City Council extends Music Box Foundation lease at shuttered firehouse where an infamous retirement party took place

Eleven years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley tried to turn a South Side firehouse where a racially divisive retirement party took place into a museum honoring black firefighters.

It was viewed as “poetic justice” because of the ugly scene captured on videotape at Engine 100 showing white firefighters drinking beer, using racial slurs and even mooning the camera.

The $1-a-year lease at Engine 100, 6843 S. Harper, turned out to be a turkey.

The building was in such bad shape, museum founders couldn’t afford to do all of the work required to bring it up to code. They had no access to the second floor. Only an open spiral staircase too dangerous to use.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel arranged for the museum to move to another shuttered firehouse: Engine 61 at 5349 S. Wabash.

Since then, Engine 100 has been rehabilitated. It’s the home of a community center operated by the Music Box Foundation.

On Wednesday, the City Council’s Housing Committee voted to extend the foundation’s lease at the South Shore firehouse until Dec. 31, 2026 for the bargain rent of $1-per-year.

An assistant commissioner with the city’s Department of Fleet and Facilities Management told aldermen that the lease would allow the Music Box Foundation to maintain the shuttered firehouse as a “center for music education and programming.”

“The organization aims to enrich the lives of community members through the power of music and the arts. The programs they offer include an all-star community band program, school programs where they partner with schools and parks and community centers to offer instrumental theory, voice theory and students of all ages,” the assistant commissioner said.

“They also offer a visually impaired and special needs program where students receive instruction that introduces them to instruments of keyboard, guitar, brass and percussion family. They have summer programs as well as community youth development institutes and they also partner with After School Matters on programming.”

The lease calls for annual rent to remain at $1-a-year with the Music Box Foundation providing all building maintenance, insurance, utilities, landscaping and snow removal.

The city and the tenant may terminate the lease by providing 90 days advance notice to the other party.

In 1998, the city fired seven firefighters and suspended 21 others captured on the Engine 100 tape, only to have an independent arbitrator overturn the discipline on grounds that the city violated the collective bargaining agreement requiring an immediate investigation. The city waited more than six months to launch a probe after learning of the tape.

The Daley administration subsequently convinced the Illinois Appellate Court that the reversals were against public policy. The case was returned to the arbitrator, who was allowed only to consider whether the discipline against the firefighters was appropriate.

In November 2002, the same arbitrator ruled that the seven fired firefighters should have been suspended instead, noting their work history was “unblemished.” They didn’t receive back pay for the 4 1/2 years they were out of work. But, the city was ordered to restore their pension benefits and rehire them within 45 days. The suspensions of 21 others — from six to 60 days — were upheld.

The videotape of the retirement party has been played over and over again by local television stations.

Fallout led to the 1999 resignation of then-Fire Commissioner Edward Altman and his son, Edward Altman Jr., former head of the Fire Department’s Internal Affairs Division.