What's Missing?
We often walk past this tall concrete wall as we explore the streets in our neighborhood.
As you can see it's pretty massive and prison like, but there is no sign of what this wall once protected, or protected us from.
Midway along its length an opening reveals a huge empty lot with a small pile of rubble,
weeds, and remnants of a concrete pad of some sort. For some reason I remembered hearing that this large piece of property had once been occupied by an orphanage, but I couldn't be sure. So after some research, I found the answer.
LoC/CHM #ichicdn n 007832 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Through the magic of Photoshop, we've replaced the missing piece of the puzzle with a
ghosted image of the structures that once filled this 10-acre, one-square-city-block plot of land, the House of the Good Shepherd. Operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the facility provided housing and vocational training for 400 young women, described variously over the years in the press as: "fallen pentinent women" (1904); "disturbed and delinquent girls" (1967); "socially maladjusted girls" (1971); and finally, "girls who are wards of the state" (1973). They primarily came to Good Shepherd through the auspices of the Cook County Juvenile Court system, because they were trouble makers in trouble and were given over to the care of the nuns to learn how to become productive cititzens. Apparently the Sisters never took in "unwed" mothers, so don't jump to any conclusions.
#ichicdn n 007837 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
The large opening in the wall once lead up to the imposing entrance of a 4-story convent
which provided housing for nuns belonging to the religious order. And although the 125,000+ square feet of brick structures (which started out with a laundry and power plant in 1904) were torn down in 1974, the Sisters still carry on in a much smaller and newer quarters providing shelter to battered women and their children.
Posted by designslinger at 3/18/2010 1:35 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: House of the Good Shepherd Chicago
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: House of the Good Shepherd Chicago
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