John Bryden '52 recently learned about this news blog from Bob Shewmaker '58, at a meeting of U of I alums in Washington, DC. After John read my entry on the U of I (see Jan 19, 2006), he sent this note:"Your comment, '... In our day, only one U of I existed, the campus at Urbana-Champaign. Today the franchise has expanded considerably, to include Chicago and Springfield,' short-changes the other U of I of our day, Navy Pier Chicago, which filled lots of seats in Champaign for the Junior and Senior years." He included the above picture, taken in 1954, of two undergraduates on the balcony above the campus entrance.
John is so right, and I stand corrected. Navy Pier has a long history, beginning its life in 1916 as a municipal pier for freight and excursion steamers. During WW II, the Navy enlisted and trained sailors there, among them my Dad. The U of I used the Pier as a campus from 1946 to 1965. On Feb 3, 2006, alumni of the Pier marked the 60th anniversary of their school with a gathering at the old gym, now the Grand Ballroom.
Today the Pier has a new life as a place for exhibitions, festivals, shops, and museums. It's the top tourist attraction in Illinois, and plans are underway for a major expansion. Many thanks to John for the reminder. He was at Butler till 1949, graduated SHS in 1952, and the U of I in 1956. At one time we were neighbors, as his family lived on the corner of Leland and MacArthur (or West Grand, in the pre-WW II years).
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