Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club (CSSSCC) Archives

Organization History

Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club (CSSSCC)

Begun in the 1880s, “country clubs” that provided private amenities for the game of golf and other leisure pursuits spread quickly in Chicago’s growing metropolitan area. In 1905 a group of prominent Chicagoans led by Lawrence Heyworth purchased over 64 acres of land along the beach in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago in order to establish a new country club. Organized as a private club, its membership was not extended to Jews or African Americans, although it was first among local clubs to accept Roman Catholic members. The new club quickly acquired members and opened in 1906. Designed by Charles Fox (of Benjamin Marshall and Fox) and landscaped by Thomas Hawkes, the South Shore Country Club (SSCC) offered golf, tennis, horseback riding and racing, and (in 1909) a ballroom, to members and their families.

A newer stucco clubhouse designed in Mediterranean/Italian Revival Style by Marshall and Fox was erected in 1916 and included a library, solarium, conservatory, dining facilities for up to 2,000, the original ballroom and two floors of “hotel” rooms, in addition to formal gardens, pergola, shooting range, tennis courts, horseback riding, swimming, and the all-important 9-hole golf course. Similar in style to clubs in Florida and California, the popular site drew positive reviews from the world of art and architecture. Adding an outdoor pavilion in 1920 with a bandstand and dance floor brought a surge in membership. Notable visitors included the political (William Howard Taft, Chicago Mayors William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson and Richard J. Daley), the artists (Paul Whiteman and Jean Harlow), and nobilities (Queen Marie of Romania, Prince Baudoin of Belgium). When the Club’s mortgage was retired in 1955, the site had served as “playground for Chicago’s rich” for decades and with 2,200 members was Chicago’s largest private golf club. Many of its members lived nearby in the upper-middle-class South Shore area.

As Chicago’s expanding African American community began settling in South Shore, those neighborhood residents began to move away. Yet the South Shore Country Club continued to refuse admittance to Jewish and African American applicants and by the mid-1960s, the Club’s membership had fallen more than 30%. Despite expensive refurbishing in 1967 the Club continued to exclude Jews and African Americans. In 1973 membership had fallen to 731; and the last event, a dance, was held in 1974. Club furnishings were immediately auctioned off. After a few purchase offers, the Club sold the property that year to the Chicago Land Commission, which then sold it to the Chicago Park District for more than $9 million in a bond issue that left some money on the table for restoration of the site.

That site, occupying prime beach land along a lakefront area mostly inaccessible to nonresidents, attracted the attention of citizen preservationists and South Shore residents. In 1974 it achieved a place in the National Registry for Historic Places, but its existence was not yet guaranteed. The Park District had already demolished the casino building and the “birdcage” club and was planning the same fate for the stables and extensive pergola. Organizations and individuals both local and citywide called for a united community effort to protect the property from Park District mismanagement.

As early as 1975, local community groups began to host arts events and classes at the Club, and to direct their attention to the Park District’s plans for the site. Some thirty organizations coalesced first under the leadership of one, the South Shore Center on the Lake, including the Friends of the Parks, the South Shore Commission, the League of Women Voters, Provident Hospital, and many neighborhood clubs. When in 1977 the District proposed to demolish the Club building itself, and replace it with a concrete-block field house, this coalition was ready to protest, adopting the name Coalition to Save the South Side Country Club (CSSSCC). Media reported that Chicago Park District Superintendent Ed Kelly had scoffed, “Oh, they don’t need that [fancy building] down there,” denigrating the cultural heft of South Shore residents. But the protesters replied that the Club should be “a palace for the people” and filed a petition with the Chicago Plan Commission to prevent demolition. This culminated in a hearing at the Club itself that brought out huge crowds and vociferous protest. Even Chicago City Council members weighed in against demolition plans.

Park District President Patrick L. O’Malley reversed the Park District’s trajectory, quickly withdrew its demolition plan, and pledged to work closely with community organizations to prepare plans and raise funds for the restoration of the entire park area. The Chicago Plan Commission directed that the Park District, the Coalition, and the Plan Commission share responsibility for this. Strengthened by success, the Coalition incorporated in 1978. However, disagreements over goals and strategy alienated the South Shore Center on the Lake and other groups and weakened the Coalition in the long term.

In 1979 the Park District appointed the firm of Norman deHaan to design and implement architectural changes to restore the club building in cooperation with the Coalition. The 1983 election of Harold Washington as Chicago mayor provided significant impetus to the actual restoration work, and $10 million was spent in the effort. 1983 also saw the signing of a federal court consent decree in which the Park District agreed to provide its services and facilities throughout the city of Chicago in an equitable manner regardless of residents’ race or income. In 1985 the restored clubhouse was rededicated and opened to the public at a celebratory gala attended by Mayor Washington and a host of notables, and substantial arts programming commenced in the hopes that the site would be known as a cultural center instead of a country club. The Washington administration supported the Coalition in the renaming of the site, and in 1986 the relationship between the Chicago Park District and the community was officially cemented with the forming of the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council (SSCCPAC), following Park District policy with respect to community groups and also formally adopting the name of the park favored by the community itself. The Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club disbanded, and many of its members joined the Advisory Council membership and board throughout the following decades.

The South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council was charged with the planning, operating, promoting, and fundraising of both the Cultural Center restoration and also of a full program of arts activities, classes, and events. The Council’s mission also included supporting the community’s wishes in the face of Park District opposition. To these ends the Council and the Park District struggled to work together, starting with a massive survey by Council members of the Park facilities’ repair requirements. Major Advisory Council successes included the annual jazz festivals; classes and camps; music, dance, theater, and visual arts events; the array of golfing, swimming at the beach, and various sports. The slow restoration of the club building and grounds continued, but Council members were often disheartened by the many remaining signs of neglect. The Advisory Council and the South Shore community were long thwarted in their efforts to eliminate a food catering contract the District had awarded which almost entirely prevented community groups from using the Club building during much of the time. However, the Cultural Center had become a popular venue for weddings and other celebrations. The 1980s ended with the construction of a fine new pergola and the completion of deHaan’s original 1979 design for restoring the clubhouse.

The 1990s saw more progress as Advisory Council and Park District still struggled over funding and direction. But on October 13, 1992 the Cultural Center hosted the wedding reception of America’s future first couple, Michelle and Barack Obama. In 1997 the ballroom was recreated as the Paul Robeson Theatre, providing a much more appropriate dramatic venue. The 9-hole golf course was redone, followed by Junior Golf in 2001. The Park District commissioned more proposals to remedy the lack of disabled access to the facility and the dearth of development on the third and fourth floors of the main building; but little action on these issues occurred until after 2000. Most important, the Chicago Landmarks Commission awarded its prized designation upon the South Shore Cultural Center Park in 2004, thereby protecting the Cultural Center and its public façade from destruction. The nature center was opened where the skeet shooting range once stood; and the Washburn Culinary Institute installed its Parrot Cage Restaurant in 2005. The South Shore Country Club’s 100-year anniversary in 2006 brought a $2 million Chicago Park District commitment for the renovation of the main building’s upper floors followed by a 2012 Progress Illinois grant of $2500. As the City of Chicago vied for the 2016 Olympics, interest in and support of the South Shore Cultural Center increased with an eye toward its use during the Games, then quickly vanished. However, the debut of the accomplished South Shore Opera inspired new partners who joined in the South Shore Cultural Center’s artistic mission.

First as a quiet 19^th-century beach, then as an exclusive shoreline enclave, and currently as a park that does resemble a “palace for the people,” the South Shore Cultural Center continues to provide cultural, as well as natural, spaces and activities open to all. The Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club played a critical part in that outcome. As Chicago Park District Archivist Julia Sniderman Bachrach pointed out, we can “actually point to this as the beginning of the preservation movement in Chicago’s parks,” an important accomplishment indeed.

Sources

• Bachrach, Julia Sniderman. The City in a Garden: A Photographic History of Chicago’s Parks. Published by The Center for American Places in association with the Chicago Park District, 2001
• Bowly, Devereux, Jr. “And Now -- the South Shore Country Club.” Inland Architect, V. 18, December, 1974, p. 160
• Moss, Richard J. Golf and the American Country Club. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2001
• Schulze, Franz. Chicago’s Famous Buildings. University of Chicago Press, 2003
• Sinkevitch, Alice. AIA Guide to Chicago. University of Illinois Press, 2014
• Stevens, Mike. [untitled]. Hyde Park Herald, June 9, 2004

Scope and Content

Materials in the Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club (CSSSCC) Archives were created and/or collected by Sarah V. Martini, member and sometimes officer of that organization, from the late 1970s until 2001. The records illustrate the efforts of the CSSSCC to mobilize community support and resources needed to persuade the Chicago Park District to acquire the South Shore Country Club (SSCC) property, abandon demolition plans, and establish – and maintain -- a park with a cultural center to be administered with community involvement.

The Coalition adopted its name at a time when the institution it was trying to “save” was officially known as the South Shore Country Club (SSCC), during the 1970s. In 1986, the name of the Club was changed to the South Shore Cultural Center Park (SSCCP). The Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club was disbanded when its members were invited to join a new official entity, the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council (SSCCPAC). This collection reflects those name changes, although the researcher may find similar materials whether created by the CSSSCC or the SSCCPAC.

The bulk of the collection includes the CSSSCC and SSCCPAC board and member meeting minutes, financial and fund-raising records, architectural preservation and restoration documents, community programming materials, and CSSSCC/SSCCPAC public relations from the early 1970s through the early 1990s. Some 275 photographs illustrate aspects of the South Shore Cultural Center Park’s metamorphosis from 1970s country club to community showcase twenty years later, including a few views of the famous summer jazz festivals. A number of items document the South Shore neighborhood including surveys, photographs, newspaper clippings, and some materials from local community organizations. Likewise, names and deeds of many South Shore residents and other key organizations who took up the cause are recorded in meeting minutes, publicity, and transcripts of hearings held by the Park District and the South Shore Commission.

Researchers looking for architectural information about the Country Club’s history, physical condition and restoration will find architectural drawings, photographs, and research on architecture and art history that includes reviews of the Club’s original designs and construction. They can also study the place of the South Shore Cultural Center Park within contemporary environmental efforts to restore the local shoreline as well as the health of the Great Lakes. The records document various roles played by the Chicago Landmarks Commission, the South Shore Commission, The Friends of the Parks, the South Shore Bank, and other key players.

Some Chicago Park District contract documents, official publications, and correspondence are included, as well as the Coalition membership’s transition from independent community organization to Park District advisory board in 1986. Ample evidence exists throughout the collection of the uneasy relationship between both the CSSSCC and the SSCCPAC and the Park District, manifested by these organizations’ continual monitoring of funding problems and delayed construction. The researcher will find records of public hearings and responses to community petitions as well as occasional names of key players in Chicago’s political landscape such as Barbara Flynn Currie, Timothy Evans, Marion Humes, Ross Lathrop, Robert E. Mann, Ralph Metcalf, Eugene Sawyer, and Robert Wilnicki.

Community members who served as president or officer in the Coalition and then on the Advisory Board include Carol Adams, Anthony Adkins, Matthew Bonds, Betty Booker, Lewis H. Caldwell, James Couch, Milton O. Davis, Carlos Delgado, Mary Adams Dockery, Mark Durham, Henry English, Lori Gault, Laovida Glover, Raynard Hall, Kathleen Henning, John Johnson, Roscoe King, Ross W. Lathrop, Harold L. Lucas, John Lumpkin, Freddrenna M. Lyle, Hope Mueller, Lionel Nixon, Renee Prewitt, Betty Robinson, Polly Scheiner, Polly (Pauline) Silberman, Robert Starks, Beatrice Timms, Thelma Tucker, Peggy Williams, Robert (Bob) Williams, Vernon Williams, Wymond Winston, Oscar Worrill, and others whose names appear throughout the collection. Of the many musicians who brought jazz, blues, and gospel to the SSCC, the researcher may view photographs of Lena McLin, Betty Carter, and Geraldine de Haas.

Permeating the collection is the imprint of collection donor Sarah (Sally) Martini, member and frequent committee chair within the Coalition until 1986 followed by her seat on the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Board from 1987 to 1991. Researchers should keep in mind Martini’s role in selecting which materials should comprise this collection and which if any might not have been included. When the CSSSCC disbanded after 1986, Martini took care to photocopy the existing working files that were temporarily abandoned in the Coalition office. These saved photocopies represent a significant portion of this collection’s materials. Martini also wrote copious notes to herself. Her handwriting shows up on documents pertaining to the jazz festivals, budgeting, and other matters such as the resolution of disputes between herself and other members during her roles as treasurer, committee chair, and board member.

Arrangement/Series Description

The collection as received was not in chronological or topical order. The materials fall into six somewhat arbitrary series:

Series 1: Administrative history of Coalition (CSSSCC) and Advisory Council (SSCCPAC), 1906-1993

This series (6.5 linear feet) constitutes the bulk of the collection content. Categories of materials include, first, the board, committee, or membership meeting minutes, along with the variety of agendas, membership mailings, program event planning, fund-raising, public relations (PR), flyers, and more, usually found with meeting minutes. Other categories in this series involve the organizational by-laws, financial reports and budgets, proposals, petitions, reports, and other individual items presented to a meeting or group. Some material reflects the Coalition’s relationship to the Chicago Park District before and after it reorganized as the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council in 1986, such as contracts for surveillance or repairs, hearings on proposed Park District actions, or event program negotiations. Items used by the CSSSCC and then the SSCCPAC to carry out the work of reconstructing the physical facilities of the Park include architectural drawings, formal proposals, and grant applications. Extensive material usually found with the meeting minutes relates to the planning of key events such as the annual jazz festivals, various community-run arts classes, and other events held at the park.

The materials in Series 1 are arranged chronologically by year, and alphabetically by folder within each year.

Series 2: Chicago Park District, 1977-1991, [1950s]

Series 2 consists mostly of general material that was either created by the Chicago Park District administration or staff, or was acquired by the Park District from persons or entities other than the CSSSCC or SSCCPAC. These include the Park District’s published reports, budgets, meeting agendas, guidelines, training, organizational charts, correspondence, statutory foundation, court cases, and public relations and news releases. The series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

Series 3: Organization members and non-members, 1976-1992

Series 3 reflects the fact that from the beginning, the Coalition (and the Advisory Board after 1986) included members who represented various local and city-wide community organizations which formally made up the Coalition. These organizations changed over time. Groups such as Friends of the Parks and the Chicago Landmarks Commission lent broad-based citywide heft, the South Shore Bank represented more local financial support, while the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and the South Shore Commission were locally involved constituencies. Documents in this series pertain to the organizations themselves independent of their work with the CSSSCC/SSCCPAC. The material provides some documentation of contemporary organizations that served in the trenches to promote community culture, diversity, and lakeshore ecology.

Material from these member groups is arranged alphabetically by organization name. After the listed member organizations, the researcher will find other materials from non-member organizations with whom the Coalition worked, which are divided into the South Shore area, Chicago area, and nationally-based categories, alphabetically within each category.

Series 4: Serial publications and newsclippings, 1970-1992

Series 4 provides local publications, or newsclippings from these local publications, relating to the South Shore Country Club, the South Shore Cultural Center Park, and the organizations (including the CSSSCC and SSCCPAC) whose mission was the preservation of the park. Included are news items about various activities, events, and other programming that occurred at the Park.

Some of these materials are noteworthy because they provide a more objective viewpoint of, reveal community reaction to, or otherwise give a more balanced picture of, significant events in the history of the SSCC and SSCCP.

Multi-issue local South Shore publications, whether complete or partial editions, are arranged alphabetically by title and chronologically within titles. Those local publications represented by just a single issue or clipping are arranged alphabetically as “Selected serial publications.” Newclippings (photocopies) probably selected by Sarah Martini or other Coalition members for their relevance to the South Shore Country Club Park or South Shore Cultural Center Park, are arranged next in chronological order by year(s) from 1974 to 1990. Lastly, newsclippings containing general information useful to persons charged with the Park’s preservation, restoration, cultural programming, or fundraising are arranged chronologically by year.

Series 5: Photographs, 1981-1993, undated

Almost all of the 275 prints in this series appear to have been photographed by Sarah (Sally) Martini and all but a half dozen are color prints. The bulk of the photographs illustrate the physical plant, landscaping, and other physical components of the SSCC during the years between the Park District’s 1970s acquisition and the mid-2000s. They include the grounds, fencing and lighting, golf course, lakefront, the club building exteriors, gatehouse, stables, and pergola. However, few photographs provide views of the buildings’ interiors, especially of the main building which is renowned for its ornate Mediterranean Revival Style. Several dozen photos were taken of events held in this building, with views of participants as well as of the building’s interior. Those would include a local Tuskegee Airmen display and the local Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago. Photographs of the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council at the time it was newly organized in 1986 provide some identification of participants. However, the renowned summer jazz fests are not well represented here and nearly all the existing photos do not provide ID. Of note are a portrait of singer Betty Carter taken during one of the summer jazz festivals, and black and white official portraits of Johnny Hartmann and Earl Calloway.

Also found in Series 5 are some 400 negatives, 40 of which are black-and-white, and most of which are related to the photo prints in the series. However, negatives are not individually identified for viewing. The 70 color slides that document indoor and outdoor events may be viewed with difficulty.

Series 6: Memorabilia, 1979-1981

Items in this series include objects from the annual jazz festivals such as T-shirts, posters, tickets, and name tags.

Related Materials

Related materials at Chicago Public Library include:

• Chicago Park District Records
• Lillian M. Campbell Memorial Collection
• Associated Clubs of Woodlawn
• South Shore Community Collection
• South Shore Newspapers Collection

Container List

Series 1: Administrative History of the Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club and South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council, 1906-1993

Series 2: Chicago Park District, 1977-1992, [1950s]

Series 3: Member and non-member organizations, 1976-1992

Series 4: Serial Publications and Newsclippings, 1970-1992

Series 5: Photographs, 1981-1993, undated

Series 6: Memorabilia, 1979-1991