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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Michael Loria

South Sider recalls life before the 100K tulips: ‘There was always music in the house’

Vivian Johnsons shows a photo of her kindergarten class at Edmund Burke Elementary School in Washington Park. Johnson lived at 52nd and Prairie Avenue at the site where artist Amanda Williams planted rows of tulips, April 28, 2003 | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

Before tulips covered the ground at 53rd and Prairie Avenue, before it became a vacant lot, a six-flat stood there, housing a barbershop, an underground lottery and a number of residents, including Vivian Johnson, who was born there in 1935.

The building was one of several that stood near that intersection in Washington Park and throughout the South Side that have since been destroyed and left vacant.

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