Unfortunately, Michelle & Barack weren’t there during my visits, because they didn’t buy the house until 30 years later, but in the 1970s, Michelle & Barack’s house in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood was a liberal Lutheran church on the 1st floor and a funky commune on the 2nd & 3rd floors. I kid you not.
I realize I may already be straining your credulity with the apparent oxymoron "liberal Lutheran," but my brother actually lived in that house for several years in the 1970s, and I thought y’all might enjoy some anecdotes from those days. Follow me below the fold for some brand new Obama trivia, including secret passageways, Abbie Hoffman, the crime of the century, and more.
In the early-mid 70's, I was in high school in St. Louis, and trips to visit my big brother in Chicago were a big deal. I especially enjoyed visiting at Passover, when we’d do a Lutheran version of the Seder in the large 1st floor parlor, dancing to Hava Nagila in the dilapidated remains of a stately neo-Georgian mansion that the Obamas purchased 30 years later. In those days, the house at 5046 S. Greenwood was known as simply "the mansion." And even then, in glorious disrepair, it was a helluva building.
It was on a huge lot, overgrown with weeds and litter and surrounded by a magnificent wrought-iron fence. A long driveway built for horse-drawn carriages ran along the north side of the property on its way to the ancient 2-story carriage house. The driveway passed the old side entrance, built several feet above the ground so guests could dismount directly onto the covered porch.
On entering the mansion from the front, instead of turning left to the big room where the church services were held, you could climb the grand staircase to the upper ballroom, where a massive chandelier hung from the high ceiling and an alcove quietly awaited a small orchestra to accompany the dancing. I remember fireplaces and chimneys everywhere, and old detail work in tile and wood spoke of former glory.
The first time I visited him there, my brother lived in the rear of the mansion in former servants’ quarters. We would go up to his room from the kitchen via the very plain servants’ staircase that ran up the back of the house. My brother’s room had the odd ceiling lines of an extra room tucked under the rafters. Best of all, it had a genuine secret passageway behind the closet, where my brother stored some extra boxes. I'll bet Malia and Sasha were ecstatic when they discovered the secret passageways!
I never saw the ghosts in person, but my brother assured me there were three in residence, including a young girl who haunted a bedroom on the same floor as the ballroom. When she showed herself, this young ghost would always appear at the foot of the bed, weeping. But the stories ran even deeper than that, as the house was closely associated not just with ghosts, but with murder, and not just with murder, but with "the crime of the century."
The Leopold Loeb murder of Bobby Franks on May 21, 1924 was one of the first to be labeled the "crime of the century." Two rich young University of Chicago students decided it would be "a thrill" to commit the perfect murder. They kidnapped and murdered a boy from the same neighborhood, but the brutal crime didn’t go as planned, and they were caught. Their trial, along with being a national sensation, played a role in the evolution of capital punishment law when defense attorney Clarence Darow employed psychological evidence as a mitigating factor in sentencing. Darrow had the boys plead guilty so sentencing would be by a judge rather than a jury. In his summation Darrow noted,
"where responsibility is divided by twelve, it is easy to say ‘away with him'; but, your honor, if these boys are to hang, you must do it...it must be by your cool, premeditated act, without a chance to shift responsibility...."Tell me that you can visit the wrath of fate and chance and life and eternity upon a nineteen- year-old boy!"
Clarence Darrow, also famous for serving with the ACLU in the "Scopes Monkey Trial" argued that the death penalty,
"roots back to the beast and the jungle." Time and time again Darrow challenged the notion of "an eye for an eye": "If the state in which I live is not kinder, more humane, and more considerate than the mad act of these two boys, I am sorry I have lived so long."
So what's the connection with the Obama's house? It was part of the alibi. Evidently the aunt and uncle of one of the murderers lived there, and on the night of the murder, after dumping the body in a culvert in Indiana, Nathan Leopold drove his aunt and uncle home as part of an alibi that turned out to be a bit too elaborate--so much for the perfect crime. After the trial and conviction (life sentences), "Uncle Leopold" supposedly gave the house to Temple Isaiah Israel and left Chicago in shame and disgrace.
By the time my brother lived there, this part of town was quite run-down, and the mansion had deteriorated along with the neighborhood. It was burgled several times in the few years he was there, and I didn't feel totally safe walking from the mile from the El to the mansion.
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod purchased the mansion, I think in the late 1960's, intending to tear it down and build a large church on the property. Somewhere along the line the Lutherans changed their mind and sold the property, presumably to Fredric Wondisford, Professor in Medicine and Chief of the Endocrinology Section at the University of Chicago, because he’s the one who sold it to the Obamas. By that time, the lot had been split into two separate properties. Dr. Wondisford sold the half with the house on it to the Obamas and the undeveloped half of the yard to the Rezkos. Apparently the carriage house had previously been sold off as a third parcel and converted to what I’m sure is a very cool cottage.
For a while it was quite a religious block. While the mansion was a rather unconventional Lutheran church, across the street was a Jewish Temple. (BTW, the KAM Isaiah Israel building across the street from the Obama’s house is a very cool structure as well – neo Byzantine.) To add to the ecumenically ecclesiastical neighborhood, the dilapidated mansion neighboring Obama’s house to the north was purchased by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – that’s right, none other than the Beatles' guru himself. (Is this proof that, in addition to being Christian, Muslim, and a godless Marxist, Obama is also Hindu???) Sorry, I can’t find a reference for this transaction, so it may need to remain as urban legend, but I say we can still use the urban legend to feed the "Obama worships Shiva" story.
I would guess that Dr. Wondisford and his partner Dr. Sally Radovick are the ones responsible for transforming it from a dilapidated commune filled with cobwebs and beanbag chairs into a place worthy of the next President of the United States and his fabulous family. News reports about the sale of the house to the Obamas frequently mention the "1,000 bottle wine cellar." When I was there, the only wine in evidence was probably either Boones Farm or communion wine. So best guess is Drs. Wondisford and Radovick took the big model train workshop out of the basement and turned it into a fancy wine cellar.
Speaking of wine, "the mansion" was well-known for its parties. All manner of Chicago liberals in the early ‘70s were known to stop by for festivities. One of these parties resulted in a sacred relic now known as "the bookshelf Abbie Hoffman threw up on." Obama volunteers who stayed at my sister's house in New Hampshire during the recent campaigns probably never noticed the ratty old bookshelf in need of refinishing. Somehow my sister ended up with the sacred bookshelf, and I got a photo of Abbiethat used to sit on the bookshelf like a cheap shrine. The autograph on the photo looks like Abbie may have signed it just before or after the "incident" at the mansion.
I hope you enjoy this taste of stories from "the mansion." I’ve waited until after the election to post this, for fear that the McCain campaign and Fox News would run wild with the story, "Wild Anarchist Party at Obama’s House: Abbie Hoffman vomits on The Lutheran Hymnal."
It's probably the coolest house I've ever been in, and who better to enjoy it than the Obamas. With its secret passageways, ghosts, and history, I hope the Obama family will hold on to their house in Hyde Park, even as they prepare to move into new digs on Pennsylvania Avenue. And now that we can put the whole Rezko BS behind us, I'm glad they purchased the extra yard space--the new puppy will need a place to run around when they're in town.