Don Rose<Donrose65@aol.com> Date: Sun 06 Apr 1997
Dear Chancellor Broski:
The City of Chicago and its public institutions historically have a shameful record of destroying their tangible cultural and architectural heritage. Whether it be a building such as the old Stock Exchange or an ethnic neighborhood, "progress" has taken a terrible toll. The preserved Hull house that stands at the gateway to the University of Illinois at Chicago offers both a mute testimony to that sorry record - and a glimmer of hope for sensitivity to the issue.
Now you personally are confronted with the prospect of being part of that on-going problem, or becoming part of a happier solution.
You must decide whether one of the last vestiges of our early urban heritage is to be completely obliterated, or whether it will be transformed into a vital entity that preserves and enhances it.
I speak, of course, of the planning for the remaining Maxwell Street area. I need not reiterate its rich and unique history as a port of entry for the people who would build a new America and its concomitant role as a birthplace and breeding ground for our indigenous art forms, jazz and its precursor, the blues. Few cities have made such major contributions to the arts and life of our nation - and few locales can be identified as so central to that role as the Maxwell Street area.
I strongly support the concept of creating an historic district devoted to Chicago blues as part of the final plan for this site, and I urge you to adopt the idea.
The idea of a university extends far beyond a physical plant. It, too, is a cultural heritage - one I once shared when our school held classes at Navy Pier (which itself has been recycled admirably). I implore you to begin a turnaround in the cavalier way we have treated our common heritage and take a step past the token preservation of a building such as Hull House. You can create a living thing that does both our city and our school proud.
Do it!
Sincerely,
Don Rose
President, Don Rose Communications
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