421 Linden
The house at 421 Linden is one of many mysteries. For one, the architect of this stunning 1903 Victorian Farmhouse is unknown. The original owner is also a mystery, though records indicate it may have been Frank E. Herdman, a successful mechanical engineer who lived in the home with his wife, Mary, by 1909. Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding 421 Linden, however, is that of former resident Orja Corns, who was living in the house in the 1940s when he disappeared, never to be seen again. Or was he…? Here’s the story.In 1946, Orja Corns’ life appeared to be perfect. He was promoted to Chicago area district manager at Skilsaw tool-making company in Chicago, appeared to be happily married to his wife, Betsy, had a lovely daughter named Betty, and had just purchased the beautiful Victorian Farmhouse at 421 Linden in Winnetka.But appearances can be deceiving. In reality, Orja was living beyond his means and could barely make ends meet. In addition, friends and family later revealed that Orja was a drinker, and that his wife and daughter spend an unusual amount of time away at her parents.The afternoon of July 2, with his family away, Orja left work and stopped at the Willow Inn in Northfield for a few drinks. At about 6pm, Orja left the bar and went home to 421 Linden. While home, Orja reportedly opened all the windows and doors and took a shower. He got dressed, left $80 on his dresser, and went out again at 7:30 pm. The neighbor across the street later reported that when Orja left, all the lights at 421 Linden were on, and the doors and windows were still open.The next few hours are a mystery, but we know that around midnight, he arrived at the Parody Club, a seedy nightclub on North Clark Street in Chicago. According to an employee at the club named “Dirty Neck Marie,” Orja left alone around 3 am. He was never seen or heard from again.After his disappearance was reported to the police, they investigated for several days with no leads until they visited the gas station on Sheridan Road where Orja frequently stopped on his way home from work. The station owner told police he had seen Orja on July 6, four days after his disappearance. Other local Winnetkans reported seeing him in town in early July as well.So what happened to Orja Corns? Several theories have circulated over time. Orja’s parents, for example, told the media that they believed he was murdered. His wife, Betsy, initially believed that he suffered from amnesia related to chronic headaches and was lost as a result. Some of the investigators on the case thought he may have run away to escape money woes or an unhappy marriage. Others believed he was intoxicated and accidentally drove his car into the lake or river.In 1953, an article in the Chicago Tribune declared this case “one of Chicago’s most baffling missing persons mysteries.” Almost 75 years later, Orja Corns’ disappearance remains just as baffling.Stylistically, 421 Linden is a vernacular design with some elements of the Queen Anne style, including the cross-gable roofline and the stick-work at the apex of the roof. This beautifully-restored house has been identified by the state as a potential candidate for the National Register of Historic Places. To learn more about the mysterious disappearance of Orja Corns, click here: https://www.winnetkahistory.org/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-orja-corns/
455 Chestnut
The vernacular Victorian at 455 Chestnut was built c. 1888 by local business owner Max Meyer, who is widely known locally as the founder of Winnetka’s first bank. The Meyer family immigrated from Germany to Winnetka in 1871, first living in a log cabin on Sheridan Road. When Max was 13, he started working as a chore boy at Robert Moth’s general store in town. Seven years later, Moth sold the store to Meyer, where he continued to provide groceries and, later, distributed mail as Winnetka’s postmaster. Soon after, Meyer married Robert Moth’s daughter, Nellie.In 1894, Meyer opened Winnetka’s first bank – the Bank of Max Meyer – which later became Winnetka Trust and Savings Bank. In addition to his contributions to Winnetka’s business district, he also co-founded the public library and the park district, was a member of the Zoning and Village Plan Commissions, and, perhaps most notably, co-founded the Winnetka Historical Society. He died in his home at 455 Chestnut in 1937.While the architect is unknown and this house has no designated historic status, it’s survival is a testament to the continuous popularity of this Vernacular Victorian style. It was originally constructed with the horizontal wood siding and gingerbread ornamentation typical of 18th century Victorian designs. It was (and still is) simpler in its design than the more ornate Victorian Gothic styles in the Village, such as 411 Linden and 594 Elm.This house’s history is defined by change as much as its continuous survival. In fact, alterations began early on in this property’s history. While it originally had a wrap-around porch typical of many Victorian designs, the Meyers removed parts of the porch around 1895. The biggest change occurred in 1927 when the Meyer’s moved the house from the corner of Elm and Chestnut to its current location. The remains of the wraparound porch were lost in the move, and were replaced by the two covered porches on the south and western facades that still exist today. In addition, much of the original horizontal siding was replaced with stucco.Though much has changed, the main structural integrity of 455 Chestnut remains intact, as we hope it will for years to come.
455 Birch
This whimsical Arts and Crafts house was designed by Charles Haag in 1920 for well-known activist and artist Lola Maverick Lloyd. Born in Texas in 1875, Lola was the granddaughter of early Texas pioneer and landowner Samuel Maverick. The term “maverick” was coined for her grandfather’s non-conforming lifestyle. Lola moved to Winnetka in 1902 when she married William Bross Lloyd, son of famous Chicago journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd. Like her famous father-in-law, Lola dedicated much of her time to championing the causes near and dear to her heart. She became a delegate for the Women’s Peace Party with famous activist Jane Addams, marched to demand for women’s rights to vote, joined the Illinois Socialist Party, and eventually co-founded the Campaign for World Government. However, after her activism took off, her marriage deteriorated, and she and her husband divorced in 1916.After her divorce, Lola worked alongside her friend, Swedish sculptor Charles Haag, to design this one-of-a-kind house for herself and her children. The house remained in the Lloyd family until Lola’s daughter, Georgia, died in 1999. Georgia’s daughter, Lola Moonfrog, deeded the house to a foundation in New Mexico. It has since been sold to an individual family.In terms of style, it should come as no surprise that Haag, the architect, was primarily a wood sculptor. His friend, Frank Lloyd Wright, once said that Haag “had a unique charm because of the purity of his mind, as well as the supreme skill of his hands.” Lola, a talented artist in her own right, collaborated with Haag on many of the design decisions, and both of their artistic touches can be seen throughout the property. Inside the home, murals and custom woodworking by both Lloyd and Haag make this house the perfect space for artistic inspiration. On the outside, the house is a great example of the American Arts and Crafts style. The style’s focus on handmade crafts, woodwork, and natural earthy tones can still be seen on the house.Today, this house is both a Local Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
801 Oak
While the building at 801 Oak has been home to Bratschi Plumbing for about 90 years, it was actually built 20 years before the business took it over.This tall, slim building was first built c. 1907 by John T. Brady, a young yet experienced blacksmith originally from Evanston. He operated his blacksmith and horseshoe shop on the bottom floor, and he and his wife Mary lived in the two-bedroom apartment above the shop with their 4 children.Around the same time, just a few blocks north, William P. Happ purchased a blacksmith shop at the corner of Chestnut and Spruce. William Happ was the grandson of Winnetka’s first blacksmith John Happ, who opened a shop at Maple and Elm in 1843. In the 1920s, Happ and Brady merged their two businesses at this location at 801 Oak, and renamed it the Brady and Happ Practical Horseshoers.The blacksmithing shop stayed in business until the 1930s, when John Brady passed away. In 1939, Mary Brady, John Brady’s widow, rented the building to Walter Bratschi, a local Winnetkan and experienced plumber. In 1947, Bratschi purchased the building.While it has hada few changes to accommodate the plumbing business, some of the original features from the blacksmithing shop still remain, including the stable flooring and hooks used to tie up horses that were being fitted for horseshoes. Elements of the original fireplace remain as well.In 1952, the showroom in front of the original building was added, and in 1982, the addition at 803 Oak was built.Thanks to the Bratschi family, the historic building at 801 Oak has not only been transformed but well preserved and cared for for over 115 years.
791 Elm
This Chase Bank may seem like a typical bank building, but the site has a long history and the building itself is architecturally significant.The commercial history of the site dates back to 1855, when early settler Riley M. Graves opened a general store here. In 1875, Robert Moth purchased the store from Graves and in 1882, Moth sold it to Max Meyer, who lived in the house now located at 455 Chestnut. While Meyer continued to sell groceries and goods at the store, he had a grander vision for the historic shop. In 1894, Meyer founded the North Shore’s first bank, the Bank of M. K. Meyer, inside the store.Over the years, Meyer found the banking business to be lucrative and when a fire destroyed the original building in 1912, he decided to focus on banking. He rebuilt a new M. K. Meyer Bank on the site and in 1917 changed the name to the Winnetka Trust & Savings Bank.After Meyer’s death in 1937, his son-in-law, Herbert K. Humphrey, took over as chairman of the bank. In the early 1960s, Humphrey oversaw the demolition of the second bank building and in 1964, the current building was constructed. In 1967, Max Meyer’s grandson took over for his father as chairman and in 1970, renamed the bank the Winnetka Bank.This banking business remained in the Meyer/Humphrey family until 1989 when it was sold to First Chicago Corporation and was renamed First Chicago Bank of Winnetka. It has been a JP Morgan/Chase-owned Bank for almost two decades.This current bank building has been a hallmark feature of Winnetka’s business district for almost 60 years. It was designed by local architectural firm Mayo & Mayo who also designed several notable buildings in Chicago and beyond. In Winnetka, they designed 140 Sheridan, 593 Arbor Vitae, and 419 Sheridan, which is a Winnetka Designated Landmark.
733 Elm
The Tudor Revival building at 733-35 Elm was built by Julius Frederick Eckart, an artist who immigrated from Germany to Chicago in 1881.While living in Germany, Eckart was trained to paint frescos. He utilized that skill when he arrived in Chicago and launched a successful painting business in the city. In 1910, Eckart moved to Winnetka and quickly recognized the village’s need for a hardware supplier downtown. He opened a small store called Eckart Hardware at 726 Elm in 1915.As the hardware store became more successful, Eckart started looking into options to increase its space. In 1920, construction started on the Eckart Building just across the street from the original store at 733-35 Elm. The building was completed in 1922 with the store on the first floor, housing for the Eckart family on the second, and housing for local teachers on the third.After Julius Eckart died, his son, William, took over the hardware business until 1972 when his son, William Jr., took over management. These three generations of the Eckart family managed the hardware store until it permanently closed in 1999.After the historic hardware business closed, the bottom floor of 733-35 Elm was rented by Song O’ Sixpence, a café and catering business, until it suddenly closed in 2009. In 2010, Maze Home opened in the space and has been in business here ever since.While Eckart Hardware has been closed for decades, the Eckart family’s impression on the building remains, most notably on the “J. F. Eckart 1922” engraving above the doorway to the upper floors.
528 Maple
This historic home was built c. 1895 for Dr. Arthur Murdow, who was the very first dentist to open a practice on the North Shore north of Evanston. He was born in Chicago in 1869.After graduating from Northwestern’s medical school, he met Helen Miller and in 1895, they married and moved to Winnetka. Helen’s parents hired Winnetka architect, William Otis to design the house as a wedding gift for the couple. Otis was one of Winnetka’s busiest architects. He designed a number of exceptional houses and public buildings, including Christ Church, Horace Mann School, Lloyd Memorial Library, Greeley School and his own house at 644 Oak.Once living in Winnetka, Dr. Murdow recognized the need for a local dentist, and he opened his practice above Ruldolph Bros. Grocery at 738 Elm in 1897. Just a few years later, he decided to move his practice to this house, creating an entrance on Elm with the address 680 Elm. He maintained his dental practice here until he died in 1938 when Loris and Gladys Miller moved into the house. They remodeled it extensively, removing many of the original historic elements designed by William Otis. For example, they removed the two-story front porches, the round front posts, and wide stone entranceway steps. This house stayed in the Miller/Murdow family until the early 1980s. In recent decades, new homeowners have restored some of these elements, including the round posts and front porch. Even with the addition on the south side, the house looks more today like it originally did than it did in the 1980s.While it has no historic status currently, this house has been identified as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
500 Maple
The stately Georgian Revival at 500 Maple was designed by William Aitken in 1916. This property was originally owned by the Prouty family, but was sold to Aitken after the Prouty home was destroyed in a fire in 1912. According to the original building permit, Aitken was the original owner of the property, and built this house as a speck house to sell once finished.Aitken was a prolific North Shore builder. He was born in Scotland in 1878, and in 1903, emigrated to the Chicago area. In 1910, he moved to Winnetka, lived at 1063 Cherry Street, and opened an office at 1065 Gage. In 1922, he founded the Village of Bannockburn approximately 10 miles northwest of Winnetka and, a few years later, moved from Winnetka to his new Village.Throughout his career, Aitken designed many other notable homes and buildings in Winnetka, including the “Home Alone House” at 671 Lincoln, the retail buildings in Hubbard Woods at Gage and Green Bay Road.Later in life, Aitken was on a British ship off the coast of Ireland on September 3, 1939, the day Great Britain declared war on Germany. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat and Aitken was one of several passengers rescued from the sinking vessel, and returned to Bannockburn shortly after. He died in a car accident in Nebraska in 1952.While Aitken was the builder and original owner of 500 Maple, he never lived in the house. After the house was completed, Aitken sold it to Glen C. Bull, a local real estate broker.The house at 500 Maple is a wonderful representation of Aitken’s popular Georgian Revival designs. The 2-story structure with brick façade and center entry is typical of the style, as are the 3 rooftop dormers, the row of 5 windows on the front façade, and the symmetry to the sunrooms on the right and left sides.500 Maple’s age, as well as its quintessential Georgian Revival features, are noted as reasons that the house was named a Local Landmark in 1994.
475 Maple
The original portion of the vernacular Victorian at 475 Maple was built c. 1874. While the architect is unknown, we do know that the house was built for early Winnetka resident Charles Octavius Fox Sedgwick.Sedgwick was born in England in 1825 to an English father and English/Jamaican mother. In 1869, Sedgwick immigrated to the US and started working as a bookkeeper for the Chicago and North Western Railroad. He eventually became the railroad company’s chief accountant.When the Sedgwick moved to Winnetka in the early 1870s, he was, according to sources, “accepted as the best educated man in town.” Education was clearly a passion of Sedgwick’s and within a few years of moving to Winnetka, he started inviting a group of Winnetkans to meet at his home to exchange reading materials and discuss books.The meetings grew popular over time as more and more residents attended and added books and articles to the group’s circulation. The unofficial club was eventually organized into the Winnetka Reading and Social Club.Since they met at Sedgwick’s home, many of the club’s books were stored at 475 Maple until the village’s first public library was organized in an old schoolhouse on Elm and Walnut in 1885. As such, this house could be considered Winnetka’s first unofficial library, and is certainly the place that served as the impetus for the eventual formation of the public library we have today.While Sedgwick died in 1902, he clearly left his mark on the village – both as a founder of the first unofficial library and as the first owner of this historic house.This house was also once notable as the home of the oldest remaining water pump in the village. Research indicates that the water pump was likely installed in the 1870s when the house was first constructed. The pump was still in its original location in the 1970s, but since the large addition was added to the south side of the house, it’s unlikely that the water pump remains in its original location today. While the pump may be gone and the house has clearly been renovated and added to over time, the historic character of the original portion of the house still stands, and remains an important part of the village’s history.
688 Cherry
Both the current house at 688 Cherry and the house that stood here before it have interesting histories.The original house was built by E. Ashley Mears, a corrupt developer who built several unfinished mansions, known as the Mears Sham Mansions, in the village. Mears, who was originally from Vermont, moved to Chicago in the 1860s and made a fortune in banking. After the Great Chicago fire, Mears recognized that Winnetka was on the cusp of a real estate boom and saw an opportunity to enhance his fortune. He purchased several plots of land and in the early-to-mid 1870s, built fourteen imposing mansions.While impressive in stature with unique architectural features on the outside, none of the mansions were complete by the time they were sold. Most were sold as a shell of a house, and a poorly constructed one at that.The Mears mansion at 688 Cherry was purchased and finished by James and Clarissa Willson, who were prominent residents in the Village. James Willson, for example, served as president of the village in 1874. Tragically, on February 14, 1884, the Willsons were horrifically murdered in the house. James was shot with a revolver downstairs while Clarissa, who was bedridden after suffering a stroke, was stabbed with her late son’s Civil War bayonet. A man named Neil McKeague, who worked as a butcher at Robert Moth’s store where the Chase Bank is now, was suspected of the murder, but he was acquitted during the trial due to a lack of evidence. The Willson murder remains unsolved today.After the Willson’s were murdered, it’s unclear if anyone lived in the house again until 1910, when it was purchased by the Deily family and moved to 844 Pine Street. It was demolished in 1962 to make way for the A&P, which is now the Grand Food Center.The land at 688 Cherry was vacant between 1910 and 1924 when Walter Bratschi purchased the lot and built the current house on the site. Bratschi, like James Willson, was a well-known figure in the Village. Born in Switzerland, Bratschi moved to Chicago in 1904 and started working as a plumber for a company on Clark St. He continued to work in the city until 1936, when he passed his Master Plumbing exam at age 50.The next year, Bratschi opened Bratschi Plumbing, operating the business out of this house until 1939, when he rented the building at 801 Oak. Like Bratschi Plumbing, this house has remained in the Bratschi/Hoza family and is still owned by members of the family today.
411 Linden
The Winnetka Historical Society’s headquarters at 411 Linden was first built as early as 1859 on land that was owned by Charles Peck, who is largely considered the founder of Winnetka. The house is considered one of Winnetka’s best examples of the Victorian-era Gothic Revival style, which was inspired by the medieval cathedrals of Europe.While it has undergone some changes, many of the original Gothic Revival features still remain today, including the pitched roof, the original doors with the tear drop windows, and the gingerbread decorations. Like most Victorian Gothic designs of the mid-to-late 1800s, 411 Linden is made of wood horizontal siding.The first long-term residents were the Densmore family, who moved from 440 Ridge to 411 Linden when Solymon Densmore purchased the property in 1877. Interestingly, some records indicate that James Densmore, Solymon’s adult son, moved into the house by 1870, so it’s possible that some members of the Densmore family lived in the house before it was purchased by Solymon in 1877. Regardless, by 1877, the location made sense for Solymon Densmore, who had opened a shop on the corner of Cherry and Linden in 1868, where he manufactured and sold Fanning Mills, a machine that separated grain from dirt and chaff using a fan. Solymon’s daughter, Fidella, became a well-known opera singer while living in Winnetka, performing at various notable venues in Chicago, New York, and across Italy.While it looks today much as it did when it was first built, 411 Linden has had a number of different looks over the years. In 1989, for example, a “Painted Lady” competition in Chicago inspired the homeowners to paint the house a rose hue. In the 1970s, it was painted a dark teal blue shade. The house has also been painted a cream shade, as well as a raspberry/hot pink for a short time.Since the Winnetka Historical Society moved into 411 Linden in 2001, it has been painted the understated yet classic pale yellow you see today.411 Linden is now a Local Landmark, and has been identified by the state as a potential candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.
