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Monday, May 20, 2019
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LACROSSE
Wildcats advance to Final Four Northwestern beats Syracuse in NCAA quarters By CHARLIE GOLDSMITH
daily senior staffer @2021_charlie
After the final horn sounded in Saturday’s NCAA quarterfinal and Northwestern clinched a spot in the Final Four for the first time since 2014, there were two celebrations. On the field, the Wildcat players threw their sticks in the air and sprinted down the field before huddling in front of their net. Then on the sideline, coach Kelly Amonte Hiller hugged all of the coaches before finding athletic director Jim Phillips. She told him two things: it felt good to be back and the Cats were not done yet. “It’s been a grind to get us back to the level that she has set,” Phillips told the Daily. “Lacrosse at Northwestern is Kelly Amonte Hiller, and the seven national championships that we have are because of her. We’ve been really looking forward to this day of getting back where we belong.” No. 4 NU (16-4, 5-1 Big Ten) led the entire way in a 18-14 win over No. 5 Syracuse (16-5, 5-2 ACC) and was up by two or more goals for all of the second half. The Orange keyed their defense on senior Selena Lasota, who was unanimously named Big Ten Attacker of the Year. While Lasota struggled to get open and scored only three times, seven players scored multiple goals, including a seasonhigh three from junior midfielder Megan Kinna. Kinna started every game this season, but had only scored two goals in the Cats’ five prior games this season against the current top-5 teams. Amonte Hiller said she especially worked with Kinna on her shooting this past week, anticipating pressure on Lasota and freshman attacker Izzy Scane. Kinna responded with the best game and the biggest goal of her career. With just over seven minutes left, she scored off an unassisted shot to extend the Cats’ lead to three and put the game away. But Kinna wasn’t the only NU player who broke out in the Elite Eight. Freshman midfielder Elle Hansen hasn’t started a game all season or scored since Feb. 25. Amonte Hiller said she trusted Hansen to play Saturday because her
CYCLE OF INDECISION How the Harley Clarke Mansion became Evanston’s most hotly contested issue Evanston,” Mayor Steve Hagerty said. “This is a building that’s been here for about the last hundred years.” Built in 1927, the Harley Clarke Mansion now transcends its original purpose: a home.
By SAMANTHA HANDLER
daily senior staffer @sn_handler
Former 3rd Ward alderman Emily Guthrie could not believe what she saw on Election Day last November. Unlike many in the country, she wasn’t focused on the results of congressional races, but rather the outcome of an advisory referendum on whether Evanston residents wanted to preserve the Harley Clarke Mansion. Guthrie had closed two voting locations when her shift working the polls ended that night. When she got the numbers from the first precinct, the results were undeniably positive. Guthrie was shocked. She had worked on referenda in Evanston before — including one to save the Civic Center in 2007 — and said they usually don’t result in landslides. Some people had even rallied against putting forward a referendum to preserve Harley Clarke, saying it would fail. After the results came in, she texted Allie Harned, the chair of Save Harley Clarke — the group responsible for the thousands of signs that popped up around the city before Election Day, all bearing its name as a slogan. “Are you sitting down?” she texted Harned. The precinct’s results had come in at 84 percent. “She wrote back, ‘No, I’m jumping up and down because every precinct in town is coming in like that,’” Guthrie recalled. “And we couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. I still find it difficult to believe.” Since the Evanston Art Center left the lakefront property in 2015, residents have fought over what to do with the mansion, but ultimately, the decision rests in City Council’s hands. Compared to other pressing local issues — budget crises, gun violence, the school opportunity gap — one might think this would be an easy fix. In November, 80 percent of residents cast a ballot in favor of preserving the mansion and keeping it open to the public. But it’s not so simple. As aldermen have spent months upon months bickering about what to do with the property, it sits empty, racking up about $15,000 in yearly expenses. Businesses, nonprofits and private donors have offered solutions, but each has been rejected. While residents vehemently disagree over the best use for the mansion — a hotel, an environmental education center, demolition to create more parkland — they all agree something needs to be done with the property. Now, the city has once again called for bidders to offer up proposals, but aldermen can’t guarantee the next plan won’t also fall victim to the Harley Clarke curse. “Fighting over Harley Clarke is fighting over the soul of
» See LAX, page 8
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
The house that Harley built
Before this century, the name “Harley Clarke” was often associated with Shakespeare and movies, not a mansion on the lake. Harley L. Clarke was a powerful Midwest utilities magnate who used his fortune to sponsor the Chicago Civic Shakespeare Society, research the educational value of movies and, eventually, build the lakefront property that remains today. It served as a home for his family until they moved out of Evanston in 1949. Feeling the effects of the Great Depression along with years of legal battles with his former company, Clarke owed taxes on his home and had to sell it. Sigma Chi bought the mansion, turning it into a fraternity museum and headquarters. Just like that, the mansion was no longer a home, and would never be again. Harley Clarke Mansion is tucked away off of Sheridan Road, practically on the beach. On the outside, it doesn’t look like it belongs in this time. The six towering chimneys and elaborate stonework echo back to the decadence of the 1920s, when the ivy-covered mansion was built — a time of great wealth, flappers and Gatsby. The backyard opens to a completely unobstructed view of Lake Michigan. With Lighthouse Beach just beyond the grass, there’s nothing but sand and waves. This is prime Evanston real estate. Other than a couple of long-forgotten skeletons in a closet — literally and figuratively — from when the Evanston Art Center moved out in 2015, Harley Clarke is empty. While it’s not falling apart or crumbling, it’s lifeless. No books in the library. No seating in the living room. No art in the old gallery spaces. Its surfaces are all coated in dust, while cobwebs line the grand spiral staircase in the foyer. The lights in the basement no longer work. There are exposed wires, patches of peeling paint and holes in the walls.
To make a house a landmark
The 37,700-square-foot estate is one of the last of its kind, a three-story lakefront mansion built before the 1929 stock market crash. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin called the mansion a “rare architectural gem” in a 2018 column. Kamin told The Daily the mansion’s interiors and rare stonework are what distinguish it from modern lakefront mansions. » See INFOCUS, page 6
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Residents talk Robert Crown costs Group collected questions, concerns for city
By JULIA ESPARZA
daily senior staffer @juliaesparza10
A group of residents gathered Sunday afternoon to discuss their concerns with the financing and lack of city transparency surrounding construction of the Robert Crown Community Center. Evanstonians for a Financially Responsible Robert Crown Plan hosted the meeting in the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center ahead of a Monday city meeting where city manager Wally Bobkiewicz will give an update on financing for the project. Residents organized questions and demands that they wish to bring up during the meeting. Attendees also discussed sources of funding for the center’s construction. Residents are largely concerned with the fact that when the project was proposed in August 2016, they were told it wouldn’t result in taxpayer burden. However, that changed as costs on the projects continued to rise. In order to continue construction, the city has authorized the issue of one or more general obligation bonds that will not exceed $18 million. This type of bond is issued under the assumption that the municipality will be able to repay its debt through taxation or project revenue. “I am mostly concerned with how it is going to effectively commit us financially as a city to this debt service so that we do not have funds for human services… or affordable housing projects, victim services, youth services,” said Meg Welch, a resident of the 4th Ward, where the center is located. Friends of Robert Crown, a volunteer-led nonprofit organization, was formed in 2016 and aims to raise $15 million to contribute to the project. The cost of the center is around $53 million, an increase from the initial $30 million anticipated in August 2016. Other sources of funding have come in the form of a $500,000 gift from Wintrust Bank for naming rights to a field and conference room, as well as a $250,000 contribution from Valli Produce of » See FINANCE, page 11
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