In June of 1963 I moved to the Three Arts Club. There I met my two suite-mates (Glenda Graves -now Hillard, and Marilyn Flo Ashmore), who became my life-long friends.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Faire Ferrill Lees, former Three Arts Club resident, tells of good old days
In June of 1963 I moved to the Three Arts Club. There I met my two suite-mates (Glenda Graves -now Hillard, and Marilyn Flo Ashmore), who became my life-long friends.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Meeting Tomorrow with Office of Senator Dick Durbin
Monday, May 10, 2010
Krisha Fairchild, on living at The Three Arts, 1971
to the Three Arts Club, around 1971,
it was the safe haven i needed
in a city unlike any i knew...
it was a place where there were
just enough rules to protect me from myself...
a place where i could hang with other arty girls
with good upbringings, all of us ready to cut loose,
but still needing some gentle guidance...
it was a sorority without the snobs.
a dorm without the drunks.
a place to NOT get pregnant...
but rather to get exposed to the world of the arts
as others lived and strived it.
i cannot imagine how the city might have
bruised and damaged my sensibilities,
without the Three Arts Club as a buffer zone.
i have always remembered it so fondly.
and i will continue to embrace it as it was,
and hope it will be recreated someday.
aloha and light...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Laura Stoller, Architectural Masters Candidate, to meet with Three Arts Club Friends
The Friends of the Three Arts Club recently received an email from Laura Stoller, a student pursuing a Masters in Architecture. A group of us plans to meet with her near the end of February, 2010. We are very excited to hear about her studies and her ideas for this magnificent place. If you would like to join us at our meeting with Ms. Stoller, please email here.
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I happened to walk by
the Three Arts Club last summer and fell in love with it. My
concentration is in Preservation which includes everything from
building rehabilitation and adaptive reuse projects to recording and
documenting historic buildings. I will graduate in May with my
Masters and plan on becoming a licensed architect, focusing on
Preservation in Chicago.
The reason I am emailing is because my one-year thesis project is on
the Three Arts Club. I started the project in August and I will
present my thesis at the end of April. I spent last semester
researching everything I could about the building and digging up old
articles, images, etc. I was able to contact the developer and he
gave me a tour of the building, as well as the original set of
architectural drawings. I have reproduced the drawings electronically
using AutoCAD and now I am working on my proposed design for the
building.
I have a number of ideas for the new use of the building, including a
modern interpretation of the original Three Arts Club. I would love
to discuss my thesis with you and if you are interested, get your
imput. My goal is that my thesis project could help create a future
for this amazing building.
Margaret Squires, former Three Arts resident, speaks out
I recently visited Chicago and brought my 15 year old daughter to see my old stomping ground. I lived at the three arts club in the early 80's while attending The School of the Art Institute. I was shocked and saddened to see the vibrant place I remember now vacant. This is so wrong.
I had the most wonderful experience with my fellow women at this very unusual place. I feel blessed for my experiences in Chicago, due in great part to the three arts.
I went on on to live in Los Angeles and recieved my MFA in painting from UCLA. Now I'm a high school art teacher and parent of three children. Our young women need places like the three arts. We were all so inspired by each other. If I had money to add to the cause I certainly would. Good luck in obtaining an endowment. I would be happy to write another letter if needed.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Eileen Beckwith, former Three Arts Club resident, passes away
Eileen Patricia Beckwith, 84, of Pierre, died Sunday, December 13, 2009 at her home.
Memorial Services will be held at 10:00am, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at Community Bible Church, Pierre.
Eileen was born October 11, 1925. When she was a few weeks old, she was adopted by the Orwall family in the Chicago area.
Years later, her adopted mother, Margaret, developed some of the first Burger King restaurants in the United States. Her adopted father, Solomon, was a Secretary to the Vice President of International Harvester, Vice President of United Benefit Life Insurance.
After high school graduation, she was accepted into the Three Arts Club, an exclusive boarding place for girls to study art, and also did some modeling for a catalogue company. She was gifted as a sketch and water color artist, and her art work has been a blessing to many.
She met Walter Beckwith in Chicago and on July 1st, 1944, they were married. God blessed their marriage with six children, and she often told of her immense joy at the birth of each of her six children.
Eileen was an active member of the Murdo Community Bible Church and Pierre Community Bible Church.
She was a dedicated homemaker, talented water color and sketch artist, an excellent bookkeeper and loving friend and mother. However, none of her experiences matched the joy of her salvation. In 1953, with tears streaming down her face, she went forward to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. God filled her life with grace and strength to walk through many difficult times.
Grateful for having shared in her life are her sons; David Beckwith, Carl Beckwith, and Dean Beckwith; her daughters, Nancy Christiansen and Grace Beckwith; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband and one son, Gregg. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be given in her memory to the Pierre Community Bible. Church.
http://www.feigumfh.com/sitemaker/sites/Feigum1/obit.cgi?user=152447Beckwith
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Group Trying to Restore Club as Place for the Arts
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Columbarium Proposal Withdrawn - Hooray!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Columbarium Zoning in Other Cities
ZONING FOR COLUMBARIA IN VARIOUS CITIES
This is a comparison of how other cities zone columbaria. More cities will be added as research progresses. None of these cities allows columbaria as a right in a residential zone, as Chicago does.
MILWAUKEE- Milwaukee groups the uses for storage of human remains: Cemetery/ Columbaria/ Mausoleum – and these are NOT ALLOWED in Residential Zones.
LOS ANGELES – has very complex zoning, due to being so large and encompassing areas that are city, suburban, manufacturing, mountain, hill, oceanside, and agricultural, and many more. Los Angeles groups Columbaria with Cremating and Mausoleum. Columbaria/ Cremating/ Mausoleum are allowed in existing, functioning Cemeteries as an adjunct use. Existing cemeteries are not allowed to expand in size. New cemeteries go into LM, Light Manufacturing zones. Cemeteries are allowed in some other zones with Special Use approval if they meet a list of criteria, including they cannot have any building closer than 300 feet to any residential zone or residential use, they must have adequate parking inside for all uses including funeral procession line-up and are not allowed to have any parking or car line-up at all on the streets, must have a border of 10 feet of landscaping and irrigation, must be surrounded by a specific kind of border wall around the entire perimeter, must remove all graffiti the day it is appears, etc. Columbaria/ Cremating/ Mausoleums as a free-standing use outside of a cemetery are allowed in certain zones as a Conditional Use. Conditional Use involves several forms of notice to the surrounding properties and community, a hearing, and written findings of fact that the surrounding properties and community will not be affected.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY: St. Louis names “Cemetery” as a place for burial of the dead, including cremating as an accessory use. In “non-urban areas” there is a permitted use for “ Mausoleums or Crematoriums in an existing cemetery, any other provision of the law notwithstanding, but no such structure shall be situated closer than 100 feet to any cemetery property line.”
ST. LOUIS CITY: City of St. Louis – It appears that all forms of burial of the dead must take place in an existing cemetery. Cemeteries are a “Conditional Use” in residential and other zones, subject to notice, hearing, findings, long list of criteria. Mortuaries are a Commercial use. Case where rezoning occurred to make it legal for a particular mortuary to exist in a residential zone by classifying that lot as commercial was held to be spot zoning and void: Spot zoning ordinance amending general zoning laws by classifying a mortuary as being in a commercial instead of residential district held arbitrary and void. Mueller vs. C Hoffmeister Undertaking and Livery Company, 121 S.W. 2d 775, 343 Mo. 430.
MINNEAPOLIS – Crematories are prohibited, except where accessory to a cemetery, and not within 1,000 feet of the border of any cemetery. Every burial or placing into a vault must be within a public cemetery. No new cemetery or burial place can be established and no existing cemetery can be enlarged without consent of the City Council; the goal appears to be to move cemeteries outside the City. Burials prohibited outside cemeteries. No human body shall be buried at any place except in a public cemetery or placed in a vault outside of a public cemetery without a written permit from the department of health. Several ordinances regarding burials and diseases, concern for public health.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Three Arts Club proposed to become burial place for the dead
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Poll: Should Three Arts Club Reopen for Women?
Our recent poll asked the question: “Should the Three Arts Club return to being a home and club for women in the arts?” 52% responded, “Yes, I hope it happens.” 41% replied, “Yes, and I am willing to help.” 0% replied, “No.” And 5% replied, “I need more information to decide.”
In this photo, the Three Arts Club is shown empty and dark, as it has been for about five years now, since the Board of Directors abandoned the Club's proper mission of running a home and club for women in the arts, sold the building, and left with the proceeds. The building is now in a state of limbo, owned by someone else -- as we are hoping it can be returned to the women and to its intended use.
If you wish to help, please email: THREEARTSFRIENDS@GMAIL.COM
Also, please feel free to add comments after these articles by clicking on "comment." After you write your comment, you will be asked to spell a word. That prevents spam. Thank you so much for your interest.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Dorothy Mills, lived at Three Arts while at Goodman Theater
This is Dorothy Mills, who lived at the Three Arts Club when she was studying at the Goodman Theater School. She has many fond memories of the Club. She believes the Club, if revived, could provide many more generations of women with a good place to live while studying or practicing in the arts.
Dorothy is shown with a quilt of the insignia of the Three Arts Club -- the same that is on a mural in a cove above a window on the front of the building.
From Barb Mills:
I made the quilt for Dorothy for Mother's Day since she always talks about the Three Arts Club. I am the younger (Barbara Mills) she is the older (Dorothy Mills) my mother-in-law.
It is what is called a "whole cloth" quilt made of silk which just means I did not make it from a bunch of different pieces. I painted the copy of the Three Arts Mosaic with silk paint and then quilted by hand. It also has vintage buttons and some antique gold embroidery floss from about 1909. It took about a month to make.
Barb took the photos of the building that are shown on this website during a visit to Chicago with Dorothy a couple of years ago. They arrived at the Three Arts Club and were surprised to find it vacant. They were allowed in and did take some nice photos. The building looked much lovelier when it was filled with beautiful wooden, antique furniture, interesting donated art on the walls, a large Grandfather clock in the front hall, giant vases filled with fresh flowers, the sparkling fountain in the courtyard, and 50-100 of the most talented women in the world. Now it sits vacant.