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July 5, 1967 – More than 18,000 members of Lions International parade down Michigan Avenue from Wacker Drive to Ninth Street as 200,000 people view the procession. The parade steps off at 9:30 a.m. on a route that is supposed to last four hours. However, four hours into the event units are still lining up at the starting line. The parade finally ends at 2:55 p.m. For the members of Lions International this was the largest parade ever mounted. Appropriately, it marks the fiftieth anniversary of the organization, which was founded on June 7, 1917 at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago. Included in the parade are more than 40 floats, along with costumed marching units from all over the world; there is even a goat, bird, pig and groundhog from Virginia accompanying a “motley looking brand of ‘moonshiners.’” Mayor Daley is at the reviewing stand between Harrison and Balbo before he leaves to speak at the opening of the Lions convention at Chicago Stadium. Governor Otto Kerner is also on hand to watch the festivities. The above photo, taken in 1919, shows the original Lions Club members arranged in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
July 5, 1938 – The Deerpath Inn of Lake Forest is swept by a fire that does $250,000 damage, most of which is covered by insurance. Although the walls of the hotel are still standing, the top floor is destroyed with much of the rest of the structure damaged by smoke and water. The dormitories of Ferry Hall at Lake Forest College are opened for hotel guests who “just had time to snatch their jewelry and clothes before the fire swept their rooms.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 6, 1938] Fire departments from North Chicago, Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station are needed to help the Lake Forest firefighters. The first Deerpath Inn was located on Deerpath Road and was converted from a private residence. In 1928 the hotel moved to a new location with 102 rooms in a three-story structure. The second Deerpath Inn was designed by architect William C. Jones who based his design on a Manor House in Chiddingstone, Kent, England. [LFLB History.org] Today the inn, now called the Deer Path Inn, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of the Historic Hotels of America. The inn has a special place in this writer's heart. When I was a sophomore in high school the Army transferred my father to Fort Sheridan, and arriving in a frozen Chicago in November of 1965 after nearly four years in Hawaii, this was the first place we stayed.
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| J. Bartholomew Photo |
July 5, 1915 – The South Park Commission places plans for the improvement of Grant Park on exhibit in Blackwell Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit includes a model of the peristyle, designed by Edward H. Bennett, that will stand in the northwest corner of the park at the corner of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. Other plans include a pair of pylons sixty feet tall to mark the entrance to the park and a line of trees from Randolph Street to Twelfth Street with a gravel walk 30 feet wide beside them. J. F. Foster, Superintendent of the South Park Commissioners, says that when the work is completed Grant Park “will be a beauty spot unsurpassed by any of the formal gardens in the United States and equaled only by the public gardens of Italy.” [Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1915] One of the great pylons, part of the 1915 plan, that today greets visitors to the park is pictured above. Note the "Y" symbol in its center panel.
July 5, 1911 – An unabated heat wave in the opening days of July reaches a high of 101.5 degrees at 2:00 p.m. on July 5 with devastating results. In the first five days of the month 125 infants have died from heat-related causes. The fear is that a far greater number is to come. Dr. C. St. Clair Drake of the Bureau of Vital Statistics says, “The soured milk fed the children in these hot days has started intestinal disorders which are rapidly growing worse.” On this day 44 men and women die with one man, “crazed by the high temperature” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 6, 1911] hanging himself. Ice companies are having tremendous difficulty in transporting ice to the outlying sections of the city since so much of the shipment melts before it reaches its destination. Shrinkage is usually about ten per cent; ice companies are losing close to 80 per cent of their shipments in trying to get it delivered. As a result, fresh milk, fruit and other food items are in short supply in some parts of the city. Companies are also having difficulty in keeping their horses up and working. Forty horses have died on city streets and over 200 have been affected so much that they cannot work. The Humane Society has received 300 emergency calls since July 3. On this one day alone over 300 horses are felled near the Loop with just one fountain for teamsters to water their horses in the area, that in front of the Y.W.C.A. on South Michigan Avenue. Cooling temperatures and a slight chance of rain is predicted for July 6.
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