2022 Spring Bulletin
Upcoming Events
Hyde Park Book Club
Monday, May 16, 7:30pm via Zoom. Dawn Turner, author of Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood will join us. Register here.
First Annual Promontory Point Day Events
Thursday, May 26, 2022: The Promontory Point Conservancy will hold a press conference to announce the May 26th birthday of the Point's renowned landscape architect Alfred Caldwell as International Promontory Point Day.
Saturday, May 28, 2022: Promontory Point Day celebration at the Point, 9am-5pm. Family friendly activities including music, dance, kite-flying, lawn games and more.
Sunday, May 29, 2022: The History of Promontory Point and Nancy Hays Promontory Point Photography Exhibition, with Jack Spicer, via Zoom and in-person at HPHS 2-4pm at 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue. Register for Zoom here.
May 28-29: Tours of Promontory Point and the Point revetments by Jack Spicer and Bill Swislow. For more information check the Conservancy web site.
Hyde Park Stories: Harold Washington and His Legacy, A Celebration of His 100th Birthday – Sunday, June 12 in-person at Augustana Lutheran Church. Contact: kathy@rogerhuff.com
Hyde Park Book Club – Monday, June 20, 7:30pm in-person at Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap. June Sawyers, author of Chicago Beer: A History of Brewing, Public Drinking and the Corner Bar will join us.
Hyde Park Book Club – Monday, July 18 7:30pm in-person at HPHS, 5520 S. Lake Park Avenue. Betty Hechtman, HPHS member and author of Murder Ink: A Writer for Hire Mystery will join us.
Hyde Park Book Club – Monday, August 15, 7:30pm via Zoom. Deborah Cohen author of, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War. will join us. The idea for the book was conceived at Special Collections Research Center and features two UChicago alumni journalists. Register here.
Hyde Park Book Club – Monday, September 19, 7:30pm via Zoom. The September book selection is Time for Frankie Coolin by Bill Granger. We will be joined by Bill Savage for the discussion. Register here.
Hyde Park Book Club – Monday, October 17, 7:30pm via Zoom. Christopher Blattman, professor at the University of Chicago and author of Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Path to Peace will join us. Register here.
Hyde Park Book Club Committee:
Carol Vieth
Michal Safar
Dottie Jeffries
Contact: BookClub@HydeParkHistory.org
Special Event – Celebrating Olmsted in Chicago 2022
April 26, 2022, marked the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted, author, conservationist, social reformer and America’s seminal landscape architect. Olmsted and his successors designed some of Chicago’s most beloved and important greenspaces including Jackson, Washington Parks and Midway Plaisance and the University of Chicago campus.
To celebrate Olmsted's birthday and his core belief that parks are democratic spaces for all people, Hyde Park Historical Society and Washington Park Camera Club are pleased to announce that they have teamed up to present Olmsted in Chicago 2022. The celebration is part of Art Design Chicago Now, an initiative funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art that amplifies the voices of Chicago's diverse creatives, past and present, and explores the essential role they play in shaping the now.
South Park Then and Now
On April 26, 2022, the Washington Park Camera Club launched an online photographic essay, South Park Then and Now, a celebration of Olmsted’s iconic Chicago greenspaces. One of the oldest camera clubs in the Chicago area, the Washington Park Camera Club is predominantly composed of African American members from the city’s South Side. The online photo essay weaves together historic and contemporary images of Olmsted’s South Park: Jackson, Washington Parks and the Midway Plaisance. With recent photography by twelve members of the club, the project documents continuity and changes over time while also highlighting the importance of Olmsted’s landscapes in the past as well as the vital role they play in the lives of Chicagoans today. The video can be viewed here.
Summer Walking Tours
Photo by Julia Bachrach
Chicago parks historian Julia Bachrach will lead free walking tours of Jackson, Washington Parks and the Midway Plaisance, Frederick Law Olmsted’s iconic Chicago landscapes.
Jackson Park: Learn about the Olmsted firm’s three successive designs for Jackson Park: the original plan of 1871, the dazzling fairgrounds for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; and the transformation of the site back to parkland after the fair. Highlights include the iconic Wooded Island.
Dates and Times: Saturday, June 25th, 10am-12pm. Saturday, July 16th, 2-4pm. Register Here.
Photo by Eric Allix Rogers
Midway Plaisance: This tour will illuminate Olmsted’s plan for the Midway Plaisance as a grand boulevard between Jackson and Washington Park, the site’s transformation into a carnival area for the World’s Fair, and Olmsted’s vision for a canal as its centerpiece after the exposition. Highlights include the site of the original Ferris Wheel, a major attraction of the 1893 fair.
Dates and Times: Saturday, June 25th, 2-4pm. Saturday, August 6th, 10am-12pm. Register Here.
Photo by Julia Bachrach
Washington Park: Learn about the ways Olmsted expressed democratic principles in his design for Washington Park, and how the greenspace became an important oasis for African American newcomers during the Great Migration. Highlights include the park’s original sheep meadow.
Dates and Times: Saturday, July 16th, 10am-12pm. Saturday August 6th, 2-4pm. Register Here.
RECENT EVENTS
April 2022 the Hyde Park History of the Chicago Children’s Choir
On April 23 Sarah Elizabeth, PhD. met via Zoom on March 23, 2022 to discuss her forthcoming book on the Hyde Park history of the Chicago Children’s Choir. The Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC) was founded in Hyde Park in 1956 at the First Unitarian Church, where it rehearsed and performed until 1987. CCC relocated within Hyde Park to the Sinai Congregation (on 54th Street near Hyde Park Blvd) until 1994, when it moved downtown to the Chicago Cultural Center. CCC was a Hyde Park institution, performing at most annual Wooded Island Festivals, and Hyde Park Art Fairs. CCC was even included on Astrid Fuller’s 1973 mural on 57th Street.
Sarah’s book will try to answer the question of how a small, predominantly white, middle-class church choir grew into an internationally acclaimed organization that offers a vast network of programs that serve over 4,000 students each year and embraces the racial, economic, religious and cultural diversity that makes up Chicago. Part of the answer lies in the visionary leadership of the original choir. Another part of the answer lies in the unique character of Hyde Park at the time of the Choir’s early development.
Sarah’s presentation and the following discussion on April 23rd capture some of this story. A link to the video of the Zoom session can be found here. More on Sarah’s book can be found here and here.
April 2022 hyde park Book Club: Lakefront Anonymous
On April 18 William Swislow, author of Lakefront Anonymous: Chicago’s Unknown Art Gallery joined a group of book club members and other interested parties for a discussion of the hidden artwork in Chicago’s lakeshore limestone revetments.
One of the world’s most remarkable outdoor art treasures lies hidden in plain sight along Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront — carvings in the stone revetments that line the lakeshore, many of them spectacular, most by anonymous creators, and almost none of them noticed by the millions of people who enjoy the city’s unobstructed shore. William Swislow presented examples of this art underfoot, including many in Hyde Park. The video of this event can be viewed here.
On May 28 and 29, Swislow will lead guided walking tours of the revetments on Promontory Point. See above for more information.
Preservation News
South Shore Nature Sanctuary
Photo by Eric Allix Rogers
South Shore Nature Sanctuary
As reported in Block Club Chicago local organizers have filed a petition to place a question on the June 28th ballot regarding the proposed tree removal that would result from plans to develop the Tiger Woods Golf Course from the two existing Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses and the South Shore Nature Sanctuary.
Read the full article here.
Bronzeville elevated bike and hiking trail
Plans are going forward for an elevated 2-mile bike and hiking trail that would be converted from abandoned CTA tracks starting at 42nd and Indiana.
More information from Block Club Chicago can be found here.
HPHS Memberships
The Hyde Park Historical Society strives to make programs and activities as accessible to the community as possible, which means that the website, newsletter, archives, open houses and nearly all programs are free and open to the public. To make this possible- we need your support!
To Become a Member or Renew a Lapsed Membership:
1. Visit www.HydeParkHistory.org
2. Go to “Support Us” and then “Become a Member”
3. Choose whether you would like an Individual or Family membership
Or go directly to: https://www.hydeparkhistory.org/become-a-hphs-member
HPHS Memberships
The Hyde Park Historical Society strives to make programs and activities as accessible to the community as possible, which means that the website, newsletter, archives, open houses and nearly all programs are free and open to the public. To make this possible- we need your support!
To Become a Member or Renew a Lapsed Membership:
1. Visit www.HydeParkHistory.org
2. Go to “Support Us” and then “Become a Member”
3. Choose whether you would like an Individual or Family membership
Or go directly to: https://www.hydeparkhistory.org/become-a-hphs-member