Tours

Walking tours

Ravenswood Presbyterian Church

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 15, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

4300 North Hermitage Avenue

This church was designed by the renowned Chicago firm of Pond & Pond at a cost of $43.000. Pond & Pond also designed a number of the Hull House buildings erected between 1895 and 1913, the Stevens Building downtown, and the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church built in 1915, the same year as this Church. In 1949. at the cost of $225,000, architect Benjamin Franklin Olson was commissioned to “alter and refurbish” the original structure, and replace the 1906 parish house. The result was the present blonde stone structure. Little of the original building’s exterior is now evident.

Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. Credit: Google Street View

Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. Credit: Google Street View

HISTORICAL FEATURES

The Ravenswood Presbyterian Church was organized in 1902. Services were held in Library Hall at the corner of Hermitage and Montrose, until a chapel was built on this site in 1907. The chimes for the organ in the 1915 building were given by the Deagan Company, whose headquarters we will see on Berteau Avenue.

SOURCES

No Permit. Parish Records; Brick Builder, August 1915 (24:117-8)

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4246 North Hermitage Avenue, the Helen Zatterberg Playlot Park.

  1. The next location is across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Helen Zatterberg Playlot Park

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 14, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

4246 North Hermitage

In 1938, the City of Chicago acquired this property in the North Center neighborhood through a settlement with the Policemens’ and Firemens’ Death Benefit Fund. By 1950, the city had transferred the site to the its Bureau of Parks and Recreation, which improved it with a spray pool, a sand box, and a gravel-surfaced playground.

Following its general practice, the bureau named the site for adjacent Hermitage Avenue. In 1959, the city transferred the property to the Chicago Park District, along with more than 250 other properties. The park has been rehabilitated over the years, most recently in the 1990s, when the park district installed a new soft surface playground and planted additional trees. In 2004, the park district renamed the site in honor of Helen Zatterberg as part of an initiative to recognize the achievements of significant Chicago women.

Helen Zatterberg (1902 – 2002) was a librarian devoted to educating the community about its history, preserving the area’s historical sites and archives, and establishing historical collections relating to Chicago’s North Side. After graduating from Lake View High School, Helen began working in the Chicago Public Library system. She eventually rose to the position of North Side Regional Librarian, responsible for the management of libraries in the area north of North Avenue.

In 1935, under the direction of Carl B. Roden, City Library, Helen Zatterberg invited the community to the Hild Library to discuss the collection and preservation of local history.  On a stormy night, over 300 people turned out and the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association was formed to carry out this initiative. Since that time, the Regional Librarian remains a non-voting member of the Board of the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association and the library staff and community continue to collect and preserve local history.

The public still actively uses the historical collections established by Zatterberg. In recognition for her contribution , the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association Board of Directors  has established an annual reward in her honor and recommended naming the park after her.

Helen Zatterberg lived near Leland and Wolcott Avenues, less than a mile from the park.

SOURCES

Chicago Park District, Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4228 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 180′ south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Emanuel House

Posted by Ravenswood Historical Society Webmaster on March 13, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4228 North Hermitage Avenue

4228Hermitage

4228 N Hermitage Ave., the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Credit: Cook County Assessor

RahmHome2

A decision regarding the residency of Rahm hung on his assertion that he had stored personal possessions in the home, showing his intent to return. The residents, not aware of the storage, denied there were any such storage. Credit: NBC Chicago

This is the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his wife Amy Rule. They purchased the home in 1998. At the time Emanuel was an investment banker and a member of the board of directors of Freddie Mac. In 2002 Emanuel became the Congressman for the 5th Illinois Congressional District, succeeding former Governor Rod Blagojevich in that post.
In 2010 the building became an object of intense media interest. Long-time Mayor Richard M Daley announced he would not run for reelection in September 2010. Emanuel, then the Chief of Staff for US President Barack Obama, announced he would run for the office.
Burt Odelson, a well-known election law attorney, filed challenges to Emanuel’s candidacy on behalf of Walter P Maksym Jr. and Thomas L McMahon. Soon a crowded field of objectors had joined the challenge.
At issue was whether Emanuel, by renting the home to take up his position at the White House, had forfeited his city residency, a requirement to run for mayor.
The tenant, Rob Halpin, not only testified against Emanuel, but filed to run for the office also.
Emanuel stated that he always intended to return to the home. He further alleged that he had stored Amy Rules’s wedding dress, his children’s first clothes, books, diplomas and other items in the home. As the hearing progressed, it became clear that the decision could hang on the storage Emanuel alleged was happening.
Lori Halpin, Rob Halpin’s wife, testified before an elections hearing that “there have never been boxes in the house that weren’t mine.”
However, attorneys for Emanuel were able to produce photographs of an area of the house that Lori Halpin had not been able to access.
The election hearing decided in favor of Emanuel, a decision that was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court.

SOURCES

Residency Biggest Challenge for Rahm Emanuel in Chicago Mayoral Race
Rahm Emanuel Testifies in Chicago Mayor Residency Challenge
Photos Confirm Rahm’s Boxes

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4224 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is about 33’south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

Hamlin House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 12, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , .

4224 North Hermitage Avenue

Imaginative massing make this modest house seem quite elegant. Note also idiosyncratic Palladian-like window on second floor. Screen door and art nouveau decorations of front porch are recent additions.

4224 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View

4224 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View

FEATURES

Many residents of early Ravenswood were connected to one another. Irving Hamlin, for example, married the daughter of Reverend W. A. Lloyd, first pastor of Ravenswood Congregational Church. Hamlin and his wife lived with the Lloyds at the southwest corner of Sunnyside and Hermitage while building this house, which cost about $2,200 in 1896.

SOURCES


Permit #N 1079 on 12/4/96. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4223 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Linthicum House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 11, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , .

4223 North Hermitage Avenue

Very unusual cigar-like porch columns. Also note screening with pod motif. Complex massing of house, With larger gable on north-south axis, smaller gable on east-west axis and corner turret pulling it all together.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Charles and Eva Linthicum moved to Ravenswood in the spring of 1884 and built a “modest cottage” on this lot. Two years later they bought the neighboring lot to the south. Between 1884 and 1894 the Linthicums built four houses on the two lots. According to a local newspaper, they moved into this house, 4223, in the spring of 1895.
Mr. Linthicum was a well-respected attorney, a member of the law faculty at Northwestern University, and an active participant in neighborhood affairs. He and others proposed a number of street improvements in the 1880’s, when Ravenswood was described as “a little village with wooden sidewalks and open ditches, several miles beyond the limits of Chicago.” Specifically, he and others proposed narrowing the streets and creating wide, grassy plots between the sidewalks and curbs. Hermitage, like many of the streets in Ravenswood, had wooden sidewalks beside the open ditches that ran parallel to the street. A town ordinance called for pine sidewalks 6 feet wide; crosswalks, however, were only 3 feet wide. The narrow crosswalks made walking at night difficult, especially on streets without gas lamps. The streets in this area, as can be seen in an early photograph of Paulina Street, were dirt.
In 1900, Mr, Linthicmn, his wife Eva, two daughters, a servant and Eva’s mother all lived in this house.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 1770 West Berteau Avenue.

  1. Head south about 266′ to the corner of Berteau.
  2. Take a right, crossing Hermitage and then the alley. The large industrial building on your right after the alley is the next building.
  3. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Progress Building, AKA The Deagan Building

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 10, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

1770 West Berteau Avenue

Architect F. E. Davidson designed this building at an estimated cost of $150,000 in 1919. Is a beautifully designed commercial building. Window bays articulated in a variety of ways, including stepped brickwork, cut stone and terra cotta. Note carved limestone detail, especially over the entrance, and copper detail of string course, clock surround tower. Note also contrasting brown brick in spandrels. Cornice removed? This building, particularly its south facade when seen from a distance, has a monumental articulation of the classical order of base, column and capital. Unusually fine industrial design.
Note the concealed water reservoir located in the tower and topped with the clock. Looking up Ravenswood Avenue you can see a number of other industrial buildings that do not conceal their water tanks with similarly elegant design.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

The Progress Company, the original owner, was a publishing house. The Deagan Company appears to have bought the building in 1912 after the bankruptcy of Progress. The Deagan Company manufactured tubular chimes and orchestral instruments for theater pipe organs for clients throughout the world and Chicago. Deagan chimes are in local churches, such as the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church we visited earlier in the tour., as well as in the Wolford Memorial Tower in Lincoln Park near Waveland Golf Course. The company’s orchestral instruments are in the pipe organs of the Chicago Theater, the Granada Theater and the Uptown Theater.
In the 20th Century East Ravenswood, especially Ravenswood Avenue, became the site for a number of factories, but it did not start out that way. The first factory in Ravenswood was the Cubley Musical Instrument Factory opened on the southwest corner of Ashland and Sunnyside in 1872. But residents of East Ravenswood, led by Robert Bennett, complained about a factory in their fashionable residential neighborhood. Finally in 1880 Bennett arranged what Guy Cubley called a “double trade,” and Cubley moved his factory to Wolcott Avenue on the other side of the railroad tracks.
By the 1870’s and 1880’s East Ravenswood Avenue was the local business district with grocery stores, a meat market, a post office, and a drug store, among other shops and offices. But even in the 1880’s the street had lumber yards and commercial stables above Wilson Avenue.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Recorder of Deeds Office. Permits are #11600 (5/21/1909; 13543 (7/29/1909); 9579 (3/5/1909; and 19272 (3/25/1910).

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4147 North Ravenswood Avenue.

  1. Continue west to the corner, about 136′.
  2. Cross Berteau, heading south. The next building with an entrance on Ravenswood is your destination, about 121′.
  3. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Friends of Rod Blagojevich

Posted by Ravenswood Historical Society Webmaster on March 8, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , .

4147 North Ravenswood Avenue

This building contained the political offices of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, offices the federal government say he used for wire fraud, attempted extortion and a conspiracy to solicit bribes. As part of its investigation into Blagojevich the federal government taped the offices located here.
The first serious allegation against Blagojevich was related to the federal case against Tony Rezko when it was revealed that Blagojevich was Public Official A of the Rezko indictment.

The mug shot of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Credit: Wikipedia

The mug shot of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Credit: Wikipedia

On December 9, 2008 US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff John Harris arrested at their homes. Fitzgerald said in a press conference the arrests were meant to prevent Blagojevich from gaining personal benefit from the imminent appointment of a replacement to the US Senate for Barack Obama.
Blagojevich was the seventh Illinois governor arrested or indicted and the fourth since 1971.
Turning the state impeachment into a media circus, Blagojevich made appearances on television shows such as Good Morning America and The View instead of attending the proceedings in Springfield.

SOURCES

All documents from the 2011 federal trial
US v. Blagojevich & Harris– the criminal complaint

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4232 North Paulina St.

  1. Turn back north towards Berteau. When you reach the corner, in about 138′, turn right.
  2. Cross the alley and back across Hermitage, continue past the former Mary Courtney school building to Paulina St. , about 0.2 mile, to Paulina St., the first street after Hermitage. Turn left.
  3. Do not cross Paulina. Go north on Paulina about 367′ to your destination.
  4. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Captain Knight House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 1, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

4232 North Paulina Street

Balustrades and stair railings are probably new; other detailing may also be added.
Note the intact window surrounds, sharply pitched roof.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Captain Hale Knight was originally a sea captain who had a significant professional disability: according to one neighbor, he “never crossed the ocean without being somewhat seasick.” He and his wife bought this house from Robert J. Bennett in 1888.

4232 N Paulina. Credit: Google Street View

4232 N Paulina. Credit: Google Street View


The Knights were one of the early families in Ravenswood. They moved into a rented house on Hermitage in 1873. In a reminiscence in Sulzer Library, Fannie Knight wrote that during their first year in Ravenswood the only local source for groceries was a grocery wagon that passed through the neighborhood once a week and a meat wagon that called twice a week. The nearest butcher was in Lake View at Clark and Diversey. The closest grocer was in Lake View. too. So, the Knights gave J.H. Bruns a hearty welcome when he opened a grocery store on East Ravenswood Avenue in 1874.
The Knights’ daughter, Fannie, and her husband, Dr. Alben Young, moved into the house in 1897 to live with her widowed father. Dr. Young was on the original staff of Ravenswood Hospital when it was opened in 1905.

SOURCES

CCL Survey. Recorder of Deeds Office. No permit for original construction. Permit NW 34447, File 3048 on 11/1/1911. 1880 Census. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4250 North Paulina, Bethany United Church of Christ.

  1. The next building is the church on the corner, about 187′ north from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Bethany United Church of Christ

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on January 1, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4250 North Paulina Street

While architect Benjamin Franklin Olson can be said to have done more aesthetic harm than good refurbishing the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church, this building has a number of appealing features, particularly in the east facade of the sanctuary. Note the cut stone which accentuates the vertical elements, elegantly laid brickwork which gives a horizontal texture, and concave wall welcoming the visitor to the church’s main entrance. The cloister and parish house also integrate well with the sanctuary building and make a pleasant whole. The building cost about $150,000 in 1930.

Bethany United Church of Christ. Credit: Google Street View

Bethany United Church of Christ. Credit: Google Street View

Olson also designed St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 2335 North Orchard Street (just south of Fullerton), a 1959 Neo-Gothic church. Like this church, St. Paul’s integrates a number of different building materials into a pleasing whole.

Until the construction of the Bethany United Church of Christ in 1930 the grandest house in Old Ravenswood was the Bennett Mansion. The Bennett Mansion stood on the current site of the church. The structure was torn down to create the current church. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association


Until the construction of the Bethany United Church of Christ in 1930 the grandest house in Old Ravenswood was the Bennett Mansion. The Bennett Building stood on the current site of the church. The structure was torn down to create the current church. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Before the church was built, Robert J. Bennett had a large, brick house on this site, which was the finest house in this neighborhood For many years. Bennett, who was a partner in the wholesale grocery firm of W.M. Hoyt Company, is best known locally as a real estate developer and philanthropist. He owned extensive property in Ravenswood and commissioned a number of houses, such as the McLaughlan and Knight homes that we just saw, as well as apartment buildings, one of which we will see later on the tour. He also built an office building, known as the Bennett Building, at the northwest corner of Wilson and East Ravenswood avenues. In 1891 he donated the land for and underwrote the construction of the first YMCA in Ravenswood, which was built at the back of his office building. Eleven years later he donated land at the southeast corner of Wilson and Hermitage for a new YMCA .

SOURCES

Permit #835331; Plan AB 369; Water 210222; File 220772; 44; Page 484 on 3/6/1930. Also check Parish records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4251 North Paulina Street.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map

Ackley House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on January 1, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

4251 North Paulina Street

Superb example of an early frame house with an intact porch. The brackets are consistent with a stick style aesthetic and facilitate a sense of muscular composure, order wrought out of complex elements. Window surrounds remain and this house is fainted much as it might have been at the time it was built.

4251 N Paulina. Credit: Google Street View

4251 N Paulina. Credit: Google Street View

HISTORICAL FEATURES

In 1885 Judge William McAllister, who lived in a larger home next door, now demolished, gave his daughter, Mary Ackley, a quit claim deed to this house. Her husband George Ackley was a claim examiner for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad and was vice president of James Andrews’ Ravenswood Loan Building Association. At the time of the 1900 census, they lived here with their three children. For a time in the mid-1890’s one of their daughters ran “a select school” in this house.

SOURCES


Recorder of Deeds Office, 1880 Census. No permit. See also October 13, 1894 Lake Breeze newspaper for article on Miss Ackley.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4323 North Paulina Street.

  1. The next building is north across Cullom and across from the school, about 373′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


View Larger Map