Homes
Property transfers p. B14
December 21, 2022
The history of a home
Oak Park, River Forest homeowners can enlist local museum to help fill in the blanks By LACEY SIKORA
T
Contributing Reporter
hey say the cobbler’s children have no shoes, and the old saying seems to fit this Homes reporter as well. As an Oak Park resident for 20-plus years and a Homes reporter for Wednesday Journal for more than 15, I was well aware of the opportunities residents have to delve into the history of their houses, but until recently, I never ventured too far beyond Google. My one previous step of research had been looking up my home on the Oak Park village website, which has a number of resources for homeowners interested in historic preservation. Our house is located in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, so I was able to use the link to historic resources at ruskinarc.com/oakpark/oakpark to determine that my home was built sometime between 1920 and 1929 by the architects White and Christie. The database also listed the original owner as William Lees, the name of the house as William Lees No.2, and the style as colonial revival. Our next-door neighbor’s house, also designed by White and Christie, is listed in the database as the William Lees House No. 1 and was built between 1910 and 1919. From my work at Wednesday Journal, I knew that White referred to architect Charles White, who briefly worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio before going out on his own in 1905. His work dots the village and includes the Cheney Mansion and the Lake Street post office. This fall, I finally made an appointment with the Oak Park River Forest Historical Society at the OPRF Museum to see what I could find out about the history, architectural and otherwise, of my home. Rachel Berlinski had pulled relevant records for me and walked me through some basic re-
PROVIDED
Lacey Sikora knew her Oak Park home dated from the 1920s. Using resources available at the Oak Park River Forest History Museum and the village of Oak Park, she was able to learn more about its ownership history, improvements made over the years and how the property was used by previous owners. search steps available to any local homeowner. Phone and city directories as well as editions of the Oak Leaves and the Wednesday Journal, along with village permits, painted a more detailed history of the home. In addition, the OPRF Museum maintains files of realtor listing sheets from the 1920s to the 1990s, and street files organized by block. The museum keeps a file of photos, and the Barclay Photo Collection includes photos taken by Philander Barclay of structures existing in 1903.
The owners of our house are not listed in local directories until 1922, when they are listed as Warren S. and Grace N. Corning. An Oak Leaves mention from Dec. 11, 1920 provides more detail. On that date, William Lees sold the house to Mrs. Grace Corning, the daughter of F.A. Hill, a well-known real estate broker. The listing describes a 60-by-175-foot lot, a two-story brick and stucco home with seven rooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage. The home sold for $32,000. In 1926, the owners expanded the garage,
and in 1933, then-owner Chas. A. Walter sold the home for $15,500. An obituary shows that Walter, an executive at Sears Roebuck, died in 1944. There are no records indicating when the home next changed hands, but in 1954, the owner Otto Behimer had an apartment above the garage inspected. Behimer died in 1968, and his estate sold the home in 1970 for $37,900. See HISTORY on page B12
December 21, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review
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