RICHARD DRIEHAUS INTERVIEW (cont.)
RD: In the 1970s, I wanted to open up a bar/restaurant in
Chicago on the southwest side. I started collecting artifacts
for that project like original posters, terra cotta, iron and
glasswork, and woodwork. At the time, restaurants were
changing from fern bars or big loft spaces, to Houlihan’s and
Bennigan’s and T.G.I. Friday’s where they used architectural
artifacts. These restaurants were larger and used more
industrial/commercial art like railroad signs, or pub signs.
I wanted to do something a little more upscale, more
decorative arts.
The Notre Dame nuns taught us that
one of the things you had to do, if we
were successful, was to give back. . . .
By staying active in business and giving
back, you can help people in the long
term.
GG: Which church did you attend as a child?
RD: That was St. Margaret of Scotland.
GG: It’s still open?
RD: It’s still open; you should [see it].
GG: Now, you went to school there too?
RD: Yeah, I went to grammar school there at the church.
High school…
GG: You went to St. Ignatius, right?
RD: Then I went to St. Ignatius, right. The church
was important. Everyone knew their parishes. [The
neighborhood was] split between St. Margaret and St.
Kilian’s. But you know, if I were one street over, I’d be in
another parish. It was pretty well defined. You could have
been on Racine Street on one side, the west side, went to St.
Margaret’s and the east side went to St. Kilian’s…which was
a little closer by about a half a block. I’m more classicist and
I’d like to keep it the way it was but how do you balance that
since the ethnic populations have changed? How do you still
keep the old sense of beauty and still have it relate today…
GG: Yeah, that’s a challenge.
RD: We should have a committee on aesthetics.
GG: Let’s go to this beautiful story of Calvary United
Methodist Church in Philadelphia. Do you remember this
story, Mr. Driehaus?
15 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Fall 2010
RD: I do. We bought these windows and then I found out
they’re from this church. There was an article in a small art
or antique magazine and then we gave them back. It was a
great location, just an older location.
GG: They host five different types of congregations there
now.
RD: Oh ]8