The Wright Stuff in the Suburbs

Harry Robinson designed several other houses in Naperville in addition to the Truitt House. After a childhood spent in Mattoon, Illinois, Robinson studied at University of Illinois and worked for prairie-style architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Burley Griffin at different times.

Prairie Style was very popular for homes in the early part of the twentieth century and many of our suburbs still boast some of these houses. Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park offers tours and events throughout the year and you can drive by other houses he designed in Oak Park as well.

Taliesin, Wright’s home in Wisconsin, is actually Taliesin III after the first two homes Wright built on the site burned to the ground.

Wright left his Oak Park home, as well as his wife, to build Taliesin with his new love Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Cheney and her husband had been clients. In the summer of 1914, Wright was working on a project in Chicago. A servant back at the Wisconsin home started a fire at Taliesin and then went after everyone in the house with an axe. Seven people were killed including Borthwick and her two children.

Wright rebuilt Taliesin, but in 1925 a second fire started, possibly due to a lightening storm causing a short in a bedroom telephone.

Visiting Taliesin is a popular vacation event and docents there or at the Oak Park home are happy to tell you more about Wright’s tumultuous life.

Where History Is Happening

Norwood Park Holiday House Tour

Saturday, December 3
11:00am to 4:00pm

The Holiday House Tour features five homes that present a cross-section of the different architecture of the Norwood Park neighborhood. Houses range from the late 1800s to the 1900s, and showcase the many ways homeowners have blended the past and present in their homes. Admission to 5 homes is $20 in advance, or $25 the day of the event. The tour begins at the Norwood Park Senior Center, 5801 N. Natoma Ave., Chicago. Tickets may also be purchased online or in person at Victoria’s Craft Boutique on December 1 or 2.

Legend of St. Nicholas and Holiday Mansion Tour

Sunday, December 11
2:30pm to 5:00pm

Dressed as the English interpretation of St. Nicholas (Father Christmas), Terry Lynch will tell the festive tales and explain the influence this 4th century Bishop has had on the many traditions of the holiday season throughout the world, both religious and secular. (No important secrets revealed!) Enjoy a walk-through tour of the Mansion, decorated for the holidays, hot cider and cookies, and a children’s activity table in the Chapel Lower Level prior to the presentation. $10 per adult, $8 per youth, $5 per Naperville Heritage Society sustaining member and Season Pass holder.

Commemorating the Great Chicago Fire

One hundred and forty years ago this month, Chicago burned. An exceptionally dry autumn and steady, strong winds created a deadly opportunity. The orange glow could be seen from as far away as Naperville, twenty six miles west.

Guy Sabin, a student at Naperville's North Central College wrote about the event in his diary:

Monday, Oct. 9, 1871, 9:00 p.m.
They got a dispatch that a fire had been raging in Chicago since last night, at 9 o’clock. Reports
at dark said it was almost all burnt down, and the fire was still going. The light of the fire can be seen from here.

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 1871
Went in to Chicago at 8:20. Was no school. The Pres. and Professors all went. Most of the city lays in ruins. Amos got a horse and buggy at Salisbury and Mark Castle, Amos and I rode over the ruins. They think it was set afire.

Wednesday, October 11, 1871, 9:45:
Father went in to Chicago at 7. Came home at 6. Mary Rogers came with him. The fire is nearly all put out.

While the Mrs. O'Leary's cow story was later found to be made up by a creative reporter, the fire was determined to have started on DeKoven Street, which was named for John DeKoven. John's wife, Helen Hadduck, was the granddaughter of Dexter Graves who sailed with Joseph Naper from Ohio to start anew in Illinois.

In a largely wooden city, fires were common and both the city and its citizens probably under-reacted to the threat. In fact, the fire department was trying to recover from fighting a fire just the day before. By the time everyone realized how serious the fire was, controlling it was all but impossible.

Reports say more than 100,000 people lost their homes and the death toll was in the hundreds. The fire burned from Sunday until Tuesday, jumping across the river and destroying the water works that supplied water for the fire department. Finally, the winds died down, rain slowed the fire's spread, and the smouldering rubble burned itself out.

Another Great Fire of 1871

The greatest number of fire deaths in United States history occurred on October 8, 1871, but the fire didn't happen in Chicago.

A little to the north in Wisconsin, Peshtigo and surrounding communities also burned that day -- at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire. Estimates of between 1,000 and 2,500 people lost their lives and almost two square miles of homes, farmland and forest. Survivors reported seeing a tornado form from the immense heat and wind generated by the huge fire.

Approximately 300 unidentified victims wound up being buried in a mass grave. You can visit the grave site today, as well as the Peshtigo Fire Museum which is nearby. The museum has a collection of artifacts from the fire, although there wasn't much that remained once the flames finally subsided. Both contemporary accounts and recent publications are also available to learn more about this horrific event that was overshadowed by Chicago's story.

Where History Is Happening

Naper Settlement's All Hallows Eve
Friday and Saturday, October 21 & 22
6:30-10 p.m

Don't miss two of the scariest nights of the year during All Hallows Eve, a unique event based on the darkest literature and events of the 19th century. The usually calm and quaint 12-acre museum village is haunted by a diabolical menagerie of spirits, vampires, werewolves, witches and otherworldly creatures of the night. Joining them are some of the most sinister characters and criminals of the 19th century including Lizzie Borden, Count Dracula, Sweeny Todd and others who roam the grounds or take up residence in the historic houses and businesses.
$15/person. Discounted tickets available online until October 20.

Crime in Chicago Seminar
Wednesday, November 2
7:00 p.m.

Leigh Bienen, Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at Northwestern University is the Director of the Chicago Historical Homicide Project. Working with her research team, Ms. Bienen examined primary source documents and police and court reports to create a compelling database of Chicago murders spanning the Chicago Fire through the first decade of the 20th century. The lecture will focus on the nature of Chicago murder, cases both famous and forgotten, and will juxtapose historic patterns of homicide with the modern day.
Cost: $10, $8 members