History of 6100 S. Blackstone
The building located at 6100 South Blackstone Avenue was originally built in the 1920’s as an off-street parking garage surrounded by apartment buildings and townhouses. It was later bought and operated by Walter H. Flood and Co. who renovated the interior and operated an engineering enterprise. In the early 70’s, with the neighborhood suffering a period of turmoil and economic decline, the building was purchased by the Resource Center, an Illinois not-for-profit environmental organization, that later purchased the adjacent property as abandoned buildings were razed. Throughout the seventies and early eighties numerous environmental initiatives were born on the site, including a book and clothing exchange program, a community garden, a bakery, a cooperative workshop and an extensive curbside recycling program which has since expanded and moved to other locations, growing into Chicago’s largest non-profit recycling operation. By the late 1980’s many of the remaining initiatives had disappeared or were losing energy.
In 1987 Dan Peterman, a Chicago artist, established a studio on the site and began exploring issues of art and ecology. In 1993 Peterman began working with the Resource Center to develop a plan which would reassess some of their early objectives, introduce new approaches to the use of the site, and develop a plan for renovation and future operations. This culminated in the formation by Peterman of 6100 Blackstone Inc., which purchased the building and part of the adjacent property in 1994. 6100 Blackstone Inc. provided a new structure and strategy for housing and developing small-scale cultural, ecological, and business ventures from the surrounding community. Since 1994, ongoing improvements were made to both the building and adjacent open land that helped establish and sustain numerous ventures and increase the usefulness of the site for local residents and the broader cultural community. The richness of these diverse activities and the appropriateness, in a general sense, of the incubator model became the basis for creating the Experimental Station.
On The morning of April 25, 2001 a fire tore through the building at 6100 Blackstone. Damage was severe to building and property. All normal activity ceased.