 Media Credit: Dan Fletcher/The Daily Northwestern Chicago actor R.J. Lindsay played Gen. Charles Gates Dawes in a historical reenactment to protest NU's continued ownership of the historic Dawes house.
| |
Charles Dawes won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. He was elected Calvin Coolidge's vice president in 1924.
He also died in 1951, but you wouldn't know it from the spectacle on the Evanston lakefront Thursday morning.
About 35 residents joined in formation on the east lawn of the former Evanstonian's house, 225 Greenwood St., in an effort to persuade Northwestern to allow the Evanston History Center to stay there.
"As you know, something has gone wrong," said Dawes, portrayed by Chicago actor R.J. Lindsay. "So I have come back from the dead to reclaim my house."
The lakefront mansion was completed in 1895. The Dawes family eventually entrusted the building and a sizeable endowment to NU. Since then, NU has helped pay for upkeep and allowed the Evanston History Center to administer and operate from Dawes House.
"We think we accomplished what we intended: We got the message out, we rallied our troops," Evanston resident Frank Corrado said. "This is the start of a campaign."
Corrado is head of "The General Returns" campaign, an ad hoc group of residents that has taken up the cause of the Dawes House with militant vigor since NU closed the house to the public in April.
Eugene Sunshine, NU's senior vice president for business and finance, said the money given to NU by the Dawes family and the History Center's endowment aren't enough to bring the building up to code and maintain it. Sunshine estimates such repairs at around $4 million, which would include fire safety, structural repairs and handicap accessibility.
Still, local activists insist the university is violating its original covenant with the Dawes family and the History Center. They said the university is not paying for maintenance and trying to profit off the sale of "living history."
NU has a slightly different perspective.
"The people today just didn't understand," Sunshine said. "They didn't get the facts straight. There's no argument about that: it is what it is."
NU spends anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 a year on the house and has no set plans for the building's future, Sunshine said.
Spring Break
The DAILY encourages you to share your thoughts on this story. Please help us keep the discussion lively, but civil. Comments that are abusive to others, off-topic or vulgar, or comments that misrepresent someone's identity, will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to delete any comments in violation or to close comment threads on articles.
Please e-mail online@dailynorthwestern.com to flag a comment or for more information.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Hu
posted 5/23/08 @ 8:24 AM CST
Northwestern has spent lots of money - its own money - on keeping up this mansion. The free ride for EHC is over!
General Dawes
posted 5/23/08 @ 9:01 AM CST
Hu- do some homework! Northwestern has not spent any of its own money on the mansion that was given to them to care for the home that was intended to be a history museum for the city of evanston. (Continued…)
Concerned Citizen
posted 6/14/08 @ 8:03 PM CST
This issue was discussed in 1959, before the Society moved into the Dawes House. Back then they were asking the City of Evanston for money.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
Alderman Quaife M. (Continued…)
Post a Comment