The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
2023
National Library Week – The Walker Branch Library
April 23 to 29 was National Library Week, and we’re looking at the history of the libraries on the Ridge. The previous post covered the first library on the Ridge, the Blue Island Public Library. This post will look at the Walker Branch Library in Morgan Park.
George Clarke Walker (1835 – 1905), a prominent merchant and financier, gave Morgan Park its library.
Walker was born in New York, and came to Chicago at the age of 12. His father rose to prominence in Chicago as a grain merchant who helped establish the Board of Trade, the “old” University of Chicago, and the city’s first railroads. Walker took after his father with his acumen for business and community development. He was a founder of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Illinois Humane Society, and the South Park system (which merged into the Chicago Park District).
In 1861, Walker organized the Blue Island Land and Building Company (BILBC), which was deemed “one of the great business undertakings of his life” and which “occupied nearly half his life.”
In 1869, BILBC bought much of the land of the original Thomas Morgan estate for development. They planned a community they called “Morgan Park” and hired Englishman Thomas F. Nichols to lay out the land to look like an English village. Beginning in 1873, the development was marketed to the public.
Morgan Park was positioned as an education, religious, and temperance community, and a good library was a necessity. In 1889, the Morgan Park Library Association was formed, headed by three of the leading residents, Isaac S. Blackwelder, Frank P. Silva, and Charles O. Ten Broeke. Other trustees included Dr. William H. German and Austin W. Wiswell. Subscriptions lists, or memberships, were started, and the growing community responded – there were 121 subscriptions within a few months. Many early community libraries were established as private undertakings, financed by membership fees and donations.
Although Walker never lived in Morgan Park, he was heavily invested in the area and supportive of improvements, and was behind the plans for the library. He personally financed the building of the library.
Walker hired architect Charles Sumner Frost to design the plans, and the Romanesque-style structure was built in 1889-90 from limestone quarried in Joliet. The builder was M.E. Baldwin. The building cost Walker about $10,000, quite a sum for the day. Walker also donated the beginnings of the book collection. The library opened on April 22, 1890.
Miss Mills was the first librarian. She was known for her attention to detail and accurate record keeping. The library got off to a good start, with about a thousand visitors in the first six months.
The library became part of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system when Morgan Park annexed to the City of Chicago in 1914. The original exterior limestone walls are the oldest structure owned by the CPL.
The library facilities were allowed to be used for other purposes. In its very first year, for example, the Presbyterian Association of Morgan Park held its services there. During World War II, the library was used as the headquarters for local defense operations.
The building is a contributing structure to the Ridge Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. The additions were built in 1929 -1933 and major renovations went on in 1995.
The Walker Branch Library is located at 111th Street and Hoyne Avenue.
National Library Week – Mount Greenwood and Beverly Libraries
Wrapping up National Library Week, the other two libraries on the Ridge, Mount Greenwood and Beverly, are much more recent additions.
Mount Greenwood annexed to the City of Chicago in 1927. Its early years were served by the Walker Branch Library in Morgan Park.
The population continued to grow, however, and in 1960, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) opened a sub-branch of a library in a store front in Mount Greenwood that was open for five hours per day.
In 1964, the CPL opened a full branch in a one-story building, a storefront at 10961 S. Kedzie Avenue. At the time, the CPL was finding it more economical to rent and adapt store fronts for libraries than to build new buildings. This branch consisted of reading rooms for adults and children, but no meeting or display rooms were available. The branch was very busy, and offered Saturday story hours and summer reading programs.
In 1991, Mount Greenwood received a newly built library, the one now in use at 11010 S. Kedzie.
The Beverly Branch Library also started as a storefront library to serve the Beverly and Brainerd areas, replacing a mobile library traveling unit that visited various locations. For instance, on October 22, 1961, the local newspaper announced the mobile library would be stationed at 95th and Charles Streets from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
In 1969, the CPL rented a vacant storefront at 2114-16 West 95th Street that was renovated into a library, with 30,000 newly purchased books. When the library finally opened its doors in May of 1970, over 4,000 books and other materials were borrowed in the first three days. In about a decade, the library outgrew this building. The location is now Top Notch Beefburgers.
The Beverly library became part of local folklore when it moved into an old funeral parlor in 1981. The CPL secured the existing building at 2121 West 95th Street to renovate into a new Beverly Branch Library. For decades, this building was the Beverly Chapel, then Lain and Son, funeral home. The renovations cost about $1.5 million, and the library opened in the spring of 1981.
On June 8, 2009, a newly built Beverly Branch Library, the one in use today, opened at 1962 West 95th Street. According to CPL, the branch features environmentally sustainable construction as determined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Sunday, MAY 7, 2023 – 2pm
Spring Bonnet Tea
Reservations close tomorrow, May 4
RHS is happy to be able to hold this annual fundraiser event again. Join us for a Full Victorian Tea featuring a fine selection of savories, scones and pastries. Ladies, please wear a spring hat or bonnet!
A wonderful multi-generational event — bring your daughters or granddaughters!
This Full Victorian Tea is set in the Historic Graver-Driscoll House, on the Ridge in the Beverly Hills neighborhood of Chicago.
Adults $25 Guests Under 12 $15
Get tickets online: https://bit.ly/bonnet-tea
RSVP: ridgehistory@hotmail.com 773.881.1675
Ridge Historical Society
Cinco de Mayo
By Carol Flynn
Today the Ridge Historical Society looks at the history of the Mexican community on the Ridge – and those train whistles that can be heard day and night from trains going into and out of our neighbor to the south, the City of Blue Island, with whom we share the Blue Island Ridge.
Cinco de Mayo, or May 5th, is an annual celebration of Mexican American culture. The origin of the day commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over the French at a battle in 1862. The success of the smaller Mexican army was a morale booster for the Mexicans, even though eventually Mexico City fell to the invaders.
With time, the day took on more significance in the U.S. than in Mexico to showcase the traditions and pride of Mexican immigrants. Cinco de Mayo should not be confused with Mexico’s Independence Day, September 16, which is more important in Mexico.
Historically, the Mexican community was not that prevalent in the early days of Beverly/Morgan Park, although it is well represented now. However, Mexicans played a vital role in the development of the City of Blue Island. Today, Blue Island’s population is about 50% Hispanic.
Blue Island first developed as a “river city” located on the Calumet River and Stony Creek, and of course the building of the Cal-Sag Channel was very important for commerce. With the coming of the railroads in the mid-1800s, Blue Island became a “railroad hub.”
Many ethnic groups worked on the U. S. railroads – the Chinese, European immigrants, African Americans. But it has long gone unrecognized that over 50% of the tracks in many areas of the country were laid by Mexican workers.
In the early 1900s, the railroad companies sent recruiters into Mexico to entice the people to come to the States to work for the railroads. The recruiters promised nice housing and a high standard of living. The reality for the families that came, however, was very different. They lived in boxcars on the railroad yards, with wooden bunks and no windows, in dangerous conditions, with no running water and no fuel for heat.
The first “railroad camp” in the Chicago area was established in Blue Island in 1917 to house the “traqueros,” or track and maintenance workers, who came here, often with their young families. This was set up around 123rd Street and Winchester Ave. The camp developed the reputation as one of the worst in the country.
With time, as with most immigrant groups, the Mexican workers moved into other jobs and established their own businesses and communities. It is a tribute to this hard-working group of people that they overcame not only the destitute conditions forced upon them but also extreme prejudice to flourish in the country that invited them to move here and became dependent upon them for both the railroad and agriculture industries.
In 1974, the Blue Island city council banned the painting of a mural at 13337 Old Western Ave. that depicted the history of Mexican laborers. The city claimed it was against zoning laws for advertising signs. The U.S. District Court found in favor of the mural painters, stating it portrayed “an idea,” not an advertisement. The mural was completed.
With time, the mural faded, but it was repainted in 2016 as a community project, a vibrant reminder of the history of the Mexican community on the Ridge.
Updated from an original 2020 post.
Posted by a neighbor this morning, here is a fox visiting the Ridge Historical Society. Urban wildlife is a sign of a flourishing environment.
And there is always a history story to be told. Before the European settlers "developed" the Ridge, the area teemed with wildlife and natural resources. Predators like wolves and fox were prevalent, along with the occasional bear and cougar. There were plenty of smaller prey animals, rabbits, squirrels, etc.
The sky would be blackened by the millions of passenger pigeons flying overhead – now they are extinct. Prairie chickens, quail, grouse, song birds, wild turkeys, and birds of prey populated the prairies and forests surrounding the Ridge. The prairie grasses were taller than men and teams of horses.
Streams cut through the Ridge, draining into the wetlands to the east. Migratory waterfowl stopped in the wetlands during their journeys to feast on the wild rice that grew there.
Sand hill cranes built their nests in the local sloughs. The water was so deep in a slough at what is now 107th and Wood Streets that it was impassable.
Deer and earlier, buffalo, were larger grazing animals. Paths like the Vincennes Trail originated as animal trails, as they skirted the wetlands, keeping to high ground.
Forests and savannahs included many species of oaks, birch, and other trees. Wild fruit and nut trees and bushes were numerous. The wild berry brambles were so thick native snakes could be observed travelling along the tops. Edible plants like wild artichokes and wild garlic (that gave Chicago its name) were plentiful, as were medicinal plants known to the Native Americans who lived here.
The streams and rivers to the south of the Ridge – Stony Creek and the Little Calumet River – teemed with fish like pike.
The Blue Island Ridge was paradise.
Ridge Historical Society
National Teacher Appreciation Week – Catherine A. Burke
By Carol Flynn; research collaboration by Tim Blackburn
May 7 to 13 is National Teacher Appreciation Week. An official event since 1984, the week reminds us that educators deserve our support, respect, and gratitude for all they contribute to society.
Many educators have called the Ridge home, and the city and the local community have recognized some of the trailblazers who lived here. Alice Barnard, Bessie Sutherland, and Kate Starr Kellogg have schools named for them. John H. Vanderpoel has a street and a school named for him, plus a memorial association, founded in his name, to collect art.
Many other remembrances have been lost to time. Recently, one was rediscovered and brought to RHS’s attention. This is the stained-glass window at the John H. Vanderpoel Humanities Academy at 9510 S. Prospect Avenue that is dedicated to Catherine A. Burke.
The window was rediscovered by Katharine Konopasek, a Beverly resident who is a retired Chicago Public School (CPS) principal who continues to help by substitute teaching. Katharine was subbing at Vanderpoel when she saw “rainbow colors” coming from behind a shade covering a window on the third floor of the school. Pulling aside the shade, she found the window, which is inscribed “Catherine A. Burke,” and “Dedicated by pupils, friends and associates – June 1935.”
Curious about the history of the window, Katherine tried to find information through CPS and the school. When no information was available in those files, she contacted the Vanderpoel Art Association, which started its collection in that school. The Vanderpoel volunteers didn’t know about the window, but they arranged to have it photographed.
Katherine then reached out to RHS, and we started researching it. This is the story we’ve uncovered so far.
Catherine A. Burke was the first principal of the Vanderpoel School, serving from 1912 to 1929.
Catherine was born in Joliet, Illinois, on June 7, 1862. Her parents were Patrick and Elizabeth Burke, both from Ireland. When Patrick died in 1905, the Joliet Evening Herald newspaper described him as “one of the best known of the Joliet pioneers.” He worked for a railroad and then for a company in the Joliet limestone industry. He was best known for being a leader in the temperance movement. He was also described as a “lover of good literature” who enjoyed discussing books and authors.
There were at least six Burke children, and Catherine and her older sister Mary became teachers. They graduated from the Joliet high school. Many high schools in those days prepared girls for careers as grade school teachers. Later, Catherine and Mary both studied at the University of Chicago.
Both women earned good reputations as instructors at the Eastern Avenue school in Joliet. By 1900, the parents and these two daughters had moved to Chicago so that Mary and Catherine could take “a high place as teachers in the public schools.” They rented a house at 3800 S. Indiana Avenue. After the father died, the mother and daughters moved to 453 Oakwood Boulevard, where they rented an apartment in a two-flat.
Catherine was employed as a teacher in the CPS schools. A 1906 Chicago Tribune article reported that the school board approved a salary promotion for Catherine because she held a principal’s certificate. This meant she had taken coursework and passed an exam, which qualified her for promotion within the school system. Her promotion had been recommended by Ella Flagg Young, who had been a District Superintendent of CPS and would become the first woman superintendent of CPS, and the first woman superintendent of any large school system in the country, in 1909.
Young advocated for employment rights for female teachers, addressing issues like employing married women as teachers, advancement opportunities for women in the Chicago schools, and pay equity between female and male teachers. Other Progressive women were also involved in the school system by then – famous social worker and reformer Jane Addams of Hull House was a member of the school board.
In 1912, Young appointed Catherine as the first principal of a new school opening in Beverly at 95th Street and Prospect Avenue. At the time, Catherine was reported as a teacher at the Willard School. She had held previous positions at the Park Manor School and the Brenan School.
The original name of the new school in Beverly was the John Farson School, named for a well-known Chicago banker, lay religious leader, and philanthropist, whose sister Elizabeth Farson was a CPS principal. Farson had no connection to Beverly; his name had been chosen by the president of the school board.
The Beverly community wanted the school named for John H. Vanderpoel, the artist who had been head instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Vanderpoel, who had lived in North Beverly, had died in 1911. The school board president said it was too late to change the name of the school because Farson’s name already had been, literally, carved in stone on the front of the school.
However, in 1913, with the support of Farson’s widow, the name of the school was changed to Vanderpoel’s name.
In 1914, the Vanderpoel Memorial Association (today’s Vanderpoel Art Association) was founded by the artist’s friends and fans. They started an art collection which was installed in the school. The first piece obtained for the collection was “The Buttermakers” by Vanderpoel. Artists and collectors donated hundreds of pieces of artwork for the collection.
Displaying artwork in schools was the usual practice back then. The collections were often managed by the local women’s clubs. When the current Morgan Park High School was established in 1914 – 1916, prominent clubwoman Gertrude Blackwelder oversaw the acquisition of artwork for the school, with the assistance of the Morgan Park Woman’s Club. The situation at Vanderpoel was unique, with the emphasis on the collection as a memorial to the late artist/educator.
Catherine Burke served as a vice president of the Vanderpoel Memorial Association. The art collection was a very important part of the school.
Next post: Catherine Burke’s years as a school principal in Beverly, and the stained-glass window.
The BAPA porch concerts are about to begin another season! And the first one will be held at RHS.
The Beverly Country Club band will play at RHS, 10616 Longwood Drive, on Friday evening, May 19 (rescheduled from May 12), starting at 6:30 p.m. The event is free, just bring your own lawn chairs to sit in.
RHS requests that people approach the building from the Longwood Drive side. The Seeley Avenue entrance and driveway may be blocked by equipment trucks.
In Memory of Marie Sandstrom
There’s a photo on the Beverly Area Planning Association website from the 2016 Memorial Day Parade that shows an older white woman talking with a young Black boy, while they sit together on the curb in front of the Horton House on Longwood Drive.
That woman was Marie Sandstrom, and that was the kind of thing that Marie did – reach out to people and engage with them in a kind, genuine, straight-forward way.
The Ridge Historical Society was saddened to learn that Marie passed away on April 23, 2023, at 94 years of age.
Marie and her husband, Bill Sandstrom, were a major presence at RHS for many years. Bill passed away in 2019, after serving as RHS president and treasurer.
Marie was part of the Social Committee at RHS; in fact, for some time she was the entire Social Committee. Marie could always be counted on to help at an event, setting up the buffet table, making the coffee, greeting and serving people, cleaning up. If attendees were lucky, Marie made her famous lemon bars to be served that day.
As part of her self-assigned duties, Marie took care of household tasks around the Graver-Driscoll House, things that many people just took for granted – buying paper towels and toilet paper and coffee; arranging for the place to be cleaned; laundering the curtains.
A physically small woman, Marie’s head barely cleared the steering wheel of her car. To the unpracticed eye, it would look like a driverless car had just pulled into the parking area.
However, although she was small, she was mighty. Marie was no push-over; she held her ground for what she thought was right.
The Sandstroms were dedicated members of Bethany Union Church, where Marie was usually in charge of the kitchen. The church’s annual spaghetti dinners under the direction of “Mama Marie” were unforgettable, drawing in large crowds for Marie’s homemade spaghetti sauce.
They were also active members of the Kiwanis and the Chicago Art Deco Society.
The real passion that Marie and Bill shared, though, was dancing. Bill took dancing lessons as a young World War II veteran so he could meet girls at dances. One young lady he asked to dance was Marie Bianchi. They got married in 1952. They had two children and the family moved to Beverly in 1965.
Marie and Bill became members of the Cotillion Club in Beverly, which had formed in 1939. “Cotillions” are formal balls, and the club held regular formal dances at local country clubs and other venues. As late as 2018, the Sandstroms, both in their 90s, were on the Club’s Dance Committee. Some of the dances at cotillions have specific moves and steps that the dancers need to be proficient in, and the Sandstroms shared the floor with the best.
At Bill’s memorial service, one of their grandsons related a favorite family story about the couple’s dancing. While in Pasadena for that grandson’s graduation, the family was out for an evening of entertainment. Bill requested a song from the jazz piano player and singer, and he and Marie began to dance. Other patrons came over to watch this elderly, accomplished couple perform, and began depositing money in an empty water glass in the center of the table. At the end of the dance, the singer came over to tell them she had never seen anything like this in all her years; their dancing together was beautiful. Noticing the monetary donations, she laughed and told them, “You two should come back every night – you could really make a living at this!”
Bill was eulogized for his loyalty, kindness, and service, but it’s more accurate to say that like dancing, it was a team effort, made possible by Marie and Bill working together.
There is a saying that “service is the rent we pay for being.” Marie and Bill surely paid enough rent through their service to others to now be dancing together forever in the finest heavenly mansion.
Mother’s Day – Part 7 on the Hofer Sisters – the League of American Mothers
Today is Mother’s Day, the perfect day to continue the series on Andrea Hofer Proudfoot, the fourth of the five Hofer sisters, who started the League of American Mothers.
In November of 1893, Andrea, 27, married Frederick William Proudfoot, an attorney from Englewood whose practice included legal work with the Chicago Board of Trade.
One of Proudfoot’s wedding gifts to Andrea was an estate in North Beverly known as “Oakhurst” located at today’s address of 9333 S. Vanderpoel Avenue. The street was previously known as Prospect and then Howard Court. Andrea and Frederick moved into the house and started a family; six children were born to them between 1894 and 1907.
Around 1895, Andrea and her younger sister Elizabeth (Elsa) Hofer Schreiber started a school in the Proudfoot home they called the Froebellian School for Young Women. This school trained women to be kindergarten teachers, based on the principles of Friedrich Froebel, a Prussian educator who founded kindergartens in Germany in the 1830s. He based his schools and training programs on the principles originally developed in the 1700s by Swiss educator Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi.
The school incorporated much more than classroom work, giving the women who trained there a variety of hands-on experiences. By 1900, the facilities included: the kindergarten teacher training program; a kindergarten for young children; boys’ and girls’ clubs; a grade school that continued the kindergarten principles and included industrial training in onsite workshops; high school level classes for girls; a playground open to all children; and a summer school program (then called vacation schools) for disadvantaged inner-city children. During the summers, the school also ran professional-level programs for educators as the Longwood Summer School.
Central to this operation were also education and support programs for mothers. In 1895, Andrea formed the League of American Mothers that rose to national prominence. Local Leagues were set up all around the country. Any mother or teacher could join, there were no dues; the League was largely operated and funded personally by Andrea. Groups of mothers met frequently at the Proudfoot home and were involved in all of the school programs.
A multi-year course of self-study for mothers was developed through the League, using materials written by Andrea. The books included “A Mother’s Ideals: A Kindergarten Mother’s Conception of Family Life” for the first year of study, published in 1897; and “A Year with the Mother-Play,” for the second year, published in 1902. For mothers who could not afford to purchase the books, thousands of “travelling libraries” were set up around the country.
Andrea dedicated the first book, “A Mother’s Ideals,” to her own mother, Mari Ruef Hofer. Andrea wrote: “To My Mother – Who has been preserved to the simplicities of life through having child companions; whose duty toward the home has kept her from pursuing schoolishness; who has studied more deeply into the affections than into psychology; and who loves humanity because it has been given an impulse onward through her as a channel, and an impulse upward through her spiritual striving for her children.”
Teachers-in-training boarded at the school. All of this went on in the Proudfoot home. It can only be imagined what a busy place this property in North Beverly must have been.
Related to all of this, Andrea started a new magazine, Child-Garden of Story, Song and Play. This magazine was published from their house in North Beverly, and the subscription price was $1.00 for twelve issues.
Child-Garden was described by Andrea as “the national organ of the League of American Mothers.” Each issue included poetry and stories for and by children, ideas for kindergarten teachers, and a section related to the League with subject matter for mothers’ programs, advice and discussion. Mothers were invited to correspond directly with Andrea at her Beverly address, and many did. Some of their letters were included in the magazine.
Andrea offered educated and practical advice to mothers. In the December 1900 edition of Child-Garden, for example, Andrea advised mothers to ignore advertisements and articles about diseases and “quackery patent medicine concerns” and to get advice from trusted medical professionals when needed. Child-Garden refused to carry such questionable medical content even though it cost them advertising revenue.
Child-Garden offered advice like “we expect too much from punishment – it will not take the place of firm, kind, loving, intelligent watchfulness.” Another piece of advice was that no two people were alike and children should not be forced to conform too much one way or another; they should be allowed to work things out.
Mothers wrote heart-felt letters to Andrea with statements like, "I feel as if you were my friend."
Leading up to a national congress on motherhood in 1900, in which Andrea and the League were expected to play a major role, one newspaper wrote, “Mrs. Proudfoot is a pioneer in the mothers’ work of this country. She is urging the mothers of this land into a higher respect for their calling and demands that they shall put it upon a professional basis through study and demonstration.”
The school in North Beverly ran for about nine years. In December of 1914, there was a curious article in the Chicago Tribune that a fire had occurred in the now-empty building – at the time, Andrea was spending a lot of time in Vienna, Austria, with her children who were there for educational reasons. A neighbor all but accused Andrea of arson, and the article wondered if charges would be forth coming. No more was found on this and within a few months Andrea was back to being prominently mentioned in the paper for heading a Republican women’s group, so apparently the charges were baseless.
This brings us to one more topic related to Andrea and her Hofer sisters – their involvement in politics and the international peace and amnesty movement, which will be covered in the next post.
Well, we're going to go ahead and promote this and keep our fingers crossed. The first BAPA porch concert, rescheduled due to rain, will be held this Friday, May 19, at RHS, on the Longwood Drive lawn – 10616 S. Longwood Drive. The concert starts at 6:30 p.m.
Rain is forecasted for that day, so we'll see – watch this page for updates.