From the President
By: Kathy Gemperle
Congratulations and thanks to all who worked on the 1990 Home Tour. It was a great success!
While researching the Kransz-Weber holdings in Edgewater Glen, Ginny Parenteau found Gigi Ewald’s document on the title search for the Kransz farm quite helpful. It dated from 1839, just three years after Chicago became a city, and mentioned a subdivision of the land north of Granville (Grand, back then) called “Edgewater Heights.”
Fall celebrations abounded. Thanks to Marion and Camillo Volini and Marge Britton, St. Ita’s 90th anniversary event was spectacular, including a beautiful historical display, a wonderful dinner and some “unusual entertainment.” The banners produced by Joan Podgorski now grace many of the light poles in Edgewater.
The Peirce School celebrated 75 years with an open house at the school as well as a grand evening at the McCormick Hotel Center. The school displayed blueprints of the various stages of playground design from 1914 through 1938 and into the 1950s. EHS had a display at the event and picked up some new members. Roger McCabe, an EHS member from Texas, attended and many others came from far and wide.
Epworth United Methodist Church marked its 100th year with a special centennial service on October 14. Members of the congregation arranged a display of photographs from the church’s past century.
The Board sadly accepted the resignation of 3rd Vice President Gregg Mann, who has contributed much to EHS in the form of ideas, research, and photographic documentation. We are grateful for his years of service.
Welcome to new Board member Paul Glassman and to Jim Karela, our new Program Chair. The next special program will be Saturday, March 23, 1991, at our Annual Meeting.
Thanks to Pat Ruch for providing much needed assistance in setting up a display at the East Andersonville Garden Walk last summer. She also gave a talk on the history of Kenmore and Winthrop at a subsequent EARC meeting. Pat is from New York and all this Chicago history is news to her!
Recently I presented a slide program, “The History of the Chicago Lakefront,” at the Edgewater Beach Apartments. EHS also obliged a request by residents of Kenmore Plaza for a different slide program, “The History of Edgewater,” at one of their meetings.
In November, I showed the video “Edgewater: Through the Eyes of Experience” to the split 3rd/4th grade of Ms. Ann Cico at St. Ita School. What a wonderful audience! The children had lots of questions and observations about how the community looked long ago. They sent the most charming, home-made “thank you” letters after my visit. We hope to get together again to look at the history of the lakeshore.
The North Lakeside Cultural Center (NLCC) hosted their first historical exhibit in November, “Granada, A Theater Remembered.” Our Edgewater Scrapbook piece on the Granada was handed out and two videos were shown as part of the event. EHS and the Rogers Park Historical Society co-hosted the November 10 N.E.IL. Meeting at NLCC, so that representatives from other historical societies could enjoy the exhibit. Everyone was quite impressed!
If you are interested, Marty Schmidt has photos of the Granada for sale. You can contact him through the Rogers Park Historical Society. NLCC has T-shirts for sale - one with the Granada’s façade prior to demolition and another with a drawing of the NLCC building. Call for information.
Looking ahead we envision a historical fashion show, an Edgewater cookbook and more walking tours of historic sites. Every committee could use two more volunteers. Please consider what you might be able to do.