The Pursuit of Lucy Banning,A Novel (Avenue of Dreams)

  Grandstands on the Court of Honor accommodated dignitaries from around the globe, including the Duke of Veragua, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, and Grover Cleveland, recently inaugurated to serve for the second time as the president of the United States. Will, Lucy, and Leo stood together amid a throng of excitement.

  “With dignitaries from around the globe sitting up there,” Leo joked, “I wonder who is running the world today.”

  Lucy laughed and raised her voice to be heard above the crowd. “It’s time the little people get some credit!”

  Will squeezed Lucy’s hand. “There must be a hundred thousand people here. They just keep coming!”

  The Court of Honor opened a vision of fourteen stunning buildings covered with the same spectacular white stucco—the White City. Altogether the fair had more than two hundred buildings. Before wandering into the maze of a city within a city, visitors were greeted by a large reflecting pool with an elaborate fountain and an immense gilded statue, Republic, rising a hundred feet in the air on its stand and bursting with American spirit.

  “It’s unfortunate Sophia Hayden is not well enough for this day,” Will said. “She would have a great deal to be proud of.”

  “I will personally make sure she knows how impressive her work is,” Lucy responded. Millions of people would pass through the Court of Honor and into the fair over the next six months. Lucy was confident the women’s exhibit would hold its own against any other, showcasing the aspirations and accomplishments of women around the world, as well as the desperate plight of women in some places.

  “Time for the speeches,” Leo said. “I hope they keep them short.”

  The director general stood at the front of the grandstand to give a welcoming speech. However, the crowd’s eyes were on the next speaker, President Grover Cleveland. After a short congratulatory speech just before noon, President Cleveland moved a golden lever on the table in front of him and the White City transformed into its glory. Simultaneously, flags from around the world unfurled and flapped in the breeze, water sprang up from fountains and soared into the sky, whistles blew as machines cranked into action, vessels in the nearby harbor fired salutes, bands began to play. The World’s Columbian Exposition was officially opened!

  “I want to see the Manufactures Building,” Leo said immediately. “If we press our way through now, we can get ahead of the crowd.”

  Lucy looked up at Will, who smiled. “Sorry, Leo. Our first stop is the women’s exhibit.”

  “Are you taking orders from your wife before she’s even your wife?” Leo chided.

  “Just making sure she knows I believe she can do great things.”

  And Will bent to kiss Lucy full on the lips in the middle of the crowd.

  Author’s Note

  Although the main characters in the Avenue of Dreams series are fictional, the primary historical markers are true. Supporting details come from the daily reports of these events in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, as well as accounts in publications by scholars and experts available through Google Books. For instance, the wealthy families of Prairie Avenue were the driving force behind bringing the World’s Columbian Exposition to Chicago and breathed life into the fair with leadership and financing, so the Banning household is in the middle of that process. There really were a thousand little girls dressed in red, white, and blue at the parade reviewing stands at the fair’s dedication in October 1892, so Lucy could have spoken to one of the children. The Calumet Club did burn down within thirty minutes on a frigid January day in 1893, costing a young maid her life. George Glessner did have a fascination with fire and often went to the sites of fires, so it’s entirely conceivable he would have been at the Calumet Club fire, just blocks from his home, to run into Lucy Banning. Sophia Hayden, the architect of the women’s exhibit, did have a breakdown that kept her from participating in the final preparations.

  In some cases, the choice was to be faithful to the times but use information in the best way possible for this story. For example, the Chicago Orphan Asylum was located on South Michigan Avenue, and we have information about the work and services of this institution that cared for six thousand children during its existence. In fact, there were a dozen such orphanages in Chicago by 1890, and many Prairie Avenue families contributed financially. This series creates a fictional orphanage to use its characters and setting without violating the history of a particular institution. However, the plight of orphans and the response of the wealthy are true to the times. The fictional Banning family lives in a block where their house could not have existed because the lots were occupied with other structures, but having them close to the richest of the historical families helps to immerse the reader in the times.

  Acknowledgments

  People often ask me where I get ideas for novels, and I say the ideas are everywhere, ready like cherries for the picking. The seed for this one came from Stephen Reginald, an old publishing friend, when he became a volunteer docent at the Glessner House Museum in Chicago, at the corner of Eighteenth and Prairie Avenue. I thank him for his unflagging belief in me as a writer for the last two decades. He generously chose me to partner with him on this gem of an idea and threw himself into the research necessary to bring it to life.

  Thanks also to William H. Tyre, director of the Glessner House Museum, for answering questions of minutiae and allowing me a private tour.

  Thanks to Vicki Crumpton for her careful review of the manuscript and the team at Revell who helped turn a pile of words into a book.

  Elisa Stanford, savvy fiction reader and friend extraordinaire, read raw chapters as I churned them out. Her enthusiasm kept me pecking at the keys. Rachelle Gardner, literary agent, believed it was just a matter of finding the right project, and now we’re off and running. The rest of our book group gave rah-rahs at needful moments and constantly remind me that excellence is out there, because they are busy setting the bar. I love them all.

  Olivia Newport’s novels twist through time to discover where faith and passions meet. Her husband and two twentysomething children provide welcome distraction from the people stomping through her head on their way into her books. She chases joy in stunning Colorado, at the foot of the Rockies, where daylilies grow as tall as she is.

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