Roosevelt Cleaners by any other name

Who knew? It's named after the University

02/24/2010 9:45 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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Proposed student housing on Wabash, just north of Roosevelt

An interesting fact came out tonight about the Roosevelt Cleaners on Printers Row. I always thought it was odd that it was so called--because Roosevelt Road is a few blocks away. It would make more sense if it were named Polk Cleaners, or even Harrison Cleaners if the owners wanted to name it after a president.

But it turns out, according to South Loopers Eve and Ed Noonan--who attended a South Loop Neighbors community meeting tonight--that the Roosevelt Cleaners is named after Roosevelt University. Because the owner is the proud father of a Roosevelt grad from the first generation in the family to graduate from college.

The meeting featured representatives from two new student housing projects that are coming to the neighborhood--a proposed high rise on Wabash just north of Roosevelt, and another one being built by Roosevelt University on Wabash just south of Van Buren.

After Roosevelt U’s Lesley Slavitt finished her talk about the new multi-purpose Roosevelt dorm, which will replace the Crown Center, sharing a little history about Roosevelt in the process--it started in 1945 when some professors and other staff from Central YMCA College decided they didn’t like the “discriminating” atmosphere and resigned in protest to start their own institution of higher learning--SLN president Dennis McClendon asked if there were any questions.

Big kidder Ed Noonan asked if Slavitt knew who Roosevelt Cleaners was named after. There was an awkward pause--and then the Noonans told the story, which fit in nicely with another point that Slavitt made about Roosevelt: that a huge percentage of graduates are first generation college graduates. She said they always ask the first generations to stand up during Roosevelt’s graduation, and she described a big wave of people who always get up onto their feet, and receive great adulation from the guests at the ceremony.

She also explained that at about the same time the Central Y rebellion took place in 1945, President Roosevelt died, and Eleanor became a fan of the new University that was starting--and was very much in favor of the new school using the “Roosevelt” name.


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By Bonnie McGrath from South Loop
Posted: 02/25/2010 3:11 PM

funny you should ask, frances--in recent years i have thought a lot about Central Y. my mom and dad always took a lot of classes there--my mother for college credit and my father took things like "magic" for fun... and eventually i took classes with them, too--like yoga. all of this was in the 50s and 60s. it doesn't exist anymore--and i finally realized not long ago where the building was that we took the classes in: 19 s. lasalle.. it looks totally different today!


By Frances from Glenview
Posted: 02/25/2010 9:32 AM

Is there still a Central Y?