October 22nd, 1997 to October 28th, 1997

Field of Dreams

Park to Honor Hillary Clinton; Women at heart of Prairie District

by P.J.Engelbrecht

The First Lady will be the guest of honor when the "Hillary Rodham Clinton Women's Park of Chicago" is dedicated Monday, Oct. 27 at 1:30 p.m. The four-acre Park site is bracketed on the north by Glessner House National Historic Landmark, 1800 S. Prairie; on the south by Keith House, home of Woman Made Gallery, 1900 S. Prairie; and on the west by Clarke House, now situated on Indiana Avenue.

The Women's Park is being developed under auspices of the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs, headed by Lois Weisberg, and "an advisory committee to plan, design and program the park" was named late last week, as Micki Leventhal's appointment letter declared.

"I love my life," Leventhal said Friday. She also loves her work on Prairie Avenue, because "it fulfills so many of my intellectual and creative needs." Leventhal is Program Director for the Prairie Avenue House Museums complex, which includes Glessner and Clarke Houses. She is also an open lesbian, so her Friday appointment to the Women's Park committee confirmed that the oversight body will be lesbian-inclusive.

Marcy Baim, sister of Outlines publisher Tracy Baim, will also sit on the committee. The Baim women are daughters of the late Joy Darrow, a Chicago journalist and artist who founded the Prairie Avenue Gallery at 1900 S. Prairie in the mid-'80s. Darrow's family now owns Keith House, where Woman Made Gallery currently occupies the first floor, its stated mission "to support women in the arts by providing opportunities, awareness and advocacy."

The Park land now lies at the heart of a revitalizing Near South Side centered on the Prairie Avenue Historic District, the District itself anchored by a surprising complex of historic architecture, museums and galleries, lofts, and light industry. But the land was once occupied by five Victorian mansions, the elaborate homes of Chicago's social and industrial elite during the late 19th century.

These men once built domestic monuments where the Women's Park will stand: Wheeler headed Chicago City Railway. Henderson made his fortune in rubber boots and highbutton shoes, a civic leader who revamped the Chicago Fire Dept. after 1871's great conflagration. Marsh was a lumber magnate, Schwartz a grain and provisions dealer who once engaged pianist Paderewski to play a party, then reportedly regained the musician's $1,000 fee-and more besides-in a poker game. Shipman manufactured chemicals and paints. Jones was a partner in what became the Chicago Title & Trust Company, as well as an alderman.

The celebrated men's wives were often civic leaders, as well, most as philanthropists. In this, Frances MacBeth Glessner differed somewhat from her Gilded Age neighbors. Besides her social activities, she herself was an artisan, an accomplished silversmith and textile designer with a 'basement workshop' in the formidable stone house still standing stoutly at the southwest corner of 18th and Prairie.

Frances Glessner and her husband, John Jacob Glessner, were proponents of the Arts and Crafts Movement, begun in England. The Glessners engaged prominent architect Henry Hobson Richardson to design their fortress-like home. Hugely square and aesthetically unprepossessing from the street, the rusticated granite house's iron-barred portal opens to a fabulously rich, oak-paneled interior.

To catalogue the building's interior would be a lengthy job, even though the Glessners' well-honed tastes were slightly less 'baroque,' less excessive than those of other Victorians. The couple shared a "partners' desk" in their library, where some of their valuable ceramics collection is displayed above the bookcases and a Morris chair stands in a corner. Such marital equity is remarkable for the era.

The Glessner House furnishings were custom-designed by Isaac Scott, a close friend. The pieces are somewhat squarish and relatively plain by Victorian standards, perhaps presaging the later development of the cubic Mission strain of Arts and Crafts furniture. The founder of Arts and Crafts, William Morris is also well-represented in the Glessner decorations: his company produced the intricate wallpapers, for example, as well as delightful textiles.

Imagine the Glessner "House Beautiful," indeed, as Prairie Avenue House Museums "mascot" Oscar Wilde tutored Chicagoans to do during his 1882 visit.

The rear courtyard, accessed from the stable which now houses the tourist center or from the house itself, is entirely surrounded by building or the wall which will border the Park, the enclosure invisible from the street. The courtyard reveals its secrets grudgingly: native Illinois sandstone window accents contrasting with sooty brick; a round tower and turrets; a house wall scarred by loss of its porch and in need of patrons to support repairs; by the garden wall, a whimsical "Midway Sprite" Iannelli statue from Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Gardens.

Clarke House, on the other side of the new Women's Park, offers a very different architectural experience. The timber-frame Greek Revival home has survived two moves-once, up-and-over the el tracks, as a photo in the Glessner tourist center illustrates. In fact, Clarke House's "candlelit double parlors" offer the perfect setting for the upcoming 11th Annual Edgar Allen Poe Readings on Oct. 24, 25, 26, and 31, Hallowe'en night. (Tickets are $16 general public, $12 members; reservations required; call 312-326-1480)

But all is not antiquated or even antique in the surrounds of the Women's Park. The National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum is next door to Glessner, at 1801 Indiana, showcasing artwork by male vets from countries involved in the war, and the Museum building houses Cafe V, owned by female chef Cali Bergold. Barbara Lynne presides over the Near South Planning Board.

Woman Made Gallery's provocative "Making Waves" show of contemporary images and objects closes Oct. 24; among the most memorable pieces are the Willendorfian venuses of Terri Messinides' "This Is Your Goddess Speaking"; and the WWI-era NYPD police photographs recording women's murder scenes juxtaposed with modern newspaper "morgue" clippings about violence against women, in Mary Ellen Croteau's "That Was Then, This Is Now."

Woman Made Gallery staff are excited at how the District is evolving into a women's space. "I can't even believe all the things that are happening, it seems so wonderful," commented Gallery Assistant Pamela Callahan, who aptly described Woman Made as "the unexpected surprise at the end of the street." But once the Women's Park is fully endowed, Woman Made will be directly linked to its historic neighbors.

Woman Made's next show, "Women's Folk Art" opens with a reception Oct. 31, 6- 9p.m. Juror for the upcoming assemblage is Chicago gallery owner Judith Racht. The show will feature 46 works in a wide range of media, by 22 women artists (for info, call 312-328-0038).

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