Sometimes we get letters that just need to be printed even if it’s quite a while after we receive them. This informative letter came to us after the publication of a story about miniature golf courses which was written by Jack Bess. This letter was written by David Schein, and it offers a recollection based on the miniature golf course story.

I grew up (more or less) at 6256 North Winthrop (the large two-flat red brick building (with a concrete ramp facing Rosemont for many years because the landlord was in a wheelchair) on the SW corner of Winthrop and Rosemont.

Three doors south, on the west side of Winthrop, was a vacant lot I played in everyday. It was a large lot, probably at least three city lots wide and went back to the (then) unpaved alley. This empty lot had many large broken concrete slabs, some tilted, some half buried, all overgrown, some intact and some fractured and piled up. I just assumed this was a dumping ground. But there never was anything new dumped there. My parents knew the empty lot’s secret. It used to be a miniature golf course.

I was born in 1946 and lived on Winthrop until we moved one block east to 6315 North Kenmore (northeast corner, now a Loyola dorm) in 1957. My parents had moved to 6256 Winthrop before World War II (just before we entered) and the lot was already as I remembered it (broken and disarrayed concrete, some with ramps and holes at one end). The miniature golf course must’ve existed before the war.

Around 1958-59, the lot was cleaned up in preparation for construction of one of the very first “four plus ones” in the area. We were able to play a bit of ball there before construction began.

Sincerely, David Schein (Sent in 2010)

Editors note: Does anyone else have a recollection of this miniature golf course? Of course we’d like a photo.