Re: History of Hyde Park,Illinois
Posted by:
jak378
(---.hsd1.fl.comcast.net)
Date: December 20, 2012 02:22PM
We moved to the Back of the Yards, 5630 Ashland above Kloekner's flower shop, in 1949 when my mother remarried. We also lived for a year of so at 58th an Bishop. It was a great neighborhood. Before that we lived in a building, or buildings that my grandmother managed, Hyde Park Towers, at 810 and 818 East Hyde Park Blvd (51st and Cottage Grove), which was torn down around 1960 I think. It had been built as the Vermont Hotel, around 1892, to provide accommodations for the World's Fair. It was billed as an apartment hotel and thus had a lot of low income residents living there including several families of DP's from Europe. It was a great mix of people who were for the most part friendly and fun.
My grandfather worked at Armour Meat Packing in the Stockyards, and used to get tickets to various events, I guess because they supplied the hot dogs or something. Most notably was the roller derby at the Colliseum, which has been mentioned here several times, and also for the midget car races at Soldier Field, which were noisy and a lot of fun.
I am a little younger than a couple of you that posted here, in that I graduated from St. Basils in 1955, but I am beginning to understand the nuances of getting old.