R.I.P. Chris Ganos

[StateStreetMission]

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jsonline/obituary.aspx?n=chris-g-ganos&pid=187018981&fhid=5684

We ( 5 ) rented an apartment from Chris in our senior year 1974-1975.   $207.oo/ month -   $41.40 per man
1606A W. STATE STREET which was above a storefront office in which Chris ran a business called "Cream City Heating"
The place was a three bedroom dump, but Chris was good to us and we had a blast that year.
It was next to an infamous bar called the 1600 club, which was frequented by blue collar night shift employees, pimps, whores, and local vagrants. Not the type of place a college student would frequent.
It was open in the daytime by 10 A.M. and closed by early evening.
We would come home from class to find homeless men passed out on the sidewalk or in our alley.  They often slept in our backyard at night and sometimes burned our garbage to make a fire to cook food.  We called our place The State Street Mission

Shortly after we graduated the neighborhood was demolished and an urban renewal project transformed the area . Today there is a park where we once lived.

 
   
 


 

[muwarrior69]

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jsonline/obituary.aspx?n=chris-g-ganos&pid=187018981&fhid=5684

We ( 5 ) rented an apartment from Chris in our senior year 1974-1975.   $215.oo/ month -   $43 per man
1606A W. STATE STREET which was above a storefront office in which Chris ran a business called "Cream City Heating"
The place was a three bedroom dump, but Chris was good to us and we had a blast that year.
It was next to an infamous bar called the 1600 club, which was frequented by blue collar night shift employees, pimps, whores, and local vagrants. Not the type of place a college student would frequent.
It was open in the daytime by 10 A.M. and closed by early evening.
We would come home from class to find homeless men passed out on the sidewalk or in our alley.  They often slept in our backyard at night and sometimes burned our garbage to make a fire to cook food.  We called our place The State Street Mission

Shortly after we graduated the neighborhood was demolished and an urban renewal project transformed the area . Today there is a park where we once lived.

Though the present day campus is beautiful it may have lost a little of its urban soul. The campus I knew may have been a dump, but it felt like we were not just in the city but of the city with all of its local color.

[LloydsLegs]

Wow-timing on this is crazy.

Our red-doored Ganos place was 18th and State (actually, 18th and the alley South of State).  Moved to the Red House just South of 17th and Kilbourne Sr. year.  I think it was $550 or $600/mo plus heat for 6 guys. It should have been demolished years before we had it in 1984-85.  When we moved in, the heat (which we of course didn't turn on until well into November, even though the windows, umm, not up to modern standards) was not connected.  We called the gas company, and they told us that it wasn't properly vented.  We got Ganos to come over (a rare feat unless it was time to collect rent) and explained the problem.  He simply said "no problem guys--I fix for you - no need any gas company."  We survived the year, including the guy who, with the third pick of rooms, chose the basement room - you had to walk across a dirt floor to get to a slab on which the basement bedroom was set.


Well, I learned last week that my nephew just rented that house for next year.  I don't think that Ganos was still the owner.  My sister, who was two years behind me at MU, is not thrilled.  And it is still has a dirt floor.

I am feeling a strange combination of horror for and pride in my nephew.

[Lennys Tap]

Legs-

I lived on 18th just south of State from September 1968 - May 1969 (my junior year). IIRC, there was an alley just east of us (between 18th and 17th). A walkway just to our north separated us from another building (maybe a storage building?) and just north of that was the famous Lenny's Tap. Our abode was a gray house with a red front door that was either 928 0r 930 N 18th. We were in the back of the house, accessible from a side door on the north side of the house (932 N 18th was our address). Lenny (Leonard Bernstein, I kid you not) became, for lack of a better term, kind of a mentor to me. He, along with his wife Sarah, kept the locals away from our girlfriends. He taught me the nuances of gambling, how to manage money and regaled us with stories of his time in the ring as an amateur boxer.

 I'm wondering exactly where you were. Is it possible that the building I thought was for storage was actually apartments? Do you recall what your address was? Town was gritty then, no doubt, but being in an apartment, no matter how grungy, was freedom of the highest order.

[real chili 83]

Rented from Ganos.  Went back to the house 20 years later. He had put extra rooms in the basement and the attic.  We were in the Swamp.

[TinyTimsLittleBrother]

I never lived in his buildings, but I had friends who did.  Looking back on it, I would be scared sh*tless had one of my kids lived in places like that.  I have no doubt those things were filled with code violations and the potential for absolute disaster.  Glad Marquette helped to clean a lot of that type of housing out of the area.

[Boone]

Legs:

My friends and I moved into the red-doored house the year after you did (1985-86). Ganos didn't know it, but we converted that defacto walk-in closet that overlooked the back alley on the east side of the house into a bedroom, so we could fit a 7th housemate and defray the living expenses (I volunteered to take that 'room,' so my friends gave me a break on the rent). Still think I had a better living arrangement than my roommate who slept in the dark, dank basement cave. That place was creepy.

I only recall seeing Ganos once, shortly after we moved in. We called him to question why the ceiling above the upstairs bath was dripping. He quickly troubleshot the cause as the Hefty garbage bad we'd fastened as a makeshift shower curtain. Ganos screamed at us "Are you cheap f*ckers on drugs (we probably were, but chemical impairment was beside the point)? Buy a god d*amn shower curtain!" We kept all subsequent property damage incidents to ourselves.

Yes, that house was a pit, that should have been condemned long ago, but I think it's great that places like that still exist. I never wanted to live in a sterile, boring apt. For all it's issues -- including a 1x1 foot hole in a high-traffic area of the first floor that Ganos' staff 'fixed' by putting a wood plank over it -- the red door had a certain seedy charm. It's what the college experience should be about. 

[LloydsLegs]

Legs:

My friends and I moved into the red-doored house the year after you did (1985-86). Ganos didn't know it, but we converted that defacto walk-in closet that overlooked the back alley on the east side of the house into a bedroom, so we could fit a 7th housemate and defray the living expenses (I volunteered to take that 'room,' so my friends gave me a break on the rent). Still think I had a better living arrangement than my roommate who slept in the dark, dank basement cave. That place was creepy.

I only recall seeing Ganos once, shortly after we moved in. We called him to question why the ceiling above the upstairs bath was dripping. He quickly troubleshot the cause as the Hefty garbage bad we'd fastened as a makeshift shower curtain. Ganos screamed at us "Are you cheap f*ckers on drugs (we probably were, but chemical impairment was beside the point)? Buy a god d*amn shower curtain!" We kept all subsequent property damage incidents to ourselves.

Yes, that house was a pit, that should have been condemned long ago, but I think it's great that places like that still exist. I never wanted to live in a sterile, boring apt. For all it's issues -- including a 1x1 foot hole in a high-traffic area of the first floor that Ganos' staff 'fixed' by putting a wood plank over it -- the red door had a certain seedy charm. It's what the college experience should be about.

Of course--David Boone and Lloyd Moore would have been teammates of Lloyd would have lasted more than a year!  Glad to hear from you, and I couldn't agree more with the "certain seedy charm" characterization. 

[LloydsLegs]

Legs-

I lived on 18th just south of State from September 1968 - May 1969 (my junior year). IIRC, there was an alley just east of us (between 18th and 17th). A walkway just to our north separated us from another building (maybe a storage building?) and just north of that was the famous Lenny's Tap. Our abode was a gray house with a red front door that was either 928 0r 930 N 18th. We were in the back of the house, accessible from a side door on the north side of the house (932 N 18th was our address). Lenny (Leonard Bernstein, I kid you not) became, for lack of a better term, kind of a mentor to me. He, along with his wife Sarah, kept the locals away from our girlfriends. He taught me the nuances of gambling, how to manage money and regaled us with stories of his time in the ring as an amateur boxer.

 I'm wondering exactly where you were. Is it possible that the building I thought was for storage was actually apartments? Do you recall what your address was? Town was gritty then, no doubt, but being in an apartment, no matter how grungy, was freedom of the highest order.

Lenny - Lenny's Tap was called "Still Friends" when I was there.  It was redone (and I don't know whether there were intervening owners) just prior to our moving in and "classed up" a bit, and marketed to the local African American community -we only went there a couple of times- it was nicer than the MU bars. 

Your recall is spot on--our house (944? S. 18th St) was at the three way intersection of 18th, an alley to the north before State St and an alley to the east before 17th St.   I believe your house would have been just south of ours.

Google Maps photo:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0427046,-87.935384,3a,75y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soRRHiKk6Vj96N5u52U09cg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

[Goose]

Lenny

Lenny's Tap, Lenny and Mrs. Lenny were great. I remember going in there with my sister and brother in law in late 60's as a little boy. Tried to get there from time to time when old enough. Lenny was a special guy.

[StateStreetMission]

The State Street Mission  was a real hovel, but it did have a special charm that only a group of 21 year olds could appreciate. 
There were MU students that preceded us and one was "Sid, of Milwaukee"  a pin striping artist for the Excalibur Automobiles ( google) which were hand made in Wisconsin.
He hand painted custom designs for many of the celebrities that bought these expensive cars.
We had a stove with a  flame motif and a refrigerator with a beautiful graphic design to brighten up the kitchen.
Chris provided a free phone line - an extension from his business phone in the office below us.  He used it during the day and we were free to use it in the evenings and weekends.  Occasionally we got calls from irate renters that were responding to threats from Ganos.
Looking back, it was an important part of our college experience, however as a parent, I discouraged  my kids from renting a place with that much (as MUWARRIOR 69 called it)  - "urban soul"   
demolished over forty years ago, so you can just imagine the state of urban decay of the neighborhood. 

BTW,  BOONE,  The hefty trash bag shower curtain is a classic !   

[hdog1017]

They made the campus too nice; these students need to get an education outside of the classroom as well as inside the classroom. 

[Archies Bat]

Lenny - Lenny's Tap was called "Still Friends" when I was there.  It was redone (and I don't know whether there were intervening owners) just prior to our moving in and "classed up" a bit, and marketed to the local African American community -we only went there a couple of times- it was nicer than the MU bars. 

I was in town just after graduation in 1983, I believe (it may have been 1982) when Still Friends opened.  I believe we were there on the first night open.  The owners were a nice bunch (young husband and wife IIRC) but had no bar experience.  They made us Manhattan's straight up in a regular Old Fashion glass, and I could not go beyond the second.  I think they charged $2.00 or $2.50 each.

I went back a month or two later and it was dead.

[tower912]

2136 Michigan 87-88.  6 of us in the top half of a house.  Two 2 bedroom apartments connected by a door between two of the bedrooms.  Living rooms used as bedrooms.  Two kitchens, two bathrooms.  A deck facing onto Michigan where we would see who could reach the sidewalk with a urine stream.  Sadly, a sexual assault occurred in the downstairs apartment during the summer of 87.  Frat next door.  Can't remember their letters.  I know we stole their sign.   Twice.   Roommate who swears he met Dahmer at the Midget.  Nice view of the valley.  Terrible windows and insulation, somewhat mitigated by the house next door being only 6 feet away, blocking the wind.

[Boone]

Glad you enjoyed the Hefty story, StateStreetMission. My wife, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes and sided w/Ganos. Typical. Always defending the "man." Actually, he was right, but the desire to save a buck on non-essentials, like a shower curtain, to put toward a beer or a bowl of chili, often won out over common sense (which is why, for a time, I tried washing my clothes in the tub, so as not to pay for laundry machines).

Legs, thanks for posting the google image link. What curb appeal that house holds. Who could tell from the outside what a dive it was inside? We used the side lawn as a sort of rinse cycle for dirty dishes -- leaving them in the snow until the spring, when we eventually became too lazy to wash them in the sink. Good times.

BTW, I incorrectly stated that the affected ceiling was above the bath. That'd been some feat if the drip went north.