Nathan R Goldblatt Elementary School
1941-2013
Chicago Public Schools closed 50 schools in May, 2013, the largest number of school closings by a single school district ever.The school closings represent loss in a multitude of ways. Children lost the constant that their school homes provided, neighborhoods lost their epicenters, and Chicago lost strength in public infrastructure. The closings also represent a historical loss for the people that the schools were named for.While many new, Chicago schools are named for the neighborhoods they reside in, or for the specialty curriculum they offer, school nomenclature in the past memorialized public figures of significance. Public education was so highly regarded, that school names were reserved for notable inventors, scientists, activists, elected officials and renowned athletes. And while the people that the schools were meant to eternalize were lost to the ages, their names found new meaning as the place where generations of Chicago youth aspired for better lives through education.The daily mention of the name ensured that some shred of legacy remained in the collective conscious.These names, like the school communities they came to represent, will be forgotten. The goals of the So Close to Ghost project are to bear witness to the loss of the closed schools, to preserve the people that the schools were named for, and to give voice to the school communities that the names came to represent.
Nathan Goldblatt was born on March 24, 1895 in Stashov, Poland, and came to the United States in 1904. As recent immigrants from Poland, the Goldblatt family ran two businesses, a butcher shop and a grocery store on the west side of Chicago. When Nathan and his brother Maurice were teens they worked at the Iverson department store in Milwaukee Avenue, where they sold piece goods and shoes. In 1917 the Goldblatt brothers opened their first tiny store together on Chicago Avenue near Ashland Avenue. To benefit their customers the store was opened from 7 a.m. to late in the evening. At the end of the store’s first year, the sales totaled fifteen thousand dollars. With this money they were able to buy an adjoining lot and double the size of their store. In 1928, they formed the Goldblatt Brothers, Inc. and expanded their enterprise. Even during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the store was able to make enough profit to stay in business, allowing the brothers to purchase smaller department stores and even develop their brand. In 1936 the brothers opened their flagship store at State and Van Buren. By 1946 the Goldblatts owned fifteen stores, with an annual sixty-two million dollars in sales. As the years passed, the chain’s growth declined in the face of increasing competition for middle-class customers, and in the 1980s Goldblatts reorganized with a new goal to appeal to poorer families. The company eventually was forced to close their doors in the early 2000s. The Goldblatts flagship store was bought by the City of Chicago in 1982 to be used as a library, but sat vacant until bought by DePaul University in 1991 and turned into the DePaul Center. The original store on Chicago and Ashland is a designated Chicago landmark and was bought and renovated by the City in 1998. Nathan Goldblatt died of cancer on November 3, 1944. His brother Maurice founded the Cancer Research Foundation in his honor in 1954, and in 1965 an elementary school was given his name.
The other day there was a shooting around [Hefferen] and I was lucky I wasn’t at school that day. -former Goldblatt student
I went to this school all my life, until it closed. I’ve been over here for 14 year ...I have to walk real far
-Marzell Wilson, form
rs, and then when they closed the school I was mad. I was in seventh [grade]. r to get to school now.
mer Goldblatt student
There was teachers there we can depend on for helping us do the right thing and get the good grades. - former Goldblatt student
I think they should have just left it open... because children need to be somewhere where they feel relaxed and they feel is not threat to their safety when they leave school. - Sam Williams, neighborhood resident
#SOCLOSETOGHOSt www.soclosetoghost.com This project proudly brought to you by Visionaries, an After School Matters program in the Youth Options Unlimited department at Erie Neighborhood House. Special thanks to Dr. Lara Kelland and her Source and Audience: Academic and Public Historical Methods and Practices students at UIC and Megan Erskine for their support, biographical research, and inspiration.
SUMMER 2014