A guest blogpost by Dr. Earl Jann

I was born in 1939 and raised in Albany Park at the corner of Troy and Lawrence. In those days,  Kedzie and Lawrence was certainly the focal point of Albany Park. We celebrated VE DAY (Victory In Europe) and VJ DAY (Victory in Japan) on that street corner with bands playing, people kissing and dancing in the streets and street cars clanging.

In that same corridor, there was the ALBA, METRO and TERMINAL theatres that provided us with many hours of enjoyment and smooching in the balcony. I attended Hibbard Elementary and Roosevelt High (which by the way, since I lived in the Von Steuben district I had to get a permit to go to Roosevelt……not exactly sure why I did that).

While attending Hibbard, I met Phil Brin who was the first Director of the Albany Park Deborah Boys Club. This was before there was any structure built. We used to meet at a “D” (which was an alcove at each entrance to the Hibbard school). Phil would have us do all kinds of projects as we created a foundation for the organization that was yet to come. I remember that after a few meetings of the new Deborah Boy’s Club, Phil gave out membership cards to each of us. I think there may have been ten or twelve of us in the beginning. My card had #1 on it !!! In view of all of the great things this organization has done during its existence, I have always been very proud to have been Member #1.

During my high school years, I was a member of the Aristocrats which was one of several “clubs” that were part of high school life in Albany Park. Also during those years the Max Strauss Jewish Community Center on Lawndale Avenue was one of the most vibrant social and athletic venues in Albany Park (and I might add the number one “boy meets girl” spot in the area).

I hope that maybe these recollections might jostle the memories of anyone who also lived through this wonderful time and also help to fill in a few of the blanks for some of the younger ones who were part of “THE GREATEST NEIGHBORHOOD”.

Photo credit:  Photograph of the Deborah Boys Club from the Epstein website.  A. Epstein& Sons was the architectural firm that designed and constructed the building in 1949.

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Top Hats at Deborah Boys Club, circa 1959 (from left): unknown, Art Kobrine, Mike Stein, Michael Siegel, unknown, Barry Labovitz, Herb Zeidenstien

I’m always asking people, what do you remember about Albany Park? Roosevelt High School alum Michael Siegel recalls the Terminal theater, the Metro theater, the Alba theater then bowling alley, and the Deborah Boys Club.  He shared a couple photos of his club, the Top Hats, taken at Deborah around 1959.

Bottom row, from left: Michael Siegel, Al Israel, Barry Labovitz, Mike Schulman. Middle row: Jordan Boch, Art Kobrine, Todd Sperling, Jeff Orloff. Top row: Mike Stein Stan Nudleman

Roosevelt High School Class of 1961 Gives Back

Mike also mentioned the Roosevelt High School Class of 1961 Reunion. After expenses, they had raised enough donations to make at $2,000 gift to Roosevelt. One thousand was donated to the RHS Athletic Fund for various needs, and the other thousand dollars went towards the purchase of electronic readers and tablets for a new “quiet room” addition to the school library.

This is a class that sticks together. They’ve had 25th, 40th and 50th reunions. At their last reunion, they had a program book and a DVD of their times at school and previous reunions.

Nice going, Rough Riders.

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Check out my interview about growing up in the North Park community on local television station WCIU’s program, Chicago.Now. It was my first ever appearance on television and host George Blaise made it not just painless, but a wonderful experience.

If I mangled someone’s name or an organization or mixed-up dates,  I apologize. There’s a hundred things I wish I had talked about: Hollywood Kiddieland. Hollywood Bowl. Oscar Brotman and his Tower Cabana. Ice skating at Hollywood Park. Lerner’s Hot Dogs. Lazar’s Sausage Factory. Marty Marcus’s novel, Hollywood Park. Sam and Doris’ newsstand. Pehr S. Peterson. Mary Gage Peterson. Lincoln Village. How Peterson School emptied out on the Jewish holidays. The schoolyard game of pinners.

I cannot believe I did not mention the park.

Left front: Albert Lanutti. Left rear: Bob Tenczar. Right front: Jeff Tenczar, Billy Labuda, Frank Marsala and Rich Podgorny.

A guest post by Andy Romanoff

In July 1962, Bob Tenczar and Ikey Saltzberg got married at Our Lady of Mercy church on Troy near Montrose.  They hung out on Lawrence, both at Kedzie and Kimball, and I was friends with them. Then I moved away and didn’t see them for many years.

My brother Larry stayed in touch with them over the years. When I picked up the camera and started shooting again, Larry mentioned it to Ikey.

The next thing I knew I got a call from Ikey that started with  “YOU ****, WHERE ARE MY PICTURES”!

She went on to tell me a story of events I’m still trying to remember.  It turns out I had photographed their wedding.

Bob and Ikey's wedding at Our Lady of Mercy, July 1962

Not only the wedding, but also pictures of Bob carrying Ikey over the threshold of their room at the Spa Motel. And, according to Ikey: “You and some other guys rented the room next door to ours and started banging on the walls and clowning around at 3:00 AM.”

Well, it sounded like me back then, even if I couldn’t remember it.

Over the threshhold at the Spa Motel

Ikey told me that I had given them proofs of the pictures before I left town.  All they had were those 3 ½ x 5 images and they had seen 50 years of wear and tear, scotch tape, ink stains and rips.  The negatives were gone, God knows where. With their 50th anniversary coming up, it would be nice to have some pictures.

Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Tenczar

I told Ikey if she sent me scans of the proofs I’d see what I could do to fix them.  So she sent me a disc with the pictures and I went to work to salvage them.  I hoped seeing the pictures would jog my memory, but so far no soap. What they did do was remind me of what we looked like in the sixties, hanging out on the corner with attitude most of the time, but pretty conservative in the important moments.

Anyway, enjoy these shots from Bob and Ikey’s wedding many years ago. They’re still together all these years and Albany Park through and through. I’m finally delivering their pictures.

 Thanks to Andy Romanoff for contributing this story and thanks to Bob and Ikey for sharing these wonderful glimpses of the early 1960s with us. 

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Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

Recognize this building?  If you’ve been to the North Park Village Nature Center, this building faces the parking lot. Modified for current use as senior residential buildings, the former dining halls and service buildings still are recognizable from this photograph in a 1915 book.

The infirmary group consisted of the men’s wing on the north side and the women’s wing on the south side. All still stand today.  I’ll be identifying the other remaining Sanitarium buildings and talking about their original purpose at a talk in May at the North Park Village Nature Center. I’ll share my research into the history of Chicago’s TB sanitarium and lead a tour around the grounds. I will joined by Luna Johnston, a third-grader from the neighborhood who shares my interest in this historical site. She did a terrific research project for school about the sanitarium, and you can see it at the Nature Center. I’m also hoping some former residents of the area will attend and share what they remember of the sanitarium.

• Date: Sunday, May 6
• Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
• Location: North Park Village Nature Center, 5801 N. Pulaski
• To register: call North Park Village Nature Center: 312-744-5472.

Hope to see you there.

Credits:  The Municipal Control of Tuberculosis in Chicago: City of Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Thedore Bernard Sachs, et al., 1915

Victory Garden, Kimball and Catalpa, 1942

The history of gardening in Chicago’s North Park community goes back so far and has so many noteworthy characters and interesting stories it easily could fill a book. It all began in late 1856 when Swedish immigrant Pehr S. Peterson purchased 12 acres of land to start a tree nursery on the rich, black soil. Over the years, his property grew to nearly 5oo acres. By 1889, when Chicago annexed Jefferson Township, which included Peterson’s land, Peterson was the single largest land owner in Chicago.

Peterson Nursery had two offices, one at Peterson and Lincoln avenues, and one on LaSalle Street. Peterson built a 22-room home on what is now the northwest corner of Peterson and Kimball. In the 1890s, he had a stable of twenty-five horses and employed more than thirty people, most of whom spoke only Swedish.

Early on, Peterson’s nursery, known also as Rosehill Nursery and Peterson and Son Nursery, provided flowers for Rosehill Cemetery at Peterson and Western. In those days, being close to a cemetery meant a steady source of income for a florist.

But trees, not flowers, made Peterson’s fortune. He became internationally known for successfully transplanting large trees. His trees and shrubs were used in the landscaping of the 1893 Chicago’s World’s Fair as well as for much of Lincoln Park. By 1910, seven-eighths of Chicago’s parks and boulevards were planted with trees from Peterson’s nursery.

Possibly the first tree hugger

In an 1882 article that appeared in the Svenska Tribunen, reprinted from the Chicago Evening Journal, a reporter noted P.S. Peterson seemed to love his trees as though they were his children. There were millions of trees on his grounds and Peterson could identify each type by sight.

He also gave names to some of his trees. According to the reporter, P. S. Peterson pointed to the oldest and tallest tree on land surrounding his house near the corner of Peterson and Kimball and said, “This is George Washington.” Then Peterson pointed to another tall elm, saying, “And this is Abraham Lincoln.” Trees were named for General Grant and General Sherman. His choice of names suggests the successful immigrant loved his adopted homeland.

Mrs. Peterson

While her husband delivered trees, Mary Gage Peterson advocated for green space in Chicago and joined conservation movements leading to the development of national parks. She met with then President Theodore Roosevelt on several conservation projects. Her portrait still hangs at the Chicago public elementary school named for her.

Like father, like son

William A. Peterson, the only child of Pehr and Mary Peterson, followed in his parents’ horticultural footsteps and continued the family nursery business after his father’s death in 1903.  William Peterson was one of the original members on the Plan Committee of 1914 to establish the Cook Country Forest Preserves.

Deep roots

Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium grounds, May 1938

In 1911, the city of Chicago bought about 150 acres of land from William Peterson for the future home of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. The property bordered on Peterson, Central Park, Bryn Mawr and Pulaski, then known as 40th Street.

At the time the parcel was sold, about 5,000 trees and shrubs were growing on the site. These plants were saved and transplanted around the grounds of the TB Sanitarium. Some of these trees are still standing. The oldest tree that has been identified by the staff of the North Park Village Nature Center is around 200 years old, predating the arrival of P.S. Peterson.

May 1938, Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

A Prairie School legacy

O. C. Simonds designed the original landscaping plan for the grounds of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. Simonds and Jens Jensen were the best known of Chicago’s prairie style landscape gardeners. Although much has changed, you still can see evidence of Simonds’ naturalistic design principles in the meadows and groves of trees on the site. The rock garden and pond is also believed to be Simonds’ design, though Jensen designed plans for the pond. Simonds worked on the landscape designs for Graceland Cemetery and Morton Arboretum in the Chicago area.

Victory Gardens

During World War II, several Victory Gardens were started in the Hollywood Park area. One was located on the east side of Kimball, on the block between Bryn Mawr and Hollywood. At the time there was only one two-flat (5631 N. Kimball) on the block. Another garden, the one pictured at the top of this blogpost, was located on the corner of Catalpa and Kimball, across from Peterson Elementary School. The two young girls in the lower left corner are Peterson School students Vivian (Anderson) Johnson and Dolly-Ann Klotz.

At the corner of  St. Louis and Foster, a Victory garden on 32 acres served 800 families. This was the largest Victory garden in the country. It was on the grounds of  the Parental School, locally known as the bad boys school. Boys were still working the field until the school closed during the sixties.

Full circle

This year, gardening returns to a parcel of land once owned by the Peterson Nursery. Peterson Garden Project has opened the STARS community garden at Lincoln and Jersey, just about a block north of the former site of the Peterson Nursery office. The tradition of gardening in this area lives on.

Happy Earth Day.

 Updates: Mary Gage Peterson Elementary School now honors its gardening heritage with the Jo Katter Children’s Garden.

I’ve also heard from Brian Sobolak in Albany Park who brought me up-to-date on gardening in his area:

• “There are a few efforts underfoot to add gardens in the neighborhood.  I run the demonstration community garden in Eugene Field Park named “Feast for Friends” with my wife. We grow lots of vegetables as an educational tool for kids in the summer camp at Eugene Field.

• We are also working on creating a larger allotment garden at the corner of Springfield and Foster (on the north side, which is park district land) as we’ve found from wandering the neighborhood that many residents “guerilla garden” on the space.

• And it’s worth mentioning that the current residents of North Park Village have built a huge garden space on the grounds there.”

Regular contributor Howard Glantz reminded me of the Victory Garden along the Chicago River between Ainslie and Argyle. Howard recalls they took sludge from the banks of the river to enrich the dirt, a process that resulted in amazing crops. Another Victory Garden was located on the site of the swimming pool at River Park.

References: ”Plan of Parental School Buildings and Grounds at Bowmanville.” Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922): 5. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune (1849-1987). Dec 13 1900. Web. 6 Dec. 2011 .

“Family Tree Project Links Schools with Their History,” http://www.insideonline.com/site/epage/29380_162.htm.

Chicago Gardens: The Early History, Cathy Jean Maloney.

Urban Naturalist, quarterly newsletter for the North Park Village Nature Center, January 2005.

Svenska Tribunen (The Swedish Tribune, Chicago) October 25, 1882, http://flps.newberry.org/article/5423404_2_1177

Photo credit: 1938 photographs of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium courtesy of Dr. Brian Ford.

We came to Von Steuben Alumni Day with our memories and hindsight knowledge and expertise in an astonishing range of fields. Yet, it came down to this: the most popular question was  did the boys really have to swim naked?

The answer is, of course, yes. You should see the kids’ faces. This practice, by the way, ended sometime in the seventies.

Another question that frequently came up was why doesn’t Von have a football team? It never has and no one really knows why.  Lack of space is everyone’s best guess. There is an urban legend that the football program ended when a quarterback died during a homecoming parade. Not true!

As someone who was profoundly influenced by an admired Von Steuben English teacher, I was happy to be paired with Ms. Hoffman, who teaches freshman English to three classes in addition to her other assignments. I was interested to learn freshmen now read Romeo and Juliet as their first Shakespeare play. In my day, we read Julius Caesar. Academics weren’t, however, the subject of most students’ questions. They really just wanted to know whether we were the same or different, and we assured them that, despite all the technological advances, teenagers behaved pretty much the same then as now.

After speaking to classes in periods 1 through 5, alums had a chance to wander through the school and then enjoyed lunch together. On my tour I visited the auditorium which is really yellow and has the original drapes, or at least they look like original ones. We also stopped by the cafeteria and the band room, which used to get boiling hot in the late afternoon. I might have learned to play the flute better if the room had been air conditioned then as it is now. No, probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

We also visited the swimming pool. I could have sworn it was much bigger. I passed the library, which now houses computer stations and has no stacks, though bookshelves still line the walls. We looked into the room where you went to get a tardy slip stamped, familiar to all of us. First thing we said: the counter is gone! It’s now the assistant principal’s office and seems like a nice place to hang out.  In fact, the entire building, inside and out, looked more beautiful than I had ever seen it. In 2007, the school underwent a multimillion dollar renovation.

Room 112 served as a lunchroom for visiting alums

The idea behind Alumni Day is to give these young students the benefit of our experiences and alleged wisdom, but as these photographs illustrate, we alums benefited as well. For me, it was a great pleasure to return to the spot where I stood, a bewildered freshman on picture day, in the fall of 1970.

Frances O'Cherony Archer is standing top row, fourth from right.

Frances O'Cherony Archer, Al Bloom, Mark Swerdlik

Before closing, special thanks to Al Bloom, my partner in visiting classrooms. You were the best!

Alumni Day was first launched by Richard Wiener, a Von Steuben alum and former Von Steuben athletic director. He also founded the Von Steuben Alumni Association, which  The organization will launch a new website in the near future, but for now, you can “like” Von Steuben Alumni Association on Facebook to see more photographs from Alumni Day and to keep informed of future events like the October 12, 2012,  All-Years Reunion at Von.

You could easily live a lifetime in Chicago and never see the impressive Beaux-Arts facade, let alone the overcrowded hallways of the old Cook County Hospital. If that’s true, consider yourself lucky. Much depends on economic level and zip code.

Front entrance of the old Cook County Hospital (c) Jeff Dahl

If my father hadn’t been a physician, hadn’t trained at Cook County Hospital, I would never have seen it myself. He took me there just once, but what I saw stayed with me, and I can picture scenes from that day.

I can also still hear my father’s voice saying “County,” as he did so often in conversation. I heard “County” from the time I was four until my father passed away 50 years later. “County” was a frame of reference, a source of lifelong friendships and an inspiration for his medical career. He spent only a couple years as a resident at County, but the experience clung to him all his life.

As I mentioned, my father once took me with him to the hospital. He was visiting a patient, a child, whose family couldn’t afford a private hospital. I was about 10 years old, and my father didn’t leave me behind in the waiting room as he did when I accompanied him on his rounds to other hospitals. I went along to see the patient; no one would stop us, he told me.

I don’t remember seeing the patient, but I remember my father looking in various departments for people who had worked there in the late 1950s, when he had been a resident. Like everywhere he went, my father found familiar faces.

As I read the book County, I felt I was learning about my father’s experience, understanding him better, even though Dr. Ansell writes about a different era. Dr. Ansell was a young resident in the late 1970s, full of idealism during a controversial time in the hospital’s history.  His writing voice is personal and informal; he gives us a sense of immediacy if not urgency, as though events are unfolding in the present day, not more than 30 years ago.

Actually, events are still unfolding in the present. That’s why it’s important to read this book.

Photo credit: Cook County Hospital entrance, Jeff Dahl,  Wikipedia.

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Allan Zirlin, 1955, in Albany Park

“My ‘gang’ had a different gathering place in the early 1950s. It was on the 4900 block of N. Whipple St., just north of Ainslie. There was a set of concrete “stoops” between the entrances to the gangway that ran from the street to the alley between two court buildings. There were at least six of us on any given summer evening. We even had our own version of the Jersey Boys as we would sing some of the songs popular then. Of course, the people who lived right above the ‘stoops’ weren’t too happy about the noise we were making so once in a while we’d get doused with water from above.

“We’d sit and ogle the girls who also lived on the block as they walked past us. We might even have made some unseemly remarks as they passed.

“Summertime in the early 1950s was a really carefree time. Then we grew up and moved out of Albany Park. And here we thought it would last forever. Evenings on the stoops, nights at Bonfire, Sunday mornings at Alba bowling alley, Saturday afternoons at the Terminal for a double feature plus news and cartoons.

“Korea was a million miles away except for one of ours who was drafted and sent there. When he left it seemed the party was over. Nothing lasts forever.”

Photo credit: Allan Zirlin

Related posts: “This was how they rolled in Albany Park.”  In addition to “Nighthawks in Albany Park,” Allan Zirlin has shared his memories on numerous comments to posts. He contributed photographs and his recollections on this post: “Oh, I love the night life.”

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Childhood friends from Hollywood Park. That's me at the bottom of the slide.

This blog has helped several people find old friends. It has even helped cousins find each other. It has helped me find friends going back to nursery school. It has especially helped me make a lot of new friends. All of which I’m very thankful for.

Now, I’d like to help one of the many people I’ve met through this blog, Barbara Glick Kalinsky. She would like to find her grade school best friend, Lenore Whalen.

Lenore Whalen

Leonore and Barbara went to Hibbard Elementary School in Albany Park and were in the same first grade class. Lenore would be in her 70s now. If anyone has information, please drop me a note via the contact form.

Readers from Albany Park and Hollywood Park: If you don’t recognize Barbara’s name: you probably remember her family’s businesses. Her mother owned the very popular Rochelle’s lunchroom across from Von Steuben High School. Her father, Charles Glick, had a fruit and vegetable store, Glick’s,  across on Bryn Mawr across from Peterson School.

Barbara’s kept in touch with a group of girlfriends from her Von Steuben High School class of ’55 club, the Vees.  They meet regularly and even included me in one of their luncheons. They shared many memories and favorite hangouts, but I couldn’t take good notes–too much fun! But I did take some photos of  their scrapbooks. Enjoy!

Photo credits: Thanks to Linda Schub for the photograph of our neighborhood gang, the 5900 block of Central Park and Drake, 1964.  Thanks to Barbara Kalinsky for sharing her photographs with me and belated thanks for the lovely brunch.

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