[Oe List ...] Photos from Uptown in 1970s

[jlepps at pc.jaring.my]

Yes, it would be good to hear early memories of moving into 4750 and Uptown.

  I was working with Phil Townley at the time, and accompanied him to 
a council meeting which was to provide permission for us to make the 
move. They asked all sorts of questions about who we were, and I was 
furiously scribbling answers for Phil to give. He thoroughly ignored 
everything I wrote (wisely, it turned out). We got the permission and 
moved in.

One feature of the early days was security: someone was posted in the 
Guild Hall at night and had to check the door to the back alley every 
hour. The noises of a near-empty building at night made for 
nerve-wracking times. It wasn't ghosts that were scary -- one felt 
almost able to handle them, It was what was outside that created the unease.

The rooms were office spaces, and some had walls; the rest had file 
cabinets as dividers with curtains hung from the ceiling. Privacy was 
hard to come by. But work space was ample on the first floor, and for 
the first time, many of us had actual desks and file cabinets!

It would be good to hear stories from others who made the move.

John Epps

At 07:38 PM 12/4/2013, Marge Philbrook wrote:
>As one who currently lives and works in Uptown, I'd like to say that 
>lots of these areas look familiar today, that we were wise to stay 
>out of the neighborhood as much as possible 40 years ago, that all 
>of us have many stories we could tell about Uptown.
>
>I was on the development team that visited this building to decide 
>whether to recommend accepting this gift.  I remember Phll Townley, 
>Fred Buss and I and I'm no sure who else came to look at it and 
>decided it would be a usable gift.  I remember that the 100 of 
>us  who didn't have small school children moved in from the alley 
>during a night, bringing our personal belongings and our mattresses 
>only - We intended to sleep on the top of desks in the various rooms 
>on all the floors in the building and use filing cabinets for dressers..
>
>I remember that the restaurant in our building at the corner of 
>Lawrence and Sheridan was closed and we used that as our kitchen and 
>dining room.  I remember there were only two showers in the building 
>one on 4 and one on 8 so we named one "men" and one "women" and 
>waited in line to shower. There was and still is a shower in the 
>basement which some people used.
>
>I better stop this but I think it would be great for several of us 
>to look at this man's book and bring back our memories of living 
>here in the 70s.  We always felt lucky to have a parking lot.
>
>Marge Philbrook
>
>
>On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Shelley Hahn 
><<mailto:shelley.l.hahn at gmail.com>shelley.l.hahn at gmail.com> wrote:
>Jann, I had exactly the same reaction to that photo.  It was not 
>about race for me at all.  I saw all the pimps and pimp-mobiles 
>around Uptown back in the day ... and that is what this guy reminded 
>me of.  I have a very bad feeling about what might have happened to 
>that little girl and her mother.  I hope I'm wrong.
>
>Shelley
>
>
>On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 1:27 PM, 
><<mailto:LAURELCG at aol.com>LAURELCG at aol.com> wrote:
>I'm grateful to Shelley for sharing this. Now I realize how little I 
>really got out into the neighborhood
>
>These pictures are amazing and so is the text, written by a 
>good-hearted man with an artist's eye.
>
>I want to make one comment. The author called both white and black 
>people's visceral reaction to the image of the black man hugging the 
>little white girl racist. I disagree. The creep factor isn't racism. 
>The expression on the girl's face makes me think he was a pimp. The 
>picture nauseated me. Learning how much trafficking goes on has made 
>me more aware.
>
>There are many stories in those pictures,aren't there?
>
>Thank you again, Shelley.
>
>Blessings,
>Jann McGuire
>
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