{"id":354763,"date":"2025-11-04T10:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/354763\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:22:17","slug":"local-family-donates-55-foot-spruce-for-citys-christmas-tree-starting-new-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/354763\/","title":{"rendered":"Local family donates 55-foot spruce for city&#8217;s Christmas tree \u2014 starting new tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 4, according to the Tribune\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n<p>Is an important event missing from this date? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/11\/04\/chicago-history-november-4\/mailto:krumore@chicagotribune.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Email us<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weather records <\/strong>(from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/wrh\/climate?wfo=lot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Weather Service, Chicago<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High temperature: <strong>74 degrees<\/strong> (2020)<\/li>\n<li>Low temperature: <strong>11 degrees<\/strong> (1991)<\/li>\n<li>Precipitation: <strong>1.83 inches<\/strong> (1959)<\/li>\n<li>Snowfall: <strong>0.3 inches<\/strong> (1962)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Judge Albert Bailey George, circa Dec. 23, 1924. George was elected the city's first Black judge on Nov. 4, 1924. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)\" width=\"4317\" height=\"370\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CTC-L-CTHIST-judge-albert-george-b_229053085.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"29035559\" \/>Judge Albert Bailey George, center, circa 1924. George was elected the city&#8217;s first Black judge on Nov. 4, 1924. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)<\/p>\n<p><strong>1924:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-first-colored-judge-look\/160653373\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Albert Bailey George<\/a> was elected the city\u2019s first Black judge. The 51-year-old Northwestern University law school graduate and practicing attorney \u201cwon a place on the Municipal bench by a vote approximately 65,000 over his nearest Democratic rival,\u201d the Tribune reported.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"The new Civic Opera House by Samuel Insull is under construction on July 23, 1928. The building opened in 1929, six days after the stock market crashed. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) \" width=\"5694\" height=\"524\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ctc-229061499-e1762208450470.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"29037141\" \/>The new Civic Opera House by Samuel Insull is under construction on July 23, 1928. The building opened in 1929, six days after the stock market crashed. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)<\/p>\n<p><strong>1929:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-throngs-hail-opera-in-gl\/160616782\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lyric Opera House<\/a> (then Civic Opera House) opened \u2014 just six days after the stock market crashed. It was home to the Chicago Civic Opera, Chicago Grand Opera Company, Chicago City Opera Company and the Chicago Opera Company until Lyric Opera of Chicago was founded in 1954 (as Lyric Theatre). <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-opera-debut-set-for-tomo\/160616435\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Giuseppe Verdi\u2019s \u201cAida\u201d<\/a> opened the venue in a <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-aida-returns-as-triump\/160616736\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sold-out performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"A pre-dinner tour of Wilding Studio at 1345 W Argyle St. is conducted by actress Colleen Moore Hargrave, second from left, at the final dinner for the Chicago International Film Festival on Nov. 13, 1965. With Moore are producer King Vidor, left, Alison Hunter Wrigley III and husband William &quot;Bill&quot; Wrigley III. Wilding Studio moved into the Essanay Building in Chicago, once owned by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. (Al Phillips\/Chicago Tribune) \" width=\"4359\" height=\"574\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ctc-colleen-moore-07_242587032.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"28248057\" \/>Colleen Moore Hargrave, second from left, tours the old Essanay Building at 1345 W. Argyle St. during the Chicago International Film Festival in 1965 with producer King Vidor, left, Alison Hunter Wrigley III and William &#8220;Bill&#8221; Wrigley III. Wilding Studios, which made industrial films, was operating in the space. (Al Phillips\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>1965:<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-citys-first-internation\/182577430\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago International Film Festival<\/a> debuted.<\/p>\n<p>Silent film star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/10\/09\/vintage-tribune-colleen-moore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colleen Moore<\/a> Hargrave enlisted a <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-chicago-international-fi\/182625946\/\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-chicago-international-fi\/182625946\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">board of female directors<\/a>\u00a0to keep it going. She presented producer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-colleen-moore-gives-king\/182638887\/\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-colleen-moore-gives-king\/182638887\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">King Vidor<\/a>\u00a0with the festival\u2019s D.W. Griffith Memorial Award.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"U.S. President-elect Barack Obama with his family at the Election Night Rally in Grant Park on Nov. 4, 2008, in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez\/Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"3200\" height=\"452\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CTC-L-perspec-photography-1226-mh_180977899.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"29035573\" \/>President-elect Barack Obama with his family at the Election Night rally in Grant Park on Nov. 4, 2008, in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>2008:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-barack-obama-our-next-p\/184258389\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barack Obama<\/a>, the first African American to claim the highest office in the land, won the presidency and made his victory speech in Grant Park. He was the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln emerged from frontier obscurity to lead the nation through the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Harlen Weivoda stands alongside daughter, Kelsey, 11, and son, Ian, 15, on Oct. 31, 2009, in front of the 55-foot spruce they donated to be the city's Christmas tree to be displayed in Daley Plaza. (William DeShazer\/Chicago Tribune)\" width=\"1929\" height=\"1056\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CTC-L-TALK-TREE-3C-1104-METS-AJ_189274723.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"29036020\" \/>Harlen Weivoda stands alongside daughter, Kelsey, 11, and son, Ian, 15, on Oct. 31, 2009, in front of the 55-foot spruce they donated to be the city&#8217;s Christmas tree to be displayed in Daley Plaza. (William DeShazer\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<p><strong>2009:<\/strong> Due to <a href=\"https:\/\/chicagotribune.newspapers.com\/article\/chicago-tribune-with-funding-up-a-tree\/160447368\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget cuts<\/a>, the city announced it would no longer display a giant Christmas tree in Daley Plaza that was comprised of hundreds of smaller trees. Instead, it switched to a single tree donated by a local family. The tradition continues today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"5phmJT5pR8\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2019\/12\/20\/flashback-chicagos-first-christmas-tree-in-1913-came-from-a-novel-idea-why-not-display-a-giant-tree-for-everyone-to-celebrate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flashback: Chicago\u2019s first Christmas tree in 1913 came from a novel idea: Why not display a giant tree for everyone to celebrate?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Want more vintage Chicago?<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the free\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/membership.chicagotribune.com\/newsletters\/subscribe\/lid\/2d8200fe-eefd-4f1d-bcaa-26a0ce79a461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/membership.chicagotribune.com\/newsletters\/subscribe\/lid\/2d8200fe-eefd-4f1d-bcaa-26a0ce79a461\">Vintage Chicago Tribune<\/a>\u00a0newsletter, join our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/762760217263236\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/762760217263236\/\">Chicagoland history Facebook group,<\/a> stay current with<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/tag\/chicago-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Today in Chicago History<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vintagetribune\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vintagetribune\/\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for more from Chicago\u2019s past.<\/p>\n<p>Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/11\/04\/chicago-history-november-4\/mailto:krumore@chicagotribune.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">krumore@chicagotribune.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/11\/04\/chicago-history-november-4\/mailto:mmather@chicagotribune.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mmather@chicagotribune.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 4, according to the Tribune\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":354764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[173233,11744,960,6387,149063,142249,173231,149058,62769,8621,31468,5386,1818,173230,173229,5207,133260,173232],"class_list":{"0":"post-354763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-albert-bailey-george","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-history","12":"tag-chicago-international-film-festival","13":"tag-christmas-tree","14":"tag-civic-opera","15":"tag-colleen-moore","16":"tag-daley-plaza","17":"tag-donation","18":"tag-grant-park","19":"tag-il","20":"tag-illinois","21":"tag-lyric-opera","22":"tag-november-4","23":"tag-president","24":"tag-santa-claus","25":"tag-wacker-drive"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115490938253450045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}