Meanwhile, Hunter and Wright’s coach house was once tucked behind the Mandel mansion, the family behind Mandel Brothers department store and the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall. Hunter thinks the main house burned down sometime in the 1960s, but both it and the coach house have a rich artistic legacy. “I know lot of older jazz musicians who lived in [one or the other],” she says. “Ken Chaney, the jazz pianist, had his grand piano in this space. Napoleon Jones-Henderson, the AfriCOBRA artist, had his studio in the ballroom of the main house. A lot of folks have been here who have done great things.”
