The Miracle House, 2001 North Nordica Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. (1954)

Frank Lloyd Wright meets The Jetsons.

Scale Model. Locals called it the "Spider House," "Grasshopper House," or "Glass House."

The bold, mid-century modern "Miracle House" stands at 2001 N. Nordica Avenue in the Galewood neighborhood within the larger Austin Community Area. The genesis of the house is perhaps unlike any other in Chicago, for it was built as a grand prize for a raffle sponsored by the nearby St. William Catholic parish. The name Miracle House first appeared on the raffle tickets, and it has stuck with the property. 

In 1953, Fr. Frank Cieselski of the expanding parish conceived a house raffle to raise funds for a new church, school, convent and rectory. Edo Belli, a 36-year-old Chicago modernist architect and a Catholic who had attracted the backing of Archbishop Samuel A. Stritch for other diocesan commissions, offered to design the house free of charge and was given complete freedom of design. Indeed, Fr. Cieselski urged the architects to produce a boldly futuristic design that would capture attention and boost ticket sales.

Today, the house is a unique work of modern residential architecture in Chicago with a structural system based on two giant steel arms acting as a suspension bridge rather than load-bearing walls and columns. The Miracle House is unique for its almost all-glass exterior, making it innovative in its openness and connection with its exterior surroundings.

The primary elevation of the house faces south onto Armitage Avenue. The second-floor kitchen with a glazed curtain wall is suspended over the driveway, creating a carport, reflecting the centrality of the automobile in residential architecture in America in the postwar era. The first floor is clad in coursed Lannon stone, a widely used material in the mid-twentieth century.

The Miracle House resulted from a campaign to raise capital funds for the expansion of a Catholic parish complex that resulted in not just the construction of the house itself but also St. William parish a mile away. Thus, it reflects the important contributions religious communities made to Chicago neighborhoods. The futuristic design of the house also reveals the cultural optimism for novelty and the future that captivated America in the 1950s, even as the Cold War menaced on. 

Detail the pair of 36-ton steel trusses from which the house is suspended. They were fabricated by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, which donated its services to the project like many suppliers.

The house is also significant as the work of Belli & Belli Architects and Engineers, Inc., a small, family-run architecture firm founded in 1946 in Chicago, which by 1953 was a booming office with 45 employees. Belli & Belli played an outsize role during the modern era in Chicago and throughout the nation. The firm's designs were marked by structural innovation and an expressive modern aesthetic that was arguably more popular than the austerities of the International Style.

Chicago's Hugh Hefner with his wife, Mildred, and daughter Christine in his new 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible in front of the "Miracle House." 1955

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The house was built entirely with donated labor and materials, including the stainless steel arms from which the house is suspended. General Electric donated appliances, retailer Sol Polk (Polk Brothers) donated furnishings and the General Bridge and Steel Company provided the steel arms. The raffle raised enough money to not only pay for a new church but a new parish rectory, a convent and a school. 

In addition to the prominence of the automobile in residential architecture, outdoor living also became a new priority in the postwar era. At the west elevation of the Miracle House, sliding glass doors lead to a patio, and a canopy over the terrace was added later.

The Galewood Neighborhood in the Austin Community.

Galewood first developed as a 320-acre frontier farm settled by New York transplant Abram Gale in 1838. In 1899, a portion of the farm was leased to the Western Ho Golf Club, which remained there until the late 1920s. In 1927, the golf club and what remained of the farm were subdivided for residential development by G. Whittier Gale, grandson of the original settler. Many of the homes in the neighborhood are bungalows and various revival styles of architecture, including Tudor, Georgian, and French eclectic from before World War II and Cape Cod and Ranch-style homes from the postwar era. Galewood has a distinctly suburban feel, with the houses deeply set back on large, manicured lots.

Building Design and Construction

The Miracle House is essential to the Galewood neighborhood of Chicago and the local St. William Catholic parish. The idea of selling $1 tickets for a raffle with a chance to win a futuristic house was motivated by St. William's need to expand its campus, an expansion that the raffle succeeded in funding.

The raffle drawing was held at the old Lion's Club in Chicago in December 1955. 

A raffle ticket from which the house derived its name. Purchasers were entitled to a house tour in the months leading up to the drawing.
A $1.00 Raffle Ticket Equals $11.00 Today.

To that extent, the raffle not only added the Miracle House to the neighborhood in 1954 but eventually, by 1961, also a new church, convent, school, and rectory at the four corners of the intersection of Sayre and Wrightwood Avenues. Belli & Belli designed all these buildings in the modern style, and for the church, Edo Belli employed a thin-shell concrete wall and roof structure, a new technology of which Belli & Belli was an early adopter. Coincidentally, Belli & Belli's offices were located in the neighborhood.

When Edo Belli agreed to volunteer to design the Miracle House, Belli & Belli had already designed the first of what would become many churches, institutions, and hospitals for the Catholic church in general and the Archdiocese of Chicago in particular. In addition, the firm took on commercial work, but Edo Belli had yet to design a single-family dwelling other than for himself and his family. The Miracle House was a project that Edo Belli had to discuss with Cardinal Stritch, as the residential design was different from a standard part of his firm's practice.

The house would be built on a large lot (100' x 200') at the northeast corner of Nordica and Armitage Avenues. Precisely how this property was identified, or the decision-making that led to its purchase, is still being determined. Its proximity one mile south of St. William parish was undoubtedly a factor.

Construction began as soon as Belli's design was completed in late 1953. As word of the planned raffle to win a futuristic house got out, donated labor and material started pouring in to assist with the construction for a good cause and publicity. The Chicago Bridge & Iron Company contributed the massive steel arches, and General Electric donated all the necessary appliances, making this an all-electric house. Sol Polk of Polk Brothers, a famed Chicago appliance and electronics retailer, provided all the furnishings free of charge. Sol Polk also led the raffle promotion. Trade unions offered their services pro bono. Jim Belli, Edo's son, believes the only thing that should have been donated was the windows.

When construction of the Miracle House finished in late 1954, purchasers of a $1 raffle ticket were entitled to a house tour in the months leading up to the drawing in December of that year. The raffle was also promoted with custom-made glass ashtrays depicting the house. 

This 6"x 2½" ashtray/candy dish was given to purchasers of multiple raffle tickets.

Movie star and former neighborhood resident Kim Novak announced the winning ticket. She attended St. Williams, and her parents lived on Sayre Avenue, a half block from the Miracle House site.

The house winner was Joseph Novelle, who lived a half block away on Nordica. 

He owned the house briefly, selling it in 1957 to the Marano family, who put on a compatible addition in 1965 as their family grew. The Maranos remained in the house until 1989 when they sold it at auction to Alexander Fletcher, a Chicago fireman, who lived there for 10 years. 

In 1999, Dr. David Scheiner, M.D. bought the house and lived there as only its fourth owner in Novelle's 65-year history. (Dr. Scheiner had a long-established medical practice in Hyde Park, Chicago, where one of his patients was Barack Obama in the years before he became President.)

When it was completed in 1954, the house measured 20' x 56', with the primary elevation facing south onto Armitage Avenue. The house is suspended from two 36-ton steel arms spanning 100' in an east-west direction. The bridge-like structural system eliminated the need for load-bearing walls, allowing ample glazing and an open interior free of columns. The exterior on the second floor consists of a glazed curtain wall, while on the first floor, the exterior is rendered in Lannon stone, which is also used on the interior of the first-floor living room.

Lannon stone walls on the exterior carry into the interior of the first-floor living room. The floors are polished travertine. The short terrazzo stairway leads up to a split-level recreation room.

The first floor is a split level with the ground-level layout occupied by a living room and a recreation room (originally bedrooms) on the lower level. The kitchen and dining rooms are on the second floor, and a main bedroom fills the third floor. The large expanses of glass create a light-filled and spacious interior with terrazzo and travertine floors. The most incredible room is above the south-facing carport - the kitchen, a beautiful projecting room with three glass walls emitting light on the south, west, and east.

Another view of the living room shows a flitch-matched wood wall panel and clerestory windows. Unlike more austere forms of modern architecture, the Miracle House is a "Contemporary" style with more broad appeal.

The Marano family added a bedroom to the house in 1965 to accommodate a growing family of eight children. Belli & Belli was offered the commission but declined due to the substantial number of hospital and commercial commissions on the boards at the time. A neighborhood architect, Ray Basso, took the job and generally respected Belli's original design, containing his work to the north side of the house, where the unique, original design stands on its own as approached from the south.

The suspended structure allowed for large areas of glazing, as shown in this view of the second-floor kitchen with terrazzo floors. Such opening up of exterior views of large manicured lawns was another characteristic of mid-century modern residential architecture.

For years, the Miracle House was a drive-by destination for locals in the Galewood community and fans of modern architecture. Postcards were printed, and celebrities visited, including Hugh Hefner, who grew up in the neighborhood. The Miracle House is still recognized as a local landmark in the Galewood community.

The Contemporary Style of Mid-Century Modern Residential Architecture

The Miracle House is a clear example of mid-century modern residential architecture. This catch-all includes a range of fluid styles and where commonly agreed-upon definitions remain elusive. Virginia McAlester's Field Guide to American Houses, revised in 2013, is regarded as the most definitive guide to American domestic architecture. It defines the "Contemporary Style" as best representing the Miracle House design.

While different styles fall under the mid-century modern umbrella, they all responded to social and technological changes and new ways of living in postwar America. These transformations are well described in a 1960 issue of House & Garden:

Few periods in history can match the past decade in the number of spectacular changes it has witnessed in our daily lives. From a nation well supplied with automobiles, we have turned to a nation living on wheels, and the not-too-surprising result is that the garage has become the actual entrance of today's house. In months, TV grew from a rather expensive toy into standard household equipment, and in the process, a new room—the family room- was added to the house. Insulating glass walls of the southern California house have become equally comfortable for the climate of northern Illinois. The whole country has succumbed to a passion for cooking, eating and lounging outdoors, but at the same time, land on which to build, cook, and lounge has become progressively scarcer.

Despite their stylistic differences, mid-century modern houses typically have attached garages incorporated into the building. Open floor plans and large living rooms for TV are commonplace. Large windows take full advantage of views of large, landscaped lawns. All these characteristics are visible in the design of the Miracle House.

The Contemporary Style rejected historical styles of architecture. However, the style allowed for more materials, textures, and forms, making it more popular than the austere forms of mid-century modern house design.

The design of contemporary-style houses is clearly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses, built with natural materials, free-flowing interiors, and a blending of interior and exterior spaces. Contemporary-style houses were popular from 1945 to 1965 when architects designed them for individual clients or were built in large numbers by developers, most notably by Joseph Eichler, who made thousands of contemporary-style homes in the San Francisco Bay area.

The Contemporary House style emphasized the convenience of open floor plans and blending indoor and outdoor spaces. The houses are typically two stories in height with flat or shallow-pitched and exposed roof structures. Exterior walls are clad in various materials, including brick, wood, and stone, often combined. Entrances are usually recessed or off-center. All these character-defining features are visible in the design of the Miracle House.

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Dr. David Scheiner bought the house in 1999 on the advice of his late wife, who had known about the home while growing up on the Northwest Side. “I walked in, and my jaw dropped,” Scheiner said, noting that he purchased the whole thing for around $375,000 at the time. The home, he said, is 70 percent glass, the floors are marble, and the Jetson's-style stainless-steel arms (they do not support the house) imitate the flying buttresses that hold up European cathedrals. Dr. Scheiner was Barack Obama’s personal doctor for nearly two decades, right up until Obama won the presidency in 2008.

On April 21, 2021, the Chicago City Council unanimously approved the landmark status of the Miracle House.

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A 2023 Real Estate Appraisal: $563,000.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The House of the Good Shepherd was Founded in 1859 in the Town of Lake View, Illinois.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd's original building was located on the West side on Price Place. In 1907 they moved to 1126 West Grace Street (at Racine Avenue) in the Town of Lake View, Illinois, The Town of Lake View was officially annexed to Chicago on July 15, 1889.

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Addresses for shelters are hard to find today, as they are deemed dangerous for women and children sought by their spouses or stalkers. 

Today, Lakeview (not Lake View) is one of Chicago's 77 communities with four neighborhoods; (1) Lake View East, (2) North Halsted, (3) West Lakeview, and (4) Wrigleyville.

The House of the Good Shepherd opened a Technical School for Girls of Color with 25 students in 1911, which was later closed in 1953. 

The Grace Street facility was deemed unsafe and a fire hazard in 1970. The rebuilt facility was opened in 1975, and they opened a domestic violence shelter in 1980 with a Children's Center the same year.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Truth About Al Capone's Soup Kitchen at 935 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Chicago shivered through a particularly bleak October in 1930. As the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression, thousands of Chicago's jobless huddled thrice daily in a long line snaking away from a newly opened soup kitchen. With cold hands stuffed into overcoat pockets as empty as their stomachs, the needy shuffled toward the big banner that declared "Free Soup Coffee & Doughnuts for the Unemployed."

Original caption: "Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone."

The kind-hearted philanthropist who had come to their aid was "Public Enemy Number One," Al Capone.

Capone certainly made for an unlikely humanitarian. Chicago's most notorious gangster had built his multi-million-dollar bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling operation upon a foundation of extortion, bribes, and murders.

It culminated with the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the murder of seven Irish members and associates of Chicago's "North Side Gang." The men were gathered at a Chicago Lincoln Park garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two dressed as police officers. The incident resulted from the struggle to control organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the Irish North Side Gang, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their Italian Chicago Outfit rivals led by Al Capone. The triggermen have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of a role, as are members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for killing a police officer's son.

Many Chicagoans, however, had more pressing concerns than organized crime in the year following the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Long lines on American sidewalks had become all-too-familiar sights as jittery investors made runs on banks and the unemployed waited for free meals.

Capone's Soup Kitchen at 935 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

In early November 1930, more than 75,000 jobless Chicagoans lined up to register their names. Nearly a third required immediate relief. "The Madison Street hobo type was conspicuously absent from these lines of men," reported the Chicago Tribune, which noted that many of the unemployed were well-dressed.

A week later, the Chicago Tribune reported that the mysterious benefactor who had recently rented out a storefront and opened a soup kitchen at 935 South State Street was the city's king of booze, beer, and vice. Capone's soup kitchen served breakfast, lunch, and dinner to an average of 2,200 Chicagoans daily (The NY Times reported the Soup kitchen fed 3,000 daily).

In the soup kitchen, smiling women in white aprons served coffee and sweet rolls for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch, and soup, coffee, and bread for dinner. No second helpings were denied, no questions were asked, and no one was asked to prove their need. 

You had to eat your meal there. A few exceptions were made, where food could be taken home if the unemployed man had a family to feed.

Interior of Al Capone's Soup Kitchen at 935 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

On Thanksgiving in 1930, Capone's soup kitchen served holiday helpings to 5,000 Chicagoans. Reportedly, Capone had planned a traditional Thanksgiving meal for the jobless until he had heard of a local heist of 1,000 turkeys. Although "Scarface" had not been responsible for the theft, he feared he would be blamed for the caper and made a last-minute menu change from turkey and cranberry sauce to beef stew.

The soup kitchen added to Capone's Robin Hood reputation with a segment of Americans who saw him as a hero for the common man. They pointed to the newspaper reports of his handouts to widows and orphans. When the government deprived them of beer and alcohol during Prohibition, Capone delivered it to them. The crime boss gave them food when the government failed to feed them in their desperate days. Hunger trumped principles for anyone who felt conflicted about taking charity from a gangster. The Bismarck Tribune noted, "A hungry man is just as glad to get soup and coffee from Al Capone as from anyone else."

Interior of Al Capone's Soup Kitchen at 935 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

In Harper's Magazine, Mary Borden called Capone "an ambidextrous giant who kills with one hand and feeds with the other." She noted the irony that the line of jobless waiting for a handout from Chicago's most-wanted man often stretched past the door of the city's police headquarters, which held the evidence of the violent crimes carried out at Capone's behest.

Every day, the soup kitchen served 350 loaves of bread, 100 dozen rolls, 50 pounds of sugar, and 30 pounds of coffee, costing about $300 a day ($5,175 today). It was a sum that Capone could easily afford since, on the same day that news of his soup kitchen broke, Capone's bookkeeper Fred Ries testified in court that the profits from Capone's most lucrative gambling houses cleared $25,000 a month.

One night, Lou Barelli, a former gangster and enemy of Capone's syndicate, walked into the soup kitchen, unaware of the owner. A gang member saw Barelli and decided to make a special bowl of soup for him. It's unknown what was done to make a poisonous spoon, but shortly after leaving the soup kitchen, Lou Barelli died; an autopsy revealed he’d been poisoned.

A spoon from Al Capone's Soup Kitchen that makes any edible

food item it touches poisonous. The person gets increasingly

sicker over several hours, then... lights out!

The press never spotted Capone in the soup kitchen, newspapers ate up the soup kitchen story. Some such as the Daily Independent of Murphysboro, Illinois, expressed displeasure at the adulation bestowed upon its operator. “If anything were needed to make the farce of Gangland complete, it is the Al Capone soup kitchen,” it editorialized. “It would be rather terrifying to see Capone run for mayor of Chicago. We are afraid he would get a tremendous vote. It is even conceivable that he might be elected after a few more stunts like his soup kitchens.”

Although he was one of the wealthiest men in America, Capone may not have paid a dime for the soup kitchen, relying instead on his criminal tendencies to stockpile his charitable endeavor by extorting and bribing businesses to donate goods. 

During the 1932 trial of Capone ally State Senator Daniel Serritella, claims ducks donated by a chain grocery store for Serritella's holiday drive ended up being served in Capone's soup kitchen.

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The original soup kitchen idea really had nothing to do with Capone. The idea was originally thought up by Daniel Serritella who later suggested it to Capone. On November 2, 1930, there was a gathering in Nick Circella's apartment in Berwyn. Capone had been hiding there often during of the investigation into the murders of reporter Jake Lingle, Jack Zuta and Joe Aiello. 

Capone, Circella, and Read were discussing the general elections coming up on November 4th. Capone had deals going with candidates on both parties. Dan Serritella had just arrived at the apartment. Capone turned to Dan and said "By the way, Dan, I don't want that woman beaten badly in the First Ward. Keep your eye on that!" Capone winked at Read. "That's insurance! I told the top men she'd lead the Republicans in the First Ward and so she'd better." He turned again towards Dan. "What about that spot on State Street?" He asked. "It's going to take about a C note ($100) a day to run, any way we figure it.' said Serritella. "That's okay!" said Capone "I don't want to be cheap about it."

"Opening a new place?" Harry Read asked. "Sure! Now I got a soup kitchen!" exclaimed Capone. "A soup kitchen?" echoed Read in astonishment.

"That's right!" affirmed Capone. "There are so many people hungry in the First Ward because of the depression that Dan asked me to back a free handout joint. He's got more starving people down there than he can handle—all the bums that land in Chicago go to the First Ward. That makes it tough for the people who live there and so we figured if we could feed the drifters it would lighten the load for the regular charity rackets."

Read being the city editor told Capone that it would make a great story! Capone frowned and immediately retorted "Nothing doing! Nix on that! No story! I'd only be panned for doing it!" Serritella departed.

Capone was confident that Dan Serritella his protege, would have no difficulty getting elected State Senator from the First District. The fix was in. Dan Serritella became State Senator just as Capone had predicted. He had been City Sealer [1] for the William Hale Thompson administration.

Irregularities during his City Sealer days were later coming back to bite him. By this time, Capone was carted off to prison for hs income tax evasion. Serritella and his one time Deputy City Sealer (Harry Hochstein) were convicted of fixing the weight of food through grocers. Meaning that the public was short changed whenever they bought anything by weight. This resulted in a monopoly of millions of dollars received through bribes, extortion and defrauding the public. These are the same charges that were brought fourth against Hochstein and Serritella.

Just before Christmas 1930, several trucks from major food store chains pulled up to a warehouse on the Southside of Chicago. Serritella had presented these stores a list of provisions they were to "Donate" to the cause. In exchange, Serritella would have their short change the public charges dismissed.

Deputy City Inspector Herman Levin that Serritella's secretary had directed him to go to 3022 South Wells (Santa Lucia Church) to direct the packing of Christmas baskets for the needy. December 23, 1930, during the whole day, trucks upon trucks arrived leaving goods to be used for the Christmas basket preparations.

A south side market chain brought chickens and ducks. The National Tea company truck brought a 1000 cans of corn, tea, half pound bags of sugar, and candy. A Novak truck brought a couple of barrel of hams. The General Markets truck brought a couple of barrels of raw hams. Twenty to thirty men who were precinct captains in Serritella's ward were there packing the xmas baskets. Al Tallinger, who was Dan Serritella's secretary had given the strict order to take the ducks that were delivered and hand them over to Capone bodyguard Phil D'Andrea. The ducks, instead of being used for Christmas baskets, would be diverted to the soup kitchen at 935 South State street.

Once the word was out the crowds multiplied. Once Capone's name was tied to it the authorities were mortified. While whether or not partly a ploy for public sympathy by Capone just before went to trial, the soup kitchens he opened were still very appreciated by the hungry jobless men in photo who visited daily. In a sense ploy or not, Al did more than the government ever did at that time for the needy.  It did personally cost Capone about a c-note ($100) per day to operate. This was beside the "Donated" food.  Newspaperman Harry Read stated that he was in Nick Circella's Berwyn apartment with Capone and Serritella when the soup kitchen was planned.

In the end, the reality was the soup kitchen had been primarily state senator Daniel Serritella's idea, and not Al Capone's at all! Serritella ran with the venture in order to garner votes from his constituents for Mayor William Hale Thompson's re-election bid. Once he saw that Thompson's chances were fading the soup kitchen was promptly closed!

In May 1932, Daniel Serritella and Harry Hochstein were given each a year in jail and a $2,000 fine for their grocers extortion role. Daniel had been a well known friend of Al Capone and Harry Hochstein himself had even gone to see the gang chief off  to prison at the Dearborn train station.

On April 10, 1931, the soup kitchen closed. The reasons mentioned were that the economy had picked up, and new jobs were on the market, making the hungry line not so abundant.

However, prison, not politics, would be in Capone's future. No good publicity could save Capone from the judgment of a jury that found him guilty of income tax evasion in November 1931. 

Upon hearing of Capone's death in 1947, only the poverty-stricken
remembered Al Capone's kindness.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] City Sealer. A city with a population of 25,000 people or more may have a city sealer. A sealer can certify commercially used weighing and measuring devices via the Department of Agriculture - Weights and Measures. A city sealer does device inspections for vehicles, railroads, retail motor fuel dispensers, and more. This job provided many opportunities to skim funds.

La Rabida Hospital at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

La Rabida Hospital on the south side of Chicago has it's origins in the Santa Maria de la Rabida Convent from the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. The Convent of La Rabida is the last place Columbus set foot before he left dry land. Spain erected a full-scale replica of the convent for the fair.

Inside the Convent are found some of the most valuable relics of the Exposition, comprising illustrations of the life history of Columbus, relics of the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of the early history of this convent in the time of Columbus, and many historical paintings. The Columbian relics, including a small vial of Columbus' remains, have been gathered from every quarter of the globe.

After the World's fair, Spain gifted the building to Chicago and it became known as La Rabida Sanitarium. They treated infants of the poor on Chicago's south side free of charge. Most of the babies were suffering from what was termed "milk poisoning" which was really just spoiled milk due to a lack of proper refrigeration. The building burned down in 1922. The La Rabida Children's Hospital still exists today and is expanding. Their mission is the same. Provide free medical service to those that need it. The stones that you see around the building are still there today as part of Jackson Park.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Abraham Lincoln and the Second Portuguese Church.

See footnote about The Marine and Fire Insurance Company.

Pictured here is a check for $5 ($150 today) payable to the Second Portuguese Church, written and signed by Abraham Lincoln on July 16, 1860. The Second Portuguese Church? Abraham Lincoln? What could have been the connection?

The saga unfolds in Madeira, the Portuguese islands off the coast of Africa, in 1838. Doctor Robert Reid Kalley, a wealthy physician, and minister of the Free Church of Scotland, en route to missionary work in China, stopped at Funchal, Madeira, when his wife became ill.

As she convalesced, the couple decided that this lovely island would be a fine place to dispense free medical care, plus the Scotch Presbyterian interpretation of the scriptures. As a man of means, Dr. Kalley was able not only to maintain his free dispensary and hospital but to establish schools and hire teachers so the natives could learn English (and he, Portuguese).

The predominant religious authority in the Portuguese islands was the Roman Catholic Church. For a couple of years, Kalley avoided their displeasure. But when his church began attracting to open-air Sunday Calvinist services some 1,000 to 3,000 people, the Catholic powers, represented by the Bishop of Madeira, intervened.

Arrests and ex-communications began. Kalley protested to the archbishop in Lisbon, and orders were sent from there to halt the persecution. That did not deter the local clergy and courts. They persisted with arrests and imprisonment. Kalley himself spent five months in jail in 1845. 

That prompted his return to Scotland, but other missionaries arrived. The religious conflict intensified, culminating in riots in 1846. With this unrest came a worsening economy. The combination drove 1,000 Portuguese to leave Madeira on English ships. They stopped in Trinidad, where they worked on sugar and cocoa plantations. The women became housemaids and seamstresses. But as a group, they were not happy with the climate and overall environment.

To the rescue came an organized Christian coalition. The American Protestant Society rook an interest and made plans to bring the displaced people to America. The American Hemp Company agreed to settle 131 families between Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois, each family with 10 acres of land. The Missionary Society raised the money and transported the immigrants from Trinidad to New York and then Illinois.

At the critical moment, when it was time to settle the families on the farms, American Hemp was unable or unwilling to proceed. Now another rescue effort was organized. All the Protestant churches in Jacksonville and Springfield joined forces. With great generosity, they provided the essentials to launch the newcomers. The grateful Portuguese became model residents, integrating with the business and professional life of the community.

By 1855, there were 350 Portuguese in Springfield, and for several years they continued to arrive from Trinidad and Madeira. In the first generation, socially, they maintained their ethnic culture. They formed three Portuguese Presbyterian churches in Jacksonville and two in Springfield. Some 17 Madeirans later saw service for the North in the Vicksburg campaign and the siege of Atlanta.

Lincoln's awareness of the Second Portuguese Church could have originated from Portuguese clients of the law firm of Lincoln and Herndon, but his more personal interest probably stemmed from the family's employment of young Frances Affonsa. Frances, a dark-skinned, black-eyed Portuguese girl, came to the house sometime between Lincoln's defeat for the U.S. Senate in 1858 and his presidential nomination. She is reponed to have declared simply, "I wash clothes, Mrs. Lincum."

The girl's conscientious work and good nature made a favorable impression on Mary Lincoln, who was known to be hard on household help. Frances, as a laundress, was junior in the household to Mariah Vance, a pipe-smoking black woman, 10 years older than Lincoln, who served the family from 1850, first as a laundress, maid, then general housekeeper. Mariah did not live with the Lincolns—she had I2 children and a husband in the town. Her son Billie became a close friend of Robert Todd, who taught him to read and write.

It is from Mariah that we learn most about the private lives of the Lincolns, for her remembrances were written in Black English by Adah Sutton. About Abe, Mariah said, "Dat man was a man of Gawd and he was crucified every day of his life." And about Mary, "Honey chile, ef ah wah good 'nough fah dah Missy Lincolumn, ah shuh and be good 'nough fah mose anyone. Dae woman wah shuhb 'ticklah."

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Leopold Grozelier, 1960.

May of 1860 was a time of great excitement for the Lincoln household. The Republican nominating convention began in Chicago on May 16. One hundred and fifty railroad trains a day brought 40,000 curious strangers and 500 delegates to the city. The old Sauganash Hotel at the corner of Lake and Market streets had been torn down and replaced with a barn-like wooden structure called The Wigwam.

The old site of the Sauganash Hotel / The Wigwam Building in Chicago.

Ten thousand people crowded into a vast interior, festooned with flags and streamers of red, white, and blue. Norman Judd, a railroad lawyer, stood before the huge assemblage and delivered one brief line. "I desire, on behalf of the delegation from Illinois, to put in nomination, as a candidate for president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois."

"Five thousand people leaped from their seats, women not wanting," a Lincoln supporter reported, "and the wild yell made vesper breathings of all that had preceded. A thousand steam whistles, 10 acres of hotel gongs, a tribe of Comanches might have mingled in the scene unnoticed." 

"Old Abe," "Honest Abe," "The Backwoodsman," "The Rail Splitter" defeated the favored William Seward for the nomination. (Horace Greeley had wired his New York Tribune that Seward seemed sure to win). 

Two months after the nomination, Lincoln made his $5 contribution to the Second Portuguese Church... at the request of Frances Affonsa? Mary? A congregant who dutifully came to the door seeking donations? Or was it just Old Abe's kindly charitable inspiration?

On November 6, Lincoln won the presidency, polling 1.8 million votes to 1.3 for Democrat Stephen Douglas. Amidst the jubilation, back in Springfield, the president-elect received a stately black silk hat as a gift. He said simply to Mary, "Well, wife, if nothing else comes of this scrape, we're going to have some new clothes."

By Sanford J. Mock

Edited by Dr. NeilGale, Ph.D.

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NOTE:

When Lincoln opened his account with $310 ($7,890 today), the company had been in business for nearly two years. Lincoln was a bank depositor from March 1, 1853, until his death on April 15, 1865. Its improbable name in a landlocked town reflected how goods reached Springfield in the nineteenth century -- partly on the Illinois River. The company dropped marine insurance from its business after railroad shipping replaced waterway transportation, but retained the "marine" part of its name for many years.

The original Lincoln family account ledger with the Marine and Fire Insurance Company, which is now JP Morgan Chase Bank, 6th & Washington Streets, Springfield, Illinois. (1853-1867)

Today you can see the Lincoln ledger in the bank lobby preserved in a custom-built case decorated with bas relief sculpture on three sides. The case depicts Lincoln as his friends in central Illinois knew him: pioneer rail-splitter, storekeeper and law student, and state representative. The ledger book is opened to the Lincoln account, where "A. Lincoln" appears at the top, written by his banker, Robert Irwin. When Lincoln left Springfield as president-elect, Irwin made transactions as his local agent. After Lincoln's death, the account continued in the name of David Davis, administrator of the Lincoln estate, until May 27, 1867.

Photograph of The Marine and Fire Insurance Company on the East Side of the Public Square, Springfield, Illinois. Circa 1860s

The History of the Mary E. McDowell Settlement House in Chicago, Illinois.

Mary McDowell's (1854-1936) abolitionist father, Malcolm McDowell, brought the family from Cincinnati to Chicago after the Civil War, arriving in Chicago in 1870. At the time of the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (Mary was 17), her father, though ill himself, consented to her taking their horse and wagon out to help rescue fleeing citizens and some of their possessions.

Mary Eliza McDowell

The governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, an old friend of the McDowells, was one of the first to rush aid to the stricken city and, of course, he sent it to the home of the McDowells for distribution. Mary worked unceasingly in those first days after the fire before central relief forces were organized and helped form the “Relief and Aid Society,” from which United Charities of Chicago later emerged. Another organization was distributing, en masse, Chicago Shelter Cottages, kit houses (short-term housing) for 1871 Fire Victims nearly days after the fire.

Mary McDowell with two unidentified individuals.

When Rutherford Hayes became president, Mary was invited to spend a month at the White House and later spent a summer in California with her uncle, Major General McDowell. In the early 1880s, her family moved to Evanston, Illinois, a very Methodist suburb at the time.

There Mary became a friend and follower of Frances Willard, founder of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the right of women to vote. After graduating from the National Kindergarten College and teaching for a private family in New York, she returned to Evanston in 1890. 

Her interest in the social experiment, which Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr began in General Hull’s old mansion in Chicago, led her to help found such an experiment in Evanston, the Northwestern University Settlement.

The University of Chicago - Mary McDowell Settlement House, 4655 Gross Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

Soon thereafter, she lived at Hull House as one of the first kindergarten workers until her mother's illness called her back to her family (she was one of six children) in Evanston. In the meantime, a new University of Chicago was being established, and members of its faculty transformed an association called the Christian Union, determined to learn the causes of this pervasive unrest and, at the same time, to minister to the needs of a neighborhood in the mode of Hull House. It was agreed that the district was called "Packingtown," just in the back of the Union Stock Yards (now the Back of the Yards neighborhood), which was the scene of bloodshed and rioting during the 1894 strike, was greatly in need of such a center. 

At the recommendation of Jane Addams, Mary McDowell, then 40 years old, was invited to take charge of the new house. In November 1894, she settled in a building in the heart of a most difficult, transient area, in four small rooms, in a tenement on Gross Avenue (now McDowell Avenue) and she began to live there as a neighbor to the workers of Packingtown.

From left: Mary K. Simkhovitch, Mary McDowell, Graham Taylor, and Jane Addams.

By 1906, the Settlement House had moved to a new building on the same block, which remained its home for some 60 years. By the 1930s, the site contained 45,000 square feet in a central, four-story building. It included a boxing room, five club rooms, a game room, junior and senior girl's rooms, a library, manual training and sewing areas, a music room, nursery, showers, and two play lots-one on the roof.

Eventually, there were two gymnasiums, one for boys and one for girls, and a visiting nurse program. The residents worked with those of all ages–from infants in the nursery to senior citizens. Most attention went to the children; having children at the Settlement house meant that parents would come too. The Mothers’ Club was an active organization for many years. Older children took classes in woodworking, manual training (for the boys), cooking and sewing (for the girls) and arts and crafts (for both). Some children had their own plots of land and learned to keep a garden. Once a week there was a show produced by the youngsters. Settlement house clubs participated in sports and other activities with the many ethnic, Parish-sponsored social and athletic clubs. 

In 1900, the city built the William Mavor Bathhouse (named after a Chicago alderman) at 4645 Gross (later McDowell) Avenue under the prodding of Mary McDowell and the Settlement House Women’s Club. The alderman who finally was moved to facilitate its building was so convinced of the potential political power of Mary McDowell that he had to be dissuaded from naming it the “Mary McDowell Municipal Bathhouse.” 

Sometimes called the "Angel of the Stockyards," Mary McDowell preferred to think of herself as a concerned citizen. She reached out from that base to promote trade unionism, safer working conditions, woman suffrage, inter-racial understanding, and reforms in municipal waste disposal.

While representing the union at the 1903 American Federation of Labor convention, she joined with others to establish a National Women's Trade Union League, to which she was elected as its first president. As the first president of the Illinois branch of the WTUL, she recruited glove-maker Agnes Nestor and boot and shoe worker Mary Anderson into the battle for shorter hours for factory women in Illinois. McDowell also persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to authorize the first federal investigation of working conditions and wages for women and children in the industry.  President Theodore Roosevelt and Congress authorized $300,000 to study women in the workplace. This landmark study took four years and filled 19 volumes!

In 1923, reform Mayor William E. Dever appointed Mary McDowell Commissioner of the Department of Public Welfare (a department created in 1914, mainly through the efforts of Charles Merriam, alderman and UC professor), which consisted of a Bureau of Employment and a Bureau of Social Surveys. In 1921, the City Council had been ready to abolish the department saying it was ‘the most useless on the city payroll.’ The Chicago Tribune, on June 27th, 1923, quoted an alderman, after some argument, as proposing: “Let’s give Miss McDowell this one opportunity to work out some of her plans, and if she fails, then we’ll repeal the act which created her position.” She was commissioned, and the department really began to serve the city and its citizens. 

Mary McDowell had campaigned for Women’s Suffrage, World Peace, better schools, improved health care, and honest government for the day, as she wrote, “When wage-earners would have a decent American standard of living.” 

She had moved in prestigious circles too and sought the help of those in power for her many causes-for, for those in need, whom she considered her friends and neighbors. She had asked the questions and set up the procedures whereby accurate information could be assimilated and used. And she was years ahead of most of her fellow citizens regarding race relations. Her diligent work in the Settlement House, in Packingtown, in the city, and far beyond had bettered the life of countless people.

Medal Awarded to Mary McDowell by the Government of Lithuania.

Mary McDowell retired at the age of 75 in 1929 and died at 82 in 1936. The University Settlement was renamed The Mary McDowell Settlement in 1956 in her honor. It was put under the wing of Chicago Commons in 1967, and the old settlement house buildings were torn down in the early 1970s.

The Mary E. McDowell School, 1419 East 89th Street, Chicago (Pre-K-5), was McDowell's namesake. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.