Collection Summary |
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| Creator: | Scala, Florence | |
| Title: | Florence Scala Collection | |
| Dates: | 1963-1991 | |
| Abstract: | Part of the Jane Addams Memorial Collection. Part of the Midwest Women's Historical Collection. Florence Scala (b. 1920) was the daughter of an Italian tailor and grew up in Chicago's nineteenth ward. She was educated at Hull-House and later became a volunteer there. In 1959, when the City of Chicago suggested the site of Hull-House to build a new campus of the University of Illinois, Florence Scala and Jessie Binford led the fight against this scheme. In 1963, the trustees of Hull-House accepted an offer of $875,000 for the settlement building. Binford and Scala took the case to the Supreme Court. The court found in favor of the university and the settlement was closed on March 28, 1963. The collection contains newspaper clippings, interviews and articles about Florence Scala, the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and the Near West Side. Finding aid available. | |
| Quantity: | 0.25 linear feet | |
| Identification: | FScala | |
Florence Giovangelo Scala was born on September 17, 1918 to Alex and Teresa (Scardepane) Giovangelo in Chicago, Illinois. She studied subjects such as urban planning at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Florence Scala was a volunteer at Hull-House from 1934 to 1954 and was deeply influenced by her experience. Active in her community, Scala served as secretary and treasurer of the Near West Side Planning Board, 1949-1958, and secretary of the Near West Side Conservation Community Council, 1957-1959.
Florence Scala is best known for her impassioned struggle to defend her neighborhood and the Hull-House Settlement from destruction so that a new campus for the University of Illinois could be created. She became co-chair of the Harrison-Halsted Community Group in 1961 and attempted to become Alderman of the 1st Ward of Chicago in 1963. Scala ran as an independent candidate who criticized Chicago's political "machine" and hoped to defend the interests of ordinary voters in her district. Florence Scala endured ridicule, threats, and several bombing attempts, but remained outspoken. When the Trustees of Hull-House accepted an $875,000.00 settlement on March 5, 1963, Florence Scala joined forces with prominent Hull-House resident, Jessie Binford, to sue the Board. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Binford and Scala and the Hull-House Settlement officially closed on March 28, 1963.
Florence Scala's subsequent career included a job as a picture editor for Encylopedia Britannica and service as the volunteer coordinator for the Department of Mental Health. She later opened a restaurant, Florence, with her brother, Mario, in the same Near West side building that her immigrant father had purchased many years before. Scala's most recent endeavor has been a successful attempt to relocate the Roosevelt Library after joining the Friends of the Roosevelt Library group.
The Florence Scala Collection contains an interview of Scala by Studs Terkel, newspaper clippings, and articles about her life and career as a community activist of Chicago's Near West Side.
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Index Terms |
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| This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms. | ||
| Persons: | ||
| Hull-House (Chicago, Ill.)--Sources. | ||
| Near West Side (Chicago, Ill.)--Sources. | ||
| Scala, Florence--Sources. | ||
| University of Illinois at Chicago Circle--Planning--Sources. | ||
| Chicago Neighborhoods | ||
| Midwest Women's History | ||
Who's of Who of American Women. 4th ed. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1966-1967. Eastwood, Carolyn. Near West Side Stories: Struggles for Community in Chicago's Maxwell Street Neighborhood. 1st ed. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2002.