So, where was HIillary's house when she was a toddler?

Where was Hillary living when she was a toddler before 1950?

My neighbor Mikey...who is a good-hearted Irish man said.. when little Hillary Rodham was living here since she was born to becoming 3 yrs old.. on Winthrop Avenue, she may have been "either here, or there.."
 - Which one?

He said - Supposedly, she was living in one of these two sites  (he pointed both sides of the street-..But he wasn't sure which one..)

- 1) Her house might have been on the site seen in the picture on the right...now vacant lot..or....

- 2) On the other site seen in the picture below (A red brick apartment is seen now: would it be the...so-called Rodham House?

..( I also read ..a building built in around 2001.. was named after Hillary Rodham by the new owner, because it's built at the same site where she lived..)

..Supposed to be Rodham House?

Though the local museum called Edgewater Historical Society exhibits her house was at 5xx5.., though there is no such street number. - "The museum got wrong number!" Mikey said..

This is a strange street- It was only until 1940s..when the neighborhood was "elegant" white neighborhood..but now, after the deterioration and renewal, mixed B/W people live as a comfortable patchwork..

..Hillary was born in '47 and her family moved to Park Ridge (more north east suburb in '51.. as a part of white flight-)

(Dr Carole in my apartment also said.. when she  first moved in here, this street looked  deteriorated- full of drug dealers and prostitutes..etc. ) The community organization made effort in '60s to improve this area... the CHA built a lot of halfway houses, recovery houses...or elderly houses-maybe that's why  a lot of senior houses are still seen now...in this area..(..dr. Rosenblatt agreed my surmise)

I also made my own research about this neighborhood- It was really interesting..

 *correction: Later I found it.. Mikey was right. Hillary's old home was at the site of red brick  apartment above!..(as seen here)
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/11/hillary_rodham_clintons_mother_1.html

 -  after she moved to Park Ridge with her parents and two brothers, she met a neighborhood bully named Suzy..and beaten by her..Then her mother - who has passed away at the age of 96 in '11..persuaded her to retaliate the bully, and she made it..!

 - Recently, the Sec of State Hillary has been wearing  geek girl glasses..for the sake of aftereffect of her concussion..But she is still vigorous..and now retiring within this week..

(the exhibition at Edgewater Historical Society)

 it exhibits wrong address?..

"After Fire, Chicago Warehouse Covered in Ice"

Bridgeport's warehouse fire..on Jan 24

...Somebody.saved these Tribune pictures for me..
(although these were flash-site pictures..which I couldn't save.. some unknown person on the web forum cooperated me to save them..)  thnx!

(...the ice palace has rekindled in the next morning) http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8968477 CFD determines warehouse fire was set?.. "This ice palace, which used to be a warehouse..was once owned by Pullman Couch Company" said the abc7 reporter. - It has been vacant, but its ex-owner and ex-ex-owner are currently, "both in prison" for the bribery..(!) (...37th and Ashland is not far from the house of the former Mayor Richard Daley Senior..) "It was Chicago's central manufacturing district," the black guy said.

Bridgeport. on Dec 19.

I wanted to visit this neighborhood.. ( there is a small public library named "Rechard Daley Branch"
-  I asked the librarian girl about if there is any particular place to visit, but.. she said "No, I don't think there is anything around here ..Just sit for a cup of hot coffee somewhere.." )
     

The culprit..it's "Bedding Expert" in Bridgeport! (..whose tv commercial
 frequently interrupted me, as a browser ad for long time..
... even while I was at home in Japan..)

Found the old house of the Mayor Richard Daley Senior anyway..
at least an atmosphere was found ...maybe a lot of his henchmen
 visited their big boss here..over the years!..

Somewhat weird light leaking from the old mayor's house?..

The fire department in Bridgeport almost in front of Daley house

Winter is coming..
I like the gorgeous caps.

(So.. the old mayor was obsessed by the idea of protecting this Irish neighborhood.?.)

*I couldn't find "Daley the last boss" video on youtube,.

 (But these are the videos which suggest how  2nd R. Daley & current Mayor Emanuel..  Obama are related..)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YTZXglaAMU

Mayor Daley documentary video

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCvh2rxXrbE&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Mayor Richard Daley need you to volunteer..

There really is North Side Japanese American community

I met the enigmatic community of...'North Side Japanese Americans'!

 In the photo below,

MK san (left, an Issei) and MY san (a Nisei).. whom I talked with at the big  senior residence - a .Japanese-founded, HUD aided residence on the North Side..

 It was wonderful encounter - although other people were saying.., there are no more old Issei people surviving.. it wasn't true.
  You can still meet ..some, wholesomely living senior people even in our neighborhood..
Although they are few, they are some Issei ..the  pre-War 1st generation people...who were the war-time Internment Camp evacuees.. surviving in this area! ...e.g. MK san is 96 years old..and she said, her husband is becoming 100 years old!.. later I sent him the flower for his birthday..

MK san on the left.. who talks with her quick humor

They came from California in 1940s and lived in Andersonville- MK san said her husband used to be a dancer and singer in CA ..prior to the war..

Surprisingly, all of these elderly Japanese people ..in their 80s, 90s..or 70s..look very young and mentally agile..(generally they look almost 20 years younger than the elders in same age who live in Japan..).

- The natural environment to live in Chicago seems to be comfortable to anyone. in spite of the cold winter.

..Actually, they said.. the reason must be because..you  can spatially relax in this country. than in the crowded country like Japan,.  therefore, you can keep yourself mentally healthy for your life...

Of course, most of them in 80s drives the cars by themselves  to go anywhere, and it also makes them young..!


- lately I made some research about them, and found..the camp returnees had mass-relocated from the West Coast to Chicago from 1945 to 1950.. about 30,000 returnees eventually "passed through the City" after the war, and about 20,000 of them  settled here..- MK san with her husband was one of them, who came back from Manzanar Internment Camp...

although there used to be tens of thousands of businesses run by Japanese inside the City, such as in Lincoln Square, Belmont..(before the urban renewal,) today most of them were moved out to the suburbs ..and wiped out..  to live in the "bigger house."...I noticed there was quite a history of Japanese Americans in Chicago..

The Japanese senior residence..
 at Sheridan- Lawrence.."The best senior
house in the Midwest"?

(right) I also met some Japanese senior people at Devon Church on the North Side.

The church was founded by Japanese Americans in 1960s. (first built in downtown..)

Now headed by the minister Sato.. while this church is turning into a typical multi-ethnic church, and now very few Japanese gathering is remaining  ..due to the generation change..

.. I thank to Mr. Sato and his wife, and all the other people who kindly welcomed me.. There are also some internment camp returnees here, like from Tule Lake Camp. A lot of astonishing life stories were heard from them.. .

(The church is now being taken over by its  English department.with a lot of people of different ethnicity...since Mr. Sato is retiring.. their Japanese department is said to be closed by next spring..sorry to hear.)

 - While I scarcely met any group of Japanese people within last 3, 4 yrs in this area..who were shrouded in mystery.. finally they are coming out..!

"Residence Pattern of Japanese Americans in the Near North: Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Uptown circa
1965" (from the dissertation of a female Japanese Uof C student in '60s)

..This is amazing old map since currently Japanese are mostly moved out, except a few shops in Belmont..etc.

Analysis of Edgewater History 

(from my paper..)

The Neighborhood’s Origin and Transition

Edgewater was originally settled by Swedish and Luxembourger farmers. It was a part of Lakeview. The initial residents were mostly German and Irish, but Swedes also gathered along Clark Street (they called the area Anderso[e]nville.) In 1885, the developer, John Lewis Cochran started purchasing the land, and named it as Edgewater. He induced the Rail Road Company to build Bryn Mawr Sta, and the railroad in this area was connected to Howard in 1908 by the company which founded “EL.” Cochran built mansions for rich Chicagoan, or the City’s elites. In 1889, Edgewater was annexed in to Chicago city. The building boom came around 1920s, and Winthrop-Kenmore corridor was regarded the most prestigious neighborhood in Chicago. The glamorous Edgewater Beach Hotel was also built in 1916. The erections of residential hotels and Apartment buildings were encouraged in subsequent years. Amanda Seligman writes, “Residential Edgewater's wealth reinforced the glamour of recreational Uptown (Chicagohistory.org).” ..It seems to mean Edgewater used to be the wealthier area for the Uptowners..) When the city had faced housing crisis in ‘40s, the apartments were subdivided into small units, and the deterioration began. Seligman also writes,

Edgewater Beach Apt rent ad

“The area began to become overcrowded and landlords collected increasing rents while allowing their properties to deteriorate. When building resumed, more large apartment buildings replaced older ones.... Along Sheridan Road, most of the old mansions were razed and replaced with high-rises, giving the street the feel of a canyon (Chicagohistory.org ).”

Nookies - old day's Guild Hall

Although the neighboring “Uptown” used to be a thriving theater district (whose residents were 99% whites in 1940s,) these two areas seem to have altogether changed. “At that time Winthrop was a regular white neighborhood, not like now. Now it is mostly all black or Vietnamese.” it was stated by one resident of Winthrop, cited by Jacalyn Harden. Such neighborhood transition disturbed the feeling of Edgewater residents. “They regarded the Winthrop-Kenmore corridor as an eyesore that attracted transients, the ill, and the elderly.” According to Seligman, they established the local Community Council in 1960, and tried to improve local community. For example, they tried to halt the construction of local “residential health care facilities.”

Historic BrynMawr Ave

Meanwhile-by the mid-1940s, Japanese evacuees from the West Coast internment camps also mass-immigrated to Chicago, and they made biggest concentration in Chicago among the U.S. cities. (about 20,000 of them relocated in Chicago by 1950.) Harden (who traces the trajectory of the Japanese Americans on the North Side) mentions the neighborhood’s trend in this period:

” ..After WW2, Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park gradually began to change with regard to race and class, Japanese American relocates led the way for Native Americans and blacks, who arrived in lesser numbers. By 1950, the neighborhoods were home to large pockets of Appalachian whites and Native Americans, who were encouraged by social welfare agencies and cheap rents to the Far North Side apartments that had been created from homes and larger apartments in the scramble to increase the number of housing units. By 1970s many, but not all, or the wealthy and middle-class white residents had moved to the suburbs or died.”
—Although the above may not be just about Edgewater, similar description about Uptown was found in Sonnie and Tracy’s “Hillbillies Heaven”— It talks about how Uptown area actually turned into “Hillbillies’ Heaven” ..a hot bed for multi-racial Civil Rights movement activists in ‘60s..

"In July 1969 a dozen self-identified hillbillies showed up to a Black Panther Party conference with Confederate flag patches sewn to their ragged jean jackets....The Young Patriots had come to Oakland, CA, for the United Front Against Fascism Conference. They arrived from Uptown, a Chicago neighborhood home to thousands of economically displaced Appalachians, mostly white, who had turned the area into a bastion of southern culture..(Sonnie and Tracy ).”.

Also, Harden argues Lakeview is a “Yuppieville,” which is known “as Chicago’s ‘Boystown’…the site for the annual Gay Pride Parade (Harden 97).” (Maybe it was the mecca of anti-segregation social movement.) Therefore, supposedly Edgewater’s today’s character was partially created because it been annexed to such areas, tolerant with “different people?” (While current high population rate of Asians in Edgewater must be because Chinese-Vietnamese people highly concentrated in Argyle: where Vietnam-War refugees relocated after the late 60s or ‘70s.) Amid such neighborhood change, Edgewater Community Council made some action:

“During the 1970s, ECC's strategy shifted to separating its identity from Uptown, which Edgewater residents regarded as the source of their plight. The opening of the Edgewater branch of the Chicago Public Library in 1973 was a major victory in this battle, which culminated in 1980 when the city government ratified the separation of Edgewater from Uptown by designating it Community Area 77. The success of the rehabilitation was reflected in Loyola University's increasing involvement in Edgewater. Although it had been oriented to Rogers Park, by the late 1970s Loyola began encouraging its faculty and students to recognize, and even to live in, Edgewater.(Chicagohistory ).” Harden also mentioned the consequence about how.. HUD has built some social aid facilities in Edgewater since the 70s. The Origin of the Concentration of elderly houses

Harden describes,
“(Since 1970s,) Many community groups formed in protest against the area’s high concentration of halfway houses and transient hotels. The area had become attractive to the federal government, and a large number of HUD-backed Section 8 housing developments were built. Some were high-rise, but others were built to look like town homes. Many of the high-rises were built exclusively for the elderly.” Today, I also see a nursery home or a CHA residence for disabled people near Sheridan-Devon. I heard the area around Bryn Mawr has at least 4 big HUD elderly houses, and number of other, private-run elderly houses.(Initially, I surmised such a current elderly residence concentration may be related to the area’s character with former lake side resort amenities, but it may not be the initial reason..)

senior residence.. Aldmore- Kenmore

Old bldg built by Architect Joseph Lyman

HUD Senior residence

CHA buldging for disabled people

Japanese community on the North Side

When it comes to the Japanese residents in the post-war Chicago, Harden summed it up. “There has never been a designated ‘Japantown’ in Chicago. Today the closest thing to a Japanese neighborhood is a few clusters of businesses and social service agencies—remnants of the years right after the war when Japanese relocates were advised out in the city and keep low profiles...”

Although Japanese were only less than 380 in pre-war Chicago, nearly 20,000 evacuees settled all over Chicago after 1945. Andersonville also had their concentration in 1940s. I visited the rare old Issei survivors at the Japanese elderly residence (built in 1981 near Lawrence.) She and her husband ran a cleaner at Andersonville. There used to be number of Japanese restaurants and businesses on Clark St (they also scattered in Lincoln Park , such as in Belmont..) The Japanese also built two Buddhist temples - Such as Midwest Buddhist Temple- in Chicago. According to Fujibayashi (a Uof C student in ’65,) there were significant amount of business investments made by “125 hotels, 450 apartment buildings, 200 cleaning and dyeing plants, 70 restaurants, 50 grocery stores, 22 art and miscellaneous stores” run by Japanese evacuees in Chicago in 1951.. Reportedly, he reason for them to be wiped out from the city and moved to the suburbs were about demographic change (a person said, it was because Puerto Ricans moved into the area, etc...)It must be also because: the Japanese major business concerns’ head offices started to concentrate in the suburbs since ‘80s (there is non of their main offices in the Chicago Loop anymore.)

Japanese Pavilion,Byodo-in Temple 平等院鳳凰堂in the
World Colombian Exhibition in 1893.. Its garden is partly
 remaining in Jackson Park near UofC..renamed "Osaka garden"..
as the black children's playing field

Japanese carpenters who built the pavilion

Currently, remaining Japanese North Siders seem to be aging (while young generation now prefer to live or work in the suburbs,) they are on the verge of extinction.

I suppose all the current characteristics of Winthrop Ave and Edgewater has come from these historical consequences.. while I thought the area has strange..integrated flavor of ethnic diversity. (Winthrop Ave, where Hillary's family used to live.. doesn’t have a segregation now: it has just..all kinds of people: almost half whites, 30-40% black, and all the other people...) I noticed there was also, a kind of racial integration movement existed in the Uptown; and current public policy is also reinforcing the integration.. And such an unusual diversity of this area is also, somewhat blended with the remaining atmosphere of the elegant…classic cosmopolitan culture which used to flourish in the old days in this area...

 ＊halfway house: [also called a “recovery house” or “sober house” is a place to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society]

the bus can be kneeling

Field notes

From the Walking Tour in Edgewater -  last fall..

 Dynamic Diversity..

This area’s high level of diversity may be similar to Union Sq's in NY...but the entire area is  much larger. - If I walk down the Broadway southward from Sheridan & Broadway, there are some African restaurants..like Ethiopian's, or Assyrian Church. Large Ismailicenter - a Shi'ia mosque.. is on the corner.

I usually see quite a few African-immigrants here: I found- the female manager at an African grocery is a Nigerian. She has come to US when she was 7..She said - lot of African people also live in this neighborhood, and their nationalities are very diverse..such as. "Liberian, Ethiopian, Ghanaian, Beninese, Senegalese, Sudanese or just from all African countries." 

Although  she doesn’t know why other people came to the US, one of her customer with her at the moment said she came from Liberia with her daughter, escaped from the Liberian war. The female manager said "Nigeria is not in war, but there is a religious war fought between Muslim and Christians now." I also used to know a tiny Internet café, run by the African people.. under the elevated track at Thorndale sta..

I entered the other ethnic groceries around the corner of Granville-Winthrop : one shop is run by a Korean man in his late 50s, who started his shop in 1987. The other grocery shop’s clerk was an Armenian, and bunch of (Near-Eastern looking..?) male customers were inside the shop (They talked in a strange tongue.. The clerk said his customers are “from all over Europe”...)

at a small grocery in Granville

The other grocery shop’s clerk at the same corner looked like South Asian.

 I returned to the Broadway and also asked about the manager’s nationality at the large antique shop, “Edgewater Antique Mall” on the street- next to the Popeye’s—he said he is a 3rd generation French immigrant, whose grand parents first came from France in early 1900s ..“about 100 years ago,” and started restaurants in Cleveland, OH..He said both of his parents had college degrees and became architects and book-keeper..He moved to Chicago by himself to open his antique shop 10 just years ago.. Attracting Yuppies.

I also visited Foster Ave (the south boundary of Edgewater near Berwin sta,) and Andersonville (near Foster & Clark.). Foster Ave is said to be historical - certain..old “Saddle & Cycle Company” was located here..-  but nobody around here knew such an old name, if I asked.  I asked the shop clerk at the huge Dominick’s Super market at Foster & Sheridan.. about what is conspicuous about Foster Ave—she  said, it is only “known by its high crime rate..there are a lot of robbery”..

.On my way to Andersonville, I found a "Yard Sale"- a couple of elderly white women sitting in front of their house, showing a lot of artifacts from their home. An old woman answered to my casual interview. Although they live on the edge of Andersonville’s Swedish area, she is a German resident who has been living there since her great-grand parents moved into this area in 1960s. Asked about how the neighborhood changed, she said, “Clark Street used to be much more thriving.. There were much more shops and businesses”- Andersonville seems to be comparatively declined..
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"Andersonville"

She said- there is also a big Korean town with “a lot of Korean businesses” in more south along the Broadway..or more Uptown. (Later I realized.. the “Korean town” which she referred to was about the Chinese-Vietnamese town in Argyle, while.. she said “Koreans” move into the area from 1970s..) She thinks her neighborhood is peaceful, and its crime rate is not especially high but just average..
 In Andersonville, there are some shops apparently Swedish –restaurants, groceries, furniture shops etc— including the Swedish Immigrant Museum (holding a nice exhibition) on Clark St. Also, many other ethnic shops are seen, such as Italian pizza parlor, a big Persian Grocery (selling Turkish coffee and goods, variety of Middle-Eastern foods..,) “Reza” Persian restaurant..since 1983, a stylish vintage clothing and antique shop (which was opened five year ago by Scottish,) etc. The large Irish bar on the corer was opened one year ago by an “European” owner..  Trendy-looking new shops are now mushrooming here ..cafes, eateries, apparel shops, like Akira Chicago...all attracting urban Yuppies apparently coming from other towns and strolling about the Clark St.— the atmosphere is almost like small Wickerpark (like..hip Brooklyn Ave area in New York) although, no counter-culture music/book store is seen. I also saw three Japanese female students from Northwestern Univ.. Old Swedish neighborhood is now, transforming to a multi-cultural, trendy spot..

Edgewater “Home Tour” back  in mid September..

 I joined the “Edgewater Home Tour,” held annually by "Edgewater Historical Society." It started form St. Mary Eritrean Orthodox Church at Paulina & W. Highland. The people joined the tour visited Edgewatera7 several vintage houses... shown by their current owners to the public. They said the Church was built in 1853: its owner has changed from its builder..Swedish Methodists to Romanian orthodox to current Eritreans. Most of these charming old homes (built in early 1900s.. 1908, 1925..etc..) were designed by “Edgewater architects,” such as Andrew Norman. (They mixed Frank Loyd-like Prairie Style... and other styles, etc.) One of the house had relics..stones in the garden.. brought from the old World Colombian Exhibition.

Other than nice architectural details, I was also interested in the homes’ current owners who guided the visitors. One of the houses was owned by couple of female craft designers (cool, fashionable-looking white and black woman, who uses the house as their atelier.) The others who furnished their home with futuristic modern furniture.. were a gay couple. The house next to the church was former property of Mills Company Chicago, (a manufacturer of self playing violin and piano since late 19C to 1920s) – there were amazing collection of old, wooden mechanical music machines (Player Pianos, Nickelodeon Orchestions, Jukeboxes, Phonographs, etc…) still exhibited inside, though its current owners seemed unrelated to the company. Other owners include people of ordinary kind. I was impressed by these owners who looked like yuppie people, who purchased such venerable, elegant houses as they like.

There was somewhat artistic and cultural scent in this area.. It was also detected when I came to this area... I found there was art exhibitions and Spanish guitar concerts in the Starbucks at the corner of Bryn Mawr ave.. held by female African American manager; Café Metropolis near Granville also regularly shows artists’ works in the shop... There are also, many senior  residence facilities  found in Edgewater. A public senior housing is seen at Ardmore- Kenmore, with a nice, hotel-like entrance.

There are some other condos on  Sheridan Rd.. or Broadway-Ardmore, and also, some high-rise condos on the Holywood Beach (Osterman Beach) - supposed to be mostly for the seniors. Former Edgewater Beach Hotel’ s building may be also, mostly lived by them..A big, greyish CHA building is at Devon-Broadway. Number of disabled people came back by bus are incessantly getting into the building, ."they are living here" said the reception woman..

Walgreen's were Swedish immigrants

Akira Chicago.. in Andersonville

Scottish run Antique shop 

wax Swedish immigrant doll

Persian grocery

AKIRA Chicago was started by Chinese designers..although the brand name is the same with my late daddy's name. They have about 20 shops in Chicago.. but they're Chicago only  .(I like their near-future Sci-Fi esque designs..  of course, JP Anime ..inspired..

Nigerian grocery

French-run Broadway Antique Market