Chairs designed by Oak Park’s very own Frank Lloyd Wright,
were sold at an auction hosted by the Unity Temple of Oak Park
to help with the funds needed for restoration work at the Temple.
The Unity Temple is located at Lake Street and Kenilworth Avenues
in Oak Park and is Universalist Unitarian Church part of the year
and large tourist attraction at other times of the year.

The five chairs, each 54 inches tall were donated to the Unity
Temple several years ago.  One buyer bought four chairs and the
fifth one went to another individual.  The single chair sold for $10,000
and the other four for $15,250 each.

The Temple was built in 1908 and has had some serious structural
issues in the past recent years.  The State of Illinois has donated
over $1,000,000.00 to help with renewal in the past year and things
are headed in the ‘Wright’ direction.

When I spoke with Ms. Mullarkey about her involvement in the Peace 
movement, she noted that she had called several of the lawmakers in our
area and asked their staff how the elected official’s mother or other women
in their families felt about the new war that may occurr between the United 
States and Iraq.  Ms. Mullarkey noted that she had called Congressman 
Davis at his office just before he went onto the floor of the House.  Her 
name was fresh on his mind and that day Barbara got a great many calls 
from her friends who noted her name read into the House record on 
National Public Radio.  I heard the news while in Utica, Illinois. Thanks
Danny and thanks Barbara.

An on-going exhibit of the area from Native Americans
to the incorporation of Oak Park in 1902.  Photos,
maps, documents and artifacts.  Eventually to add
other phases of Oak Park history.

Tuesdays through Thursdays, 12:30 - 3:30 PM, Pleasant
Home, 217 S. Home Ave.; Oak Park, IL.  $5 adults;
Fridays free. 

An Exhibit that Tells the Early Oak Park Stories

An on-going exhibit of the area from Native Americans
to the incorporation of Oak Park in 1902.  Photos,
maps, documents and artifacts.  Eventually to add
other phases of Oak Park history.

Tuesdays through Thursdays, 12:30 - 3:30 PM, Pleasant
Home, 217 S. Home Ave.; Oak Park, IL.  $5 adults;
Fridays free. 

“If Walls Could Talk” is a weekly series on Home & Garden Television (HGTV) that explores
the many homes across the country with intriguing pasts. Airing Sunday nights at 10 pm 
& 1 am Eastern time, the series profiles homeowners who make surprising historical
discoveries about their homes as they research and restore them. 

We are looking for: 

Privately owned homes, where the current owners discovered the house’s history through
restoration efforts - - or just by chance!  People who have found artifacts in their home or
on the property that link back to the house’s history  People who own homes with a known
history that was verified or added to through discoveries - either through artifacts or architectural
finds 

It doesn’t have to be tied into anyone or anything famous - - anything interesting you’ve
found is great. If you think your house might belong on “If Walls Could Talk,” please 
contact us!

303-712-3321 or swormald@broadband.att.com

We hope to visit the Illinois/Indiana area in September, so we are very
interested in your stories. 

We know every house has a history, and we’d love to hear about yours!

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that Julie Samuels of Oak Park hopes to run on the Green Party 
ticket for election in November to be state representative from the 8th House
District?
In a planned campaign against incumbent State Rep. Calvin Giles, a
Democrat from Chicago's Austin community to the east of Oak Park,
Samuels, among other issues, opposes the tentative plan to widen the
Eisenhower Expressway and backs the expansion of the Blue Line to
suburbs west of Forest Park, where the line in the Eisenhower
Expressway now ends.
But to get on the ballot in the race for the 8th District--which
includes parts of the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, Oak Park south of
Adams Street, northern Berwyn and northern Riverside--Samuels needs to
gather about 3,000 petition signatures. People who want to help with 
the campaign can contact Bruce Samuels, the prospective candidate's 
husband, a former village trustee candidate and the current secretary of the
Greens of Oak Park Coordinating Council,  by telephone at either
708-383-07711 or 708-524-0909 or by e-mail at bjs613@attbi.com.

-- that in another election note, Oak Park Village Trustee Gus
Kostopulos denied a report here that he supported Deborah Graham in her
race in the 78th State Representative District Democratic primary
against Dorothy Reid of Oak Park?
The denial was seconded by Doug Wyman of Oak Park, who also denied any
disagreement that was referred to here. Wyman said that Kostopulos was
neutral in the Reid-Graham contest and that there is no disagreement
between the two.  "That didn't happen," Wyman said.

-- that broadcast pioneer and River Forest resident Cliff Johnson on
Saturday, May 4, will receive a Master's degree in theology from
Concordia University in River Forest?
Johnson, 87, began having nationwide radio success at WBBM-AM radio in
1940; then moved on to "Cliff Johnson on Catalina" in 1945, the great
"Breakfast wit ht the Johnsons" about his family's life--his wife 
Luella and their children--in Oak Park and a treasured career ever since. 
Items from Johnson's career can be seen at the Museum of Broadcast
Communication in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington in
Chicago.
Johnson is, among other things now, an assisting minister at Grace
Lutheran Church in River Forest, and began theology studies about 10
years ago. Concordia's spring commencement will be on Saturday at 1:30
p.m. in the Geiseman Gymnasium on the Concordia campus, 7400 Augusta
St., where about 265 students will receive academic degrees.

-- that the Oak Park Farmers' Market will open its 2002 season on 
June 1?
Other highlights will be Kids Day on July 13, the Corn Roast on Aug. 17
and the Stone Soup, the traditional final day activity, on Oct. 26.

-- that the Oak Park observance of the National Day of Prayer will be 
on Thursday, May 2, but won't be at village hall?
Village government and the prayer day organizers had battled in court
over the village board's refusal to allow the prayer day in village
hall--and the prayer proponents have won so far. For this year, though,
the National Day of Prayer in Oak Park  will begin with light
refreshments at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Maze Branch Library 
at 845 S. Gunderson St. Prayers led by some pastors from the community 
will be held from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. next Thursday.

-- that former Oak Parker Ethel Lee Harris, who was the founder of the
old Delaney Theatre Company in Oak Park and who now lives in 
California, is seeking a fellowship from the television networks and the
Directors Guild of America to promote directors who are members of 
minority groups?

-- that the Oak Park Area Arts Council is forming a diversity committee
designed to "foster and support diversity in arts programming and
audience development in the Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park 
area" and to "identify and encourage visual, performing and literary artists
of diverse backgrounds"?
 

Did you know ...?

-- that, in a new development, a new Suzuki dealership has announced it
will open at 6440 W. Roosevelt Road in Oak Park, the site where Oak 
Park Isuzu-Suzuki left recently?

-- that Oak Parker Thaddeus "Ted" Brzyski, who was mysteriously dumped
last year as executive director of the Oak Park Residence
Corporation/Oak Park Housing Authority, has signed as a senior loan
officer with the Community Investment Corporation (CIC), a Chicago
housing agency that strengthened its ties to the Oak Park area?
Brzyski was a senior loan officer from 1988 until mid-1998, when he
signed on with as chief administrative officer of the Housing
Authority/Residence Corporation, sister agencies in Oak Park housing
affairs. At CIC now, Brzyski will focus on housing rehabilitation 
issues in the six-county metropolitan area of Chicago.
Already at CIC is Michael Bielawa, another former executive director of
the Oak Park Housing Authority/Residence Corporation; president John
Pritscher, a former priest who once was the pastor of an Oak Park
church; Tom Jackson, another CIC senior loan officer who once worked 
for the South Austin Coalition Community Council, an advocacy group in
Chicago's Austin community to the east of Oak Park; and CIC director of
marketing and communications Martin Berg, who lives in Oak Park with 
his wife, Gina Orlando, a long-time Oak Park community activist who
currently works with, among other things, the Historical Society of Oak
Park & River Forest.

-- that for about the past 20 years about 22,000 vehicles per day 
travel on Roosevelt Road between Oak Park and Berwyn from Harlem
to Ridgeland avenues but that only about 16,000 drivers drive on 
Roosevelt between Ridgeland Avenue and Austin Boulevard?

-- that the commercial building at 6549 W. North Ave. in Oak Park, 
which has several vacancies, is for sale?

-- that on the plus side for North Avenue, Flavor restaurant has opened
at 6818 W. North Ave., where the Desert Cafe restaurant closed 
recently?

-- that the change of Firstar Bank to U.S. Bank, which is impacting the
Oak Park branches at 104 N. Oak Park Ave. and 825 Lake St., is 
scheduled to be finished in the summer?

-- that in another banking item, the next Business After Hours mixer
held by the Oak Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce will be held at
Charter One Bank, the former St. Paul Federal Savings Bank at 6700 W.
North Ave. in Chicago and across from Oak Park?

-- that the Oak Park Police Department is hiring a new Police Records
Supervisor?

-- that state representative hopeful Dorothy Reid of Oak Park--she of
the recently tied election--will hold a fund-raiser at 5 p.m. on April
8--the day of a coin flip ostensibly to decide the election--at
Robinson's No. 1 Ribs at 940 Madison St. in Oak Park?

-- that now that the Community Chest of Oak Park & River Forest has
stopped funding the Boy Scouts over their policy banning gays from
scouting, maybe some action will be taken by the Oak Park-River Forest
Centennial Legacy organization?
The legacy project seeks to encourage people to increase funding to
local agencies by encouraging residents to remember some local groups 
in their wills. The Des Plaines Valley Boy Scout Council, which serves
scouts in Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park and other suburbs, is
among the "Legacy Project Partners."
 

For Oak Park auto dealers, one more down
and two to go
By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that the Oak Park Isuzu-Suzuki auto dealership has left its location
at 6440 W. Roosevelt Road in Oak Park?
Now vacant is the building and property where the dealership had moved
from its original location on Lake Street, also in Oak Park. Also left
is the cul-de-sac on Elmwood Avenue that gave the dealership more
parking. The Isuzu-Suzuki dealership recently moved to Berwyn when it
merged with Suburban Dodge of Berwyn at 7050 Ogden Ave.
The move leaves Oak Park with only two high-sales-tax-producing auto
dealerships, and both of them are on somewhat uncertain footing. The
Shepherd Volvo dealer on Madison Street has off and on considered 
moving in with a dealer in Maywood, and the status of Foley-Rice Cadillac and
Oldsmobile, which is based on Madison Street and has several locations
on the street, won't be fully known until after the Oldsmobile car is
phased out by General Motors.

-- that Temme Auto Trim is the latest Oak Park business to leave the
village, recently moving to Elmhurst?
Temme's move after almost 30 years leaves another vacancy on Madison
Street, at 1027.

-- that "Rally 'Round Reid," a community meeting for people who are
interested in electing Dorothy Reid as state representative from the
78th District, will be held this Saturday in Oak Park?
The March 19 election between Reid of Oak Park and Deborah Graham of
Chicago is the one that was ruled to have ended in a tie. The Reid 
rally now is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on April 6 at Judson Baptist Church, 
1252 N. Austin Blvd. in Oak Park

-- that for his planned condominium development at 417 Lathrop Ave., 
Oak Park developer Rami Saif has hired Albert S. George, the former River
Forest village attorney, to represent the project before the River
Forest Development Review Board?

-- that Daniela's Ristorante & Pub at 7510 Randolph St. in Forest Park
is for sale?

-- that, technically, River Forest village ordinance prohibits property
owners from putting election campaign signs on their lawns?
The ordinance is seldom, if ever, enforced, however, and residents with
lawn signs are usually only encouraged to take them down and, if they
want to display election signs, to place signs in their windows 
instead.

-- that the Gunderson Historic District, Oak Park's third historic
district, on March 1 officially was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places?
The National Register is the federal government's official list of
historic buildings and cultural resources. The area of Oak Park now
listed is bounded by Madison Street, Ridgeland Avenue, Harrison Street
and Gunderson Street; it contains many homes designed and built by
developer Seward Gunderson; the listing prevents owners from changing
their properties without approval from village hall.

-- that among the host of public construction projects to be done in
the villages this year, Chicago Avenue will be upgraded from Harlem to
Thatcher avenues, the width of River Forest?
The road will get new curbs and gutters, new drainage structures, a new
asphalt surface, new roadway striping and upgraded traffic signals at
Lathrop and at Thatcher avenues. The work is to get underway in the
summer and should be done by Halloween.

-- that when the new video "Beyond the Ivy" about the Chicago Cubs
baseball team's life at Wrigley Field was reviewed by Ted Cox, sports
media critic of the Daily Herald newspaper who called the music for the
video by Oak Parker Bradley Williams "pedestrian background music"?

-- that Democrat Rob Martwick will face Republican incumbent Peter
Silvestri in the race for Cook County Commissioner from the 9th
District, which includes part of Oak Park?
Martwick, who won the March 19 primary over one challenger, also is a
village trustee in Norridge, and Silvestri, the village president of
Elmwood Park, will run against each other in November's general
election.
Among other issues, Martwick has said he would make "drastic changes" 
in the management of the Cook County Forest Preserves.

-- that The Noble Fool comedy theater troupe in Chicago, which has
several members, founders and other ties to Oak Park and Forest Park,
has received a $1 million financial subsidy from Chicago city hall to
open in a new facility at 16 W. Randolph in the city?
The Noble Fool now becomes part of the burgeoning Chicago Theatre
District, which includes the new Goodman Theatre, the restored Oriental
and Palace Theaters and other venues.
The non-profit Noble Fool Company received $1 million in tax increment
financing (TIF) monies toward the $2.5 million cost of its new theater
complex. Last year, The Noble Fool received a $125,000 Tourism
Attraction Development Grant from the state's Illinois Department of
Commerce and Community Affairs.

-- that the next session of Black/White Dialogue, the monthly 
discussion about racial matters, is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3 at
the Maze Branch library at 845 S. Gunderson St. in Oak Park?
The April topic of the monthly gathering will be "open forum," and a
"surprise treat" is planned for 8:30 p.m.

-- that the Oak Park development watchdog group REDCOOP over the next
three months will hold public meetings with experts that allow citizens
to discuss the concepts in "Smart Growth"?
Beginning on March 13 from  7 to 9 p.m. and also at meetings in April
and May, REDCOOP will present the forums at the Oak Park Arms 
Retirement Community, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park.
 

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