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.

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