Open House Chicago’s South Shore sites offer more than just a tour

Visit the Stony Island Arts Bank Saturday and Sunday for 2019 Open House Chicago | Courtesy of the Rebuild Foundation

The Chicago Architecture Center’s Open House Chicago kicks off this weekend to celebrate the history, design and mission of buildings throughout the city.

While it is an opportunity for people to experience over 300 beautiful buildings that are often closed to the public throughout the year, it is also an opportunity to explore the neighborhoods they call home.

A neighborhood that should be at the top of Chicagoans’ list this year is South Shore, which is home to seven sites (four new ones in 2019).

Stony Island Arts Bank, 6760 S. Stony Island Ave., is new in 2019 and normally serves as a “hybrid gallery, media archive, library and community center.”

The Arts Bank was designed by architect William Gibbons Uffendell and built in 1923. The building with four fluted Roman columns, traditional for its neo-classical style, is South Shore’s only remnant of the era.

The Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank, as it was originally known, was positioned in a thriving commercial corridor with restaurants, theaters and hotels. Then the Great Depression hit, leading to the bank’s closing in 1931. The bank changed ownership several times until the Nation of Islam bought the building in 1973.

In 1980 the building fell into the city’s hand and sat vacant for nearly 30 years. Decades of neglect and severe water damage landed the building on the city’s demolition list.

The hallway inside of the Stony Island Arts Bank.

Artist Theaster Gates bought the building for $1 from the city in 2013 and his Rebuild Foundation invested $6.5 million in renovations.

Rebuild Foundation is a nonprofit focused on art, cultural development and neighborhood transformation.

The Arts Bank is also home to a 15,000-item collection of books, periodicals and art donated by Johnson Publishing Co., which published Ebony and Jet magazines. It also has the late, great Frankie Knuckles’ record collection, the godfather of Chicago House music.

Interior of the Stony Island Arts Bank that shelves thousands of Johnson Publishing Company’s, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazine, books and periodicals.

“There is something happening every day that we are open for the weekend,” said Julie Yost, director of programming for Rebuild Foundation. “We will be doing staff-guided tours about the history of the building, the restoration process and what we offer today.”

A visit to the Arts Bank during Open House Chicago will include a screening of “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Don’t Shout too Soon” and “Black Samurai: South Side Warriors.” Yost said a daytime dance party also will take place.

“We also will include the Tamir Rice gazebo memorial on our north lawn,” Yost said. “We had reconstructed it to honor Tamir Rice’s 17th birthday, and they will get to experience all of that.”

Rice was fatally gunned down by a Cleveland police officer while playing with a pellet gun inside the gazebo in 2014. The gazebo was reconstructed earlier this year.

Also new to Open House Chicago is Bryn Mawr Community Church, 7000 S. Jeffery Blvd., which remains in use by a congregation; Park Heights by the Lake, 2231 E. 67th St., a neo-gothic condominium; and the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Drive.

Interior of Bryn Mawr Community Church, 7000 S. Jeffery Blvd. which is new to Open House Chicago.

Yost hopes people make South Shore an entire day trip to visit every open house in the neighborhood but also recommends spending time inside of other businesses like Heritage Cafe, 1944 E. 79th St.

“I would encourage people to really get to know South Shore and other South Side neighborhoods,” Yost said. “I hope people come to the Arts Bank and don’t hurry up and leave but instead take it all in.”

“Make it a whole experience because South Shore offers so much.”

Returning this year:

• St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Church, 2132 E. 72nd St.
• WGN Flag & Decorating Co., 7984 S. South Chicago Ave.
• Windsor Beach Apartments, 7321 S. South Shore Dr.

Visit Open House Chicago’s website for its complete list.

Exterior of Bryn Mawr Community Church, 7000 S. Jeffery Blvd. which is new to Open House Chicago in South Shore.

Manny Ramos is a corps member of Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of Chicago’s South Side and West Side.