History and Preservation home. History Fair (prizes awarded June 6-see description of ceremony). Other "Co-Laborers in the Community."
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At the Hyde Park Historical SocietyA service of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, its Preservation and Development task force, and the HPKCC website, www.hydepark.org. Help support our program: Join the Conference! Note: this is not the (highly recommended) website of Hyde Park Historical Society--visit www.hydeparkhistory.org. |
At
the Society
Website: www.hydeparkhistory.org.
Visit this excellent site. e-mail
Headquarters,
Old Cable Car bldg. 5529 S. Lake Park
The Hyde Park Historical Society is dedicated to preserving, researching, and disseminating historical information about Hyde Park and Kenwood and the entire former Hyde Park Town (39th to 138th) and has an interest in the preservation of their built heritage.
The Society
Board meets, open to members, 3rd Tuesday evenings, 7:30, at the
Society's headquarters, 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue. The Preservation
Committee meets, open to Society members, 1st Tuesdays at 7:30 (in April 2004
2nd Tuesday) at Society headquarters.
Join the Society- contact Iris Frank or Carol Bradford (on Woodlawn). Participate
in the work, receive the fascinating quarterly Hyde Park History.
Regular
hours: Saturday and Sunday 2-4. 773 493-1893. 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue. President:
Carol Bradford, Vice President: Devereux Bowly, Treasurer: Alice Chandler, Secretary:
John Allen, Program Chair: Rita Allen,Archivist: Michal Safar.
Book reviews and articles on HS-related programs: http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/Review.pdf.
Currently: Tim Black's Bridges of Memory. All programs are listed in
www.hydeparkhistory.org/events.html.
Hyde Park Historical Society headquarters is the restored old cable car warming house, 5529 S. Lake Park.
Pick up a copy of the new Brochure at hq.
The Preservation Committee: contact chair Jack Spicer, 773 324-5476.
Read Historical Society's letter on Doctor's Hospital in DH page. The Society is working with Landmarks Illinois to have a full alternative architectural study and rendering for Doctors Hospital development.
The Society mourns its long-time president, Alice Schlessinger.
History of the Society and its headquarters at 5529 S. Lake Park Ave. By Carol Bradford, President In the late spring of 1975, Clyde Watkins an Tom Jensen called a public forum to discuss the possibility of organizing an "Hyde Park Historical League." Alderman Leon Despres was the speaker. Early on, Jean Block, Victoria Ranney, and Al and Thelma Dahlberg were also involved in bringing the Society into existence. By late fall of 1976, Muriel Beadle agreed to become the first president. On January 28, 1978, the Hyde Park Historical Society received its first official charter as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. A few months later, the Society purchased the small building located at 4429 South Lake Park Avenue for use as its headquarters. The building was constructed in 1893 or '94 by the Chicago City Street Railway, once the most extensive cable car system in the country. The line had moving underground cables, like the system in San Francisco, and connected Hyde Park with the Loop. It, together with the Illinois Central Railroad, the Jackson Park Elevated line and lake steamers, was one of the major modes of transportation between downtown Chicago and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, the northern end of which is a few hundred feet to the southeast. The building is situated on the edge of the Illinois Central right-of-way. It is believed to be the only building in Chicago that was part of the cable car system. After abandonment of the system, the building served as a terminal and rest stop for the trolley system. Later it was operated as "Steve's Lunch", but in the years immediately prior to the sale to the Society, it had been empty and somewhat vandalized. The Society obtained a lease for the land, which was owned by the Illinois Central Golf Railroad, for the price of $20 per year. With a challenge grant of $10,000 from the Field Foundation of Illinois, the Society embarked on a "Charter Membership" Drive to raise funds or the restoration of the building. Jean Block and Ted Anderson took leadership roles in this effort. Devereux Bowly worked tirelessly with architect John Vinci and the construction crew to bring the property back to beauty and utility. A Grand Opening Celebration was held on October 26, 1980. By the year 2000, the Society's Building Committee, chaired by Devereux Bowly and Bert Benade, brought to the attention of the Board the necessity for repairs, especially to the deteriorating stone around the base of the building front. Other needs included refinishing the floors and doors. In the spring of 2004, a Building Fund campaign was launched. As an incentive, donors who contributed at least $100 were offered a private tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Heller House and its neighbors on the 5100 block of Woodlawn Avenue. Board members themselves immediately pledged over $3,000. The membership responded favorably, with 77 donors contributing $6,900. The necessary work was finally completed in the summer of 2006. The board thanks all the contributors for their generous support of this effort. Sources: Watkins, Clyde. "History So Soon?" Hyde Park History, Vol. 21, # 1&2, Spring, 1999. |
HPHS awarded 2006 History Fair winners. Details, and other entries on Hyde Park Town issues, see the History Fair page. One remains on display through August: that on Bill Veeck by Anatoly Karoll of Lincolnshire's Stevenson High. The Society also has a CD copy of the video on integration efforts at CHA Trumbull Gardens in the 1950s.
In 2005 the Hyde Park Historical Society established an annual Marian and Leon Despres Preservation Award. The first year's award was given to Mr. and Mrs. Despres themselves at the February Annual Meeting, in honor of their preservation accomplishments, including their pioneering efforts to save the Robie House and the Glessner House. In following years the Despres award will be given to persons and projects that honor their tradition and spirit through preservation projects and support. See description of 2005 Cornell Awards and of the preservation work of the Despres, below.
In
February 2008 the Hyde Park Historical Society announced the awards, given at
its Annual Meeting February 23. Paul Cornell awards were granted to former 5th
Ward Alderman Leon M. Despres, Esq., Dr. Larry Hawkins- youth programs founder
and educator, and the Museum of Science and Industry on its 75th anniversary.
Despres Preservation awards were granted to the Vierling House in Kenwood (Dan
Aucunas) and to the University of Chicago Medical Center for preservation for
the American School of Correspondence.
A Jean Block Award, an occasional award for authors who produce notable books
of nonfiction related to Hyde Park, was presented to scholar Peter Ascoli for
his biography of his grandfather Julius Rosenwald.
Cornell Awards:
THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY Presented by Bert Benade
The Museum of Science and Industry penned 75 years ago with the dream of showing the ascent of technology and the effects of that technology on our society and culture. This ascent is created by by the fusion of science with industrial capability, and our Museum has mirrored this intermix with compelling displays that excite and awaken the mind. The Museum started with a dream and it is carrying out that dream to this day. For this, we wish to recognize its 75 years of influence on millions of visitors, our community, the nation, and the world.
LEON DESPRES Presented by Douglas Anderson
This award honors Leon M. Despres for the extraordinary service he has provided Hyde Park for more years than most residents can remember. His accomplishments would fill volumes, and include distinguished service as Fifth Ward Alderman, fighting racial injustice, and working with his wife, Marian, to preserve Chicago's architectural treasures. In his centenary year, he is truly a legend in his own time.
DR. LARRY HAWKINS Presented by Peter Vandervoort
As Director of the Office of Special Programs of the University of Chicago, Dr. Larry Hawkins has devoted forty years to providing young Chicagoans with opportunities for scholarship and success. He has created numerous programs for young people, including the Institute for Athletics and education, and the Pilot Enrichment Program (P.E.P.). By integrating athletics, parental involvement, an academic achievements he has developed one of the finest educational outreach programs in the country. Participants enroll in outstanding colleges and universities, and graduate to become leaders across Chicago and the nation. The accomplishments of these young people owe much to the vision and commitment of Dr. Larry Hawkins.
Marian and Leon Despres Preservation Awards. Presented by Jack Spicer
DAN AUCUNAS FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE ROBERT VIERLING HOUSE
At the south east corner of Ellis Avenue and 57th street stands the University of Chicago's Hitchcock Hall designed by Dwight Perkins. At first glance it appears to be a typical grey, Gothic Revival campus dorm, but a closer look reveals a Prairie School masterpiece. where one would expect the obligatory Greek acanthus leaves carved in limestone, Perkins gives us American corn and squash blossoms. Gothic pointed windows become simple horizontal bands, and dreary corridors and dark common rooms are replaced by a sun drenched arcade and an octagonal lounge that may be one of the most beautiful rooms in Chicago.
Perkins' Robert Vierling House, designed for an iron and steel manufacturer, is even more remarkable. While riding in your carriage down Greenwood Avenue in 1898 the Vierling house would have seemed a predictable neighbor for the string of Classical-Gothic-Romanesques-Renaissance Revival houses lining the block. But the house is in disguise. Its simple windows, horizontal masonry lines, and low-pitched roofs carried by a lace of wrought iron are clues that this house is original and modern, a sophisticated and subtle version of the brand new Prairie school style. Its truly revolutionary structural system, entirely hidden from view, uses the construction techniques of an early Chicago skyscraper, like the Monadnock Building. With masonry walls and a steel interior skeleton there is no weight bearing structural wood in the entire building, as would be almost universal in residential buildings of this era. Even the subfloors and roof underlayment are mad of steel with a poured concrete topping, rather t han the typical wood sheathing.
When local developer Dan aucunas bought the Vierling House it had been long neglected. Yet, even after many years with a seriously leaking roof, there was no interior structural damage because of the modern steel framing system. In his careful restoration of the vierling House Mr. Aucunas has uncovered and shared with us a hidden masterpiece of early modern Chicago architecture. The Vierling House is in the Kenwood Landmark District and received a City of Chicago Preservation Excellence Award in 2007.
THE UNIVERSITYOF CHICAGO MEDICAL CENTER- FOR THE PRESEVATION OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE BUILDIGN AND FORTHE RESTORATION OF ITS LOBBY AND FRONT ELEVATION Presented by Jack Spicer
The American School of Correspondence Building is one of our very finest examples of the truly modern American architecture that was created here in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century.
In an age deeply concerned with social inequity, the American School of Correspondence worked to even the distribution of wealth in the increasingly industrialized americn economy by extending the range of available technical education to those who were socially and geographically isolated. In 1907 the ASC moved to its newly-built headquarters in Hyde Park, a building remarkable for its blending of sophisticated craft work, direct expression of its structural engineering, and thoughtful consideration of the employees' comfort. Built with two colors of warm brick, in contrast to the colder limestone of the surrounding University of Chicago campus buildings, the masonry work is complex without being fussy. The solid entry tower and the strong vertical piers tell one that both the building and the educational institution are hard working and reliable. And the ample, but simple, windows give natural light for those inside reviewing student work.
The Pond brothers were as well respected as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in the days when Chicago was swarming with passionate young architects eager to create a distinctively American modern architecture. Their respect for the construction crafts and love of traditional materials, combined with their progressive social commitments, made their work a modern architecture animated by a distinctly human spirit.
There are other nearby Pond & Pond buildings worthy of a visit -- the Chicago Landmark Frank R. Lillie House (5801 S. Kenwood), the ingenious 6-flat at 5516 S. woodlawn, and the Hull House Dining Hall (800 S. Halsted), the last remaining fragment of the complex of buildings the Pond brothers designed for their friend Jane Addams.
The American School building was designated a Chicago Landmark in April 1995. The University of Chicago Medical Center has preserved and restored an important and irreplaceable American building.
THE JEAN BLOCK AWARD presented by Devereux Bowly
PETER ASCOLI
Author of the biography Julius Rosenwald, a Hyde Park resident whose life and work had a profound and broad influence in areas of business, philanthropy, education, and housing.
________________
The 2007 Despres awards were given to three entities responsible for creation of the Kenwood Historic District, which continues to set the tone: Kenwood Open House Committee (Margaret Goldstein, President, 2 early presidents receiving for her); South East Chicago Commission (Bob Mason accepting for Valerie Jarrett); Chicago Commission on Landmarks (David Mosena accepting)
In 2006, the Cornell Awards went to Abner Mikva and to Ancona School history teacher Cory Stutts. The Despres Awards went to Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church, Shorebank at 47th and Cottage Grove, and International House.
Descriptions of the 2006 Cornell Awards:
....Mikva has devoted a full half-century to his community, state and nation. He has worked within the three branches of government for civil rights, ethics, fair employment and education. He currently serves as the senior director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. In partnership with his wife Zoe, Mikva established the Mikva Challenge, a program committed to civics education for students and teachers throughout Chicago. In recent years, the Mikva challenge has been expanded to include programs in public policy and leadership development.
....Stutts has the rare talent of touching the future while bringing the past to life. Every day, Stutts motivates her middle school students at Hyde Park's Ancona School to master material and create high quality work. She inspires them to look beyond the classroom walls to the historical richness of Hyde Park. Last spring, her students' projects at t he Society's History Fair were a high point of th year. She is a superb representative of her profession and her school's community.
Descriptions of the Despres Awards:
....The Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church, 4100 S. King Dr., was built in 1889 and designed by architect John T. Long. The Church was originally 41st St. Presbyterian, absorbed First Presbyterian (which in the 1920s was reconstituted and built anew in Woodlawn) and in the the '20s became Metropolitan Community Church. The building was once home of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the earliest African-American labor unions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke at the church. In 2001 th church faced demolition until residents and Christ Apostolic members created the Coalition to save the Met. Through the coalition, Christ Apostolic raised enough money to purchase the building and make it the congregation's new home. Today the church is led by the popular Chicago preacher, rev. Leon Finney J.
....International House, 1414 E. 59th St., was designed as a multi-cultural dormitory for the University of Chicago by the Holabird and Root architecture firm and completed in 1932. The Art Deco version of the university's Collegiate Gothic style building is one of the last U. of C. constructions before World War II. Nearly a decade ago, the International House needed extensive and costly repairs that made its future uncertain. But the Save I-House committee and the university eventually agreed it should be preserved.
....The South Side Trust and Savings Bank, 4651 S. cottage Grove Ave., was designed in the Classical Revival style by Albert A. Schwarz and opened in 1922. It long provided banking services to many local residents and businesses, including Chess Records. The building had been abandoned for nearly 10 years and threatened by demolition when owners Timothy and Everrett Rand welcomed ShoreBank to the site last fall. Recently Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) moved her offices to the building's second floor. (Adding to announcement of this award, Ald. Preckwinkle especially noted the hard work of then-aide Rebecca Janowitz, who lobbied to make preservation of the building a prime objective of the alderman and then secured postponement in demolition court week after week after week until previous owners bowed out.)
In 2007, the
Cornell Awards went to the Chicago Children's' Choir for helping to create,
live and spread the Hyde Park ideals of an interracial community of high standards;
Northwestern University Press for publishing the local history books by Tim
Black, Robert Blakely on Earl Dickerson, Leon Despres, Truman Gibson;
Mary Ryan Schlesinger for her project photo documenting c. 300 lost Hyde Park
structures, now in Regenstein Special Collections. (Among accomplishments of
the Society for 2006 are the deposit of Nancy Hays's photographic collection
in Regenstein.)
____________________
In 2006 the Society again gave prize awards to outstanding projects related to Hyde Park in the Chicago Metro History Fair.
__________________________
In February 2007, The Society wrote a letter opposing the Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. Read in Olympics. See in Olympics page.
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Exhibits:All
programs are listed in www.hydeparkhistory.org/events.html.
Hours for exhibits: (current one 1-4 pm Sats and Suns), normal 2-4 pm Saturdays
and Sundays. If you are unsure the Society will be open due to bad weather,
call after opening time, 773, 493-1893.
To Awards. To Upcoming Programs
History Fair exhibits went up weekend of May 17 along side "Hyde Park Center" photographs of some of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, Harper to Woodlawn and 53rd to 55th.
Chicago Metro History Fair winning exhibits related to Hyde Park--weekend of May 17.
Previous Hyde Park Center exhibit. Herald, Feb. 27, 2008. Georgia Geis
Blocks south of the Kenwood mansions, in the heart of Hyde Park, there is an enclave of simple cottages -- many made of wood. For the past three years, the Hyde Park Historical Society has been studying these homes, built in the late 1800s for the working-class.
"This is a unique, distinct part of Hyde Park that people don't recognize," said local historian Jack Spicer, who will present the talk "The Evolution of Hyde Park Center" in conjunction with an exhibit of photos taken of the homes between 53rd and 55th streets from Woodlawn to Harper avenues in the oldest section of town at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Historical Society's headquarters, 5529 S. Lake Park Ave.Spicer said he feared the area he calls "the center" of Hyde Park is especially vulnerable to demolition and redevelopment and decided to find out more about the homes that housed carpenters, housekeepers and railroad workers.
Leslie Hudson, society member and doctoral student in architectural art history at University fo Illinois Chicago, said she looked at building permits, fire insurance maps and early street photos to compile a history of the area. A 1926 Sanborn map of the area was especially useful, according to Hudson. Comparing he map of today, roughly half of the exiting structure then sanding have been demolished, leaving fewer than 300. Many of the single-family homes close to 53rd Street along Harper and Blackstone avenues were torn down in the 1920s to make room for apartment buildings. Many other modern urban cottages were leveled to make room for Nichols Park during Urban Renewal.
The project, sponsored by the National trust of Historic Preservation and University of Chicago's Civic Knowledge Project, will be placed in the special collections at the Regenstein Library at the university.
Local real estate developer Eamon McCauley also sponsored the study. McCauley, who has been working in Hyde Park the last five years. built a new home on Ridgewood Court amidst the historic homes. "It's easy for us to lose touch with the character of the community and that is the importance of what Jack and his group does," said McCauley McCauley said he was striving as a developer to design homes that fit into the existing look of the neighborhood with the modern amenities on the inside.
These are utilitarian, workers' cottage[s] that have lasted a long time," said McCauley.In 1972, Pamela and Leaman Ames purchased a farmhouse on Ridgewood court. Pamela, who admits that she is not a real "history buff," sid they replaced 22 windows, added insulation, siding and installed central air conditioning and hear. She said the character of the old house has always made it feel like a real home and would not trade living on a block that shares one lawn mower for anything.
Photographer and Hyde Parker David Schalliol took a color picture of the Ames' home, along with 120 other vintage homes and other structures late winter last year so there would be no leaves on the trees to obscure the view. Schalliol, who is a board member for the society and a graduate student in sociology at U. of C., said the project as intriguing.
This project has given us the opportunity to have a closer look at these homes that might otherwise go unnoticed," said Schalliol. "(These homes) are not celebrated in the same way as other, grandiose or high architecture, yet still have aesthetic charm."
Projects include documenting the pre-Columbian Exposition Hyde Park core houses (51st-55th, Harper to Woodlawn).
And HPHS is cosponsoring a second class in Reading Burnham's Plan for Chicago, to be taught 6 weeks starting Sept. 19. Sam Guard will facilitate; a trained Great Books Program docent will lead. This section will be held at the Monadnock Building, downtown. Contact Jack Spicer at 773 324-5476.
The Society is working with Landmarks Illinois to have a full alternative architectural study and rendering for Doctors Hospital development.
Hyde Park Historical Society, fresh off a photodocumentation of lost Hyde Park structures, a documentation and oral history of the Urban Renewal town houses, and a survey of trees and historical sidewalks in the neighborhood, has in January 2007 won a grant and is raising additional funds for a survey, documentation and oral histories of the pre-fair wooden working peoples' houses in Hyde Park center (the first built up area) between 51st and 55th, Woodlawn and Harper/tracks.
New on the website: report and pics of what your neighbors showed off at the "Hyde Park History Show and Tell" March 25 2006.
The Society has assembled grants and funds for a historic survey of the Urban Renewal Townhouses. The results are now deposited in Regenstein Library.
Completed is Mary Schlesinger's documentation of all lost houses in Hyde Park and Kenwood. The results are now deposited in Regenstein Library.
Programs: (usually 2 pm Sundays at the Society-but lately more on Saturday. 5529 S. Lake Park): For information call the Society and ask for contact for the new Program Chair or visit www.hydeparkhistory.org/events.html.
August 3, Sunday, 1:30 pm there is Summer Kenwood House Tour for HPHS members. To reserve, contact Kathy Huff at 773 241-7141 or kathy@rogerhuff.com.
September 13, Saturday, time? Historic Oak Woods Cemetary - walking tour with Director Mr. Shelton. arranged by Hyde Park Historical Society. Details, meeting place to be announced. The cemetary runs south of 67th from Metra to Cottage Grove.
October 19, Sunday, 2 pm? Hyde Park Historical Society presents Mary Ann Johnson, chief editor of an encyclopedia and history of women who made a mark in Chicago up to 1990, will give a power pint presenttion on "The Women's Movement in Chicago," highlighting Hyde Park women." Headquaters, 5529 S. Lake Park.
Report
in the Tribune on the Geology Underfoot tour
(This wonderful
tour by Prof. Raymond Wiggers had to be given twice!)
CITY WATCH
Tour leaves no stones unturned
In the "Geology Underfoot in Hyde Park" lecture and walking tour,
one can find hints that indicate a turbulent natural history for the area--much
of it underwater
By Jon Anderson
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 20, 2004
For the 30 people walking the leafy streets of Hyde Park, it was a time to think back. Like, maybe, 2 billion years?For geologist Ray Wiggers, leading the group along the railroad embankment near East 55th Street, it was time to whip out a vial of hydrochloric acid. "See if this fizzes," he said, spraying some of the liquid on the rocky wall.
It was, in a sense, a Hyde Park moment. Academic, with a splash of danger.
Along with peering at boulders carried south two millenniums or more ago by glaciers working their way down from eastern Canada, Sunday's outing--known formally as "Geology Underfoot in Hyde Park"--was a bit of a quiz on Know Your Rocks and What They Can Be Used For.
Included in the three-hour lecture and walking tour were thoughts on the nature of granite, marble, quartzite, sandstone and limestone.
Limestone, it turns out, is not what lines the railroad embankment. It didn't fizz, in reaction with the acid.
"If you want to be a geologist know-it-all, call it dolomite," [Now generally called "dolostone" to distinguish the rock from its characteristic mineral.]Wiggers said, briefly describing the work of the pioneering 18th Century French geologist Deodat Guy Silvain Trancrete Gratet de Dolomieu, for whom dolomite and the Dolomite Mountains in northeastern Italy are named.
Across the street, the University National Bank is clad in glazed terra cotta from local clay pits, not granite as it might seem from afar.
Several blocks away, the rock hounds paused outside 5490 South Shore Drive, using magnifying glasses to study reddish rocks bordering a flower bed.
"Quartzite," they were told, a stone so tough it was favored over marble by road building ancients, because it didn't wear into ruts.
"Hyde Parkers are, um, very busy. Very interested in their history," noted one tour member, Frances Vandervoort, a retired science teacher. "It's another way to see the world we're in," added Jill Riddell who, with her husband, recently won a preservation award for work on their Kenwood house.
"There is, in fact, very little topography in Chicago," Riddell added, noting the city's flatness. "It's minimalist, hard to detect."
Yet there are more than enough hints, if one knows where and how to look, to indicate a turbulent natural history, much of it underwater.
Lake Michigan, for example, was once 60 feet higher than its present level of 580 feet above sea level. That put about 20 feet of water above what is now O'Hare International Airport. In another era, levels were so low that one could walk a dozen miles east of Hyde Park and not get wet.
Before human hunters wiped them out, starting about 12,000 years ago, the area was alive with mastodons, giant sloths and relatives of the wooly mammoth. There were also many short-faced bears, "best seen from a great distance through powerful binoculars," said Wiggers, a lecturer at Lake Forest College whose book, "Geology Under Foot in Illinois" is described on his Web site, www.raymondwiggers.com.
Organized by the Hyde Park Historical Society, whose headquarters is in a former cable-car station at 5529 S. Lake Park Ave., the geological outing also focused attention on one of the society's major current causes, "Save The Point."
That refers to
the society's efforts to beat back a city plan to restore the crumbling lakefront
edges of Promontory Point, off 55th Street, using cement instead of replacing
the existing limestone blocks. Cement, as geologist Wiggers put it diplomatically,
"is less interesting, both geologically and aesthetically."
Hyde Park History and monthly series in the Hyde Park Herald
View/watch
for the monthly Hyde Park Herald features from the HPHS:
These are mostly now on view in the Society's website at www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/
The summer, 2005 issue features life on the Greenwood house row (recently declared a landmark district) from after the World War through the 70s.
To read past HPHS
Herald articles, use either
www.hydeparkhistory.org/event.html or www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/.
The articles are in pdf and of course have no pictures. Much more is going on
line-including recently donated material from George Anastaplo (at
http://hydeparkhistory.org/herald
and http://hydeparkhistory.org/events
The following is just a sampler, as more articles are added in rapid succession.
New at http://hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter
(try also with "s" on end)
--Complete list of all newsletter articles since 1976, compiled by Iris Frank
--80 Years in Hyde Park by Leon Despres
--On Cable Cars and Lunchrooms, Early Streetcars in Hyde Park by Stephen A.
Treffman
--The IC's Commuter Newsletter by John G. Allen
--Promontory Point, 1937-1987 by John McDermott, Jr. (ed. Victoria Post Ranney)
--About Alfred Caldwell by Stephen A. Treffman
--Who was Jean Block by Stephan A. Treffman
New at http://hydeparkhistory.org/herald
--George Beadle's Farm on the Midway by Frances Vandervoort
--The Golden Lady of Jackson Park by Edward A. Campbell
--Harold Washington, Hyde Parker by Sue Purrington
--George Anastaplo's "Conversation" with essays on important local
personalities by George Anastaplo
--Women in the Manhattan Project by Caroline Herzenberg
As follow up to Peter Nepstad's lecture at the Society, read his description of the history and ongoing distress of the Columbian Exposition Viking Ship in the March 26 Hyde Park Herald. Reproduced inHistoric Jackson Park .
Paul A. Cornell, grandson of Hyde Park founder Paul Cornell, died at age 89 in Naples Fla. May 24, 2007. He was born in Chicago and held property in Hyde Park. He was an inventor, economist and businessman in oil shale, gold, manufacturing and technology, holding many patents. A WWII veteran, he ad his wife restored a historic Irish great house in County Waterford. He was a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem and a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants. A service is planned for the burial site of the original Paul Cornell in Oak Woods Cemetary, 1035 E. 67th St. July 23 at 2:30 pm.
Awards given, Quadrangle Club and Shaw highlighted at Society Annual Dinner Feb. 5 2007
At the most hugely-attended annual dinner in its history, four Paul Cornell awards and a special Marian and Leon Despres Preservation Award were given.
The 2005 Cornell Awards were given for/to:
- Greenwood Row House Association. Accepted by Joe Marlin (who gave remarks along with Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (4th). Government agency: Chicago Landmarks Commission.
- Animal Bridge restoration, 65th and Lake Shore Drive. Accepted by Chris Wuellner for Miguel d'Escoto, Commissioner, Chicago Dept. of Transportation and accepted on behalf of Restoration Sculptor Paul Petreanu (Galloy and Van Etten).
- Bruce Sagan, Publisher, Hyde Park Herald for over 50 years. Accepted by the chief administrative officer.
- In it Together and Montgomery Place Book Committee.
The first Marian and Leon Despres Preservation Award was given to Marian and Leon Despres. Description is given below. The highlights of the dinner were "Len's" description of his wife's pioneer work in preservation (building upon her upbringing as daughter of famed architect Alfred Alschuler-another daughter of Alschuler is Alice Hayes founder of Ragsdale Art Colony in Lake Forest and now in Hyde Park), PhD from the University of Chicago and including publication of several books on preservation) and his reading from his soon-to-be-published book, Challenging the Daley Machine, A Chicago Alderman's Memoir. Read were excerpts on his first day baptism in the Council, his work for preservation, and Mike Royko's introduction of Despres, used as the book's forward.
Between the Cornell and Despres awards presentations, Paul Myers of the Howard Van Doren Shaw Society discussed the career and importance of Shaw and need to preserve his structures. (Shaw's Quadrangle Club, 1921, is under restoration as part of the Club's centennial.)
Carol Bradford, President, reported on the Society's considerable activities and progress and acknowledged active Society members.
Formal award description, Despres Preservation Award. See a different description in History and Preservation home.
It is a great honor for the Hyde Park Historical Society to give its first annual Preservation Award to Marian and Leon Despres. For more than fifty years they have nurtured the movement to save our city's architectural heritage. In a real sense they are the parents of preservation in Chicago.
In 1957 Len, newly elected alderman from the 5th Ward, adopted Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House sa it sat unwanted and threatened by its legal guardian. This successful effort to save "America's first modern house" gave birth to the City Landmarks Commission which then chose 39 buildings as "honorary" landmarks. That body grew up to become the present Commission on Chicago Landmarks which was empowered by Despres' 1968 city ordinance to select and protect 12 important buildings as our first official Chicago Landmarks. Three of those original designations were in Hyde Park. In 1960 Mr. Despres and friends formed the Chicago Heritage Committee and walked the picket lines to defend Louis Sullivan's Garrick Theater, threatened to be demolished for a parking garage. This vigil, and a similar one to save Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange in 1972, could not prevent the loss of these two important members of our architectural community. But even those failed efforts strengthened the growing preservation movement by leading to the birth of organizations like the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois and by raising a new public consciousness of the value and worldwide fame of Chicago's "outdoor museum" of historic buildings.
In 1965 Marian Despres and a small group of friends bought and began to nurse back to health the long-neglected Glesner House. Under Marian's caret he house as become a remarkable museum, the only H.H. Richardson house in the country open to the public, and the anchor of the Prairie Avenue Historic District. From her efforts at the Glessner House grew the Chicago Architecture Foundation with its world famous docent program. She served on the CAF Board from 1970 to 1975 and as its President in 1976 and 1977. Marian also served on the Landmarks Commission form 1983 until 2003, where she inspired the Chicago Historic Resources Survey, the comprehensive inventory of Chicago's historical and architecturally significant resources--the most complete listing ever compiled by a major city in this country. Both of the Despres were active in the formation of the Hyde Park Kenwood Community Conference where Marian created the "Segments of the Past" project documenting 866 buildings that were demolished during Urban Renewal.
Beyond saving buildings, passing laws and forming organizations, Marian and Len Despres have fostered a strong, vigorous preservation movement in Chicago. They've helped raise an extended family of preservationists that will survive and grow for many generations to come.
Despres couple to be awarded
Hyde Park Herald, January 26, 2005. By Mike Stevens
The Hyde Park Historical Society will honor former 5th Ward Alderman Leon "Len" Despres and is wife Marian on Feb. 5 with a new preservation award named for the couple. In recognition for the[ir] pioneering efforts to preserve Chicago's historic buildings, the [two] will receive the first Marian and Leon Despres Preservation Award at the society's annual meeting and dinner.
best known for their effort to save Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, 4747 S. Woodlawn Ave., and Henry Hobson Richardson's Glessner House at 1800 S. Prairie ave., the Despres also helped raise overall awareness of Chicago's architectural heritage, society member devereux Bowly said.
"I think it's fair to say they are the parents of preservation in Chicago," Bowly said. "During the time I am familiar with Chicago they were always at the center of things."
Their respective families instilled an early appreciation for great historic buildings for both, Leon Despres said. As the daughter of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Temple Alfred S. alschuler, Marian always had an interest in architecture, Despres sid. For his part, Despres credited a two-year sojourn to Europe as a teenager. "[In Europe,] I became deeply impressed with the examples of architecture an the preservation of them," he said. "Our background gave us the interest; [and] events carried us into it and we became committed to [preservation]."
The events began when Despres joined the fight to save Robie House in 1957. In the years following, Despres, then serving as 5th Ward alderman, introduced to the city council what eventually became the city's first landmark ordinance.
Meanwhile, Urban Renewal issues captured Marian's attention in her regular column in the Herald as well as a photo book of Hyde Park architecture called "Segments of the Past."
After buying the threatened Glessner House with a group of friends and architects, Marian organized tours given by volunteer guides or docents. This docent program eventually became the Chicago Architecture Foundation. "It wasn't the first program of its type, but it early on became the biggest," said Bowly, who was among the first volunteer docents. "People literally come from all over the world to study it." Marian went on to serve on the Chicago Landmarks Commission for several years.
At the society's dinner, Leon Despres will be reading from his forthcoming memoir "Challenging the Daley Machine: A Chicago Alderman's Memoir," which Northwestern University Press will publish in May. The evening will also include tours of the ongoing restoration at the historic Quadrangle Club, 1155 E. 57th st.
During his acceptance of the first Despres Preservation Award, Leon Despres said he would like to have a copy of Marian Despres' book on salvage efforts and documentation of 866 structures take down during Hyde Park Urban Renewal, Segments of the Past. Needless to say, any additional copies found beyond one for Marian and Leon would be welcomed, in order, by the Hyde Park Historical Society, Regenstein Library Special Collections at the University of Chicago, and the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (latter to borrow only).
The Archives are a major part of the work of the Hyde Park Historical Society. The large records of the Society are in Regenstein Special Collections, University of Chicago Libraries and are open. Most ned funds for full cataloguing and future digitalizing. Recent very large additions are: Nancy Hays Collection, Documentation Projects- Hyde Park Urban Renewal Townhouses, Lost buildings of Hyde Park, and Central Hyde Park, and Records of the Hyde Park Cooperative Society. Information on using the Special Collections Research Center is available at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/. For more information on the Co-op collection contact Michal Safar, HPHS Archivist, msafar@ameritech.net.
Here is letter by HPHS Archivist Michel Safar to the Hyde Park Herald, March 26, 2008
Prior to its closing on January 20, 2008, the Hyde Park Cooperative Society donated a substantial number of records to the Hyde Park Historical Society. The materials that have been preserved include the contents of the Co-op Library dedicated to Leon Despres, over 50 years of Board meeting minutes, Evergreens from 1951, photographs, and annual reports, among other things. The materials donated by the Co-op to HPHS are located at the Special Collections Research Center of the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, and are available to the public. Information on using the Special Collections Research Center is available at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/. For more information on the Co-op collection contact Michal Safar, HPHS Archivist, msafar@ameritech.net.
Among the activities of the committee is hosting or facilitating small meetings on a main landmark district for the area east of the University and smaller pockets. (See Landmark District page.) After feelers were made, Ald. Hairston and others initiated small area meetings for residents with the Comm. on Landmarks.
August 13 the first meeting was held, for 25 residents of the 5500 blocks of University and Woodlawn Avenues. Brian Goeken presented for the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and Dept. of Planning, Sue Purrington represented Ald. Hairston, and Laura Gruen the University, whose Alumni House would be in the district. Goeken answered general questions and reassured about the sympathetic approach of the Commission to residents' needs.
Meanwhile, residents of Maher houses on Cornell and Hyde Park 5500 blocks are assessing owners of similar houses concerning a small district and may be calling a small meeting. Erin Mihelich, one of the owners, is pursuing this question.
The Committee also promotes preservation through surveys and attention-getting studies of structures that are not generally on the public radar. They nominated 10 of these to the Commission in June 2005). For example, Leslie Hudson has prepared a Young Building (former Home for Incurables, 5555 S. Ellis) alternate reuse concept plan for Smart Museum and Court Theater, which have been considering demolition for expansion after University Police move to Drexel and 61st.
Anne Stephenson (who will be giving a class on Washington Park in September), has been surveying structures modernist or under 40 years old for preservation or remembrance, such as the physics buildings targeted for demo by the University.
Beth Johnson has prepared a reuse study for Drs Hospital, 5800 Stony Island.
Concerns have been looked at by committee members re: Midway Studios and proposed teardown of the houses now covered in the vacating Vivekananda Vedanta Society in the 5400 block of Hyde Park Blvd/
Inventory project Oct. 31 communications, Herald article. Sun-Times coverage below. Pictures of what was found (and also pics of documentary photos of the houses demolished for UC Hospitals in November in the 5700 Drexel block): www.metroblossom.com/historical
This week's editorial in
the Hyde Park Herald is a terrific tribute to the Society's preservation efforts.
It is copied below. However, since then it was pointed out that this was one
of several monuments to a soldier's valor in the war, with a flagpole and flag.
In this case, the building's janitor to honor his son, killed in WWII.
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From the Hyde Park Herald, October 13, 2004
"There are many ways to record history. Textbooks store facts and interpretations
of moments in time. Storytellers pass an oral account of an event to each succeeding,
generation. Newspapers serve to record the events, issues and experiences of
a community and its inhabitants.
"The Hyde Park Historical Society is encouraging another way to record
history. It requires a notepad, a camera and a map. Last week the Herald received
the photograph above showing a damaged concrete "V" curb structure
on Blackstone Avenue, which would have been discarded by a city work crew had
a neighbor not stepped in to save it. The work crew was repaving a nearby sidewalk
and broke off parts of the structure, not knowing the "V" was significant
for "Victory," as in the thousands of Victory Gardens planted throughout
the United States during World War II.
"At one time, Hyde Park was home to a handful of Victory Gardens, which
were planted to grow produce for American troops abroad. The Blackstone Avenue
"V" is the neighborhood's only remnant of the gardens. The Hyde Park
Historical Society rushed to put the broken structure back together.
"The near miss resulted in a effort between the historical society and
the 5th Ward alderman's office to compile an inventory of historically significant
structures in Hyde Park and Kenwood as a protective measure. So far volunteers
have found a cast iron hitching post and limestone carriage step in the 4800
block of South Woodlawn Avenue, a World War II plaque in the 5400 block of South
Shore Drive and an old-fashioned slate sidewalk in the 4700 block of South Kimbark
Avenue.
"The list continues to grow as volunteers photograph, record and map out
any structure of historical significance in the area. Residents are encouraged
to participate and can direct their findings to the historical society.
"The inventory is a complement to a neighborhood that more often than not
values its past."
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The Society, under leadership of Fran Vandervoort, is seeking information about our local geological and ecosystem history, topography and hydrology before it was developed for housing, commercial, and institutional. Evidence includes remains of dunes, streams, and wetlands., high water tables, seepage, [structural collapse/cave-ins from streams canalized underground--that has happened here!], tell-tale techniques or vegetation specific to continual or seasonal heavy wetness or very sandy or clayish conditions. Black oak and willow stands indicate sandy wetlands, for example. Contact the Society as below or Frances Vandervoort, 773 752-8374, vandersand@sbcglobal.net. Fran is especially seeking a copy of John Boyd's 1853 horseback survey commissioned by Paul Cornell in 1853.
The Preservation Committee and Hyde Park Garden Fair (Bam Postell) are starting a project to identify and document the Great Trees of Hyde Park and Kenwood.
The Historical Society has formed a new Education Committee. Starting project is school history fairs leading to the big History Fair. For information call Jay Mulberry, 773 288-1242.
The Hyde Park Historical Society's Preservation Committee asks information about structures: 1) demolished in the past 10 years, 2) saved in the last 10 years, 3) endangered structures. Purpose is to seek grants for a survey registry. Information may be passed on to Jack Spicer. The committee prepared and the Society sent a letter to Cardinal George concerning preservation of St. Gelasius (St. Clara) church. The committee photo documents structures to be demolished.
Members of the committee are working with archives and other sources to recover images and information about lost Hyde Park structures, and identify for record and preservation a wide range of the built environment, including even slate sidewalks and oak-brick alleys.
HPHS Board member Fran
Vandervoort started looking at soil a long time ago. More recently she started
to look at Hyde Park soil-- and Hyde Park gravel and Hyde Park stream beds and
the woofs and whorls of what used to be the bed of the ancient Lake Chicago.
Sometimes she and her team uncover parts of the saga of soil by plotting the
location of our oldest trees which reflect soil types and the availability of
water quicker than a chemist ever could. Fran and her team have a sense of soil.
Recognizing this, today's Sun-Times published a splendid article on their work.
You can find it at http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trees12.html,
or read it below or see it in its glory complete with a colored picture of our
HPHS soil detectives in the attached document.
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Urban explorers trace Hyde Park history to the trees
November 12, 2004
The Chicago Sun-Times
BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter
To hear Jack Spicer talk, you might almost think that oaks were folks.
"They had a city of their own going here before we showed up," he says. "They fed themselves and raised their children and expanded as they could. When we came along we built our city right around theirs -- sometimes literally."
Spicer stood underneath an example, a towering bur oak in the 4800 block of South Kenwood. When its roots started cracking the sidewalk, the homeowner had a new walk laid in a half-circle around the tree.
On a larger scale, Europeans who settled in the Chicago area built around oaks when they put down their own roots.
Above and below ground
To learn how trees and people shared and shaped the land in Hyde Park and Kenwood, Spicer and two other members of the Hyde Park Historical Society are mapping pre-settlement oaks in the two lakefront communities.
Spicer, a landscaper, and Shawn Kingzette, a certified arborist, are handling above-ground research. Frances Vandervoort, a retired science teacher, is in charge of the subterranean part.
They're mapping other kinds of trees too, but emphasizing oaks because many live so long, 300 years and more.
A bur oak on Wooded Isle, just south of the Museum of Science and Industry and in the study area, dated to perhaps 1730 and may have been Chicago's oldest tree. It blew down in a storm in July 2003. "Some of us are still wearing black armbands," Vandervoort said.
Like most of the Chicago area, these two South Side neighborhoods once were largely swamp -- long since drained and developed -- and prairie. Nineteenth century settlers gravitated to groves of bur oaks and black oaks seeking higher ground, as the oaks had, and also cover and protection.
Sandy subsoil
The oaks appear to have followed an old beach ridge or sand spit formed underwater when Lake Michigan was much higher than it is now. Running north and south along what is now Woodlawn Avenue, the ridge is about 10 feet higher than land on either side.
Vandervoort started the project in the summer of 2003 after a sewer line to her home needed replacing. "I began to wonder what was under there," she said. The answer: sand.
Three tree brochures will come out of the study. One will lay out a walking tour, another will focus on the University of Chicago campus and the third will look at the 220 trees of Madison Park, a private park north of 51st Street between Woodlawn and Dorchester avenues.
The work should be wrapped up by summer, Spicer and Kingzette agreed. But Vandervoort, who after all started the study, said, "I'm not sure it will end at any point."
Hyde Park Herald, January 14, 2007. By Daniel J. Yovich
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is helping to fund research by the Hyde Park Historical Society, which is studying the neighborhood's earliest working-class homes. The project encompasses the inventory and documentation of wooden homes built in the late 19th century between 55th and 53rd streets along and near Woodlawn and [to] Harper avenues. These are some of the neighborhood's first working class homes, and include what might have been Hyde Park's last working farm, said Jack Spicer, the historical society's preservation committee [chairman].
"This is basically the oldest built-up section of Hyde Park," Spicer said. "Many houses of these types were lost during Urban Renewal, and our goal is to document those that remain, interview the residents that live in these homes, photograph the buildings and seek out any artifacts from the time they were built."
The National Trust provided $2,200 in start-up money for the project and the historical society is in the process of trying to raise the same amount in matching funds. So far the historical society has received $1,200 in donations and [is] seeking another $1,000.
Hyde Park real estate tycoon Paul Cornell founded Hyde Park in the the 1850s and the area underwent a dramatic transformation from a semi-rural and industrial area into an urbane village in the 1890s when John D. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago and the World's Columbian Exposition was staged.
Carol Bradford, the president of the historical society, said those events drew what would become a burgeoning middle-class to the neighborhood. "The community was very much up an coming at t hat time," Bradford said. "And it underwent a housing boom."
It also meant the end of Hyde Park's working farms, though at least three farm houses from that period remain in the neighborhood, including one owned by Leaman and Pamela Ames at 5411 S. Ridgewood Ct. The couple bought their two-story wooden home in 1972 from a University of Chicago professor, who still heated the house with a coal furnace. It has a brick foundation, something the couple's home inspector said is a Chicago rarity. "These old farm houses have great deal of old charm," Pamela Ames said. "We like to joke to our friends that when we bought it, we had to bring the plumbing inside."
Spicer said the historical society hopes to have the study completed by September, when it plans to host a public presentation of it findings. The exhibit will include original building permits, Sanborn fire maps, early street photos and current photographs and written and videotaped stories from current homeowners.
Spicer said the historical society hopes to begin guided walking tours of the area in October and to host an exhibit of the project at the Hyde Park Historical Society building in November. In early 2007 [2008?], Spicer said all the material from from the project will be collected and presented to the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library as a study collection for researchers.
The Society's Preservation Committee is currently seeking information on the following (contact Jack Spicer if you can help).
HPHS Board Member Alta Blakely is in the process of editing and publishing a biography of Earl B. Dickerson written by her late husband, Robert Blakely. The end is in sight, but she needs photographs of Dickerson to accompany the text. If you have pictures you would be willing to share, or if you know where they can be found, Alta would appreciate very much your contacting her at altablakely@mailbug.com or 773/753-4633.