The 19th Century Charitable Association continues to evolve into the 21st century. The building has been undergoing upgrades in order to accommodate a wider array of programming. Amy Brinkman, vice president of programs says the organization — originally called the 19th Century Woman’s Club — has a wonderful past but an even livelier future.
Nineteenth Century, which is no longer just for women and goes by “Charitable Association” because Cook County was harassing them about taxes a few years back, also aspires to be, more and more, an artistic and cultural venue.
The third-floor ballroom, for instance, seats 300 people with an unobstructed view of the stage. But the acoustics needed work and when they’re finished, Brinkman said, the space will be “more suitable for a wider variety of live performances, lectures or business meetings.” Following through on recommendations from their sound engineer, they will be adding fabric-covered sound-absorbing panels on the walls and ceiling, which will blend in so that it doesn’t diminish the elegant decor (chandeliers, ornate plaster molding, etc.).
A new sound system is also being installed. And the two Steinway pianos, both 87 years old, are undergoing a complete restoration, costing upwards of $70 grand.
“The Model M piano in the living room is being restored now,” Brinkman said, “and will be returned by the end of the summer. It is used for intimate musical programs, special events and even sing-alongs from time to time. The Model B in the ballroom is scheduled to be removed just prior to the acoustical work and returned in early 2016.” That piano, she said, is used for “larger events.”
One of those larger (they hope) events begins tonight, June 24 at 7:30, with the first concert, “Passion, Flair and Fun,” in their summer music series. They’re calling the series “Saving Our Steinways,” to keep the focus front and center. Bobby Schiff (piano) and Daniela Bisenius (violin) will play classical works showcasing “the dynamic variety of piano literature.” Tickets are $20 online (www.nineteenthcentury.org), $25 at the door.
The other two concerts take place July 22 (“All Chopin” with Jana Pavloska) and Aug. 26 (“Baroque Elegance Meets Modern Swing” with Richard Sladek & Friends playing Claude Bolling’s “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano”). All three start at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 708-386-2729.
Why does the club have two grand pianos?
“Very forward-thinking women realized that one cannot move grand pianos from floor to floor,” Brinkman said. “Their decision to purchase not one, but two performance Steinways — in the same year the building was completed (1928) — was important enough to the members to make the investment.” Chicago Piano Service is doing the restoration.
During the rest of the year, almost every Monday from the first week of October through May, Nineteenth Century offers programs in the early afternoon, five programs in each of the following categories: art, music, science, social science and literature. There are also “pop-up” evening programs, plus the regular English Country dance program.
All of this is consistent with a distinguished cultural history, which included regular lectures by the likes of Amelia Earhart and Indira Gandhi.
In fact, Nineteenth Century is gearing up for the organization’s 125th anniversary year, which begins in January. The club was incorporated in October of 1891.
“We consider the building a huge asset to the community,” Brinkman said, and their ultimate goal is to make it a cultural center.
They also provide grants to, and host events for, nonprofits in addition to awarding scholarships to graduating high school seniors, so their charitable legacy continues as well.
One tradition, however, has definitively changed. “We are not a women’s club,” Brinkman said. “Men are welcome and there is no longer an ‘application’ for membership. Anyone who wants to join, can.”
And anyone who wants to attend their expanding arts and cultural programming can too.
Innovative but very Pleasant
A similar story can be found a short distance away at Pleasant Home, architect George Maher’s masterpiece at the corner of Pleasant Street and Home Avenue (hence the name). As the longtime tenant, the Historical Society of Oak Park-River Forest, prepares to move to its permanent home in the old Cicero Township firehouse (at Lombard and Lake) probably later this year, the Pleasant Home Foundation (which is celebrating its 25th anniversary) ponders a future that, like the Nineteenth Century Club, includes expanded programming.
Heidi Ruehle-May, who took over as executive director of the Pleasant Home Foundation in January of 2014, has a vision of making Pleasant Home an ongoing “community open house.” To that end, she and her programming director, Sarah Najera, have been offering the kinds of events that you don’t find anywhere else around Oak Park — like the magician last fall who took attendees on a haunted tour of the home.
Ruehle-May and Najera have been focusing on smaller events that inflict less wear-and-tear on the old mansion. In September they’ll host a coffeehouse with storyteller Megan Wells and a jazz duo. In August, they’ll reprise their popular Friday night silent films series on the porch, accompanied by pianist Thomas Holmes.
And in December, Holmes will perform a duet with a music box. Only it’s not just any music box. It is the “Violano Virtuoso,” one of the more amazing inventions of the first decade of the 20th century, which contains within its elegant cabinetry a violin and piano “skeleton” that play a remarkable number of songs, mechanically, to remarkable effect.
The Violano was manufactured by the second owner of Pleasant Home, Herbert Mills, the master of the slot machine, who had a Violano in his living room. Thanks to the generosity of Evon’s Nuts magnate Jasper Sanfillipo, a mechanical music collector, Pleasant Home now has one again, to the astonishment of unsuspecting tour groups.
“It’s very loud,” Ruehle-May says. “It’s a little overwhelming.”
The Violano will be on full display, and dis-playable, this Sunday afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m. when the Pleasant Home Foundation hosts the Lake Michigan Chapter Musical Box Society International’s “Monkey Organ Rally” outside on the lawn, weather permitting. Mechanical music devices will take the curious on a sound journey into the past. No word on whether there will be monkeys, mechanical or otherwise.
But you never know. Things are getting interesting at some of our formerly staid institutions.
Visit www.pleasanthome.org for more information or call 708-383-2654.