney Keller, opened the "Lunchroom" at 5529 Lake Avenue, which is now the Hyde Park Historical Society. (Ed. note: Lake Avenue was renamed Lake Park Avenue on April 14, 1913.) With the help of his two sons, Hosey (Harvey) and Charles Keller, the restaurant was continuously in operation until 1952. (Ed. note: One of the interviewees for the earlier articles thought that the restaurant had changed hands in 1948.)
Our grandfather with the help of his sons, leased the building for the entire time. We have no idea how much money was involved. He did have an accident on a trolley losing one arm, not two legs. (Ed. note: One of our correspondents in our earlier article had speculated that the IC had leased the building to Mr. Keller at no cost because he had lost two legs in a railroad accident.)
Before 1898, the building was used as a warming house for trolley personnel. The men gathered around the old pot belly stove and, we're sure, told some great stories. The notion that some food could be served came to our grandfather in 1898.
When our grandfather died in 1922, the boys, known as the Keller Brothers, took over the "Lunchroom." Their wives, Louetta and Marsha, also worked in the restaurant.
At the crack of dawn, breakfast was served. We can still remember the many aromas of home cooking.
Bacon and eggs and oatmeal in the morning and if you looked at the wall one could see the specials for lunch, such as vegetable soup and meat loaf. There were no printed menus. The clientele was an integrated mixture of working males in Hyde Park. The counter was in two sections seating about twelve.
Our families spent many long hours making the "Lunchroom" very successful. The information above is correct according to documented papers from this time period. We have included various pictures for a visual remembrance of the times.
Sincerely,
Mary Bell Keller Johnson and Judy Keller Levantino
Ms. Johnson, the daughter of Harvey Ketler, in a phone interview, told us that the lunch room was closed evenings and on Sundays. She herself was born at her family's residence on the 54th block of Harper Avenue. Turney's family was Christian Scientist and probably was a member of the 10th Church of Christ Scientist at 57th and Blackstone, now the vacant St. Stephen's Church. Ms. Levantino, her cousin, is the daughter of Charles Ketler. -S.A.T.
PROPRIETORS OF THE "LUNCH ROOM" AT 5529 S. LAKE PARK AVENUE
Postcard view c.1915 from the Keller family collection.
From left: Turney Keller and his two sons Charles, and Hosey (Harvey), the eldest of the two. Note the wooden plank sidewalk in front of the building. Turney lost his left arm in a trolley accident. Members of the family are buried in Oakwoods Cemetery.
This Newsletter is published 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 South Lake Park Avenue, houses local exhibits. It is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 until 4pm.
Telephone: HYJ-1893
President..... Alice Schlessinger
Editor......... Theresa McDermott
Designer..... Nickie Sage McDermott
Regular membership: $15 per year, contributor: $25, sponsor: $50, benefactor: $100