From the President
By: Betty Mayian
As we come to the end of 2008 and look forward to 2009, I am hopeful that we will meet even more volunteers who share our mission to preserve Edgewater history. I appreciate all of you and thank you for your energy and support. We look forward to increased membership on our Board in 2009. Email us if you have any questions about joining the board and tell us your background and how would you like to help the Historical Society and Museum. We can have an e-conversation about it via my email.
This time of year is one of reflection on 2008 and making decisions for 2009. We will be celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday in 2009 and the 100th year of Burnham’s Plan of Chicago. Our Calendar of Events for 2009 is being drafted and there are some very good exhibits and programs which our hard-working board has helped bring to our members. Bob Remer has so many ideas and gets so excited selecting guest speakers for our programs. These programs are free to all so make our museum one of your “must see” places for education and entertainment.
We will have three more old-time radio shows in 2009. The “Those Were The Days Radio Players” group has picked up quite a following among our membership. Come see and hear some radio shows Americans listened to during the “golden age” of radio. The proposed dates will be 2 p.m. on March 28, August 1 and December 5.
Watch the calendar and announcements in 2009. We need larger quarters for some of our programs – the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library at Elmdale and Broadway will host our first event on January 24th, the program on “Lakefront and Urban Archeology.” The next meeting will be our Annual meeting on March 21st at the museum.
We plan on having four major exhibits in 2009, beginning with “Kitchens in Edgewater.” It will be available from January until April 18, 2009. Following will be “Thom Greene, Architect: Unbuilt Projects and Fantasy Designs.” The opening reception and presentation will be Friday, April 24th at 7:30 p.m. The exhibit will continue through June 6th.
The third exhibit will be an Edgewater Timeline and also a look at some books on Abraham Lincoln to honor the Bicentennial of his birth. This will be from mid June through the end of August.
To finish up the year, we will have an exhibit and program on our Lakefront, concentrating on the Centennial of Burnham’s “Plan of Chicago.” During this time, there is hope that our audience will also give a special bow to a Sesquicentennial event: the Lincoln-Douglas Debates! Do you see a pattern?
Become involved yourself and give us some ideas for our programs. Or bring us some photos and/or objects that reflect our Edgewater community. Your donation will be documented and entered into our computer with the rest of our collections. We hope to have these available for reference on our computer in a couple of years. We could still use some volunteers to help us enter the data and to sort through some of our collection.
The two big EHS programs are our Annual Springtime Fundraiser (date, theme and location to be determined) and the Fall Annual Home Tour on Sunday, September 20th, which will feature the neighborhood east of Senn High School.
The Thorndale Deli has announced its closing after 55 years at the same location. If you’ve never had their corned beef or turkey breast, stop by in December.
Do you remember our DVD program “Edgewater through the Eyes of Experience”? It could be a great Holiday gift for you. The price is reasonable at $20 ($15 for members). It has been so well accepted and appreciated that suggestions have been made for us to do another. So, it will become a project for 2009-2010. Any ideas? Please send any thoughts to our website or mail them to the museum.
Hope your holidays were busy and happy.