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Teachers' Center |
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Illinois University |
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| by Rod Sellers |
Historical Society |
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Southeast Chicago Historical
Society News
January,
2009 Newsletter Editor Rod
Sellers Volume
XXIII No. 1
A
Few Words From the President:
Happy New Year to all members and
friends of the Southeast Chicago Historical Society. Our
condolences go to the Ed Bonk family on his recent passing.. Ed was a
lifetime member who also was a contributor and a regular visitor to our
museum. He was a veteran of WW II and a fine gentleman.
Condolences also to the family of long time member Lorraine
Draper. Ed and Lorraine belonged to the "Greatest Generation,"
the group who lived through the Great Depression and World War II.Our society continues to grow in membership. Welcome to new life member Helen Buoscio who was on the original faculty of George Washington High School when it opened. Helen was a math teacher, counselor and assistant principal during her illustrious career at the school. We now have 112 lifetime members and 130 regular members. We must however remind people to pay their dues. Some have been lax and we would hate to drop you from our society so please send in your dues. We need you and you are important to us. Better yet, please come to the annual meeting to be held March 28 2009 at 11 am at the Calumet Park Field House and pay in person. It would be nice to see you. You can congregate while having coffee and very good sweets and visit our museum. We continue to receive historical items donated to our museum for which we are most grateful. Barbara Fundich donated a photo of the St. Michael's 1941 grammar school graduation class. She attended St. Peter and Paul High School and also gave us 32 copies of "The Lamp", the school newspaper, dated From October 1960 thru June 1964. As a kicker, she passed on to us a number of "song sheets" from the 30's and 40's which had belonged to her mother. Believe it or not, I remember a number of those songs. Perhaps you can come in and we can do some harmonizing just like we used to do in the old days. Eugene Hill, a teacher at Bowen High school, donated 15 Bowen yearbooks. Since we have an extensive collection of Bowen yearbooks they were all duplicates but none the less we are still grateful for them. Gloria Novak donated three St. Francis de Sales yearbooks from 1970-72. Richard Salik, a recent visitor from Springfield, Illinois and graduate of Mt. Carmel High School donated 4 yearbooks from 1954 thru 1957. Our yearbook collection from Bowen is quite extensive but that is not the case with other area high schools. If there are any graduates from Mount Carmel, Washington, St Francis De Sales, and other area schools we would be glad to keep your books in safe keeping while making them available to interested researchers. Museum visitor Wayne Konar donated a cutting from the last steel bar produced on September 13, 1986 at the 44" mill at Republic Steel, later LTV. Richard Yasdick donated an original bill of sale showing that he purchased a used 1937, 4-door Custom Pontiac from McKay Motors in February of 1941. The price was $1295. The most interesting part was that at that time there was no sales tax on the purchase and this proves the government functioned more efficiently in those days. As a reminder, before you throw out any "junk" please remember our museum. Your “junk” may be historically valuable and will help us preserve the history and memories of our community. We can make arrangements to pick up items if you are unable to bring them in. Hope to see you at the meeting. We look forward to your input, ideas and suggestions. We encourage members to get in touch with us if you have any comments or suggestions regarding our museum and organization. Your input is always appreciated.. Please e-mail bjanecki@sbcglobal.net or rodsellers1@yahoo.com And check out our web site at: www.neiu.edu/~reseller Barney
Janecki
President
SECHS
Annual Meeting
The Southeast Chicago Historical
Society will conduct its Annual Membership Meeting on Saturday, March
28, 2009 in the Calumet Park Field House at 9801 Avenue G at 11
AM. All members in good standing (dues up to date) are urged to
attend and vote on the new slate of officers at this meeting. The
officers presented by the nominating committee will be
announced. Nominations may be made from the floor.
Refreshments will be served and a short program will be
presented. All members are urged to be sure that their dues are
up to date. Membership
Matters
Please make sure you dues are up
to date. If you received a notice with this newsletter your dues
are in arrears. We will be deleting from membership any who
remain behind in their dues. Yearly membership is $10. A
lifetime membership is only $100. This is a great deal and you
will never have to worry about paying dues again. You can renew your
membership at our Annual Meeting, by coming in to the museum
during regular hours or using the form on our web site:http://www.neiu.edu/~reseller/sehsmembrship.htm Our museum is located in the Calumet Park Field House at 9801 S. Avenue G in Chicago. We are open on Thursdays from 1-4. Southeast
Side Historical Calendar
The South Chicago Chamber of
Commerce has created a 2009 calendar with numerous historical
photographs, many of them from our collections. The calendar is
available at the chamber office at 8826 S. Commercial or at the
museum. Calendars cost $5 and are a great bargain.News
The Historical Society is in need
of a clothes tree (rack) to accommodate garments of visitors and
volunteers to the museum. Also, when you are cleaning your hidden
school days memorabilia, we are in need of year books from St. France
de Sales, Washington and CVS high schools. We also welcome any
level school class photos. Include names and dates if
possible Our Annual Installation Dinner is slated for May 17,
2009 at the Crow Bar. Mark your calendars. The mailing address for the
Southeast Chicago Historical Society will be changed from 106th Street
due to the expected relocation of the East Side Chamber of Commerce. We
hope to advise you of the new address soon. Mail may be sent
temporarily
to:
Southeast Chicago Historical
Society
c/o Calumet Park Field House 9801 S. Avenue G Chicago, IL 60617 Secretary
Gloria
Novak
More
Museum News
Our exhibit on local art is still
available for viewing in the museum. Don’t miss the opportunity
to see numerous watercolors of local scenes by Joe Mulac. We also
received a framed watercolor of the Number 5 streetcar which is on
display. Artist Clyde Sellers donated the streetcar
painting. SECHP
Digital Project
One of the most important aspects
of our archives is the Southeast Chicago Historical Project which
includes a very large slide collection. We had previously been
using these slides for various presentations but since we have entered
the digital age and are now working with laptop computers and
Powerpoint presentations we have begun to convert the slides to digital
images. There are over 2000 slides in this collection and we are
almost finished with the project. There are many images in this
collection which have not been seen for years, including over 700
images from U. S. Steel South Works, some dating to the 19th
century. Once this project is finished we will be able to access
these images more easily and provide researchers with digital copies
much more efficiently. Our next step will be to digitize the
images in the SECHP negative collection, an even larger project. In addition to the above work we are trying to create thematic collections of images from the SECHP and from our other collections. So far we have started a school class photo collection and a movie theater collection. This, of course, takes a lot of time and effort but will give access to particular areas of interest for our patrons. Depression
Memories
In this current time of economic
uncertainty we should remember that there are still individuals among
us who lived through the Great Depression. What lessons can we
learn from their experiences? If you have any interesting stories
or practical advice for the current generation based on your Depression
era life, share them with us and we will publish them in our next
newsletter. Changing
SE Side Skyline
In this post industrial era we
continue to lose the structures that were part of the area’s steel
industry. Demolition work at the Acme Coke Plant continues and
little by little the brick buildings, the coke batteries, and other
equipment on the site at 122th and Torrence are disappearing. The
Republic Steel / LTV Coke Plant site has been sold (or will be very
soon) and the site is to be leveled. The Hulett unloaders, the
last two in the world, are destined for demolition as well. For
pictures of the above see:www.neiu.edu/~reseller/sephotoalbumsintro Burnham
Plan Centennial
2009 is the 100th anniversary of
the Plan of Chicago written by Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett and
sponsored by the Commercial Club of Chicago. The plan was a guide
to regional planning and is responsible for many civic improvements in
Chicago including Navy Pier, Northerly Island, the Michigan Avenue
bridge, Wacker Drive and many more. Chicago organizations
will schedule events and exhibits throughout the year to commemorate
this plan which has guided city planning for 100 years. We will
participate in this year long celebration by creating an exhibit which
will focus on the aspects of the Burnham Plan which affected the SE
Side and on subsequent area projects which were influenced by the
plan. The primary focus on the plan has always been the downtown
area so this will be a novel approach to studying the impact of this
document. Our exhibit is scheduled to open in June at our museum
and the theme of our annual dinner will be the Burnham Plan and the SE
Side. For general information about the Burnham Plan Centennial
see:http://burnhamplan100.uchicago.edu/ Local
Photographers
Recent requests for information
started me thinking about a great source of local historical
photos. One request was for information about Michael Romero, a
local photographer, whose office was on 91st Street. Another
researcher sought information about Columbia Photography Studio located
at 9215 Commercial Avenue. I was unable to find any information
about these photographers or their studios. There were a
number of other professional photography studios in the area who are no
longer around. Our museum has some very interesting negatives and
photos from the files of Calumet Studios owned by Art Stalla but few
materials from other area photographers.Who were the photographers who captured the highlights of our community and its residents? What ever happened to their archives? Where are all those negatives and prints? Remember these photographers worked in the era before digital photography. If any readers have any information or materials that can shed light on this topic please let us know. Polish
Museum Donations
We recently received some
interesting items from Len Kurdek, Museum Assistant at the Polish
Museum of America (PMA). The museum is located at 984 N.
Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. Among the items were two 78 rpm
records, sheet music, and CD recordings of the “Steel Mills Polka”
written in 1941. Stop by our museum if you would like to hear
these recordings. Len also donated information about a local
doctor, Wladyslaw Pas, who wrote books and catalogs about personal care
and health . The materials were published in the late
1920s. Dr. Pas had a local office at 8519 Commercial Avenue. Len has done extensive research on the Chicago connection to the movie “Call Northside 777", produced in 1948 and starring Jimmy Stewart. The movie was one of the earliest to be filmed on location in Chicago. He has written a series of articles “The Real-Life Story Behind Call Northside 777" for the PMA newsletter. It details the story of Joe Majczek, a Chicagoan, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a Chicago policeman in 1932. A newspaper reporter looks into the case eleven years later and proves Majczek innocent. There is a Southeast Side connection to the story because a group of influential SE Siders advocate for the unjustly convicted youth. We have copies of the first six parts of the series and two more installments are to be published in future issues of the PMA newsletter. Southeast
Side Movies
SECHS member Bob Lalich has
created a list of area location shots used in the movie“Appointment
With Danger.” (see SECHS newsletters from Jan 2007 and April
2007) Among the sites are St. Michael’s Church, Immaculate
Conception Church, several South Chicago street scenes and scenes along
the Calumet River. Stop by the museum to view the list and the
movie. Bob also asked if anyone remembers the South Deering
Fourth of July fireworks show ever being held in the prairie west of
Trumbull Park and east of the Nickel Plate railroad
yard. School
Stores
As a follow up to an article in our
previous newsletter, the name of the school store frequented by
Washington HS students on 112th and Green Bay was
“Virgie’s.” When I was a student at Mount Carmel the school
store or school hangout was “Archie’s” located on 64th Street east of
Stony Island Avenue. That is where all the Carmel kids hung out
before and after school. Carmel kids did not cut classes.
God help them if they did. Father Jordan, the disciplinarian, was
not very forgiving in spite of being a priest. And although I do
not know much about “Ernie’s” it was the school store that students
from St. Francis De Sales frequented. There was also a school
store across the street from CVS but I do not know its name. If
any readers have any memories or good stories about school stores send
them to us and we will include them in our next newsletter. Don’t
Throw It Out!
Remember we still want your
“historical stuff.” Help us preserve the rich history of Chicago’s
Southeast Side by donating your artifacts, photos and memorabilia to
the Southeast Chicago Historical Society. Among the items particularly useful to us are the following: telephone
directories (the older the better)
Please contact us or bring your
donations in to our museum located in the Calumet Park Field House at
9801 S. Avenue G in Chicago. We are open on Thursdays from 1-4. If in
doubt don’t throw it out, throw it our way!plant or company magazines church anniversary books school yearbooks (see previous articles) newsletters from local organizations historical photos of local businesses SE Chicago Historical Society Calendar
Thursdays
1:00-4:00pm
Southeast Chicago Historical MuseumRegular hours of the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum. Collections and exhibits focus on the history of Chicago’s Southeast Side including the communities of South Chicago, South Deering, the East Side, and Hegewisch. Museum is located in the Calumet Park Field House at 9801 S. Avenue G in Chicago. The Southeast Chicago Historical Museum is no longer open on the first Sunday of the month. March 28, 2009 Saturday 11:00 am Calumet Park Field House The Southeast Historical Society will conduct its annual Membership Meeting on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at the Calumet Park Field House at 9801 Avenue G at 11 AM. All members are urged to attend and vote on the new slate of officers at this meeting. Nominations may be made from the floor. The officers presented by the nominating committee will be announced. Refreshments will be served. May 17, 2009 Sunday 12:30 pm Crow Bar Restaurant Southeast Chicago Historical Society Annual Installation Dinner 26th Annual Dinner of the Southeast Historical Society will be held at the Crow Bar Restaurant. Social hour begins at 12:30 pm. and dinner will be served at 1:30 pm. Please reserve this date on your calendars. Exhibit coming in June 2009 Burnham Plan Centennial at the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum “The Burnham Plan: Impetus for Change on the Southeast Side” The exhibit will portray the aspects of the 1909 Burnham Plan that relate to Chicago’s Southeast Side and subsequent planning initiatives for the area. See www.burnhamplan100.org for more information. |
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Teachers' Center |
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Illinois University |
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