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Newsletters 1999

Winter 1998-1999

Spring/Summer 1999

Winter 1999-2000

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.

In the almost two decades before Hyde Park Houses

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

Mallory Price 3/15/22 Mallory Price 3/15/22

Newsletters 1998

Volume 19, Number 4

HPHS Headquarters Building Becomes Less Endangered by Alta Blakely

Board members are breathing sighs of relief now that the shoring up of the Metra embankment behind our building has been completed.

Bert Benade, Board member in charge of the physical plant, had been particularly concerned that the embankment had been pushing on our roof and gutter on the east side. About sixteen years ago the Illinois Central Railroad had shored up the embankment, but the job had been done with only wood pilings-and those not driven deeply enough into the ground. They have continued to rot away. Devereaux Bowly, co-chair with Bert on the physical plant, had been after the railroad, now Metra, for about four years to replace the rotting pilings. Work was begun last October. For many weeks a large truck crane (and a Port-o-Let) stood on the street in front of headquarters, dwarfing it in size. (The construction work meant that the October 19th program on Robie House had to be postponed.)

The large sign south of Headquarters proclaims that this

"HydeParkRetainingWallRehabilitation"isa"Federal TransitAdministration Project... sponsored bythe NortheasternIllinois Regional Commuter R.A.CorporationD/BIA Metra the U.S. Department ofTransport; and the Regional Transportation Authority(RTA)." It is "Federal Project No. IL-03-0194, RTAProgramNo.CRD-034.}

On one mid-week day in October, when a Board member was entering headquarters, two of the construction crew members asked if they could look around inside. Bob Pritchard, of Hickory Hills, whose job it was to run the air compressor was excited by what he saw. Later, when Bea Blackiston was on duty on Sunday, November 2nd, Mr. Pritchard came in and carefully removed all our pictures off the walls and gently and neatly laid them on a table. He was afraid that the vibrations from his air compressor would shake the pictures off the walls and shatter the glass. "I like things old to be preserved," he said. (The Board, at its November meeting, asked Secretary Margaret Matchett to send him a letter of thanks, which she has subsequently done.)

Thanks to Mr. Pritchard, we were able to contact Harenfra Namgrola of the Sumit Construction Company of Skokie, in charge of the project. He told us that the work on the embankment behind our building amounted to the sum of $150,000. They had been allowed sixty-five working days for the job; however, he said, they finished in far less time. The final phase, the cement work, was laid during Thanksgiving week. The question in our minds has been whether or not this job was part of the larger Hyde Park Retaining-Wall Rehabilitation, --including the Metra embankment from 47th to 57th Street. Mr. Margrola seemed to think not.

Looking our from the windows on the east side of headquarters one dark evening, Dev. Bowly was delighted: "There's a foot of space between the embankment and our roof! I can see the stars!" !

Follow Up:

The Shooting Lodge

The feature on the South Shore Country Club's Shooting Club in our last issue brought forth some relevant material sent to us by Leon Despres. The area where the Country Club was built, around 71st Street and Lake Michigan, was once considered a hunter's paradise said to be virtually unique along the lake shore. Immense flocks of migrating pigeons flew past along with jacksnipe, plover, wild duck and Canadian brant.

When the Club was built in 1906, a small shack was built to accommodate shot gun enthusiasts among its members. A wooden cottage replaced it in 1908 but was razed eight years later for construction of the more permanent and stylish brick "shooting lodge" illustrated in our Fall, 1997-, issue. Reflecting the site's link to an earlier era, the walls of the lodge were hung with antlers, stuffed animal heads and similar trophies. Club members, however, confined themselves to trap shooting, targeting only clay pigeons. This activity lasted until quite late in the history of the club.

Mayor Harold Washington, 1922-1987 On the Tenth Anniversary of his Death

by Stephen Treffman

These political pins from our archival collection date from the triumphant 1983

and 1987 mayoral campaigns of the late Mayor Harold Washington. Mayor

Washington, the only sitting mayor of Chicago ever

resident in the community of Hyde Park, made his home in Apartment 66 of the Hampton House Condominium, 5300 South Shore Drive. Across from that building is Hyde Park's oldest park, established by Paul Cornell, Hyde Park's founder. Originally called East End Park, it was renamed in memory of the late Mayor after his death. Washington had a very substantial and enthusiastic base of supporters from our community's diverse racial, social and economic groups. A number of persons from Hyde Park-Kenwood were recruited into high level administrative, advisory and policy-making roles in city government during his administration.

One of Harold Washington's essential characteristics was his capacity to reach out and engage persons and groups not necessarily considered part of the historic political mainstream but whose goals and principles intersected at some point practically or symbolically with his. It should not be surprising, then, that among his last official acts before his sudden death on November 25, 1987, was a proclamation issued on November 18 declaring November 21 "Oliver Law

andAbrahamLincolnBrigadeDayinChicago."The letter,reproducedonthenextpage,waspublishedinthe program for a 50th Anniversary memorial

celebration of the Brigade held that day in Chicago.

In 193 7, three thousand Americans calling themselves the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALB) volunteered to join an international force in defense of Spain's elected government against insurgent Fascist forces militarily supported by Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. Two hundred of the volunteers came from Chicago, including at least one long-time Hyde Park resident, the late Milton Cohen (1915-1996?), and an African-American by the name of Oliver Law (born c.1900).

Law was one of some one hundred black Americans to join the ABL. He had served six years as a private in the segregated U.S. Army during and after World War I. He then moved to Chicago where he worked as a stevedore, cab driver and small restaurant manager. With the onset of the Depression he was attracted to various organizing efforts among the unemployed in Chicago, ultimately joining the Communist Party and leading public protests of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. He left with the Brigade for Spain in January, 1937. His previous military experience and demonstrated valor in battle led to his appointment as commander of an ALB battalion made up mostly of white Americans, the historic symbolism of which he was fully aware and to which Washington alludes in his proclamation. On July 9, nearly six months after his arrival in Spain, Law was mortally wounded while leading his forces in a battle near the town of Brunete.

Eight hundred ALB volunteers died in the Spanish conflict. Although many surviving ALB volunteers went on to serve with the American armed forces in World War II, they were deemed suspect by the U. S. government duri,ng and after the war for having been "premature" in their enthusiastic antifascism and, in some cases, their real or supposed radical ideological and political commitments.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine any post-war Chicago mayor before Washington, himself a World War II veteran, issuing such a letter. The proclamation reflects some of the profound values and aspirations that characterized Harold

Washington and made his administration so unusual in Chicago history.

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

CITY OF CHICAGO

HAROLD WASHINGTON

MAYOR

P R O C L A M A T I O N

WHEREAS, this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the entrance of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as volunteers in defense of democracy in the Spanish Civil War; and

WHEREAS, over 200 Chicagoans joined this international movement to stop the spread of fascism; and

WHEREAS, Oliver Law, a leader of movements for relief of t-h---ec---p"'o=or crm:t eor pu-litical rights for Bracks and working people in Chicago in the early 1930's, was a commander in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, thus becoming the first Black American to lead an integrated military force in the history of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the long-neglected historical significance of Oliver Law is being recognized in a program on November 21, 1987, sponsored by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the 50th Anniversary Committee, which will honor the continuing legacy of international solidarity represented by Oliver Law and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Harold Washington, Mayor of the City of Chicago, do hereby proclaim November 21, 1987, to be OLIVER LAW AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE DAY IN CHICAGO and urge

all citizens to be cognizant of the special events arranged for this time and the importance of this history. Dated this day of November, 1987

Sources: Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, Stanford, 1994; John Gerassi, The Premature Antifascists: North American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, An Oral History, New York, 1986; Arthur H. Landis, The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, New York, 1967. Thanks also to

Alderman Toni Preckwinkle for her assistance in providing information about Mayor Washington's residence.

Letter to the Editor...

We are very grateful to Jim Stronks, author of many outstanding articles which have appeared in this publication, for the delightful and touching letter below:

Dear Edi tor:

I don't know if it is Hyde Park History, exactly, but then isn't almost everything history in some sense? I hope so, because I have read something that I think your readers would find interesting.

In 1895 William Rainey Harper hired a young professor-poet named William Vaughan Moody for the new university on the Midway. And that is where Moody, a bachelor of twenty-seven, lived at first-on the Midway, in the old Del Prado Hotel on 59th Street, where International House stands today.

Late in the afternoon of February 15, 1896, Moody escaped his office for an hour of ice-skating. Later he wrote about it to a friend in a paragraph that reaches across one hundred years to touch us with its humanity.

"DearDan,"Moodybegan."YesterdayIwasskatingonapatchoficeinthepark,underapoverty-strickenskyflyingaragofsunset.Somelittlemuckerswereguyingaslimraw-bonedIrishgirloffifteen,whocircledanddartedunde their banter with complete unconcern. She was in the fledgling stage, all legs and arms, tall and adorably awkward, with a huge hat full of rusty feathers, thin skirts tucked up above spindling ankles, and a gay aplomb and swing in the body that was ravishing. We caught hands in mid

/light, and skated for an hour, almost alone and quite silent, while the rag of a sunset rotted to pieces. I have had few sensations in life that I would exchange for the warmth of her hand through the ragged glove, and the pathetic curve of the half-formed breast where the back of my wrist touched her body. I came away mystically shaken and elate. It is thus the angels converse. She was something absolutely authentic, new, and inexpressible, something which only nature could mix for the heart's intoxication, a compound of ragamuffin, pal, mistress, nun, sister, harlequin, outcast, and bird of God, - with something else bafflingly suffused, something ridiculous and frail and tender."

Fortunately Dan did not throw away the letter, and that young girl is as alive today as she was that afternoon in 1896-because a poet captured her on the head of a pin.

Moody died in 19101 aged 41.

Yours truly, Jim Stronks Iowa City, Iowa

You are cordially invited to attend The Annual Members' Meeting

The Hyde Park Historical Society

Saturday, February 21, 1998 'the Quadrangle Club

57th Street & University Avenue

Paul Cornell will speak about his grandfather:

PaulCornell,VisionaryFatherofHydePark

Special Events coming up:

Robie House: Its History and Its Future

Sunday, March 1st, at 2pm HPHS Headquarters

A slide presentation by Jay Champelli, long-time member of the Speakers' Bureau of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation.

Join us to learn more about this historical and architectural treasure presently being restored to its former glory here in Hyde Park.

Free Tours of Robie House for Hyde Park Residents

Saturday & Sunday, February 14 & 15

A Valentine event to convey "Heartfelt Thanks to the Community," tours will be offered continuously from 11am to 3:30pm on each day.
Exhibits in the Months Ahead

An exhibit entitled Hyde Park's Hotels: The Golden Age, 1888-1940 will be opening soon at our headquarters. An exhibit on the White City Amusement Park is also planned for later in 1998. Curated by our archivist Stephen Treffman, both exhibits will be accompanied by programs presented by various members of our board. Further information on these and other events will be forthcoming in Hyde Park History and in other commumty sources.

Readers who have photographs, printed materials or other memorabilia related to any of Hyde Park's hotels or to the White City Amusement park are encouraged to write or to leave a message at our headquarters. Our phone number is 773-493-1893.

Volume 20, Number 1

Mary Todd Lincoln’s Sad Summer in Hyde Park

Abraham Lincoln died April 15, 1865. When Mary Todd Lincoln had to vacate the White House she came to Hyde Park. She arrived in Chicago on May 24. With her on the exhausting 54-hour train trip from Washington came her sons Robert (22) and Tad(12),her dressmaker/confidante Elizabeth Keckley(born a slave), old friend Dr. Anson Henry, and two White House guards, Thomas Cross and William Crook.

The Lincoln parry checked into the Tremont House on Lake Street at Dearborn. When Cross and Crook went back to the White House Mary Todd Lincoln's percs and power as First Lady were suddenly over. Lake Street was populous and loud; Mary Todd Lincoln needed peace and quiet. Io her anguish as widow she felt she could not bear to return to her house on 8th Street in Springfield and its associations. Yet the Tremont House was too expensive for more than a week's stay. Someone evidently gave the Lincolns a good tip, because four days later she wrote to a friend that "Robert went out yesterday to a place called 'Hyde Park,' a beautiful new Hotel, rooms exquisitely clean & even luxuriously fitted up, seven miles from the City-Cars passing every hour of the day "

An advertisement in the Tribune on May 19 tells us more:

HYDE PARK HOTEL Kept by A.H. Dunton

This Hotel has been put in complete order, and is now open, and will be kept, in all respects, as a first-class Hotel.

Persons desirous of making arrangements for the summer months, will find this a very agreeable place. It has all the advantages of a Watering Place Hotel, with almost hourly communication with Chicago by rail, while the distance by the traveled road from the Court House is less than seven miles. Mr. Dunton refers, by permission, to Gov. Gilmore of New Hampshire; Hon. T.F. Chandler, U.S. Navy Agent, Boston; Messrs. W.R. Doggett, S.F. Farrington, and Hoo J.T. Scammon, Chicago.

No doubt Paul Cornell, who had built the hotel, was pleased that the First Family had come to live in his village, and conceivably he had something to do with it. A Chicago lawyer and suburban developer (for whomAbraham Lincoln had done some legal work), Cornell owned 300 lakeshore :acres which he had coolly advertised as "beautifully situated on high ground." In a deal which was all important to Hyde Park, he gave the Illinois Central Railroad sixty acres for its right of way, and in return the ICRR began a commuter service in July 1856 by running the "Hyde Park Special" out to a little frame depot on the east side of the 53rd Street grade crossing. Here, in the summer of 1865, Robert Lincoln would catch the 8:52 mornings for the 30- minute ride in to Water Street and the offices of Scammon, McCagg & Fuller, where he would be reading law.

"This quiet retreat," as Mary Lincoln soon called the hotel, stood near the lake shore at 53rd Street, about where the Hampton House stands today, except that the shore was closer in at that time. (It is not to be confused with the later Hyde Park Hotel standing on the south side of 51st between Harper and Lake Park from 1887 co 1963.)"It almost appears to me that I am on the Sea Shore,'' wrote Mary Lincoln from the hotel; "land cannot be discerned across the Lake, some seventy-five miles in breadth. My friends thought I would be more quiet here during the summer months than in the City."

But in coming to Hyde Park she could not escape her sorrows. "Tell me, how can I live without my Husband any longer?" she cries in a letter at this time. "This is my first awakening thought each morning, & as I watch the waves of the turbulent lake under our windows I sometimes feel I should like to go under them."

At first she had the comfort of her friend Elizabeth Keckley beside her, but Lizzie had to return to Washington and her business of making dresses for wives of cabinet officers.

Soon Mary Lincoln was writing, "I still remain closeted in my rooms, take an occasional walk in the park & as usual see no one." It is not surprising that she adds later in the same letter, "I cannot express how lonely we are." Without TV or rental movies, what did Mary Lincoln- intelligent, nervous, excitable-do with herself through her long weeks shut up in

the Hyde Park Hotel? The answer is, she'. read the newspapers and wrote letters;.

A political wife, she devoL1,ed the gossip frorr. Capitol Hill in the half dozen New York and Chicago papers she regularly

saw. By early June their front pages were black with "The Conspiracy Trial,"and judging from the Chicago Tribune were full of lurid details about the conspirators' planning of her husband's murder-yet she mentions none of this in writing to friends.

For four years Mary Lincoln had been veritably catnip to the gossip columnists, but Chicago papers seem to have ignored her during the summer of 1865, perhaps because she had buried herself out in Hyde Park. There was one unhappy exception on June 14 when she read a spiteful paragraph in the Chicago Journal which said she had

threatened to whip little Tad for damaging his boots. It was untrue-and one more thing to resent in a letter to a friend the next day.

Her letters were many and long. They must have made fat envelopes. When they are printed in a book today, something she never expected, and God forgive us for reading her private mail, some letters fill two pages, and obviously account for hours daily at her desk. They are written, and well written, on black-bordered paper abouc the size of a postcard, showing excellent vocabulary and spelling, with tight, nervous punctuation (which is being edited here for the sake of clearness).

Mary Lincoln may have over-praised the Hyde Park Hotel to her correspondents. Lizzie Keckley claimed later that the Lincolns' rooms were "not first-class" but "small and plainly furnished," with meals sent up from the kitchen. It was far from the Executive Mansion. "I assure you," snaps the First Lady as

early as June 27, "I am growing very weary of boarding. It is very unbecoming when it is remembered from whence we have just come."

She never once complains of summer heat. Hyde Park, at the lakeshore, can be degrees cooler than central Chicago-important in 1865, before electric fans. Already the village, numbering some 500 population, had become a summer escape for affluent Chicagoans. On July 11 Mary Lincoln writes, apparently with approval, that the hotel "has become crowded with some of the very best Chicago people, each family keeping their carriages; & I have, as you may suppose, indulged in my privilege of being very quiet & retired." Virtually a recluse, she did sometimes walk in "the beautiful park adjoining the place" referring to that space now lying between Harold's Playlot and the boulder inscribed to Paul Cornell. She added that "persons drive out [from Chicago} every day to see me; I receive but very few; I am too miserable to pass through such an ordeal as yet. Day by day I miss my beloved husband more & more "

Two weeks later, another mood: "This place has become a complete Babel & I grieve that necessity requires us to live in this way...." No doubt she shunned the hotel's social event of the season on August 11 when, said the Tribune the next day, "the musical elite of Chicago took turns performing." It was fortunate for this Victorian widow of forty seven in deep mourning that she had a grown son at her side. Robert Todd Lincoln had split no rails but instead attended Phillips Exeter, was a Harvard graduate, had been four months at Harvard Law, and briefly, for a few weeks near the end of the war, a captain on Ulysses S. Grant's staff. With the change in his family's fortunes, and in view of his unstable mother's need of him, he would have to forego i- a Harvard LLD. He was the J man in the house now, and since it was the impatient, high-tempered Mary Todd Lincoln's house it was certain to be difficult.

"Robert is so worried chat I am sick so much that he has purchased a neat covered buggy," she writes on July 17. Perhaps Robert took her for soothing rides to see the fine homes in the village, or for a view of the mysterious white rollers off 49th Street. He would have sold his horse as an economy move, she writes, but "as it was his father's last gift, I would not consent to this, although I expect we shall hear remarks about our purchasing a buggy"-a reference to her (justified) reputation in eastern newspapers for mad extravagance.

On July26 she writes of her other son, Tad, until recently the irrepressible imp of the White House. "Taddie has made many warm friends," but because there is Scarlet Fever in the hotel she has sent him to live with friends in the country. Not Scarlet Fever bur TB would kill Tad only six years later, making him the third boy Mary Lincoln had lost.

By late summer 1865 the Hyde Park Hotel was no longer where the Lincolns wanted to be. Indeed Robert was said to have grumbled to Lizzie Keckley as early as his first week there that "I

would almost as soon be dead as be compelled to remain three months in this dreary house." They actually stayed only 2 1/2 months.

In mid-August Mary Lincoln moved into the Clifton House at Wabash and Madison. The Palmer House it was not, but she felt poor. It had in fact become an obsession with her. At his death Abraham Lincoln left some

$80,000 in cash and U.S. bonds, mainly salary from four years as President, but it was not in the widow's hands. Lawyer Lincoln had died without leaving a will, and his estate was

being administered by his old Illinois friend Judge David Davis, against whom Mary Lincoln fumed because of his firm control of the money. Mary,

Robert, and Tad were living on theinterest, split equally among the three of them, and the widow was living on

$1500 to $1800 annually at this time.

On August 17 she wrote angrily about a sense of injury which her letters show had become another mania. "I explain

to you, exactly &

truly, how we are

circumstanced. A greater portion of our means is unavailable, consisting of a house in S. [Springfield] & some wild lands in Iowa. Notwithstanding my great & good husband's life was sacrificed for his country, we are left to struggle in a manner. .. of life undeserved. Roving Generals have elegant mansions showered upon them, and the American people leave the family of the Martyred President to struggle as best they may! Strange justice this." She refers to U.S. Grant, war hero, who was presented with homes in Galena, Philadelphia, and Washington.

So ended Mary Lincoln's sad summer onEast 53rd. Street in Hyde Park. A year later she would settle into a home of her own in Chicago, a row house on West Washington, between Ann and Elizabeth streets, no longer standing. Erratic, she did not stay there long. Scheming ceaselessly to raise cash to pay off $20,000 in shopping debts which she had concealed from her husband, who had been busy with the Civil War, she would later sell some of her Washington Street furniture to the Hyde Park Hotel for $2094.50. Mind the fifty cents. The furniture probably burned up with the hotel in the late 1870s. Mary Todd Lincoln, dressed always in high-fashion black, lived seventeen unhappy, troubled years as a widow. A pathetic ruin by 1882, when she was 64, she died in Springfield in the home of her sister, who had urged her not to marry Abraham Lincoln in the first place.

As Mary Lincoln read the Chicago Tribune in the Hyde Park Hotel in the summer of 1865, her eyes could not have escaped front-page advertisements exploiting her husband's murder. There was an ad for the "New and Beautiful Music" of "Abraham Lincoln's Funeral March." Also a "Beautiful Lithograph," one yard square, of "The Dying President" surrounded by his cabinet (one dollar). She would also see that, despite the nation's woe, the Italian Opera opened in Crosby's Opera House on June 5 with "Faust," followed on the 6th with "Norma." And there was grave news about the national debt. After four years of war it had risen to $2.6 billion. -J.S. When Robert Lincoln rode the ICRR from Hyde Park to downtown Chicago daily in the summer of 1865 he could look out the window at 33rd Street and see Camp Douglas, the Civil War prison where 4500 Confederate soldiers had died in the last 31/2 years. (See Hyde Park History, March 1994.) Six months after Appomattox, 6000 POWs were still there. On May 9 the Tribune claimed that "They have nearly all signified their wish to take the oath of allegiance, and it is expected that all but about 200will be allowed to do so and be discharged." On May 17th the Trib's Camp Douglas reporter, who had been often wrong but never in doubt, added that "Quietly but surely the inculcation of right and patriotic principles is going on among the prisoners of war confined in our /word illegible/ camp. Out of the whole six thousand rebels in the prisoners' square, there are not half a dozen who have not given up every rebel hope and are ready to abandon treason and come out." -J.S.

Hyde Park Hotels: The Early Years, 1880-1915

A New Exhibit

at HPHS Headquarters

On display are 27 large format views of hotels that were once landmark institutions in the communities of Hyde Park, Kenwood and Woodlawn. Many were built for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Some became elegant centers of social and cultural life in their communities and resort destinations for visitors to Chicago from all over the world. Featured are such hotels as the first Chicago Beach Hotel, the early Del Prado and the original Windermere.

The sources of the views used in this exhibit are photographic and printed postcards, most of which were composed and published from the years around 1907 until about 1915. The photographer most represented by these images is Charles R. Childs, one of the more prolific and able photographers and postcard publishers of his day in the Chicago area. They have been enlarged for easier viewing through the use of a laser print copier.

StephenTreffman, HPHSArchivist, prepared this exhibit, and will present a program on Early Hyde ParkHotels on Sunday, June 21, at 2pm.Do plan to come and get acquainted with early HydePark…

by Stephen Treffman, HPHS Archivist

Paul Robeson (1898-1976)

The100th anniversary of the April 9, 1898 birth of the famous African-American singer, actor, and activist is being celebrated throughout the year at hundreds of sites in Chicago and other cities around the world. From 1945 until 1958 Robeson often appeared on stages in or near Hyde Park.Five of his concerts were presented at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall, 57th Street and University. Four were under the auspices of various student groups and a fifth was sponsored by Earl B. Dickerson (1891-1986) who was an African-American alumnus of the University's LawSchool(1920), Supreme Life Insurance Company executive and a civil rights lawyer who played an historically significant role in overturning the legal basis for racially restrictive covenants.

On September 1, 1940, at the Chicago Coliseum,!Robeson sang for theAmericanNegro Exposition,:major organizers for which had been Dickerson and his!wife,Kathryn. Robeson also performed at several concerts in Washington Park at 53rd Street near Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive and in such settings as the Corpus Christi Auditorium at 4600 S. King Drive, the Rose Ballroom at 4724 South Cottage Grove Avenue, Du Sable High School at 4934 S. Wabash Avenue, and the Pershing Hotel at 64th and Cottage Grove Avenue. When in Chicago, Robeson was a guest of the Dickersons, at their home, 5027 S. Drexel Boulevard. At his death, Dickerson lived at 4800 S. Chicago Beach Drive.

Hyde Parkers listed as honorary members of the Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee include, Timuel Black, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, Leon Despres, Ishmael Flory, Harold Rogers, and Dr. Quentin Young, M.D. Anyone with any knowledge about Robeson's Hyde Park connections is invited to call our society or the Paul Robeson committee at 312-344-7114 or its internet home page(http://www.pobox.com/-robeson/).

Frank Lloyd and Japan: A Chicago Celebration

Frank Lloyd Wright's first encounter with Japanese architecture was the Ho-o-den temple which was installed on Jackson Park's Wooded Island for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. This contributed to Wright's life-long fascination with Japanese art and architecture, one of the few influences he ever acknowledged. Although the Ho-o-den no longer exists, its surrounding garden has been renovated by the Park District and Chicago officials have renamed the area Osaka garden in honor of our Sister City.

In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Wright's Oak Park studio and the 25th anniversary of the Osaka Sister Cities program, there will be a special weekend celebration, July 18 and 19, at Wright's Robie House and Osaka Garden.

On Saturday, a family oriented street fair will be held on 58th Street at Woodlawn Avenue in front of the Robie House, and will feature Japanese performing arts, crafts and cuisine. Sunday lectures and films will focus on topics such as the 1893 World's Fair, Wright in Japan and Japanese gardens. Tours of the Robie House and Osaka Garden will be offered in Japanese and English on both days. Transportation between the two sites will be provided. "An Enchanted Evening in Osaka Garden" will be a highlight of the festival. There will be tours of the garden, and Tatsu Aoki, founder of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, will perform jazz music based on Japanese compositions with his trio. A Japanese dinner, a Bento, prepared by Totoya will be served, followed by a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony in the pavilion presented by the Chicago chapter of the Urasanke Tea School. Reservations for this evening

event are limited. Foundation volunteer Robert W. Karr, Jr. chairs this event which is co-sponsored by the Chicago Park District and others including Friends of the Parks, the University of Chicago and the Osaka Sister City Program. Watch for more information.

Volume 20, Number 2 & 3

Paul Cornell from Chicago and it’s Makers

uccessfullawyer,founderofHydeParkandGrandCrossing,PaulCornellhasleftthroughhisuntiringeffortsabeautifulsystemofparks

to be the playgrounds of the millions who succeeded him as residents of Chicago. What greater tribute can be paid to one of Chicago's pioneers than to say through his efforts we have Washington and Jackson Parks with the system of boulevards and smaller parks that makes the southern portion of the city entitled to membership in the City Beautiful.

Pioneer blood of the earliest in America flowed in the veins of Paul Cornell. Born in White Creek, Washington County, New York, August 5, 1822, his family traced back through the father to Thomas

Cornell who left Essex in 1638 ro settle in Boston. His mother was a descendent of Samuel Robinson, founder of Bennington, Vermont.

Paul's father died during his infancy, and the mother (Elizabeth Hopkins} became the wife of Dr. Jonathan Berry and moved with her son to Adams County, Illinois. Here Paul worked on a farm and attended the public schools in winter. Soon he was able to teach and in 1843 began the study of law, which he continued in an office at Rushville, Illinois and at Joliet. Finally, he was admitted to the bar, and on June 1, 1847, set out for Chicago on a Frink and Walker stage coach.

Carrying his earthly possessions, consisting of an extra suit of clothes, a package of business cards and one and a half dollars, he entered the Lake House at Lake and Clark Streets and applied for lodging. While he registered someone helped himself co the bundle and young Cornell was left without resources. John M.Wilson, an attorney with whom he had studied, however, came to his rescue and he secured his first employment with Wilson & Freer. A very successful career for a young man at law followed, but Cornell saw greater opportunities in real estate. In 1852 he had hired John Boyd co make a topographical study of the district now known as HydePark and the following year he bought 300 acres along the lakefront. Sixty acres of this he sold to the Illinois Central Railroad on condition that they would maintain service of at least one train daily from Chicago and return. He was forced co agree to pay the difference between the cost of operation and the sale of tickets, a sum amounting at one time co $70 for three months. A receipted bill for chat amount is preserved in the Hyde Park Hotel, signed by George B. McClellan of the railroad, who lacer became general-in-chief of che United Scates Army.

Bue Cornell opened a subdivision, and the town, after a few hesitant months, flourished. He built the old Hyde Park Hotel, and when it burned, planned for che present structure, which belongs to his estate.

In the meantime a railroad accident on the south side had led co the general order that all trains crossing an intersection of two lines must come to a full stop. Cornell saw the possibilities in the order and bought land at the intersection of the two roads, subdividing it as Cornell, Illinois, but later changing the name to Grand Crossing.

Possessed of a clear vision Mr. Cornell was one of the original agitators for the South Park System of great playgrounds for the multitudes to come, and of boulevards. The winter of 1867 and 1868 he spent in Springfield fighting against hearty opposition for the South Parks bill. He won and was made one of the first commissioners, serving for fourteen years. He was an organizer of the Chicago Coal and Dock Company, which worked the Calumet.

Mr. Cornell married Helen M. Gray of Bowdoinham, Maine, July 24, 1856, at che home of her brother in-law, Orrington Lune, of Chicago. They had five sons and two daughters, Elizabeth, Walter G. and Orrington, George Kimbark Cornell, John Evans Cornell, Paul and Helen. Mr. Cornell died March 3, 1904.

Another Link with Lincoln:------

Springfield June 2, 1857

Messers Cornell, Waite & Jameson Chicago, Ills.

Gentlemen: Yours of the 29th was duly received. This morning I went co the Register with four hundred dollars in gold in my hand and tendered to che Register of the Land Office a written application co enter the land, as you requested, all of which the Register declined. I have made a written memorandum of the facts,

deposited the gold with J. Bunn (who furnished it

to me on the draft you sent) and cook his Certificate of deposite (sic). which certificate and memorandum I hold subject co your order.

Now, if you please, send me ten dollars, as a fee.

Yours Truly

A. Lincoln

The focus on Paul Cornell (1822-1904) in chis issue of Hyde Park History arises out of Len Despres' presentation co the 1998 annual meeting of our Society and the visit last May by Cornell's grandson, Paul Adrian Cornell, to Hyde Park and his enlightening offering at our program ac Robie House. In this issue's "Notes," we look more closely at aspects of Paul Cornell's life and business career in Hyde Park and Grand Crossing and at responses we received co our Harold Washington memorial issue.

Cornell in Hyde Park

When Paul Cornell came co Chicago in 1847 he lived in the central city. After becoming involved in developing Hyde Park and marrying Helen Gray (b. 1833) in 1856, he and his new wife took up residence in his new community, probably in 1857. Cornell constructed a house for his family on the southwest corner of Laurel (51st Street/East Hyde Park Boulevard) and Jefferson (now Harper) Avenue. The two story frame house, designed in the then popular Italianate architectural style, was essentially rectangular in shape. le was oriented from east co west along 5 lsc Street on a lot that was 50 feet on its east and west edges and 150 feet on its north and south boundaries. In the accompanying illustration, the house's main entryway appears in the forefront, which would indicate that the photograph was taken from Jefferson (Harper) Avenue rather than from 51st Street. The address ultimately became 5104 S. Harper Avenue. The cupola on the roof probably served to draw light into the center of the house. From the porch, Cornell and his family could see the smoke and flames from the Great Chicago Fire of October 9, 1871 that, in the process, also destroyed his downtown office and its records.

The presence of this imposing house so close co the Illinois Central railroad lines meant that early travelers and potential investors in Hyde Park property could easily see it when arriving at or passing Hyde Park by rail. In a sense, it served as Hyde Park's first "model home," an explicit vision of what could be established on this open and essentially empty land that was close enough to downtown Chicago via a short train ride but distant enough to be removed from its congestion. According to city directories and grandson Paul A. Cornell, Paul and Helen continued co live in the house until their deaths, in 1904 and 1914 respectively. It was demolished soon after her death. Commercial structures, once including a branch of one of America's early fast food chains, "House of Wimpy's: The Home of the Glorified Hamburger," now occupy the site. The land remains the property of the Cornell family, making it the oldest parcel of Hyde Park real estate owned continuously to this day by one family.

Cornell built Hyde Park House at a cost of $70,000 around the same time that he constructed his house and may even have been resident in the hotel while the house was being built. When the hotel opened in 1858, it had a capacity for 200 guests and was, as Jim Stronks pointed out in our last issue, an attractive retreat for well-to-do Chicagoans. Because of additions to the Lake Michigan shoreline in lacer years, some confusion has crept into identifying the hotel's original site. A map from 1868 indicates that it stood at the southeast corner of 53rd Street and what is now South Hyde Park Boulevard, where the Del Prado Apartments now stands. The building stretched lengthwise north and south along the lake shore. Its front facade, the long side in the view in the accompanying illustration, faced west toward a landscaped driveway. According to Andreas, Cornell leased the inn co managers in 1858

and then sold it co J. Irving Pearce and Schuyler S.

Benjamin in 1865. Although the new owners enclosed che hotel's wooden frame in brick, the entire building was consumed by fire in 1877 at an estimated loss of some $310,000, most of it uninsured. These owners, it would seem, bore that loss, not Cornell. lncidently, another hotel called "The Hyde Park" existed in the 1870s at the southeast corner of 63rd and Stony Island Avenue in Woodlawn but whether Cornell had a financial interest in it is not known. After Cornell built his new hotel in Hyde Park, the Hyde Park Hotel on 63rd Street ceased co operate under that name.

Paul Cornell and Grand Crossing

By 1870, Paul Cornell and his wife had had five children, two of whom, ac ages four and six, had died of diphtheria early in that year. He was 47 years of age, a well-established lawyer and a South Park Commissioner which, no doubt with some pride, he reported as his occupation in the 1870 U.S. Census. Financially, the 1860s had been quite a boon for Cornell. He cold the 1870 census enumerator that he owned $600,000 in real estate and $6000 in personal property, a combined figure twelve times the amount he had claimed in the 1860 Census. A significant portion of his real estate holdings consisted of hundreds of acres of land chat he had acquired in 1854 and developed around a railroad intersection at 75th street and what is now South Chicago Avenue. In 1853 two trains had collided at this rail crossing with a loss of forty lives and many more injured. This led to legal requirements that, by the mid-1870s, had 210 trains of six different rail companies stopping ac this junction every day. This land became the basis for a new community originally called Cornell, but ultimately named Grand Crossing.

Accordingtotheoriginalplatenteredwiththe CookCounty'sRecorderofDeedsin1872,theborders of Grand Crossing ran essentially from 71st Street on the north to 83rd Street on the south and from Stony Island on the east to Cottage Grove on the west.

The strategy that Cornell used in developing Grand Crossing was roughly similar to the one he used in the town of Hyde Park but with a wrinkle that notably differentiated it from his earlier effort. The center of the new town was arranged around a railroad stop and depot. He built a hotel (the Grand Crossing at 76th and Woodlawn) near the depot, established a small community park (at 76th and Greenwood) and donated land for a church (at 76th and Ingleside) and for a public school (at 76th and Drexel and named for Cornell), all of which was, essentially, a basic review of what he done before in Hyde Park Center. The twist on the model was that, immediately south of the park, Cornell constructed a large watch factory in 1870 that would serve not only as an anchor for Grand Crossing and, perhaps, a rewarding financial investment but also as a defining symbol of the community's character.

Cornell envisioned Grand Crossing as a center for

manufacturing supported by unusually good rail access for shipping and travel and the availability of good housing. Cornell offered manufacturers land at very attractive prices in the expectation that the workers drawn to these factories would then purchase housing on land which Cornell could also provide. The watch factory might help prime the pump, so to speak. In the case of Hyde Park, the direct parallel to the factory, in theory, was Cornell's donation of land for a Presbyterian Theological Seminary south of East End Park, but it was never built. In practice, it would be his house and his hotel that served to identify the town of Hyde Park in its early days as a middle- and upper-class residential suburban community linked closely to Chicago. Grand Crossing, however, was intended to be a far more self contained and self-sustaining economic entity.

The Cornell Watch Factory stood on the south side of 76th Street between Greenwood and Dobson, at what would now be about 1035-53 East. The gray structure, oriented east to west and facing north, was three stories high and perhaps half a city block long. An early example of the so-called American system of mass production, the plant had fifteen separate operating departments and employed perhaps as many as three hundred men using sixty-five different machines, some driven by steam, that Cornell had purchased from a defunct New Jersey watchmaking company or had constructed expressly for his factory. For its time, the building was probably as modern a manufacturing plant as could be found anywhere in the Chicago area. Natural light came through the building's unusually large windows and the landscaped area in front of the building provided a parklike setting. The company prided itself on its policy of employing only men. Women and children, whose labor might have suggested a lower quality product or otherwise possibly been deemed exploited, were expressly excluded from employment.

A singular snapshot of Hyde Park history was captured when the company differentiated among the nine models it offered by identifying them by the names of real people, all of whom, but one, had historic connections to Hyde Park and Cornell. The top of the line model was the Paul Cornell, a nineteen jewel stem winder. More modest models, those with fewer jewels, were identified by the names of friends and business associates, some or all of whom may also have served as directors of the company: C. T Bowen, Chauncey M. Cady, Homer N. Hibbard, George F. Root,John Evans,]. C. Adams, E.S. Williams, and George W. Waite.

Bowen, Cady, Hibbard, and Waite were active early

collaborators with Cornell in the development of Hyde Park. Chauncey T. Bowen is linked to a subdivision in Hyde Park Center that included much of what is now Nichol's Park. He played a major role in lobbying for passage of the South Parks legislation and was, with Cornell, a commissioner on its first board. He was president of the first Calumet and Chicago Dock and Canal Company, in which Cornell was also an investor. The company developed significant portions of the southern part of Hyde Park Village. Chauncey M. Cady (1824-1889) was the vice-president of the Cornell Watch Company. In partnership with George Frederick Root (1820-1895 ), Cady also owned Chicago's largest music publishing firm (founded 1858), with offices at the famed Crosby Opera House. Cady was president of the first Hyde Park Board of Trustees from 1868 until 1874.

Homer Nash Hibbard (1824-1897), Cornell's law partner in the 1860s, led the move to incorporate Hyde Park Village in 1861 and was associated with Cornell in founding its first public school. The present Kenwood Avenue from 51st to 55t·h Street was originally called Hibbard Street or Court. Hibbard also held investment property in Grand Crossing.

George Washington Waite (b.1819) was employed as chief engineer for several railroads and was linked closely to Hyde Park's village government. At various times he held positions as Hyde Park trustee, revenue collector, town clerk, and supervisor. He was Hyde Park's first postmaster and, in 1872, the first Chief Engineer for the South Park Board of Commissioners.

Dr. John Evans (] 814-1897), an obstetrician and active real estate investor, was related to Cornell by marriage. He was associated with Cornell in creating Oak Woods Cemecary in 1853. He lent his name to the town of Evanston, Illinois and was founding president of Northwestern University's Board of Trustees. Cornell named one of his sons after Evans. By 1870, however, Evans was resident in Colorado.

Erastus S. Williams was a lawyer, circuit court judge and, as was Hibbard, an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Hyde Park of which Cornell was a founding member.

The one model "name" chat does not fie naturally into this group is that of J.C. Adams and his is an interesting story. According to the 1870 Census, John C.Adams, who then lived in Chicago with his wife and three children, was born in New York State in 1835 and had been apprenticed as a watchmaker and jeweler. The first machine manufactured(interchangeable part) watches in the United States were made in1854 by theWaltham(Massachusetts)Watch Company.In1864, Adams, fascinated by the potential of this technology, with associates drawn from the Massachusetts company and monies invested by a group led by a former mayor of Chicago, founded the National Watch Company, in Elgin, Illinois. Cornell somehow became acquainted with Adams and decided to back him financially in establishing a new watch company in Grand Crossing with machinery purchased from a defunct watch company in Newark. Adams left the Elgin company and joined the Cornell Watch Company as its general agent or manager. He likely was the Cornell company's central figure in working out the details of production, employment, and distribution and likely had a hand in aspects of the design of the factory itself. The still existing small park that Cornell established across from the plant, at 76th Street between Dobson and Greenwood Avenues, may well have been named after Adams and retains that name to this day.

Using the names of private individuals to differentiate between a company's watch models was not unusual among manufacturers of that period but most appear to have been of persons involved directly in the business. While it is not known whether the Cornell watch "names" were actual investors in the company, using those names illustrates Cornell's capacity to draw a core of close friends and relatives around him with whom he shared the risks and rewards of his major projects or

otherwise obtained their support

and approval, whether in Hyde Park, Grand Crossing, the South Parks or Calumet. Those connections, however, have led historians to conclude that those behind the campaign for establishing the South Parks system, that is, Cornell and his close associates, were influenced by the prospect of increasing the value of real estate near the parks as well as for providing "lungs for the City." In 1871 the Cornell Watch Company was profusely praised by an editor of a perhaps because of, the new technology, it was still a capital and labor intensive business and efficiencies in production may have been difficult to achieve. In 1871, the company's manager claimed, perhaps overstating reality, that the firm had invested $500,000 building and equipping the factory and planned to devote another $500,000 for further development. Still, investment and labor costs had to have been substantial. As that trade journal editor had warned in 1871, despite a company's willingness to invest large sums to "secure perfection in the manufacture of their goods they may nor at all rimes receive the ample pecuniary return their enterprise deserves."

For Cornell to recover the costs of their manufacture and make a profit, a great many watches would have to be sold and that may have proved difficult to achieve in the face of stiff competition and a deteriorating economy. For example, in that same 1870 to 1874 period, Adams' old company in Elgin probably manufactured as many as four rimes the number of watches Cornell produced Offering nine different watch models, instead of just a few, while flattering to his friends and associates, may nonetheless also have raised Cornell's costs of production and further dampened his company's ability to compete. The Chicago Fire of 1871, in turn, played havoc with Chicago's economy, the closest large market for Cornell watches. Moreover, a sharp economic downturn in the United States watch trade journal for making began in 1873 causing wide "the best watch the ingenuity of man has as yet produced" and for having a "liberal management". A glowing future was predicted. In 1874, however, Cornell suddenly sold controlling interest in the company to a California group headed by Leland Stanford, organizer of the Central Pacific Railroad and the man who hammered that famous spike at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. Most of the watch factory's machinery was shipped off to San Francisco along with sixty of its skilled workers who had elected to remain with the company.

The reasons for the sale of the Cornell Watch Company have never been fully explained. On its face, the Grand Crossing company seemed to be thriving; from 1870 to 1874 the company may have produced, by some estimates, perhaps as many as ten to twelve thousand watches. The problem was that despite, or spread unemployment and wage cuts for many of those who were employed, particularly railroad workers, a prime market for watches. These factors also would have affected the ability of Cornell to raise funds to keep the company going in difficult times. Cornell's own investments were rather illiquid and his major interests, as well as those of most of his associates, were, after all, far more wedded to real estate than to watchmaking. For his friends Cady and Root, the Great Fire was a disaster. When the Crosby Opera House went up in flames, so did their business, throwing it into bankruptcy. Cady left Chicago in 1873. By 1874, then, in the face of factors internal and external to the company, it is likely that the Cornell Watch Company was experiencing difficulties in achieving profitability, actual or desired. Given these circumstances, Cornell probably welcomed the opportunity to sell control of the company to other players.

The California group apparently believed that the company had a better chance for survival in a different market. Its strategy was to lower its labor costs at its San Francisco plant by hiring Chinese workers, then available in large numbers after completion of the transcontinental railroad line. The skilled workers who had come from Chicago, however, protested and went on strike. Conditions for the company continued to deteriorate and the company closed its doors 10 1876 and sold off its assets to watch companies in other cities.

Back in Grand Crossing, in 1875 Cornell sold his former watch factory building to the Wilson Sewing Machine Company, along with 300 lots of land. By then the community already had over seventy-five dwellings. In 1876, he put his Grand Crossing Hotel up for sale. Although he continued to maintain

• significant holdings in Grand Crossing until the end of his life, Cornell, by the lace 1870s, had probably completed the most active phase of his involvement in development of that community. The factory itself became something of a community landmark, standing until at least the middle of this century. The site is now vacant. J.C. Adams moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he organized the Adams and Perry Watch Manufacturing Company only co see it go into receivership in 1876. In 1885, however, he returned to Illinois to organize and presumably make his fortune with the Illinois Watch Company in Springfield, Illinois which made watches there until 1932. The Elgin Watch Company, the one from which Adams left to join Cornell, became the largest manufacturer of watches in the United States and produced watches until the 1950s.

Grand Crossing's contribution to the history of Hyde Park Village lies in its role in encouraging the development of areas to its north and south. This led to an increase in the village's population with accompanying greater social and economic diversity which, in turn, gave rise to political forces competing over community resources, eventually challenging the old line powers in Hyde Park Center, including Cornell himself, in support of annexation to Chicago.

One of the earliest aspects of Grand Crossing's pre development was the establishment, in 1853, by Cornell and others, of Oak Woods Cemetary at 67th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, today one of the great historic cemetaries of Chicago. Cornell and most of his immediate family are buried there in lot 1-1. In 1888, Cornell installed there a dignified twenty foot tall monument cast by his own American White Bronze Company, then located only blocks from the cemetery at 73rd and Woodlawn in Grand Crossing. A relief of his face is set in place half way up the monument, which is possibly the last surving structure whose construction was personally supervised by Cornell. It has held up very well and is accessible to the public.

The Hyde Park Hotel

When Cornell built his new Hyde Park Hotel on the south side of 51st Street between Lake Park and Harper Avenues (now site of the Village Center Shopping Mall), he did so in two stages. Although sources conflict on the matter, the east half, along Lake Park, was apparently built first, in 1887. The west half, along 51st Street/Hyde Park Boulevard to Harper Avenue, was added in 1890. This may account for early references to two different addresses for the hotel: 5122 Lake (Park) Avenue and 1511 E. Hyde Park Boulevard. An addition to the rear of the building was constructed at some date later than 1907. At the time it was built it was the largest residential structure in Hyde Park with ultimately 300 units of two to five rooms. Framed internally by a metal skeleton, it was proclaimed "fire proof' because of its then new fire restraining wall construction. On its first floor, an elegant marble lobby opened into a well-regarded dining room, various public meeting rooms and a smoking materials and newspaper stand. It also had a barber shop and pharmacy. An elevator took residents to their floors. A veranda that stretched along its north and west facade allowed visitors to relax and enjoy the street scene. Lake Michigan was then only a little more than a block away from the hotel and the large windows in each apartment not only brought in a good deal of natural light but allowed lake breezes to cool the rooms during the summer months. Over the years the well-regarded hotel was host co celebrities and many community social and cultural activities. The Old Settlers Club, something akin to a local historical society, met there regularly during the early years of this century.

Architecrual historian Carl Condit praises the hotel, designed by Theodore Starrett and built by the George

A. Fuller Company, as perhaps the earliest residential example of what has come to be called the Chicago School of Architecture. These innovative forms and structures first emerged in downtown Chicago during the early 1880s as spacious metal framed office and commercial buildings, many of them constructed by the same Fuller Company. Planning for such large buildings, argued its advocates, should be rational, empirical and systematic. The structures that emerged should project simplicity, stability, dignity, and efficiency. Artistry derived from functional elaborations, not from adding on useless embellishments. In other words, it fit important

emergingaspectsoflate19thCenturybusinessphilosophy-andCornell-likeaglove. Condie ignores Cornell when he considers the hotel, preferring to focus on the architect's achievement, the building's influence on ocher hotels, and its divergence from older building traditions. Indeed, its design was decidedly not the reigning architecture of the Columbian World's Expostition although the hotel certainly housed a goodly number of visitors to the fair. The face remains, however, chat Cornell commissioned, approved and financed the planning and construction of chat very special and historically important hotel and his contribution deserves co be acknowledged. Hyde Park House, the watch factory, the lase Hyde Park Hotel, even the American White Bronze Company, seem all of a piece: among the largest and best built buildings of their type in their time and place, reflections of Cornell's commitment to quality and innovation. The Hyde Park Hotel not only belonged to Cornell, it epitomized his values, his career and the identity that he wanted for himself and the community he had founded. While ochers in Hyde Park may have built what were considered temporary structures for the fair, Cornell constructed a hotel whose intended permanence was self-evident. In so doing, he introduced a form of alternative housing into the community-the first class residential hotel-chat would ultimately become very important to Hyde Park's development in succeeding decades. Cornell's funeral was held in the hotel on March 5, 1904. The building itself came down in 1963 during the community's urban renewal era.

Remembering Paul Cornell

Historian Donald Miller appraises Cornell's career and accomplishments sympathetically. "Cornell," he writes, "was more than a building speculator...(He) had a deep interest in the city's betterment and the hope... that parks and cultural institutions would act as restraints on Chicago's runaway materialism." The park system Cornell helped bring into existence "was Chicago's first effort to shape a development process dominated by unruly improvisation and to plan entire areas in advance of settlement for public, not private use. It was also the first successful effort in the city's history to break the monotonous spread of the grid." Mi Iler concludes, "Cornell's career as a town and park builder is an example of the combination of high and low motives, of risk caking in the interests of both personal and civic gain chat had been behind nearly every major municipal improvement since...(che early days of Chicago's history)." As he walked to his car after his visit co Robie House lase May, Paul A. Cornell offered his own down-to-earth assessment of his grandfather, "Given the curbulaoce of 19th century America, he had a lot of guts."

Cornell Avenue and Cornell Drive, of course, are named in honor of Paul Cornell. There is also a park named after him, Cornell Square, at 1809 W. 50th Street. In the main hall of its refectory, there is a painting of Cornell on the wall and a bust of him dated 1900, probably cast by American Bronze. An administrator there cold me the story that, years ago,

The two parks about which I was requesting information turned out to be on one or the other of their lists. In the case of Adams Park, there is another one by that name on Chicago's north side. The District had no historical information in their current files on Grand Crossing's Adams Park but I could share our research, tracing it back at least to the 1872 plat, thus placing it among the older named parks in the over 500 parks currently in their system, and suggesting a possible source of the Adams name. "Harold Washington Park" may be designated as the official name for the area previously categorized as a playloc. Moreover, though raised tentively by a staff member working on this project, there is a possibility that the entire area including the playlot and the park land west to Hyde Park Boulevard, chat is, what once was officially labelled East End Park, might be renamed "The Harold Washington Memorial Park." While such decisions are made ultimately by the Park District Board, with recommendations from the park's cop level administrators, community impuc in chis process seemed genuinely welcomed. Persons wishing to convey their sentiments about these matters should direct them to Dr. Gwendolyn Larouch, Director of External Affairs, Chicago Park District, 425 E. Mcfetridge Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Incidently, although Harold Washington was che

only sitting mayor of Chicago to have made his home in Hyde Park, in the course of the research for chis

issue, I learned that Edward J. Kelly, while mayor in

the 1930s, lived at 4821 South Ellis Avenue in the Kenwood community.

In 1876, an "old settler," possibly Cornell himself, was asked "what will Chicago be twenty five years from now?" "Why sir, I am afraid to tell you, for fear you will laugh at me, as all my friends did, when I prophesied that in 1865, Chicago would have 100,000 inhabitants; in 1870, 150,000, and in 1886, 200,000; and

yet you see I did not set it half high enough...(By 1900), if manufacturers come in to help us, as I believe they will, I expect Chicago will be built up in that time as compact as she is now, down south to the Indiana State Iine."

From: D.H.Horne, Chicago As It Is To Be, 1876

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Another response to our Harold Washington memorial issue came from Charles and Yolanda Hall who have organized the "Chicago Friends of The Lincoln Brigade." They report that honorary Spanish citizenship was granted to surviving members of the Brigade in 1997. Six of chem were Chicagoans, of whom two, Dr. Aaron Hilkevitch, M.D. and Emanuel Hochberg, were Hyde Parkers. Mr. Hochberg died April 28, 1998. Their research, drawn primarily from che Brigade's archives at Brandeis University, indicates that more than a dozen students from the University of Chicago went to Spain, including Nathan Meyer Schilling who was killed in battle there. Schilling had lived at 5610 S. Dorchester. Charles Hall is also a Brigade veteran and he and his wife once lived in Hyde Park. Further information on che plans and activities of the new group may be obtained from the Halls at 5320 N. Sheridan Road, #1902, Chicago, IL 60640 or, by phone, at 773-769-2665.

Selected sources: A.T. Andreas, History of Cook Co11nty (Chicago, 1884); Jean Block, Hyde Park Homes (Chicago, 1978); Chicago Trib11ne, March 4, 1904; Paul Gilbert and C.L Bryson, Chicago and its Makers (Chicago, 1929); Carl W. Condit, The Chicago School of Architecture: A History of Commerical and Public Building i11 the Chict1;:,o Arect, 1875-1925 (Chicago, 1964); John Drury, "Grand Crossing," Landlord's G11ide (Chicago),

Vol. 38, no. 10 (Ocrober, 1947); Dena J. Epstein,

Mmic Publishing in Chicago before 1871: The Firm of Root and Cady. 1858-l 871 (Detroit, 1969); Everett Chamberlin, Chicaf!,O and its S11b11rbs (Chicago, l 874); Paul A. Cornell, Pa11I Cornell: The Father of Hyde Park (Chicago, 1978 and 1998); Donald R. Hoke, The Time Mme1m1 flistorical Cataloiue of American Pocket Watches (Rockford, Illinois, 1991); D.H. Horne, The City of Chicago That ls To Be.' The Village of Hyde Park and her Tou·ns.' Grand Crossing (Cleveland, Ohio, 1876); Hyde Park I-leralcl, August l l, 1938; Ann Durkin Keating, B11ilclinf!. Chicaf!.o (Columbus, Ohio, 1988); Paul Markum, "Village Problems and City Solutions," Hyde Park I-Iistot)' 1 (Chicago: Hyde Park Historical Society, 1980), pp. 5+82; Donald L. Mi Iler, City of the Cent11ry: The Epic of Chicaf!,O and the Making of America (New York, 1996); Cooksey Shugart, The Complete Guide to American Pocket Watches (Cleveland, Tennessee, 1981); The Watchmaker and jeweler, Vol. 2 (May, 1871) and Vol. 3 (September and November, 1871); A.N. Waterman, Historical Revieu1 of Chicago and Cook County (Chicago, 1908) Andrew Yox, "Hyde Park Politics: 1861-1919," Hyde Park History 2 (1980). Thanks to Bernard Edwards and Cooksey Shugart for leads regarding the Cornell Watch Company and to Julia Bachrach and Anita Salazar of the Chicago Park District.

A 1908 post card view of Adams Park and the old Cornell Watch Company in Grand Crossing was a key to identifying the then location of the old watch factory at Ease 76th and Greenwood Avenue. At the time of chis photograph, the building was occupied by A.C. Clark and Company, a dental supply manufacturer. Although the building no longer exists, Adams Park, at least 116 years after it was established, still does, on the north side of 76th Street between Greenwood and Dobson Avenues diagonally across the street from the much larger Grand Crossing Park. Adams Park may have been named after Cornell Watch Company official John C. Adams.

By 1876 Hyde Park Village consisted of twenty-eight towns: Cleaversville, Forrestville, Kenwood, Hyde Park, South Park, Woodlawn, South Shore, Oakwood, Brookline, Englewood,Grand Crossing, South Chicago, Clark's-Point, Irondale, Stony Island, Indian-Ridge, Colehour, Chittenden, Burnside, Roseland, Kensington, Riverdale, Wildwood, Dalton, Kingston, Anthony, Binford, Egandale, and Fernwood.

Volume 20, Number 4

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.

The book, which had a printing of 10,000 copies, was well-received and found wide distribution.

The publication of Hyde Park Houses in 1978 may be

Several hundred small businesses were affected. Many of

Houses and the HPHS

Aside from Jean's personal involvement with the

Who Was Jean Block?

It is instructive to examine Jean Block's life and

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.

In the almost two decades before Hyde Park Houses

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.

Some of Samuel's Hyde Park House photographs have

I regret that Jean and I became acquainted only in

Steve Treffman is the Society's archivist and a contributing editor of Hyde Park History.

Mallory Price 3/4/22 Mallory Price 3/4/22

Newsletters 1984

January 1984

August 1984

December 1984

Mallory Price 5/28/19 Mallory Price 5/28/19

Newsletters 1979

Hyde Park Historical Society Newsletters from 1979

Text of Newsletter:

HYDE PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Volume I, Number 1 January, 1979

Herewith we inaugurate a newsletter which will come to you in January, April, July, and October. Your suggestions and contributions will be welcomed; send them to Muriel Beadle at 1700 E. 56th St., Apt. 401, Chicago 60637. The deadline for issue is the 10th of the month preceding publication.

On August 15, 1 75, the Chicago Tribune described a fete given by the ladies of St.Paul's Church. It was attended by about 390 persons, and lighted by locomotive search lights and Chinese lanterns.

On Saturday, January 27,1979 the Hyde Park Historical Society will have its annual meeting--a dinner at the Windermere Hotel. There are no plans to light the scene with anything more exotic than candles. For further details of the event, see p.3 of this newsletter.

Now is the time to renew your Hyde Park Historical Society membership, the best buy in Chicago because our dues are 1) low and 2) cover all members of a family. Send your check for $5 to Mrs.

John Davey, 5748 S. Harper,60637.

JANUARY MEETING FOCUSES ON FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

From Jan. 10 to Feb. 25, "The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright", a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition, will be on display at the David and Alfred Smart Gallery, 5550 S. Greenwood. (Tues.-Sat.,

10 AM to 4 PM; Sun., noon to 4 PM.)

Hyde Park Historical Society Board member Irma Strauss assisted David Hanks, the Smithsonian's Curator of Decorative Arts, in lo cating obj_ects and researching their history.

She says, "All his interior details--furniture, lamp shades, rugs, windows, and at times fabrics, ceramics, silverware and even dresses of his clients--were designed to complete the architecture. Since most of his interiors have been destroyed or altered, it is only by viewing the objects in this exhibit along with photographs of the original architecture that his work can be properly understood." --2

The Winter Sporting Scene, circa 1912

With our purchase of the old Chicago City Railway Co. station at 5529 Lake Park Ave., people are becoming curious about cable car days in Hyde Park. Gerhardt Laves, who was born here in 1906, recalls how his older brother Ulrich enjoyed exhilarating sled rides down 55th St.,with the help of the cable car machinery.

This is how it was done: Ulrich would position his sled in the middle of the street, directly above the sunken cable which was constantly in motion thanks to the power house at 55th St. and Cottage Grove Ave. He would then reach down into the slot, grab the c ble, and off he'd go!

These adventures were less dangerous than they seemed, Gerhardt says, for the horses pulling other vehicles shied away from the boy on the sled; and following cable cars, being attached to the same cable and traveling at the same speed, never overtook him.

1978 IN REVIEW

On January 17, Mrs. Strauss will give an illustrated lecture, "Frank Lloyd Wright and Hyde Park Kenwood". Time: ts PM. Place: KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 5039

S. Greenwood Ave. The program will be co-sponsored by the Hyde Park Historical Society, the KAM-Isaiah Israel Sisterhood, and the Victor ian Society, Chicago Chapter.

Renovation Trade Fair Planned

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, in cooperation with the city of Chicago, is planning an exposition called "City House: A Marketplace of Renovation Ideas for Old.Houses." Scheduled for February at Navy Pier, this exhibit will feature preservation materials, skills, and information sources for home owners seeking to renovate older city dwellings.

Our programs were distinguished by their quality and their variety. Special thanks to Thelma Dahlberg, program chairman, for her fine arrangements. Here's a brief review:

Jan. 29: Arthur Weinberg on "Clarence Darrow As a Literary Figure", at the United Church of Hyde Park. A fresh approach to the biography of a famous lawyer and Hyde Park resident.

Mar. 14: A report on the status of proposals to designate parts of the community as Chicago historic districts or to list them on the National Register.Speakers: Robert Wagner of Illinois Dept. of Conservation, our own Board mem bers Dev Bowly and Michael Conzen. An exceptionally large and keenly interested crowd attended. At International House.

QUALITY AND VARIETY CHARACTERIZED THE SOCIETY'S 1978 ACTIVITIES

April 30: Mini-tour of KAM Isaiah Israel Temple, with Irma Strauss as our tour guide.

June 3 and 4: Members manned a booth across the street from the 57th St. Art Fair, distributed literature about the Society, sold publications, enrolled new members.

July 4: Excursion by bus to the traditional Fourth of July celebration at the Chicago Historical Society, preceded by juice and doughnuts and a quick look

at our just-acquired headquarters building (of which, more elsewhere in this newsletter).

Sept. 17: Excursion by bus--in fact, by three buses--to "Sunday on Prairie Avenue, 1893", the official opening of the Prairie Avenue Historic District. Most popular attraction: that modern rarity, an organ grinder man, complete with monkey.

Oct. 29: Sunday afternoon sherry reception for Paul A. Cornell and other HPHS Charter Members in Fellowship Hall at the United Church of Hyde Park. Speech by Mr. Cornell about his grandfather, the Paul Cornell who founded Hyde Park. At the following social hour, descendants of early Hyde Park families were welcomed as special guests.

Nov.11: Acting President Jean Block autographed copies of her much-praised book, Hyde Park Houses, at Hyde Park Federal Savings, a portion of each sale going to the Hyde Park Historical Society. Our thanks to the Universjty of Chicago Press and to Hyde Park Federal.

Dec. 10: Another workout for Jean Block--this time at the University Church of the Disciples, where she spoke to the topic, "Re searching Your House." For one bit of her advice, and a request, see the next page.

------------------------ti"'- - - - - - - - - - - -

ANNUAL MEETING & Dinner I

AT WINDRMERE HOTEL ON JANUARY 27

By the end of January, John Vinci will have completed his proposal for the renovation of our headquarters, the old cable car station at 5529 Lake Park. At the annual meeting, Dev Bowly will present a detailed re port and show sketches. There will also be entertainment before and after dinner, and a cash bar.

Date: Saturday, Jan. 27. Place: Windermere Hotel. Time: 6:30 PM.

Mr. Thomas J. Pavelec 5539 S. Cornell Ave.

Chicago, Il 60637

I will attend the HPHS annu al meeting and dinner on Jan.

27 at the Windermere Hotel. Please reserve places at $10 each. My check,drawn to the Hyde Park Historical Society, is enclosed.

Name

Cost: $10 per person. Guests are welcome. Use form at right.

CIHSM: Organized Swap Shop

The Hyde Park Historical Society belongs to the Congress of Illinois Historical Societies and Museums (CIHSM). This organization is sponsored by the Illinois State Historical Society in order to "facilitate the exchange of ideas, methods and solutions to mutual problem,s11 among the 135 local historical societies in Illinois who are members. Region al and state meetings are held frequently.

A newsletter, Historically Speaking, is published quarterly. Membership in CIHSM also includes subscriptions to two publications of the Illinois State Historical Society. We expect to print occasional excerpts from these sources.

DO YOU HAVE•. ?

Many Hyde Parkers have old title searches and architectural drawings of their houses. These, Jean Block says, should remain with the houses. But the HPHS would like to know of the existence of such material. Will you tell us what you have? Write Mrs. Samuel Block, 1700 E. 56th St., Chi cago 60637.

HYDE PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

N w Il att IT

Volume I, Number 2 April, 1979

Committee Organized to Save Rosenwald House

Whether by accident or a confluence of subliminal forces, the forma tion of the Hyde Park Historical Society preceded by only a few months a move on the part of the Chicago Landmarks Commission to make Kenwood a Landmark District and the nomination of Hyde Park-Kenwood for recognition

by the National Register· f Histor ic Places.

Under these circumstances, the

fi 'FfiMllf GfiTH[ INO

The date was January 27. The place was the Windermere Hotel. The weather was terrible. Yet al

most 200 people attended our annual meeting and dinner-and enjoyed it greatly.

In her welcome, President Jean Block said, "Recently there was a wonderful cartoon in the New Yorker depicting the usual lanky couple conversing over martinis. The wife says to the husband, 'I'd like to join the historical society, but I don't know if I want to be that kind of person.'

"If you look around this room, you will see that she wouldn't have that problem here. There isn't a Hyde Park Historical Society 'type.' In our membership we have all ages; renters and home owners; old-timers and newcomers: a cross-section that truly represents the diversity upon which Hyde Park prides itself "

This is undoubtedly why so many people later praised the "family original objectives of the Society to record Hyde Park's history, to preserve selected documents and artifacts, to promote public interest in Hyde Park and its history, and to educate and involve individuals and groups in an appreciation and understanding of its heritage take on a new and larger meaning.

One of the "artifacts" we are eager to preserve is the Rosenwald House at 4901 Ellis, now threaten ed with demolition if neither a single family nor an institutional purchaser can be found. The house, by Nimmons and Fellows, is an important example of Prairie School architecture, a unique element of our Midwestern heritage. Its own er was one of Chicago's great citizens, a gifted businessman and en lightened reformer and philanthropist. Julius Rosenwald contributed generously to the University of Chicago, Jewish philanthropies, Hull House, and many other organi zations. The Museum of

feeling" of the evening....top. 3

The State of the Station

VINCI PROVIDES RESTORATION PLAN FOR OUR HEADQUARTERS

By Devereux Bowly, Jr.

The Hyde Park Historical Society

has been demolished above the roof line, must be rebuilt. Most of the millwork must be replaced. The tongue and groove paneling on the interior walls and ceiling will be restored or replaced. The office of the Society will be located in what was once the station master's office, at the headquarters, 5529 S. Lake Park Ave., was constructed in 1893 or 1894 by the Chicago City Street Railway, once the most extensive cable car system in the country. The building later served the trolley system and in relatively recent memory housed a tiny lunch counter.

Last fall, the well-known preservation architect John Vinci was hired to prepare a set of measured drawings of the building as well as a plan for its restoration. A grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation covered half his fee. His report and drawings are now complete.

Here's a summary of the plan:

north end of the building. It will have a pullman kitchen and a renovated washroom.

The rest of the space will be out fitted as a station waiting room. It will have movable wooden benches, which can be supplemented for meetings by folding chairs, a wood-burn ing stove, ticket window openings, a sales stand, and facilities for display of historical material.

The building cost the Society $4,000. More than $10,000 was raised by the sale of Charter memberships. Architect Vinci estimates that the renovation will cost $50 per square foot, or a total of about $40,000.

This figure assumes that some of the

Because no original plans or early work will be done by Society volunteers. The building's exterior dimensions are 20 by 40 ft. The chimney, which no photographs of the building exist. Unfortunately, however, most far as is known) and the interior has of the needed work cannot be done by been extensively altered, it will be amateurs impossible to restore the building exactly as it was built. What will be It is hoped that most or all of done, however, is to create an authen the $40,000 can be obtained from tic railroad station appearance as Chicago-area foundations or corpora- of the late 19th century, wilettions, and a fund drive is in pro- the same time adapting the interior gress under the direction of Board to the uses of our Society. member Clyde Watkins, Director of Development of the University of Chicago. Depending on the success of the fund drive, construction is anticipated for the summer of 1979 or for 1980.

May 6: At the DuSable Museum of Afro American History, Dina Epstein and Ruth Fouch will speak on "Myths of Black Music."

May 19: A natural history tour of Wooded Island, with Douglas Anderson.

"City House" Advice: Think it Through, Do it Well

By Lesley Bloch

Twenty thousand people made their way to Navy Pier on the weekend of Feb. 16-18 for "City House", the exhibit sponsored by the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Passing up the popcorn and the hotdogs for gathering free brochures from many of the 99 exhibitors, I spent 2 1/2 hours listening, watch ing and walking. Looking over the to reinforce the impact of this lecture there was a display of page enlargements from an upcoming book, City House Guide, which tells the correct way to make many home improvements on older buildings.(Call Commission on Landmarks, 744-3200, for price and publication date.)

With new thoughts on restoring our front door to its original handsomeness and getting rid of the storm door, I took my enthusiasm home to our city house.

contents of my free "Make Chicago Great" shopping bag, I found information on shutter dealers, salvage companies, subscription forms for Old House Journal and the Time-Life Handyman series, information on security in the home, near the home, in the car and for the senior citi zen as well as passouts from the neighborhoods of the Highlands, Ken wood, Wicker Park, Pullman, etc.

With a list of all the exhibitors and their phone numbers I now have a ready source for any household improvement or problem.

Lectures were scheduled through out the weekend. Among those I at tended was Harry Hunderman's "Re storing the Historic Details of Your Home's Exterior." He says that

you should THINK before you ruin your house by tearing down, replac ing, repositioning or restoring bad ly. He showed slides of interesting houses which had become less so by the addition of aluminum siding, plastic awnings, glass bricks, etc.

This newsletter is published quarterly. Editor, Muriel Beadle. Typing, Corinne Seither. Graphics, Michael Conzen.

ANNUAL MEETING.... from p. 1

In addition to Irma Strauss's slide show, the President's Report, and the presentation of the first annual Paul Cornell awards, Dever eux Bowly brought us up to date on restoration plans for our headquarters. (His report appears on p. 2.)

The songs and skits which fol owed dinner were, as Ned Rosenheim said, "a reminder of the local tradition of amateur theatricals, those labors of love by writers, producers, directors and performers who make their livings in every possible colorful Hyde Park way except the professional theater."

The songs "Oscar" and "Abe" came respectively from the 1963 Harper Court benefit and the 1958 Revels. The song "In Old Hyde Park" and two monologues--"A Voice from the Past" and "Are You There?"--were written for this occasion. Performers were Helen and Roland Bailey, Pat Billingsley, Mary Schulman, Stephen Thomas and Impresario Rosenheim.

P.S. It would be a worthy HPHS project to collect memorabilia of the amateur theatricals that have flourished here. Anyone interested?

J. DARTER HAPPY HERE

By Malcolm Collier

How many kinds of fish are there in the Jackson Park lagoons? Ask David Gordon, who spoke Feb.22 at the Blackstone Branch Library on the ecology of the lagoons during the past century.

Gordon is on a work-study program at the Field Museum, is a research assistant at the Shedd Aquarium and a student of the lagoon fish population and bottom sediments.

He said there are now about 15 spe cies of fish in the lagoons. Among them are the tiny Johnny Darter andthe yellow perch, whose presence indicates that these waters are reasonably health y despite the loss of two feet of depth during the past decade and other hazards. Science and Industry is a constant reminder of his dedication to the city and its people. He espoused the cause of black education long before others became aware of this need.

The loss of this house would greatly reduce the aesthetic and historic value of the neighborhood. A group of concerned residents is working to prevent this from happening. You can join them by con tacting Victoria Post Ranney, 4919 Woodlawn Ave., 548-0017.

HYDE PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Volume I, Number 3 July, 1979

f much reading as the Newsletters J

/ we have published previously. Designed to entertain and inform @

{ you while you laze in hammock or J

1 porch chair, it is also substantial enough to prop tent-like :)

@over your face as a shield from the summer sun. :::::

::::: Our special thanks go to the authors of our signed articles. t

{Any reader who would enjoy an occasional writing assignment ::::: comparable to these is invited to telephone Muriel

)Beadle at 493-2119, 9 a.m.-5 p.m {

JOYCE FOUNDATION GRANT

The campaign to raise the money necessary for the renovation of the Hyde Park Historical Society head quarters, the 19th century cable car station at 5529 Lake Park Ave., is going forward.

To date our efforts have been re warded with a $2500 grant from The Joyce Foundation. Proposals are be ing sent to other foundations, and fund-raising activity will continue

throughout the summer. o

Henry Who?

PUNNY PARTIES HONOR NOVELIST FULLER

GUEST OF HONOR'S GHOST HASN'T YET MANIFESTED ITSELF

By Mary Hynes-Berry

Early this year, the Committee for Fuller Recognition of the Deservedly Obscure sent out invitations to honor the 122nd birthday (Jan. 9) of Henry Blake Fuller, the mildly well-known Chicago author and Hyde Park resident. The appointed night (Jan.13) came, along with the Blizzard of '79 and 40 guests.

This was the third birthday party given by my husband and me since we discovered that, 50 years ago this summer, Fuller died of a heart attack in a room he rented in our house. Before happening by chance on this information, we had never heard of Fuller. Since then, we have learned a lot.

One delightful source, which we acquired, is a 1927 letter from Fuller to Mrs. Lorado Taft. In it, he mentions moving to 5411 So. Harper Ave., with "Mrs. Ryan, but American" as his landlady.

After reading all the way through some of his eight novels (including the two he wrote in our upstairs bed room), we decided that Fuller was a competent not brilliant writer of some historical interest. It was One faction argued heatedly that the man who wrote the first realistic novel with Chicago as its set ting (With the Procession), who wrote exciting to discover that one's house another which became the name of a had had a brush with history. It was somehow realistic to learn that the brush was-like life is so of ten-of passionate interest to those involved and forgotten by everyone else.

The most appropriate reaction was to celebrate the Deservedly Obscure. Although Henry was a notoriously shy bachelor, there was always the off-chance that his ghost might join in the festivities. But, alas, Henry didn't manifest himself at the first party. Nor, at the second, did he attend the premiere performance of a hitherto undiscovered manuscript entitled The Brushman Cometh (which bore a remarkable textual resemblance to the letter in the Berrys' possession).

It was on the agenda of this year's gathering to decide if Fuller should be promoted to the status of Free Spirit. The title is granted to only the most deservedly obscure. So, once the evening had sufficiently progressed, the group was asked to debate before voting a recommendation to the Powers-That-Be. Debate they did. famous club (The Cliff Dwellers), who was admired by such writers and critics as Hamlin Garland, Theodore Dreiser and Edmund Wilson, who greatly aided Harriet Monroe in the editorial work of Poetry magazine, and who counted Lorado Taft as a close friend--such a man did not deserve obscurity.

Others argued that perhaps obscurity was deserved when academics who had devoted their careers to the man made comments like: "Whenever a critic needed another example of arrested literary development, all he had to do was to point to Henry B. haunting the fringes of literary recognition." (Charles Silet)

Still a third set pointed out that the previous birthday parties had seriously threatened Fuller's obscurity, no matter how well deserved.

The secret ballots were counted. A majority had voted to make Henry a Free Spirit. Even so, when the lights were dimmed and the 122 candles lit, Henry still didn't feel free to waft down the stairs and blow them out.

Maybe next year

AT SPRINGFIELD -

At 9 PM every evening except Mondays until September 8 (weather

2- permitting), "Sound and Light at the Old State Capitol" will be presented free of charge at the handsomely restored Old State Capitol

building in Springfield. The 45-min. electronic production, now in its fourth season, was narrated by the late Lee J. Cobb and focuses in on the fateful issues facing Abraham Lincoln and the nation in 1860. "Your Obedient Servant, A. Lincoln" is also in its fourth season

@ at Kelso Hollow Theater in New Salem. The play is presented nightly except Mondays through August 25. For ticket information, write The

.· Great American People Show, Box 401, Petersburg, IL 62675, or tele- phone 217-632-7755. □

WEDDING BELLS rang out on June 5, 1885, for Ina Ott, 5146 S.Harper Ave.,

CALL FOR GIFTS!

Many libraries store historical material

By Victor Dyer

What sort of historical materials should community libraries or his orical societies collect? What should the relationship be between historical society and library, especially when the one collects and the other stores the material?

At a May 16 conference on local history, sponsored by the Chicago Historical Society, speakers included Susan Prendergast Schoelwer, Assistant Archivist in the Special Collections Division of the Chicago Public Library.

She reported that 15 major historical collections-most of them dating from the 1930's-are now housed in branch libraries. Typically, these collections originated with neighborhood historical societies, some of which have gone out of existence. (The Woodlawn Historical Society is an example.)

Ms. Schoelwer's remarks stimulated a lively discussion of pub lic library/historical society relationships and obligations. It was evident that clear guidelines are necessary, with special attention given to the disposal of collections if a historical society should become defunct.

Information and ideas from this conference will aid the Hyde Park Historical Society Board of Directors in planning our acquisitions policies. The Acquisitions Committee (Jean Block, Kathleen Conzen, Victor Dyer and Albert architect W. I Beman.

According to the Hyde Park ► Herald, "Presents included an ► upright piano, an elegant oak ► cabinet, a hammered wood hod, ► an oriental water pitcher, a ► decorated French butter dish, ► cut glass and Bohemian glass ► fruit dishes, an embroidered ► piano cover, a French mantel ► clock and a rocking chair."

Rosenwald

Efforts to save the historic and architecturally significant Julius Rosenwald house at 4901 Ellis Ave. have gained momentum in recent months.

Representatives of the Committee to Save the Rosenwald House have met with Fourth Ward Alderman Ti othy C. Evans, Kenwood community leaders and the owner of the property.

The committee has widely distributed a statement contending that the only economically feasible way to preserve the building is to permit it to be sold as three condominium units, one on each floor.

To date, 770 people, more than 270 of whom live in the immediate vicinity of the Rosenwald house, have endorsed the statement and joined

the committee. If you would like to do likewise, send your name and ad dress on a postcard to the head of the committee, Victoria Post Ranney, 4915 Woodlawn Ave.

Early Black Music in U.S. did have Roots in Africa

By Muriel Beadle

"The break from their African cultures was so abrupt and so complete that slaves who were brought to the United States were in effect without any culture. White society, especially missionaries, was the source of whatever music they later developed." True or false? FALSE.

On May 6, members of the Hyde Park Historical Society hea d Dena Ep stein, music librarian at Regenstein Library, and Ruth Fouche, ethnol ogist at the DuSable Museum of Afro-American History, discuss "Myths of Black Music." Our thanks to both for an enlightening presentation.

Our speakers said that the erroneous statement above derives from the fact that incoming slaves had no common languages. What they did have,

however, were mutually comprehen

0 tempora! 0 mores!

Two delightful excerpts from "A Hyde Park Childhood," by Dorothy Michelson Livingston, who is a daughter of the great physicist Albert A. Michelson:

"We children attended the Lab oratory School,[which] was called the University Elementary School when I entered there for first grade in 1912. We were taught the nursery rhymes in Latin, and in sixty-eight years I have not

forgotten: Domina Maria, tota con traria/Quibiti crescit in horto?"

"My sisters and I were taken to hear Frederic Stock conduct the Thomas concerts at Orchestra Hall. We saw Pavlova do her famous 'Dy ing Swan'. We heard Galli-Curci sing and saw Joseph Schildkraut play in 'Lilliam'. But my person al taste was for a more vulgar form of entertainment. Whenever possible I escaped to the Frolic Movie House on Fifty-fifth Street, where for ten cents I saw hero William S. Hart rescue maiden Blanche Sweet from the villain..."

--from the University of Chicago

Alumni Magazine, Winter Quarter 179

sible tonal systems. They also had the traditional musical instruments of their homelands-cannily provided by slave traders to encourage dancing by their human cargo during the long sea voyage. The slaves arrived in better condition if they exercised enroute.

Nor did spirituals make up the bulk of the slaves' later American music. They also had secular music, the "sinful tunes" in the title of Dena Epstein's recent book, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War (University of Illinois Press). Until recently, the existence of such music during the antebellum years was so poorly

documented that Mrs. Epstein's book is being highly praised by other experts in her field.

Its site added additional interest to the May 6 meeting. At the turn of the century, when Washington Park was one of the jewels of the Chicago Park District, the building that is now the DuSable Museum was the park's Administration Building.

It overlooked a sunken garden, of which only the formal pathways and edging balustrades remain today.

There is no trace at all of the hand some conservatory that was once sit uated at right angles to the Administration Building, just east of the sunken garden. □

If you have always wanted to know

... where the original Magnificent Mile was

... where there is a statue of President McKinley which-before it was melted down, re-cast, and moved to a new location-depicted Christopher Columbus

... where the garbage dump mentioned in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle used to be...

you should have been on the bus with Dominick Pacyga for the Chicago Historical Society tour, "People and Industry on the South Side" on Saturday, June 9.

The four-hour excursion focused on changes in industry, land use and movements of ethnic groups. In the Near Loop area we looked at the abandoned industrial buildings, wonder ing if plans for Soho in Chicago would attract tenants whose activities will make the area live again.

When passing the old Dearborn St. Station, we heard about the neighborhood of the future which is being built on railroad land, and how the station will be a school and a community center. Viewing these wide open spaces, we found it difficult to visualize the area in the days when the great trains were corning through Chicago and industrialists were benefiting from the closeness of the Loop, the river, the workers and the trains.

Further south, we saw the remnants of Prairie Avenue and understood how encroaching industry and the noise and dirt of the trains closed the grand houses and drove the people away.

On to the Stockyard neighborhoods of Bridgeport, McKinley, Back of the Yards and Canaryville (Irish nick name for hogs). Here we heard about the importance of the parish church, the ward office, the tavern, the drugstore and the funeral parlor in the life of the COillJt.lunity.

A busy Saturday afternoon on West 47th St. attested to ethnic variety, with shop signs in Polish, Lithuanian and Spanish. Only we to rists seemed to be bothered by pungent fumes from a fertilizer plant which has replaced the stockyards and their much heavier odors.

All the live animal pens are gone (except one for animals destined to be koshered in Philadelphia) Land where thousands of people once la bored has been left to go wild or to become sites for small industries or sprawling truck lots employing a few hundred people.

As our tour continued, we learned about physical barriers such as expressways, railroad tracks, sports arenas; and how everything changes once you cross the boundaries be tween them. Each ethnic group is memorialized in churches, synagogues and other institutions. We traced the movements of the Irish, for ex ample, through the architectural grandeur of their buildings as they (and we, in 1979) went west on Garfield Blvd.

Our guide defined a "corridor neighborhood" for us; showed us some streets without character and some with the wrong kind of character (too many fast food outlets, parking blessed with two special treats. The weather was the nicest in memory, and the Hyde Park Historical Society had a patriotic booth selling a full line of "dry goods."

There were items catering to the budget of every age group, from badges to boaters to books. Especially popular were the new HPHS t-shirts, displaying a picture of our headquarters-to-be.

Also available were handsome prints of the building, suitable for framing. These pictorial subjects were particularly appropriate because all profits will go toward the renovation project.

Behind the counter, a progression of volunteers from our ranks handled sales totaling over $800. Our thanks to: Theresa McDermott, Linnea Anderson, Kathleen and Michael Conzen, Tom Jensen, Cheryl and Clyde Watkins, Donald Miller, Christine O'Neill, Tom arid Georgene Pavelec, Margaret Fallers, Betty Davey, and Jean Block. Their enthusiasm also helped recruit 36 new members from among the passing throngs.

Next to our booth was a display on the Rosenwald House, including an excellent scale model by Kenwood Academy senior Josh Gerick. After many hours and repeated explanations of the issues, the Committee to Save the Rosenwald House had secured another 300 signatures!

If you missed your chance to purchase Hyde Park Historical Society paraphernalia, don't fret. We have some left, and will be offer ing them at future meetings and other events.□

HISTORICAL MATERIAL....from page 3

Tannler) is considering several possible locations for future archival and book collections of the Society.

In the meantime we are anxious to begin assembling histories of local institutions, pamphlets, biographical materials on residents of the community, scrapbooks, photographs, posters, etc. The committee would be happy to consider gifts of these and other historical materials relating to Hyde Park-Kenwood.

Call Kathleen Conzen at 285-2181

to describe or discuss your possible contribution.□

AGING

According to the News Service of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, more than a third of the nation's housing was built before World War II.

Of the 80 million year-round housing units, 34% were constructed be fore 1940. Of the 48 million owner occupied units, 29% pre-date 1940.

And 43% of the 26 million renter occupied units are more than 40 years old.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, from the 1976 annual housing survey.□

HONORS LIST

The Chicago Foundation for Literature Award has been given by Friends of Literature to HPHS President Jean Block for "her careful ly researched and handsomely illustrated book Hyde Park Houses , a wonderful source book and guide to the architecture of an area where the past is present to be under

NOW AVAILABLE BY MAIL

CITY HOUSE GUIDE

City House: A Guide to Renovating Older Chicago-area Houses is the printed sequel to the popular "City House" exhibition at Navy Pier in February, about which we had an ar ticle in our last Newsletter.

The Guide, a treasury of infor mation and advice, has been published by the city's Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 320 No. Clark St., Room 800, Chicago, IL 60610. It can be

ordered by mail for $5.45. □

stood and enjoyed." The book was

published by the University of Chicago Press.

ROSENWALD ....

Mrs. Ranney is associate editor

The American Institute of Architects this year presented six of its 15 Honor Awards to historical preservation projects. One of them was the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center at Michigan and Randolph.

Tours of this handsomely restored building are offered by the Friends of the Library on Thursdays at 11 AM and 1 PM and on Sundays at 1:30.

Groups of 10 or more may schedule tours at other times. Call 269- 2922 between 10 AM and 4 PM during the business week.

The Illinois State Historical Society gave its Award of Merit for local and regional history to HPHS Board member Devereux Bowly, Jr. for his book, The Poorhouse: Subsidized Housing in Chicago, 1895- 1976 Southern Illinois University Press).

Describing the book as "carefully researched", the citation said further: "Although it deals with the Chicago experience, it has implications for all cities faced with the problem of providing housing for; poor people."

of the papers of famed landscape ar chitect Frederick Law Olmstead and chairperson of the Illinois Humani ties Council. Other organizers of the committee include Edna Epstein, 1120 E. 50th St.; John McDermott, 4811 Kimbark Ave.; and Gary Husted, 4900 Ellis Ave.

The Rosenwald house was open to the public in May as part of the An cona School Kenwood House Tour. Vis itors were glad to see that it is in good condition despite the fact that it has not been occupied for more than two years.

With the increasing interest in local history and in preserving sig nificant architecture, it is hoped by the HPHS Board of Directors that soon the Rosenwald house will again be occupied. Its preservation will give future generations some insight into the life of a most remarkable civil rights leader and philanthro

pist. □

The Hyde Park Historical Society Newsletter is published quarterly.

Muriel Beadle, Editor Corinne Seither, Typing Michael Conzen, Graphics.

Sierra Club Book Tells

the History of the Great Lakes

Reviewing Jonathan Ela's The Faces of the Great Lakes in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Socie ty, Orvetta M. Robinson of the Illi nois State Museum describes as "ab sorbing" this account of the ecolog ical, geological and human history of our great inland "river of lakes."

Published by the Sierra Club and priced at $24.50, this beautiful book

SOUTH SIDE TOUR...

lots and gas stations are almost sure to ruin the neighborhood); and said that electing to stay in a changing neighborhood can be cause

includes a preface by conservationist Sigurd Olson and 87 pages of photo graphs by B.A. King, "arranged by region from East to West, from the Thousand Islands to Duluth; remark able photographs [which] depict not only the natural landscape but also the cultural phenomena." Ms. Robinson says this is much more than a good coffee table book (although it is

that too).

for growth. Hyde Parkers who lived through urban renewal here would surely agree.

For your own guide to changes in Chicago, look for Dominick Pacyga's and Glen Holt's Chicago-A Histori cal Guide to Neighborhoods, to be published this month by the Chicago Historical Society. Paperbound $7.95

HYDE PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Volume I, Number 4 November, 1979

A Chance to Share, to Observe, to Banquet ·:·::::

Some interesting and instructive events lie just ahead. They include:

► An exhibit called HYDE PARK HISTORY ON SHOW, at Hyde Park Federal, on November 11. You should already have received a mailed announcement and invitation to show your historical treasures. Our next Newsletter will report on the meeting and exhibit.

► On Friday, December 7, the Illinois

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR THE

the Paul Cornell Awards, which are presented annually by the Hyde Park Historical Society.

Members are invited to submit short written statements commend ing anyone (except a currently serving HPHS Board member) who significantly furthered community knowledge, appreciation, or preservation of Hyde Park's historical heritage in 1979. (For this purpose, "Hyde Park" is the area between 47th St. and the Midway, Cottage Grove Ave. and the Lake.

Award categories are: books and articles; exhibits; lectures;

Historic Sites Advisory Council, meeting at the Windermere Hotel between 9 and 12, 2 and 5, will consider applications for nomi nation to both the National and the Illinois Historic Registers.

According to Council member Michael Conzen (who is also on the HPHS Board), the Council convenes at three-month intervals in different cities in order to encourage greater public knowledge of its activities and procedures. It has not met before in Hyde Park. Interested citizens are urged to come for the entire meeting or any part of it.

► Our Annual Meeting and Dinner will take place on January 19. Full details will come later. D

This Hyde Park Historical Society

student projects; restoration of exterior or public interior spaces of commercial, civic, or residential buildings; and sympathetic

... to page 8

Newsletter is published quarterly.

Muriel Beadle, Editor Corinne Seither, Typing Michael Conzen, Graphics

Library. Renovation well Underway

NOTE: This is the first in a series of reports on the renovation of the Blackstone Branch Library. The following notes were extracted by Muriel Beadle from a conversa tion with architectural historian and HPHS Board member Irma Strauss.

Chicago's first branch library was built in 1904 by Mrs. Timothy

Blackstone to memorialize her husband. Solon s. Beman (who lived in Kenwood) was the architect of this

Greek Revival building. Exclusive of land, it cost $125,000. The renovation is budgeted at $700,000.

Beman's renderings survive in the Burnham Library at the Art Institute but the blueprints are missing. Coping with the resultant surprises are the renovation architect, An drew Heard(he lives in Kenwood, too) and the contractor, R. E. Rudnick.

They are doing a sensitive job. Ac cording to Librarian Emma Kemp, they are keeping as much as possible of the original fabric yet are taking full advantage of modern technology.

In 1904, the site was a cow pas ture. Being on alluvial soil, the building has done much settling.

Therefore, the outside stairs need ed resetting. The sidewalks have been repaved. In back, a concrete ramp has replaced the steps. New windows have been installed. (Not to re-use the original frames is too bad, but it wasn't possible.)

All the wiring has been updated and new fluorescent fixtures, ugly but necessary, are in place wher

ever bright light is essential.□

Next report: Restoring the de tails; modern additions.

TAX RELIEF LAW

MISSES ITS MARK ''--(7

By Carol Moseley Braun Like other best laid schemes of

mice and men, Illinois Senate Bill

244 is a scheme that has gang aft a-gley. It was intended to provide incentive for preservation efforts by granting a 10-yr. tax freeze on single family dwellings in Munici pal Landmark areas or in National

Historic Districts. (There are 26 of the latter in Illinois, among them Hyde Park and Kenwood.)

However, the bill contains many and grave errors. Qualification for the tax freeze depends solely on the house's age and location, not upon the extent of preservation efforts or investment. The owner can take advantage of the tax re lief while allowing the property

to deteriorate for 10 years. He can make "improvements" which funda mentally change the structure, with out loss of tax relief. Wholesale destruction of historic buildings could result from such a loophole.

PAUL CARROLL PAYS FOND TRIBUTE

TO THE IRISH WHO

LIVED HERE IN THE 193O's

By Lesley Bloch

The sanctuary of St. Thomas the Apostle Church was the scene of the Oct. 7 Hyde Park Historical Society meeting. It was an ideal spot for Paul Carroll's recollections, Being Irish in Hyde Park. Sipping "tears of the angels" and speaking from a place normally reserved for saints and priests, he delighted the audience with tales of his family, St. Thomas Church and Grammar School, and Kenwood--"the stronghold of the Irish mafia in the 1930's."

Nineteenth Century Picnic Menu

At our pleasant Sept. 15 outing to Naper Settlement, the bag lunches were prepared by Thelma Dahlberg, Jean Ervin, Gladys Finn and Chris Lehigh. Thanks, ladies.

HPHS members enjoyed reading the explanatory sheet which accompanied each lunch. It explained that every item on the menu--plum jam sandwiches, deviled eggs, pickles, apple and black walnut cookies, butter cookies with hazelnuts, fresh picked grapes, cider--could have appeared at an early 19th century pic nic.

This bread too was made by "set ting the sponge" from a carefully kept "starter." The cookie recipes came from century-old cookbooks.

The jam and pickles were homemade. Only the butter was "modern"--i.e., store-bought, not churned at home.

Our 20th century cooks also used plastic bags and paper products- much more convenient than following the 19th century practice of wrap ping sandwiches in a damp cloth, then packing them in a tin or wicker box. There's a limit to one's yearning for authenticity.□

The relatives living together at 51st and Kenwood were a marvelous crew. The spinster sisters, Nellie and Catherine Rose, attended 6 a.m. Mass, stirred pots of stew and read only the parish obituaries. The four bachelor brothers, aloof from work of any kind, sat behind their news papers--except on the occasions when they came before J.A. Carroll (real estate developer, builder of the Hyde Park Bank, father of Paul) with candidates for marriage, his approv al being required. The candidates were generally unsuitable.

Among young Paul's favorite spots in the neighborhood was the room above the garage at the home of Big Jim McKay. Here, the boy got to see and talk to three pistol-toting bodyguards who played cards continu ally but were always ready for trou ble. A shotgun was a fixture in a corner of the room. Mr. Carroll al so recalled with relish the "Friday night fights with the Protestants from Ray School."

For more Irish wit and wisdom from Paul Carroll, listen to WFMT on Sundays at 10:30 p.m., and look

for his forthcoming book, Chicago, Magic City of the West.□

NOTE: This and the story of Joe Hill (facing page) are corrrplementary. One is written from the viewpoint of a modern day union syrrrpathizer, the other reflects the anti-labor sentiment of many members of the Chicago Establishment in 1886

By Jean Block

Starting with the depression of the 1870's, strife between labor and management was almost constant as workingmen struggled for better wages and working conditions. The Haymarket Riot in 1886 followed a strike at the McCormick works: an apparently peaceable mass meeting was charged by the police, a bomb was thrown into the crowd, and many people were killed or wounded.

Nine anarchists were arrested and hastily tried. Seven were convicted and sentenced to hang. Although no one was ever to know who threw the bomb, the charge was that the thrower was incited by the inflammatory speeches of the accused.

An eyewitness account of the night before the execution as well as the execution itself appears in the papers of J. Frank Aldrich at the Chicago Historical Society. Attached to the account is a finely engraved invitation to the hanging.

Aldrich lived at 5649 Blackstone and then at 4800 Kimbark. A crusading Republican, he was elected President of the County Board in

1886 as part of a reformers' effort to rid the Board of the graft and corruption that were leading the County to bankruptcy.

Because of his office, Aldrich could visit the jail at will. On the eve of the hanging, he talked with August Spies and later wrote:

"Speaking in a well modulated but rather low tone, Spies said he believed he had done no wrong, that all they were contending for was the right of free speech, it was the struggle of the masses against the capitalists who had decreed that they should be 'put out of the way'.... I do not recall that we shook hands when I left him; probably not."

As for the execution, Aldrich wrote: "When the caps were adjust ed, Spies said, 'There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.'... Engel cried, 'Hurrah for Anarchy!' ...Fischer said, 'This is the happiest moment of my life.' Parsons said, 'Will I be allowed to speak Omen of America? Let me speak, Sheriff Watson. Let the voice of the people be heard.

Aldrich concluded (with a final sigh of relief) that the event "gave anarchism in this country a set back from which it has never recovered.

Amen." □

U.S.S. NAUTILUS JOINS ELITE GROUP Evidence that a historic place can move around is provided by the listing of the U.S.S. Nautilus on the National Register of Historic Places. This, the world's first atomic powered vessel and the first submarine to circumnavigate the globe at high speed while it was submerged, dates--how time flies!

--from 1951.

The Navy hasn't decided whether or not to put its historic place

on public display.□

By Lee H. Morgan

A historical society like ours is, by its very nature, specialized in its interests and program. Even more specialized, however, are the labor history societies which exist in thirteen Sta.tes. For example:

The Illinois Labor History Soci ety is among groups trying to se cure a posthumous pardon for Joe Hill, executed for murder in Salt Lake City in 1915 but whose convic tion is felt by many to have been due to anti-labor sentiment.

Joe Hill, born Joel Hagglund in Sweden in 1879, emigrated to the United States in 1910. Here, he joined and became an organizer for the militant Industrial Workers of the World (Ir-m, whose members were popularly known as "Wobblies").

Also a poet and balladeer, he was the great troubadour of the early 20th century labor movement. The following lyrics are typical of his work; this and other of his songs are still popular with folk-singers.

If we workers take a notion,

We can stop all speeding trains, Every ship upon the ocean

We can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation, Every mine and every mill, Fleets and armies of all nations Will at our command stand still.

Hill's way with words did not desert him upon his arrest for the murder of a Salt Lake City grocer and his son, during the trial, and later. Shortly before his execu tion, he sent to 'Big Bill' Hay wood, the IWW leader, this tele gram: "Good-bye, Bill. I will die as a true-blue rebel. Don't waste time mourning. Organize." And on the night before he faced the fir ing squad, he wrote:

My will is easy to decide,

For there is nothing to divide.

My kin don't need to fuss and moan--

"Moss does not cling to a roll- ing stone."

My body? Ah, if I could choose, I would to ashes it reduce, And let the merry breezes blow My dust to where some flowers

grow,

Perhaps some fading flower then Would come to life and bloom again. This is my last and final will, Good luck to all of you--Joe Hill.

On November 19, 1915, he died, despite pleas for a pardon from thousands of people. As for a post humous pardon, Utah's attorney gen eral says that neither Utah law, fed eral law nor English common law pro vide for it. The Illinois Labor His tory Society is sending its petitions anyway. Its president, Lester Orear, says, "The Utah ruling isn't final; it's only a skirmish."

FUNDS SOUGHT; GIFT RECIEVED

The drive to raise funds to re store our headquarters building at 5529 Lake Park Ave. is fully under way. Applications for major grants are pending before several founda tions and others are being prepared for banks and corporations.

The first donation of a fixture for the building has been received from Dr. and Mrs. Albert Dahlberg, both HPHS Board members. It is a late 19th century water closet, complete with a mahogany water tank with tin lining.□

Where are the records of the South Park Improvement Association? They must be in someone's basement, but whose?

If you know, or can provide a clue, get in touch with Jean Block

at 1700 E. 56th St., Chicago 60637i phone 363-9093. □

Strolling along Lake Parl( in days gone by

NOTE: Lake Park Ave., formerly Lake Ave., is now--thanks to urban renewal--hard by the west side of the I.e. embankment. But fragments of the original thoroughfare remain: for example, the section of today's Lake Park between 56th and 57th; the block that abuts the Hyde Park Bank on the east between 53rd and 54th; the driveway and parking lot east of Hyde Park Federal; the roadway which the Blackstone Branch Library faces.

According to a memoir written by a pioneer settler here, Mrs. Homer Nash Hibbard, Hyde Park in 1860 "was a cluster of scattered houses, less than a score, dropped down among the oak trees. There was no store, no postoffice, no market, and a single passenger car on the Illinois Central, three times a day, was the only connection with the city except Purcell's ox-cart, which served as an express to bring from the city barrels of flour and groceries. The one sidewalk, a board walk on Lake Avenue, was fringed with ferns and violets, wild flowers and strawberries."

--from the 1910 history of the Hyde Park Presbyterian

Church (now the United Church of Hyde Park)

About 1925, an 11-year-old youngster named Fred Sherwood lived at 5442 Dorchester, attended Ray School, and roamed the community during his leisure hours. A little over 50 years later, this is how he remembers Lake Park Ave. (from which the ferns and violets had certainly departed):

"There was still a livery stable there; also a wholesale butcher and a cigar shop where the owner sat in the window, hand-rolling ci gars. There were several horse troughs with semi-circular basins, one of which also had a slow-flowing 'people' spout."

--from a 1979 letter from Fred Sherwood, who now lives in Sawyer, Michigan.□

HAVE YOU EATEN AT THE COLLEGE INN?

Where students meet and eat. Best food at best prices.

READERS CAMPUS DRUG STORE.

61st and Ellis Avenue Fairfax 4800 ( also on campus exchange)

ADVERTISING IN THE NEWSLETTER?

Not yet. Older Hyde Parkers may re member Readers Campus Drug Store and correctly date the ad as circa 1935. (HPHS Board member and Uni

City House

March 21-23, 1980 are the dates for Chicago's second annual "CITY HOUSE: A Home Improvement Fair of Older Houses," at Navy Pier. If you want to exhibit, call Edward Jeske at 744-3200. University Archivist Al Tannler dug it out for us.)

The half-timber and stucco shops and gas station at 61st and Ellis were built in 1931. The University owned other commercial property in Hyde Park-from offices let to the Anti-Saloon League to shoe shining parlors-but the stores at 61st and Ellis were the first it had built for the benefit of students.

As the University Record said, these shops would make it easy for students "to buy a linen collar or obtain a 'permanent wave'". It was expected that dormitories for wo men would be erected near the existing College Residence Hall for Men (now Burton-Judson). Its Goth ic splendor was, of course, the reason for the Olde Englishe architecture of the retail shops.

Although the women's dorms never materialized, the stores long did well. The University still owns them but, alas, only the gas sta tion is open. The shops are boarded up, waiting for a revival of the economy south of the Midway. D

--Muriel Beadle

SENATE BILL 244

Governor Thompson signed the bill into law on Sept. 22, but used his amendatory veto to postpone the effective date of the legislation from January 1980 to January 1981. This, he said, was to give preservationists a chance "to work with the sponsors to improve the bill."

Anyone who cares about the preservation of our architectural heritage should send his or her suggestions for the amendment of Senate Bill 244 to its sponsors, Sen. Jeremiah E. Joyce and Rep. Daniel P.

O'Brien, care of their respective legislative bodies in Springfield.

NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE NOMINATIONS FOR THE PAUL CORNELL AWARDS

renovation or adaptive re-use. Our awards may be made in any, all, or none of those categories, but only one award will be made in each cat egory. Recipients of awards will be announced at our annual meeting in January. Send your nominations by Dec. 1 to Kathleen Conzen, 1333 E. 50th St., Chicago 60615.

To refresh your memory, our 1978 awards went to:

0 George Cooley, "for leadership in researching and preparing a plan for the restoration of the Wooded Island to its former glory."

0 Mr. and Mrs. Victor Barcilon, "for their sensitive exterior res toration of the Heller House [5136 Woodlawn Ave.], tuckpointing it in the unique manner initially speci fied by its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright."

0 Eliza Davey, "for developing an architectural outdoor study-game, Queen Anne Meets the Greek, which heightens the observational skills of parents and children."

Incidentally, there's a nice se quel to this one. Mrs. Davey, Ancona School's Art Center Coordina tor, will produce three similar Streetgames during 1979-80, thanks to a $26,000 grant from the Nation al Endowment for the Humanities.

The Games will be tested city-wide by 12 to 17 year olds. □

Newsletters 1999

Hyde Park Houses: An Enduring Gift Twenty Years Later from Jean F Block

Volume 21, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 1999

Volume 21, Number 3 & 4, Winter 1999-2000

HYDE PARK AND ITS STREETCARS

HORSE DRAWN CARS

Newsletters 1998

HPHS Headquarters Building Becomes Less Endangered by Alta Blakely

Volume 20, Number 1

Mary Todd Lincoln’s Sad Summer in Hyde Park

Volume 20, Number 2 & 3

Volume 20, Number 4

Hyde Park Houses: An Enduring Gift Twenty Years Later from Jean F Block

Newsletters 1984

Newsletters 1979

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