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Hyde Park Historical Society 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue Chicago, IL 60637

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAIDChicago, IL

Permit No. 85

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 S. Lake Park Avenue,

houses local exhibits. It is open to

the public on Saturdays and Sundays

from 2 until 4pm.

Web site: hydeparkhistory.org

Telephone: HY3-1893

President: Ruth Knack

Editor: Frances S. Vandervoort

Membership Coordinator:

Claude Weil

Designer: Nickie Sage

VOL. 34 N0. 3 SUMMER 2012Published by the Hyde Park Historical Society

Hyde Park History

Hyde Park Historical Society COLLECTING AND PRESERVING HYDE PARK’S HISTORY

Time for you to join up or renew? Fill out the form below and return it to:

The Hyde Park Historical Society 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue • Chicago, IL 60637

Enclosed is my new renewal membership in the Hyde Park Historical Society.

Name

Address

Zip

Student $15 Sponsor $50 Member $35 Benefactor $100

✁SUMMER 2012

Dr. Courage and His MuseWhat is a muse? A dictionary defines a muse as

any of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom presides over a different form of art—music, literature, dance, and so forth. For us, a muse is a source of inspiration.

On Saturday, March 17, nearly fifty people from as far away as Evanston and Chicago’s western suburbs filled the Society’s headquarters to hear Dr. Richard Courage, Professor of English at Westchester Community College in the SUNY system, speak about his new book, The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950 (Rutgers University Press, 2011).

For many African American luminaries, including Richard Wright and Lorraine Hansberry, inspiration began in Chicago but later took them to New York. Dr. Courage’s book describes the too-often-overlooked role Bronzeville played in the cultural and social development of this country. Dr. Courage raises the question of why, in view of the importance of the Harlem Renaissance in African American culture, so little recognition is given to the nurturing effect of Chicago’s south side.

Dr. Courage described works of author Arna Bontemps and artist Charles White. He mentioned that Richard Wright’s favorite author was Theodore Drieiser, whose powerful books about the seamier side of Chicago may have inspired Wright’s Native Son. Of more recent memory are poet Gwendolyn Brooks and Dr. Margaret Burroughs, artist, writer, teacher, and founder and long-time director of the DuSable Museum of African American History. Brooks and Burroughs attended Englewood High School together in the 1930s and rose to fame in their respective fields. Bronzeville’s music community was legendary: notables who lived and/or worked in Bronzeville included Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lou Rawls, and Louis Armstrong.

Richard Wright once wrote that, “when you are black it’s better to keep your dreams in your heart.”

But not in Bronzeville.  Although sadness and humiliation were part of life’s fabric, dreams abounded as did their expression in poetry, music, and art. We are all richer because of the muse of Bronzeville. FSV

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Dr. Courage chats with Aline Young

Dr. Courage and Sandi Wisenberg, Director, MA/MFA Creative Writing Program, Northwestern University

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Greg Lane and Commander Roger M. Huff, US Coast Guard Reserve (retired), discuss nautical topics.

Greg Lane tells of his hopes of preserving the shipwreck area as an historic site.

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THE HYDE PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY GRATEFULLY

ACKNOWLEDGES THIS YEAR’S SPONSORS OF ITS AWARDS

DINNER FOR THEIR GENEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS!

Bank Financial, Hyde Park

Honorable William D. Burns, Fourth Ward Alderman,

City of Chicago

Century 21 Kennedy, Ryan, Monigal, and Associates

Chicago History Museum

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokers Hyde Park/City South

Honorable Barbara Flynn Currie, Illinois State Representative

Fifth Third Bank, Hyde Park

Fifty-Seventh Street Books

Honorable Leslie A. Hairston, Fifth Ward Alderman, City of Chicago

Vivian G. Harsh Society, Inc.

Hyde Park Animal Hospital

Hyde Park Landscaping

Paul Janas

The Lakeside Inn, Lakeside, Michigan

MAC Properties LLC

Rita McCarthy/Artful Homes Chicago/Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

Museum of Science and Industry

Honorable Toni and Zeus Preckwinkle

Honorable Kwame Raoul, State Senator

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vHyde Park Shipwreck Talk Attracts Full House

Nearly 60 people attended the presentation on May 12 by Greg Lane at HPHS headquarters about the sinking of the Silver Spray, a 109 foot wooden vessel that sank off 49th Street in 1914.

Ozzie Badal (1927-2011)By Michal Safar

The life of longtime Hyde Park resident Ozzie (Oswelda) Badal was recently celebrated at a recognition ceremony at Montgomery Place, her last residence. Ozzie had a long and active career in Hyde Park and Chicago.

Ozzie attended the University of Chicago in the 1940’s and by the early 1950’s was involved in local Hyde Park activities and organizations, principally the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC). From 1953-1961 she served as Director of Building and Zoning Programs, following Hyde Park-Kenwood building cases brought to court. During this period she published regular articles in the Hyde Park Herald: “In Court This Week..”

From 1961 until 1964 she served as Acting Assistant Director of the HPKCC, and in 1964 became head of relocation services for the Department of Urban Renewal. Eventually she became the Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Health Systems Agency, a position she held until 1979. During this period she was deeply involved in all aspects of urban renewal in Hyde Park. After leaving the Chicago Health Systems Agency, Ozzie continued to be active in many local organizations including the Hyde Park-Kenwood Development Corporation, the Hyde Park-Kenwood Conservation Community Council, the South East Chicago Commission, the Harper Court Foundation and the League of Women Voters.

In 1995, at the conclusion of a year of review and reflection on urban renewal by the Society, Ozzie made a presentation to the Hyde Park Historical Society, The Hyde Park-Kenwood Urban Renewal Story. A copy of the presentation was published in Hyde Park History and is available on request.

A Hyde Parker to the end, Ozzie spent her later years in the Promontory Apartments and finally at Montgomery Place. She will be remembered for her life-long commitment to Hyde Park and her personal grace and dignity.

Donation to the ArchivesThe Hyde Park Historical Society Archives has

received a very generous donation of Rascher’s Atlas of the North Half of Hyde Park, Volume 1, from long-time Hyde Park resident Harold Wolff. The atlas was published in 1890 and contains 66 pages of hand colored maps of Hyde Park. The area included in the atlas is bounded by 39th Street on the North, State Street on the West, 71st Street on the South and Lake Michigan on the East. The atlas is quite large—34” tall—and comparable in size to the double elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America. The atlas was originally published for fire insurance purposes and in 1890 cost $100—equal to $2550 in 2011 dollars. The Atlas is in the Society’s archives at Special Collections Research Center, Regenstein Library where it will undergo cleaning and restoration to insure that it will remain a valuable research tool for years to come. The cost for this restoration will come to $3,500 of which the HPHS Board has pledged $1,000 out of operating funds. Donations can be sent to: Michal Safar, 5530 S. Shore Drive, 9A, Chicago, IL 60637.

Thanks to Stephen A. Treffman, former HPHS archivist, for facilitating the donation and providing background information on the Atlas. The Society wishes to express deep gratitude to Harold Wolff for his magnificent gesture.

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rStonemasonry: Views of an Ancient Trade in Hyde ParkBy Frances S. Vandervoort

During the five years Simon Leverett has lived in Hyde Park, he has spent many hours walking local streets looking for interesting stonework and other architectural details. A stonemason, he has spent thirty years working his trade in England and the United States. One Sunday afternoon he knocked on the door of the Historical Society Headquarters, asked a few questions, and was promptly recruited to speak about his work to Society members. On Saturday, April 14, he spoke to nearly 50 people wanting to learn more about a trade everyone has heard of but few know much about.

As a lad in England, Leverett quietly sneaked onto the roof of King Henry VIII’s monumental Hampton Court Palace to examine the brickwork of the elaborate chimney pots that graced this structure. The die was cast, and he soon began formal training in stonemasonry at the Reading Technical College in Berkshire, England.

The audience learned new terms. His first Powerpoint image was of a bastle, a 16th century thick-walled stone farmhouse built along the boundary between Scotland and England as a defense against marauders. A bastle consisted of a ground-level stable for livestock with living quarters above. Bastles, the name of which derives from the French word bastille, or fortress, are known for their narrow windows that can be used as arrow slits.

Other new words included Cornish corner, the corner of a building strengthened by quoins—special blocks or bricks used for reinforcement. Brick veneer is a waterproof outer shell of a building. Crenellations are the notches or gaps on the tops of walls of castles including certain Hyde Park “castles” on Drexel Boulevard. The two kinds of stonemasons are “fixers,” whose primary job is building walls, and “bench stonemasons,” with whom lies the artistry—and glamour—of the trade.

Leverett showed images of doorways, brickwork, terra cotta details of large buildings and private homes, and elaborate limestone panels not carved at all but constructed from pulverized limestone poured into molds for casting into desired forms. He commented that only one company in the United States still produces terra cotta.

He showed examples of poor quality tuckpointing and mortar work. To avoid problems, he said, “mortar must be softer than the masonry.”

A highlight of Leverett’s early career in the United

States was teaching stonemasonry skills to inmates of a Mississippi prison. “The inmates learned as much in five months as might take others several years,” he said.

Tools of the stonemasonry trade attracted interest. “The best stonemasonry tools are made in Vermont,” said Leverett, holding up a $120 mason’s chipper. Hammers may cost as much a $250 each.

After the visual presentation he answered questions about local stonemasonry, homeowners’ problems with brickwork, and quarries where materials for local residences and other Hyde Park buildings are produced.

Simon Leverett’s enthusiasm for his trade was infectious; Society members now know much more about this ancient but ever modern art form.

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”—Winston Churchill

Simon Leverett and Peter Vandervoort discuss stonemasonry tools.

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Mystery Quiz:Famed architect Louis Sullivan designed only one of the 256 buildings of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Which building was it?

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HPHS

Hyde Park’s Forgotten Earthquake

The 1895 midwestern drought had gone on for months. In Indiana, people’s health suffered, cereal crops were damaged, and the Ohio River was too low to be navigable. Wells and cisterns ran dry, and water for stock was scarce.

Then, in late October, with no apparent change in the weather, streams began to fill with clear, cold water that “…spread beyond the banks, sweeping away fences and doing considerable damage to crops1.”

Chicago’s south side experienced changes in water flow. The November 11, 1895 Chicago Tribune reports two fountains of pure cold water emerging within two blocks of each other, the cause for which (was) a matter of great speculation2. The first spring (was) located on the premises of W. K. Ackerman, 4014 Lake Avenue (probably Lake Park Avenue). It was first noticed as a damp spot on a ridge of ground in the back of the lot. As the wet place kept increasing, Mr. Ackerman became interested and dug up the ground in the center of it with a spade. He was astonished to see the hole he made fill up rapidly with water, and from then on the spring increased in depth and volume of flow.

The second spring appeared a few days (later) two blocks distant from the first, on Woodlawn Avenue

near 47th Street. It (did) not develop as great a flow as that in Mr. Ackerman’s yard, but the hole in the ground out of which the water flows is nearly 8 inches in diameter and 4 feet deep. The water from both was clear and nearly ice cold.

The emergence of these springs was the prelude to an earthquake, the epicenter of which was beneath Charleston, Missouri, in the southeast part of the state. It was judged to have had a seismic reading of between 6.2 and 6.6, though seismometers were not available at that time. The shock, which took place on October 31, 1895, at 6:07 AM, lasted 55 seconds and was felt all over the city of Chicago. The shock seemed to roll in gently from the Lake and then disappear across the prairies of the west. There was no audible rumbling or serious damage, but in many houses pictures were thrown to the floor and crockery was broken3.

Robert Bauer of the Illinois State Geological Survey, points out that is not unusual for water to be brought to the surface by shaking at long distances from an earthquake event4. According to Bauer, this was the largest earthquake in the Central United States since the New Madrid events of 1811-1812. FSV

This event was called to the editor’s attention by Society member Leslie Hudson.

1 Monthly Weather Review Volume XXIII No. 10, October 1895.2 “Two Springs a Puzzle: People in Kenwood Have a Nine-Day Wonder.” Chicago Tribune, November 11, 1895, P. 5.3 U.S. Department of Interior Geological Survey, 1980.4 Personal communication to Hyde Park History from Robert Bauer, ISGS, July 16, 2010.

Answer to Mystery Quiz:The Transportation Building on the southwest shore of Jackson Park’s westernmost lagoon. The building was notable for its Sullivanesque arched “Golden Doorway.”

1895 springs in Kenwood

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Matchbooks and Hyde Park HistoryBy Stephen A. TreffmanArchivist Emeritus, HPHS

The Hyde Park Historical Society’s current exhibit, the first of its kind by the Society and probably in the community, consists of matchbooks, menus, and tokens of credit from Chicago’s contiguous communities of Hyde Park, Kenwood and Woodlawn. Over three hundred such souvenirs from local hotels, restaurants, drinking establishments, businesses and other institutions are on display. Collected over a ten year period, the accumulation was facilitated by the emergence of a national marketplace on the internet.

The overarching story behind the vast number of matchbooks that were produced during the last century was the dramatic expansion in the production and consumption of cigarettes throughout the United States. During the Nineteenth century, the discovery of new curing methods led to a lighter tasting tobacco product than was used in smoking pipes, cigars, and chewing tobacco, and could be more easily inhaled. Moreover, such leaves could be chopped up into smaller pieces and rolled into paper to produce, essentially, a miniature cigar made of tobacco rolled in paper, which came to be called a cigarette. 

During most of the 1800s, the relatively high cost to manufacture cigarettes lay in the amount of hand labor involved. That, in turn, limited production and kept prices high for the consumer. A significant increase in productivity was achieved in 1870 when a machine was invented to chop or mince tobacco leaves into very small pieces. In 1881, still greater efficiency in cigarette production came with the invention of a machine that could chop the tobacco, drop a consistent amount of minced pieces into a long tube of paper, roll the paper and then slice it into individual cigarettes of the same size. Moreover, it operated at thirteen times the speed of a human cigarette roller. The ensuing reduction in the cost of manufacture led to lower prices for consumers. Mass production of cigarettes had now become possible, and sales soared through the 1890s and well into the next century. Cigarettes came to be sold in the billions to Americans and became an integral part of American culture.

The production of matches paralleled the increase in the manufacture and sale of tobacco products in the United States and in Europe. Wooden matchsticks with a dried, flammable chemical on their tips began to be produced during the 1830s and, in progressively

safer, odor free and nonpoisonous forms, up to the present. Their production in the U.S. has declined to a small fraction of what it once was.

In 1889, the first matchbook made of paper was invented and patented by a Pennsylvania attorney, Joshua Pusey, who wanted a more convenient way to carry matches. Unfortunately, the striker, the part upon which the match is scraped, was on the inside of the matchbook, and an error in handling could set afire all the other matches. In 1896, The Diamond Match Company, purchased Pusey’s patent, improved it by shifting the striker to the outside of the match cover and, later, introducing much safer matches.

As the new century began, Diamond was already the leading match producer in the United States. By the teens, the company began marketing matchbooks with made-to-order company advertising on the outside of the covers, dramatically changing the nature of the industry.

Matchbooks, together with shiny tokens, well designed menus, and general advertising, all served the purposes of attracting customers to specific businesses, hotels, restaurants, and bars and promoting customer loyalty. They were also used to encourage the public to purchase specific products such as candy bars, beer and liquor, health products, publications, education, and, of course, cigarettes. Matchbooks had joined the American revolution in advertising. In the process, they contributed to linking the public to all sectors of the national marketplace, both large and small. 

Arranging more than 250 matchcovers into an effective exhibit posed a problem. Matchcovers are notoriously difficult to date. However, it became clear that these covers fell roughly into a very broad range from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Only a few are more recently issued. Sorting, then, by specific date would be difficult and not particularly meaningful.

Fundamental to their use in advertising, matchbooks usually show local addresses. These proved to be the most effective way to sort the covers for the exhibit. Upon doing so, a rough commercial map of the community began to emerge. These covers could be grouped along 47th, 51st, 53rd, 55th, 57th, and 63rd Streets and along Lake Park and Cottage Grove Avenues. It was also possible to highlight matchbooks from prominent Hyde Park institutions and locales such as the Museum of Science and Industry, the University of Chicago (particularly during WWII), the American School of Correspondence, the larger, older hotels, and outstanding restaurants no longer in business.

For instance, the Chicago Beach Hotel, built in 1893 and one of Hyde Park’s most prominent hotels for forty-nine years, was transformed in 1942 to an

Army hospital that served 7000 patients during World War II and then, after the war, into the headquarters of the Fifth Army. With each change of purpose, new matchbooks were issued.

Similar attention is given to the American School of Correspondence, 58th and Drexel Avenue, which came to Hyde Park in 1907 and left it in 1996. At one time, in its attempt to recruit adults who sought to complete their high school education, it claimed it had once been the largest single distributor of matchbooks in the United States.

Somewhat hidden among the matchcovers on exhibit are four promoting venues that offered up to the minute racing and sports information to fans. There are examples on 47th Street in Kenwood, 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, both in Woodlawn, and, in Hyde Park, the Harper Smoke Shop at 5232 Harper Avenue. These establishments probably date from the 1930s and 1940s and were extensions of the race wire (telegraph) and telephone systems that were developed during the 1920s by organized crime to further betting operations.

Much more prominent among the matchcovers on display are those offered by bars and saloons in the three communities. Drinking establishments were well represented along Lake Park Avenue, Cottage Grove Avenue, 55th Street, and 63rd Street, most of them emerging publically and in great number after the so-called dry spell of the 1920s.

Finally, a Superior Match Company sales catalog from the 1950s has a significant role in the exhibit. The company, founded in the mid-1930s by Harold Meitus (1907-1995), specialized in addressing the advertising needs of smaller retailers of goods and services. Their catalogs contained examples of matchbooks and designs offered by Superior and were shown to retailers at their places of business by salesmen working on commission for the company. Its factory was located in Grand Crossing at 7614 S. Greenwood, less than a block away from where Paul Cornell’s watch factory once stood. Meitus was an active member of Rodfei Zedek synagogue, 5200 S. Hyde Park Boulevard, and served on its board and chaired some of its major rebuilding programs during the 1950s. In 1990, Superior closed its factory as the U.S. matchbook industry declined and the butane lighter became available.

The major purposes of this article and the exhibit itself have been two. The first was to invite readers and visitors to consider how matchbooks can be used in the study of community history. The second was to focus on matchcovers, menus and tokens that are linked to the historic commercial and institutional culture of Hyde Park, Kenwood and Woodlawn. Many of the

matchcovers are mute evidence that these places ever existed and represent the hopes, dreams, hard work and memories of many residents in these communities.

 The exhibit closes on July 1. Thanks are due to Bert Benade, Devereux Bowly,

Dorothy Anderson Faller, Tim Samuelson, and Jack Spicer for their contribution of items or information to this exhibit.

 Coming up in a later issue: Matchbooks and Hyde

Park’s Urban Renewal.  HPHS

Sunday, June 24 Chicago Metro History Fair winners will present their projects at Headquarters from 2-4 pm. Panelists will be Paul Durica, Paul Cornell Award winner, 2012, Dr. Timuel Black, and Frank Valadez, Executive Director of the Chicago Metro History Education Center.

Sunday, July 22 Pullman Community tour. Ruth Knack is working on details, which will involve a train trip to and from this historic community. Watch for further announcements.

Sunday, August 5 Oral History Committee’s annual Tell-All will take place at air-conditioned Montgomery Place. The time will be announced later.

Saturday, September 29 Peter Cassel will lead a tour of the Del Prado Hotel. Details forthcoming.

Saturday/Sunday, October 13/14 The Chicago Architectural Foundation (CAF) will host a tour of some of Hyde Park’s most famous sites. The CAF is looking for individuals to staff tables, direct visitors, and provide essential information.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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