Year of award:
2011
Award category:
Preservation - Founders Award
Original architect:
unknown
Year built:
Mid-1890s
Restoration architect:
Frost and Granger
Moved and remodelled in the mid-1890s for the Aldrich Family
This house may originally have been a farmhouse built circa 1874 for the Whitney family. According to a realtor’s brochure, the house was moved to Deerpath in the mid-1890s by Gertrude andFredrick C. Aldrich (born about 1863). Aldrich was a grain trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. The Aldriches had two daughters:
Helen, who married A.B. Dick, Jr., and Anita (1893-1959), who married Lawrence Dunlap Smith.
The local architectural firm of (Charles) Frost and (Alfred) Granger was hired to enlarge and enhance the then small farmhouse. It is now considered a “restrained Queen Anne” with extensive interior and exterior carved wood. There is a decorated pediment situateon the roof above the front porch entry and a matching pediment is
repeated and tucked into the roof gable.
A wide porch wraps itself around the front and western side of the house. The home is entered through a wide Dutch door; the floors in the foyer are original quarter-sawn oak. Intricate spindles adorn the staircase. The ceilings throughout the first floor are 10’ tall.
In 1996, the detached garage (originally a two-story barn) was moved and connected to the house to accommodate a new kitchen and back bedroom. Historic preservation guidelines were carefully followed in making this change.
