I was making pancakes the other day and a fly flew into the kitchen and that's
when I realized that a spatula is a lot like a fly swatter and a crushed fly is
a lot like a blueberry and a roommate is a lot like a fly eater I think it's
interesting that cologne rhymes with alone if I have to move up in a
building I choose the elevator over the escalator because one time I was
riding the escalator and I tripped I fell down the stairs for an hour and a
half just kept falling I think employee of the month is a good example of when a
person can be a winner and a loser at the same time
When the night falls down I wait for you to come around I'm the world for a
lie with the standard kids on the street and fly when you walk into the room you
won't make well now it's time to move it's seven away to WRGN radio I'm Don
Rosen thanks for joining us here on a very slick Tuesday morning and my
my guest Pippin just lit in here to the bed it was slippery out there wasn't it
it was yes it said I'll pull it yeah yeah just get behind the mic a little bit
there okay perfect yeah it's it's it's hard to what you had to walk like I did
across the snow I did yes because the the pavement was so slither
oh it was terrible out there this morning but you made it in I didn't call
you this morning at six o'clock and you did don't and I answered yeah right now
I love that name Pippin thank you Pippin McKellan well hold on don't say I got it
written right here phonetically but Kelly Pippin McKellan unusual name yes I
except for the Broadway musical Pippin I've never heard the name used before Scotty Pippin
oh Scotty Pippin yeah from the basketball player Chicago Bulls Scotty Pippin okay so
but you're not there he's not named after you and you're not named after him so
Pippin we're from Pippin originally I'm English yeah I was born in the middle of
England my earliest memories are the south of England that's what I sound like is
the south of England and then because my father was in the army we moved a lot so what town
was it in England what town in England that swanage swanage yes okay but before I came to
America the last five years I was living in London okay well that's great I think you're the
first person I ever met who lived in London oh wow I know people it's good for my parents
visited there but I'm your first person I ever know they came from there so what brought you to
America a man I met I'm an academic I was giving a paper at a conference and there was another guy
there who was also giving a paper at the conference and we met and clicked and and then I came
over here to Marion he used to pick up line and got you to come to America he did he did and that
was some line and that that was late 1989 and I've been here ever since so we're not still married
but but I'm still here okay well good for you and what brought you to Racine we got you to this
country now you had to get to Wisconsin and Racine is this where did you live this is the first
place you live in America no it's not I arrived in Savannah Georgia okay which was a major culture
shock after London and and then my husband got a job at Lake Forest and so I came up
with him and I was teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a little bit at Lake
Forest a little bit at Northwestern and then when that job came to an end for him I moved to
Minnesota and I was teaching at Central of College for about four years and after that I came down
here um Parkside actually I got a call from Parkside saying would I be interested in coming and
teaching here and I said well yes I probably would and so down I came and we had hoped that job
would go tenure track it didn't but by that time I was so sick of moving around and my partner
at the time had a New York salary working from home and I said look um why don't we just stay here
because we've got a great set up here and we couldn't have it anywhere else in the world
and so um I'm still here he he died 10 years ago but I'm still here no that's it's all right it was
a long time ago now give me some of your academic background because I'm looking at it here
and you did more than just graduate from college so give us some of the you've been around here
working at different universities yes I have um I I did the 60s bit um and dropped out of school
before graduating high school um and then I was I was a mature student um as an undergraduate
I mean not very mature but they called me that and fell in love with art history and architectural
history and decided I couldn't bear to stop studying this and so I did some graduate work
and I was teaching locally in England while I was doing that um I've I've done lots of stuff
actually I've worked in an advertising agency I've been um a boarding school secretary I've
I've been a house mistress in a boarding school I've done lots of things
house in England in England yes I don't think we have those here no well you don't have many
boarding schools you know we don't not that I'm aware of yeah it's always somebody when they
send them they have to go away to boarding school yes there was a we're sending you a way to
boarding school in Switzerland but that's not that bad to me you know it's well it you know it depends
on the school a bit I know but still all everything's paid for all you those have to go to
Switzerland a little bit of that my parents and they send me to day camp so I never went to any
place so where else do you so you worked at which universities here in America a little bit at
North Western and big school big big yes and um at Parkside I've been teaching at Parkside on and
off since I arrived here in 2000 so the first year and then a break and then a few more years
and then a break and then a few more years and in between times teaching at places like Lake Forest
College which was nice that's where my ex-husband used to teach so I went back and taught there as well
so I've been often on teaching a lot mostly university level now you did something very unique that
no other guesses have ever done before since this is radio and there's no visual on it we can
paint a picture for you but we can't show you the picture you actually set something up on the
website right yes so what do you send people there now because we're going to talk about things
and you've got to follow like a slide presentation on the website I've never done that before I've
in 51 years in radio I've never done that before I thought it was very creative I did it was
creative that's why you're teaching at Parkside in Northwestern and I'm sitting here my Parkside
job that she just came to an end because I'm humanities and and we are now being very pragmatic and
very scientific and so there's there's not a lot of humanities and stuff going on down
there's not a lot of humans left around either being human to each other it's it's true but
so tell us what website do they have to go to now well now preservation recene has a website
called preservation recene all one word dot org and if you go there that front page is our events
and calendar and at the very top there is this interview and I made a little PDF you can open up
and it's got slides of the things that I'm hoping to talk about and they're numbered and I will
tell you slide number three slide number 22 whatever all right be able to have a look at them
it's like when you used to want to slide show when you're in grammar school they used to the
rate they used to put a record on with the slide presentation and you say today we're going you
and in that johnny said the silly you keep moving it along okay so give us a load of preservation
recene I know what it is because I've done the parade of homes and I've done all that stuff
what is preservation recene a little bit history of it it's um it is obviously a preservation
society society it's historic preservation it um it was founded in the um early 70s
because we were losing a lot of architectural heritage locally at that time um and as it happened
we were coming up also to the American bicentenary which meant that there was a lot of national
interest in preservation and in the history of America so there were government grants there
were state grants and there were federal grants and things so a lot of things were possible
and at that exact moment uh two or three fabulous mansions on main street were taken down
really and yes and they these were the bull mansions and they what a wits mansion um and they were
enormous and you can see those on slides two and three on our pdf on the pd preservation
recene site yes ping um yes so they were taken down um and they interestingly they were sold
by their owners I had always thought that historic desecration happened by later developers
but in fact it was their their own owners that sold them on and developed
east park towers which is about slide four I believe so where they were is now that big block
of um of condos that overlaps like oh I know where that is yeah right by gateway yes I do know where
that is okay yes so now it happened when those were coming down that living opposite in the
bull manner apartments there was a lady called margo drummond who was rather sad to see them go
um and she was also doing some mature student work and she wrote a paper suggesting that we
should have some kind of a landmarks preservation commission and at the same time it turned out
that the junior league had proposed a similar kind of landmarks commission and for them it was the um
urban aesthetics so they all got together and um and produced a landmarks commission which later
became preservation recene so um so that takes us up to about um 1975 and the first president
of preservation recene was Suzanne Foreman I just wanted to get those two names in margo drummond
Suzanne Foreman they are big names with the foundation of preservation recene holy right there
we're talking to I love pippin I love saying that name I just don't know why just it's just I
because I never had a guest named pippin in all the years I've been radio and we're talking about
preservation recene the history of it you can follow along at preservation recene dot org right
go to the website preservation recene dot org is a PDF there with a bunch of pictures and as pippin's
talking you can follow along with the photographs first time I've ever did this radio I love this
idea it says 718 at w rj and radio hometown radio refreshed in 1400 am 99.9 FM and 98.1 FM even right here
pippin mckelly mckelly right if mckelly is my guest and she is right I just want to make
sure I get these names right is my guest and we're talking about preservation recene this morning
at 721 at w rj and radio and we we have slides on the website for preservation recene dot org preservation
recene dot org we can follow along with the presentation this one I think this is brilliant I
I think every guest should do that put their slides up in the morning I will just follow along with
them that's great now we're in 1975 yeah with the development of preservation recene two big
mansions were torn down on the lake front and kind of shot on main street on main street right on
main street and kind of shocked everybody especially margo drummond who was living opposite and
watched them come down I hate to mention this because there's nothing really to do with this but in
New York City I grew up in New York there was the riverley theater which was just about to be named
at 8 o'clock that morning a preserved site because it had the big columns it was over 100 years
old is old theater the riverley and right there in right off time square about 59 49th street 49th
and Broadway and they were they they had a stay on it and they said at 8 o'clock this morning it's
going to be preserved they brought their wrecking ball in at 1 o'clock in the morning and knocked the
columns down by 8 o'clock in the morning it wasn't worth it anymore because what they wanted to
preserve for those giant columns on the building it looked like a giant courthouse but it was a theater
and they knocked it down at 1 o'clock in the morning and they beat the court to the punch because
they opened up for court at 8 o'clock and they beat him so it does happen people do it vindictively
and they're sneaky about some of these buildings that are being torn down and they try to do it because
the land is more valuable than the building is right right that was the point I was going to make
a bit later but carry on yeah and that's what happened in New York City the land that the theater
was on was much more valuable than the theater itself right so they they beat the court to the
punch and that happens sometimes it happened in Racine as well yeah I'm sure it happens all over
with these historic buildings so pick up 1975 okay so where 1975 and and we have a mission to
identify and actively encourage the preservation of buildings sites and districts in the Racine
County area so we are preservation Racine for Racine County in Wisconsin and they have historical
architectural and cultural value and that brings me to my next point which is how do you decide
what gives the building architectural historical or cultural value and who gets to decide about these
and that is very apropos of what you were telling us just now about that theater and you
yeah so if we're not watchful it actually happens quite a lot if we're not watchful no one makes a
decision about these things and they get lost or ruined for new developments and and really the
cohesion of a cultural entity like a city or a or a town partly depends on its visual appearance
which encapsulates its history that is its identity that's one of the strong ways it gets cohesion
and the problem with our city administrators not just in here in Racine but just generally
as a as an administrative type and of course the developers is that they actually have no patience
with anything of that kind I know these buildings are they are historically important
because they were owned by the movers and the shakers and the movers and the shakers took the
best plots for their buildings and now other people want those plots and so the the very buildings
we need to preserve are the ones that the cities all want to knock down and replace and obviously
we can't protect them all but somebody needs to be keeping the weather eye on it how do you
to protect it and what do you do have a court declared a historic landmark yeah if you can in
England we have we list the buildings grade one and two and three listed buildings and there are laws
controlling what what gets done so you can't just knock them down but of course they're they are
very much older you also get with those listings opportunities for grants funding and things because
you've got to maintain them in an authentic condition and some of them have things like stone
roofs and really very expensive to maintain so that that happens in England and probably in many
places in Europe have equivalent things but America is very different partly because it's a lot
younger and partly because the emphasis on individual freedom is so strong that we don't have
national entities that that will protect these buildings and now we do have the historic
register of yes but that is a register of places it's not I don't believe it confers any legal
protection on the buildings I believe that is entirely in the hands of the owners
um you mean if you have a something registered on the historic register of historic places
it's not protect that's not protection that's just a note for people hey you want to go see a
building go see it but I think so and and many people resist the very idea of being registered
because they think then their hands are going to be tied and they won't be able to do what they
want with their property so so it's difficult but one of the first things that preservation
received did was propose this landmarks preservation council which did eventually turn into
the city's landmarks preservation commission and the idea was to identify significant landmarks
there were 88 in the end that they identified that are worth protecting now it wasn't a very strong
ordinance city ordinance that protected them but it had some protection and then what happened
in about 2007 they decided to upgrade the ordinance I believe there was a nice grant for the city
to upgrade the ordinance and they made it better and stronger and they failed to recognize the
existing landmarks so it didn't apply to anything they they then added two or three buildings but
that was 88 buildings that are recognized as landmarks but no longer have the protection of
that ordinance so that's the kind of thing that can happen I in my cynical way I find it difficult
to believe that nobody noticed that this strong new ordinance didn't apply to anything I find
that hard to believe but apparently it was an accident can you fight in court to keep something
from being torn down or now was it that difficult it's difficult the only one to do what the owner
wants to do yeah that's right that's right so so it is hard to protect them but we started by trying to
identify ways of recognizing cultural interest and architectural interest and so forth do you want
it to tell you about that or do you need to take a break well look at you we're already at the
broadcasting yes I do have to take a break is a matter of fact I have that look on my face
it says take a break please
Pippen the Kelvie is here from preservation received and we're talking about try to
preserve our past and that's what we're doing here with this radio station with our historical marker
with WRGN historical marker series we're trying to preserve the history of this radio station for
future people you know we do it with audio and we'll get to talk to people and maybe 50 years from
now they'll say what was WRGN like in 2024 in 1975 and they'll find out 729 at WRGN Radio hometown
radio reference to civic media station at gonrose and keep it right here
be three tonight warm enough for rain tomorrow scattered
if you do want me give me look to show
if you don't want me don't leave me on you but if you need me show me that you will
and when I'm feeling good and I want you there's just one thing that you should do
I just give me some kind of singer oh baby but show me back to mind oh yeah
but just give me some kind of singer oh my god and show me that you're mind oh all right
735 at WRGN Radio Pippen McKellie is it McKellie Pippen McKellie I love that name Pippen
is that a common name in England Pippen or no I didn't think so
you don't you don't see them what he's the name of Charlemagne's father
see that's something only you would know I wouldn't know that and Pippen is here from
preservation recene and we have very by the way you can follow along on the website
preservation recene dot org preservation recene dot org there's a slideshow there
and when we're talking you can go to the slides and see what's going on here
and also when it's it'll be podcast later today you can also follow along on the slides as well
with the podcast now here's an interesting question what who decides what's culturally important
and now is your committee is there a person who decides and the answer to that is if we don't
keep an eye on things nobody decides and the people who decide what they're going to do with
the various plots of land are the city planners which are not particularly recene city planners
but city planners in general and outside developers generally want the plots for their new
lucrative developments and they don't have a lot of time for the historical or the architectural
or the aesthetic value of what's already there who goes to the city planners and say wait a second
here well that's that's what what preservation recene gave itself that mission to to be one to be
a watchdog amongst other things and so we we helped to set up that original set of 88 landmarks
but what makes them a landmark I wanted to say really was that the styles are so interesting
and varied and the reason they're interesting is that they very often reflect the political and
professional stances of their owners the people who paid to have them put up and so I was going to
say for example that you know if it's the establishment you're looking at Roman styles sort of
combination Greek and Roman like city like state capitals that kind of thing columns and domes
coming together you get those they are classicizing styles but now in farms and small towns like
recene the italianate became very popular and that's it's a largely plain house vertically aligned
windows round topped they've got a ridge of bricks over the round top very often they've got
the decoration is all in the wood you've got wooden covered porches you've got big brackets
under the eaves you've got oh brackets and porches bay windows added onto the edge and onto the walls
in in in wood so now one of a good example of that is the Blake House which is our headquarters
that's at nine thirty six main street and you will find that on slide nine oh sorry eight
it's a great example and I want to give you something about actually the history of it because
on slide nine immediately afterwards you'll see a very similar design by an architect called Henry
Hudson Holly and it was designed much the same time that this building was was constructed we don't
know who the architect was and Hudson Holly would would sell patterns so it's quite possible that
he or someone like him designed this building and what he said about it was that this was perfect
to be used in those beautiful little towns where manufacturing has become the chief interest
of the inhabitants and where industry and enterprise have received their proverbial reward
so it could practically be describing Racine and what's interesting is that the house was built
for an early dry goods owner bull on main street and it was then acquired by Lucius Blake
who was one of the big industrial magnets of Racine and has been said actually to have given
Racine at start in industry so the design of that house and the things that have been officially
said about it and the man who actually owned it they all come together really very nicely there
but then if you were to look at for example arts and crafts types prairie type houses like the
Hardy House which is on slide ten those tended to be favored by progressive types so you want
you want to keep a good range of styles and types of buildings because they're they're
containing the history they're containing the politics um and the past of the town the whole
identity we really what we want to keep not just one but but several now people are familiar with
on main street the Frank Lloyd Wright house right that's it that's the Hardy House yes that's the
Hardy House okay and I can't imagine anybody ever tearing that down I mean it's it's not that one
it's too famous right I was on the parade of tour are they tour of homes the parade of homes
the preservation recindale then we went in there yes for some reason it's not meant for tall people
I don't know well Frank Lloyd Wright was not a tall man I know so I'm going through there and I'm
watching the ceiling I don't want to bang my head on anything going through but it's right there
on main street and it looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright house from the outside it's got that square
and boxy look to it right and it's right there in the lakefront it's got to be worth a fortune
being right there in the lakefront but that's no one's going to mess with that one so that one's
not that one yeah but we we have other prairie style and Frank Lloyd Wright is associated with
the prairie style yes the difference between prairie and arts and crafts actually you just have
to look a bit closely at them they look very similar but for arts and crafts it's all about how
the building holds itself together so it's all structure you can see how the pieces ostensibly
interlock with each other that you can see that on an arts and crafts house on a prairie house
very very similar but you cannot see how the pieces come together and instead they seem to sort
of float apart or cut through each other but there's no logical construction expressed on the outside
so that hardy house is as a prairie style house and the decoration of the house is decoration
that floats on the wall the windows float there's nothing apparently supporting them there would be
on an arts and crafts house so how do people know if they have a house that needs to be preserved
I live in a house that's about 114 years old my house is pretty old but it's nothing spectacular
it's just the house that was built by a state captain back in the early 1900s he was lived on
shadow that he moved to north main and built my house so I know they a little bit of the history
when we had to replace one of the walls I looked inside for artifact maybe some gold de blooms
were hidden in the walls nothing was there anyway so so how do people contact you and say listen
I think I may have an historic home here people do do that yes you can easily contact us for
something like that you just email info at preservation recene.org and someone will get back to you
whether it's about research or finding out about tour tickets or what our program is or
anything of that kind and you can find out about your home I think it was the public library
went to you go into this room you they put your white gloves on you and you can look through some
of the books and the old books like we would think of a phone book used to have the person's
occupation in there right which seems kind of the city directories yes it's kind of odd by today
that's how we knew our home was owned and built by a state captain like Michigan that's why I
thought we'd find gold de blooms or treasures in the wall we found nothing so so people can
contact you info at recene preservation dot right if you think you have a question about your house
you think you may have some kind of a historic home here and there were probably a lot of them here
because yes a recene was settled pretty pretty early on it was it was the industrial capital
wasn't it because it was on the lake yes that it's got a lot to do with it so what are some of
the buildings preservation recene has saved over the years right we have saved I think the most
important ones are wait wait wait yes the Blake House of course which I keep mentioning now
Blake House is where now the Blake House is on 936 Main Street it's right opposite the Christmas House
oh yeah Christmas House for cancer okay right that is slide eight on the on the PDF it was built
for George Ball 1868 acquired by the Blake's in 1873 and Ball was the dry goods merchant and Blake
was the major industrialist so we've mentioned those now Blake had a son Byron Blake and he built
a house at 102 10th Street so that's right on the corner by Gateway College
and that was Blake's son Byron and we saved that one we and we have yes the Georgian revival
State Street train depot was another one that we were very much involved in saving so I think
those three are really important I went through there yeah the State Street that's where the
buses are the best bus depot yes if you go inside the actual waiting room right it's beautiful
inside with historic photographs on the wall I've been there I don't know what what are you doing
there I know but we've had programs there so maybe I was in there and it is gorgeous so even if
you don't want to take a bus anywhere right stop by there is a parking lot get in there and take
a look around some of the photographs on the wall and I'll show you what history was like it
that's right it was a train station at one time it was it was and it's still functioning as a
bus terminal and I believe there are rumors about the renewed rumors about a train
from Kenoshi to Milwaukee it may actually become a train station again that's we just had a
story on that the other day they are still working on they wanted to do a connect to the metro in
Chicago yes through Kenoshi through Racine into Milwaukee and have one complete train route going
through right right so that would that would be exciting so what else have you seen so let me see
so the train depot slides 12 and 13 what else those ones we campaigned for we've invested in them
we've put sweat equity in them and and the Blake House is one of those and that incidentally has
some very affordable apartments in its upstairs it has our offices downstairs it has apartments
upstairs that are affordable to rent and we do actually happen to have a couple of vacancies
right now so if anyone's interested write to us info at preservation recene.org you never know
you might pick up a nice historic place it's only a couple of blocks from downtown Main Street
so if you want to live there in a nice historic area perfect opportunity George Washington didn't
sleep there however Mary Todd Lincoln was in Racine she was yes and she was at the Colvin Center
I think it wasn't where she went she actually she was at the Congress hotel the Congress
out there but I thought she was doing something she was considering sending her son to the
decoven college to Racine College she decided against that so where was the Congress hotel located
I don't know you didn't expect you it's something like it's no I didn't expect to get a quiz
but somewhere on the south side of the river and on lake I can't stand up yes I didn't know if she
stayed there well you knew that part that was very good oh I did and I happened to have already
researched the the woman who was who was working there at the time a lady who seems to have been
a remarkable adventurers and land lady of various places of better and worse repute and she finished
up at the Congress hotel married to the the guy who owned it and Mary Todd Lincoln thought that
the that mine host and his wife were very very good to her I just found out the other day there's
only one statue in all of the United States of Mary Todd Lincoln and President Lincoln together
and it's here it's in Racine it is my wife told me that the other day
how did you know that and I didn't know that because she's smarter than I am that's how she
doing oh we have a Lincoln expert in Racine you know Steve Rogstad okay pastime past president of
preservation Racine and he's written some books about it about Lincoln and that statue
if you have questions for Pippin or anybody with preservation recene info at preservation
recene.org that's info at preservation recene.org say right where you are it's WRJN radio on your
Tuesday morning it's 749 and this is hometown radio refresh to civic media station 14
and under day of 99.9 FM 98.1 FM WRJN stay where you are
and
get right back to where we started from
when you first came my way I said no one to take your place
Pippin McElvy is here McElvy. Pippin McElvy get that right it's the name Pippin that throws me off
free time from preservation Racine and we wanted to talk about the capital theater that's something
everybody's passed a million times right there on on highway 20 watching that avenue the capital
theater that was the capital it was the capital it was a karate school at one time it's been a
lot of things and now it's nothing there was a big to do about carrying down the theater not
tearing it down what let's talk about the capital history here yeah this this one I think is
rather tragic it was at 3014 Washington Avenue and you'll see it on slides 20 and 21 you can
see the exterior and the interior and a shot of the demolition it was a kind of minimal romanesque
style on the outside brick romanesque and it had inside the most wonderful carved and painted
prasinium and I put a photograph of a detail of that prasinium on the PDF and it was still intact
and the decor on the walls almost complete and we could have reconstructed the rest the building
it was constructed 1927 they had just brought in new codes for theaters at that time it was built
like a bomb shelter they had to be by by national law at that point and it was built by the grandfather
of one of our members Judas Schultz and it needed work no doubt it had fallen fallen into into
drabness shall we say and it certainly wasn't looking good on the inside it had had various things
in it at one point it had a textile printing business in it and it also had the hope safe house
for rescued animals anyway the city had decided that it was in dangerous condition and in fact
it wasn't we had civil engineers come and have a look at it it's not in dangerous condition the
roof that was supposed to have fallen down was actually an interior false ceiling in one of the
rooms and yeah they the tiles had sort of warped and slipped out the place was it was grungy
it needed it needed work but it was sound and we had raised 50,000 something along their 50,000
to bring it to code it was bringable up to code at that point and we planned a long term fundraising
and development program for the future and sadly we just could not get through to the city they
never seemed to get the message and they they had it raised in 2021 and what was really interesting
is that the company that raised it was the same company different generation same company that
raised the Venetian theatre and the same story got told about the Venetian theatre that it was
dilapidated it was unsafe and yet it took them three days to make a crack in the Venetian theatre
and they broke the wrecking ball and at the park capital theatre they broke the backhoe that was
busy taking it down so these things are built like bomb shelters and don't let anyone tell you
that they're not safe well this you took this personally I did I could tell by the way you're talking
absolutely I was out there I was out there parading in the snow trying to happy happy
Pippin came into the radio station angry Pippin leaving I could tell I see steam coming out of your
ears when you're talking about well it was sad I mean the Venetian clearly was in a league of
its own compared with with the capital theatre but the capital theatre was what we had left and we
could have saved it and one of the issues actually which is worth pointing out is that it was behind
with its taxes the owner had fallen behind with his taxes he was still paying taxes but he was not
up to date he was in a rear as yeah he was in a rear as yes and the city kept saying we are out
those taxes and the fact is that they're not out anyone's a rear's taxes or delinquent taxes
because the county pays those taxes and the the issue is between the owner and the county
but the city gets those taxes in the last two minutes I want to get you have an event coming up
you have one in September but any other events coming up we need to know that right away
not not that I can tell you straight away but that front page of the website will tell you
our calendar and we're about to have a program meeting in February that'll go up in the next
couple a minute but the parade of homes comes up in September yes the parade of homes comes
up in September yes and so usually it's just a walking tour but sometimes you got to take
your car to the next location but sometimes just it's walking yes it's always done hopefully
on a nice day yes and it's done in the fall which is very nice and I sent you during the
I don't know how these people let you walk through their homes first of all a lot of them require
you take off your shoes which is fair but I wouldn't let anybody walk through so bless these people
let's say yes to this they're very nice people they're lovely people and they realize there's
an historic important point and they love their homes and they're proud of them and so they're happy
to show them and I some of them go on the market a little bit later we we don't usually know about
if if we know it's going on the market we don't put it on the tour but sometimes they go on the
market if then you have an old house you can go through it anybody can go through an open house
that's right also they're they're my wife when she took the tour when you're without me
people don't realize this but down in monument square those apartment buildings there those
buildings they all have like rooftop gardens on the top they're apartments with it's beautiful
it's up there once it's like a rooftop garden who know about that stuff I don't know about it
gorgeous apartments above most of those shops and you find out about it when you go on the
creative homes tour right and you find out some really beautiful homes you get to know what's
going on in your own city that you probably you probably pass these places every single day but
you don't know any history behind it and it's really nice and again the nice people who let you
go schlepping through their homes I I think that's wonderful I got to have you back we just barely
touch away where after time are we yeah just about I know we barely I know it goes by it doesn't let
me mention the century buildings hard to get 30 seconds 30 seconds century buildings in May every year
buildings that are a hundred years old and still in representative condition or newly restored
into it lovely celebration and when say it is in May okay it's one of our program meetings in May
and it will be on the website and it will be announced we'll have you we'll have you back when
you get the program you'll set by homes over a hundred years old but not letting anybody go
schlepping through it though yes you will you'll be surprised it didn't hit the kelly thank you very
much for coming in thanks thank you thanks for sliding on the sidewalk they should do our building
I appreciate it thank you very much thank you Fitbit I'm Don Rosen it's my David Mac one of our
candidates for fourth district Alderman gonna be here in studio you gotta have a wonderful day
today civic media station hometown radio refreshed WRJ