WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

America's first auto race was run on this date in 1895--right through the streets of Chicago.

In 1895 automobiles were a new invention. They were small, open, and delicate. The year before there'd been an open-road race in France. Now the Chicago Times-Herald announced it would sponsor a race.

The event was scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, November 28. The route would cover 54 miles, from Jackson Park to Evanston and back, mostly through the city's parks and boulevards. First prize was $2,000 and a gold medal.

The infant auto community was excited, and the Times-Herald confidently predicted 100 entries. Then, the Monday before the big day, Chicago was hit with 10 inches of snow. Many drivers backed out. But the paper declared that the race would go on.

The sun was shining on Thanksgiving morning, and the snow was beginning to melt. About 2,000 people came out to Jackson Park to see the racers off.

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For over a century, the day after Thanksgiving has been the busiest shopping day of the year. Let's go back and look at Black Friday thirty years ago--November 27, 1981.

The big news in Chicago was that the federal government had given the green light, and the city was set to host a World's Fair in 1992. The other major story was about Harry Caray, the Sox TV broadcaster. He was moving north, and would be doing the Cubs games next summer.

The weather had been warm, so shoppers were turning out in large numbers. Over a million people jammed the State Street Mall, and sizeable crowds were seen on North Michigan Avenue. Ford City reported a record 60,000 shoppers. Woodfield, Oak Brook, and Old Orchard were also having a busy day.

Shopping styles varied. The country was pulling out of a recession, and some retailers noted that customers were buying fewer--but more expensive--Christmas gifts. Other people were just looking for a bargain. That was good news for Goldblatt's, which was shutting down its last fourteen department stores.

Every retailer seemed to have a special sale. Rose Records was featuring Barbra Streisand's "Memories" album and "The Jacksons Live." If you wanted a book, Kroch's & Brentano's offered a coffee-table volume The Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana.

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Chicago may not have an ocean, but we do have Lake Michigan. We are a maritime city. This is one day to remember that tradition, with the story of the Christmas Tree ships.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, the German custom of decorating Christmas trees was taking hold in Chicago. The closest evergreen forests were in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

Each November a few lake schooners loaded up with trees and sailed them down to Chicago. Customers would come over to the Clark Street dock, go aboard a ship, and select their tree. It was fun way for city families to get into the holiday spirit.

The C. H. Hackley, shown here moored in front of the John A. Rusk Building at 104 S. Water Street in 1909, was one of many ships that carried Christmas trees from Michigan to Chicago.

Herman Schuenemann was master of a Christmas Tree ship. Chicago children affectionately called him "Captain Santa."

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In March 1939 John Drury began writing a series of articles in the Chicago Daily News about some of the city's older houses. The articles ran a thousand words each and appeared weekly. Two years and 110 homes later, the material was gathered together in a book titled Old Chicago Houses.

This book is not an academic guide. Rather it's a personal biography of each house--the people who built it, the various families who lived in it, what life was like in the area, and what the house is like today (i.e., 1941). All 110 houses are illustrated with contemporary photos.

Drury includes the Widow Clarke House, Hull House, and other famous landmarks. He visits the onetime homes of Carl Sandburg and other noted Chicagoans. The last essay is about Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House; built in 1908, it wasn't exactly "old" when the book was published.

But as a journalist, Drury is mainly interested in telling a good story. He journeys out into the neighborhoods--to Cragin, Garfield Ridge, Jefferson Park, Auburn Park, and other corners of the city. He discovers unexpected treasures and little-known tales.

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"The new, gleaming jewel of the lakefront" was dedicated on this November 18th in 1960. That would be the first version of McCormick Place.

The mammoth exhibition hall was the pet project of the Tribune's longtime publisher, Col. Robert R. McCormick. He believed Chicago deserved the biggest and best convention facility in the nation, "a booming center for commerce, industry, and culture." He began his campaign in 1927.

The Coliseum, the Amphitheatre. and then the Chicago Stadium--clearly, the city's convention halls weren't doing the job. Yet for all his clout, McCormick couldn't get the new hall built. He wanted to put it on the lakefront near 23rd Street. To most Chicagoans, the parkland along the lake was sacred ground, not to be touched.

The Tribune continued to push the project after the Colonel died in 1955. When new mayor Richard J. Daley signed on, the dream became a reality. Ground was broken in 1958. Two years later McCormick Place was completed. The total cost was $41 million.

The formal dedication began with a dinner for 500 movers-and-shakers. Daley made a speech, calling the new facility "a monument to Col. McCormick and his love for Chicago."

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Chicago has a major park called Humboldt Park, an official community area called Humboldt Park, and a dignified old avenue called Humboldt Boulevard. But ask the first thousand Chicagoans you meet to tell you who "Humboldt" was, and chances are they won't have the slightest idea.

Humboldt has become even more obscure than William McKinley--remember him? So let's go out to the community, drive down the boulevard, and go into the park to his statue.

Alexander von Humboldt was born into minor Prussian nobility in 1769. He seemed destined for a career in politics or finance. But by the time he became a young man, he decided to follow his first passion, natural science.

In 1799 Humboldt and a friend traveled to the Spanish colonies in South Amerca. The trip evolved into a five-year-long expedition. Humboldt explored new lands, studied plant and animal life, made scientific measurements, and would boldly go where few Europeans had gone before.

Returning to Europe, he published his field research and became famous. Now Humboldt used his celebrity to promote science. Charles Darwin, for one, said that Humboldt had been his early inspiration.

In 1829 Humboldt headed an expedition into Asiatic Russia.

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It's a story they told in the newsroom of the Chicago American, many years ago.

A young reporter named Harry Reutlinger had been sent to get an interview with a patient at Columbus Hospital. The patient was involved in a criminal case, and the police were keeping a tight lid on him.

At the hospital Reutlinger encountered a little old woman mopping floors. "Don't worry. I'm supposed to be here," he told her. "Mother Cabrini sent for me." Frances Xavier Cabrini was the famous nun who ran the hospital.

The cleaning lady wasn't buying that. So Reutlinger snuck around the side of the building and came in through a fire escape. Again he met the old lady. This time she chased him out of the hospital, swinging her mop at him.

Back at the paper, going through some files, Reutlinger came across a picture of the cleaning lady. It was Mother Cabrini herself.

That was Frances Xavier Cabrini. She wasn't afraid of hard work, and she wasn't afraid of taking direct action.

Cabrini was born in northern Italy in 1850. As a young woman she worked as a teacher, and later ran an orphanage. She took religious vows in 1877.

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