Standard Club I
Location: Michigan av. sw. cor. 13th
Life Span: 1870-
Architect: TBD
Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870-71
Standard Club House, Michigan av. sw. cor. 13th
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Standard Club 1300 Michigan av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1887
Standard Club—Michigan av. cor, Thirteenth.
The original Standard Club (1870-1889). In October, 1871, the organization gave up the club-house to the relief work of the city. The building continued to be, for about a year, the headquarters of the Central Relief Committee, during which period the club suspended its activity.
In the fall of 1872 the club re-occupied its quarters, and a considerable sum was spent in repairing and refurnishing the club-house.
Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1870
THE STANDARD CLUB CONCERT.
The first public performance in the new ball of the Standard Club, corner of Michigan avenue and Thirteenth street, took place last evening in the form of a concert, given by Miss Carry Goldsticker, assisted by Mrs. Louise Brunswick, and Messrs. Grosscurth, Bischoff, and Foltz, The hall, which has a seating capacity of about eight hundred, was well filled, being almost entirely Hebraic in complexion, and presenting an array of beauty, and elegance in toilets, not often seen in Christian audiences.
Miss Carry Goldsticker, the debutante of the evening, is a young lady of very pleasing presence, with a face cast in very decidedly Jewish mould, and a very easy, unassuming manner. Her voice is a mezzo-soprano, of good range, with a decided tendency to contralto quality. It has all the freshness of youth, but excels rather in strength and resonance than in sweetness. Her voice is very uneven, the lower register having much feeling, sympathy, and delicacy of expression, while the upper is metallic and brilliant. In the lower voice also, she sings in excellent legato style, while in the upper she is explosive and, at times, hard. Her executive abilities are very slight and crude, showing great necessity tor study. While she has very decided faults, none of them are incurable. She is full of promise, and as she contemplates a speedy trip to Europe, for study, we see no reason why, with proper care and diligence, she should not take a commanding position on the lyric stage. Her numbers in the programme were an aria from Bellini’s “Borneo and Juliet,” and Eckert’s “Styrian Song.” In response to an encore to the first number, she sang Perring’s well-known ballad “Beware,” but not with decided success, as her style and voice are not so well adapted to ballad singing as to more florid and brilliant music. Her singing of this class of music lacks expression, and is characterized by a monotonous adhesion in the exact tempo, which, of course, is fatal to any dramatic feeling whatever.
Mrs. Louise Brunswick, an amateur contralto, sang the Stride le Vampa, from “Trovatore,” very pleasantly. There waa a painfol lack of execution and want of spirit, however, which stripped this very dramatic aria of its proper effect. Her voice, however, especially the lower, is very sweet, which compensates for weakness in the upper. The same fault was manifest in her singing of her encore, “Comin’ thro’ the Rye,” of which we have spoken is the case of Goldstickcr, viz., lack of expression. It was too much like the singing of a musical pupil. Mr. Foltz sang tho “Catalogue Song,” from “Don Giovanni,” in superb style, although the absence of dramatic accessories, which are so necessary to this greatest of buffo arias, was ungrateful at least. For his encore he sang “The Serenade,” from the same opera. His singing of Mozart’s music is an excellent omen of what he will do in “The Magic Flute.” Mr. Bischoff and that brief bit of melody, Schumann’s “Dedication,” with the spirit and elan, and answered his encore with an exquisitely sweet ballad ot Kuecken’s Du Kleine Sterlein. Mr. Grosscurth, the leader of the Concordia Maeunerchor, who furnished the accompaniments, played two solos, a caprica called “Marche des Amazones,” and a galop, both of his own composition. His solo playing is characterized by clearness, brilliancy, and ease of execution, but we prefer him as an accompagnateur to a soloist. The concerted pieces were Kuecken’s “Barcarole,”a duo by Miss Goldsticker and Miss Brunswick, and the inevitable concert piece for amateurs, the trio from “Attila.” As a whole, the concert was a very pleasant musical success, and a genuine feeling of sociality ran through the audience, which is wanting among our usual concert audiences.
The hall is located in the upper story of the club-house, extending the entire depth and width of the building, so that it is lighted up by windows on all sides. It is very plain but very neat in its ornamentation, so that the whole hall, without being gaudy, is pleasant to the eye. The stage, which is flanked by dressing-rooms, is at the west end of the hall, is very pretty in its arrangements, and provided with foot-lights, which need covering, however, as they are very painful to the eyes. In acoustic qualities it is fully up to the average of music halls.
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