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Editor’s note: The family of Leanne Star, our docent colleague from the class of 2011 who died last year, initiated the Shining Star Award, a one-time award in Leanne’s honor.  Docents were invited to submit a story about a memorable, or unique, or funny, or sweet experience about one of their tours. At the 2022 DAN, the Shining Star was presented to Barbara Weiner for her story about the funding of the GAR Memorial Hall and Rotunda restoration. Barbara’s story follows below; stories from other contributing docents will be posted on The Bridge over the next few months. We send a big thank you to all the docents who sent their stories. 

By Barbara Weiner, Class of  2011

Last night, Friday, March 25^th I had the honor of attending the Grand Opening Celebration for the reopening of the renovated GAR Hall, (Grand Army of the Republic) in the Cultural Center.  This invitation only event was for those who made the renovation possible.  For me this was more than an opening it was a dream come true. I have given the Treasures tour for many years.  It was one of the reasons I became a docent.  Each time I would give the tour I would look up at the Healy and Millet dome, which had the top cleaned in 2008.  The contrast between the small, cleaned area and the rest of the dome showed what could be possible if the whole dome was cleaned- a spectacularly beautiful dome that would easily compete with the beauty of the Tiffany Dome is Preston Bradley Hall. When I talked about it, I would always say: “I hope I live long enough to see this clean and refurbished, because think how beautiful it will be.”

In 2018, at the end of talking about the GAR Hall and the dome, a woman guest came up to me and said, “I think I can make this happen”.  After the tour, I told her the year before I had approached DCASE about trying to raise money for the dome’s restoration.  They were not interested in my help and explained it would probably cost $4 million and over the next 4 years they had too many things going on to think about this.  I referred her to Tim Samuelson after she contacted me and said the foundation, she worked for would be interested in doing this.  (The guest and the Foundation have insisted throughout in remaining anonymous.)

This Foundation, which has never given money for an architectural project, gave the City of Chicago $15.2 million dollars to restore the whole GAR Hall under the auspices of Gunny Harboe and his firm.  This began with the planning in 2018 and culminated with last night’s opening after having been closed for more than one year.  This required removing 6,000 pieces of stain glass and cleaning them.  The large plate glass windows were replaced, a carpet in the hall by the stairs was created to look like the original floor.  Everything has been cleaned and the original colors restored.  This was all done very carefully by many talented craftsmen. The results are breathtakingly beautiful.

To me, it seems like a one in a million chance that someone would be on my tour, hear my comment, and make my dream come true.  Now all the visitors to the Cultural Center for coming decades will have the joy of seeing the glory of what the original GAR rooms looked like and how it was a true memorial to the union soldiers who fought in America’s Civil War. It will not only be admired but provide an opportunity to educate the public about the Civil War.

So fellow docents, you don’t know who is on your tour, and what you might say that can change Chicago.  I hope each of you has such a wonderful moment in your life as a CAC docent.

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