The Demise of Klas and its Murals

There was a bit of posting on Facebook regarding Klas, the erstwhile Czech restaurant on Cermak Road in Cicero, and its murals and vintage articles. Supposedly it has "Russian murals" that were painted by some artist and these are about to be torn down. The artists daughter is of course upset at this, and has tried to take pictures of the murals. She even contacted Russian Tea Time to see if they might be interested because they are renovating but they said they already has bought their art. I don't even know if its possible to save them. I won't even go into why a Czech restaurant would have Russian murals (IDK). My final thought is I regret never going to Klas. I always meant to but it was gone before I could act. If anyone has any ideas, or info would love to hear it. Can these be saved? They maybe tearing them down as I write.

We held our very first LTHForum holiday party in the wood paneled room with all the hand-painted Russian-type murals because the look of those scenes made the room feel so ...Christmas-y. In a way, that room inspired us to have the party in the first place. It's hard to believe these old paintings would be simply wrenched off the walls and trashed, but I believe it.

David Hammond wrote:We held our very first LTHForum holiday party in the wood paneled room with all the hand-painted Russian-type murals because the look of those scenes made the room feel so ...Christmas-y. In a way, that room inspired us to have the party in the first place. It's hard to believe these old paintings would be simply wrenched off the walls and trashed, but I believe it.

i'm going through the same process right now with the boys and girls club in logan square: it's being converted to apartments, but it's small, less historic, annex is being torn down as i write this. i wandered in the open door the other day, noticed some cool murals and decided someone needs to save at least one. i called several leaders of the local preservation society and the new owner of the building has agreed to take down the mural i'm interested in, rather than throwing it out. now, we just have to find a home for a humongous (12 feet?) long mural painted by the kids in years past...!
i suggest you start by contacting the ukrainian museum in UVillage. maybe they can suggest other places/ people who might want it...or maybe one of the churches also in UV to find a helpful community member...

Thanks Joan. Good idea.