The Ridge Historical Society
The History of the Graver-Driscoll House – Part 4: Design of the Graver-Driscoll House
By Carol Flynn, research contributors Linda Lamberty, RHS Historian, and Tim Blackburn
Herbert and Anna Spencer bought the property at 10616 S. Longwood Drive on the Blue Island Ridge on February 14, 1921. They engaged architect John Todd Hetherington to design a house for their growing family. Their only child, Herbert Spencer Graver, Jr., was born on April 26, 1921.
Hetherington designed the Graver-Driscoll House as a Tudor Revival-style manor house. Built of brick and stone with a slate roof, the house has four levels including a full basement and attic, and an attached two-car garage. The walk-out terraces on the Longwood Drive side, nestled into the Ridge, blend the house into the natural terrain.
The building permit for the house was dated October 6, 1921, so actual construction began around then. The contractor was D. A. Van Etten. The final inspection report was dated June 7, 1922, where the final cost of the house was given as $30,000.
Originally, the only entrance to the property was up the steep driveway from Longwood Drive, around the south side of the house, to the entrance door and garage on the west side of the house. The driveway on the Seeley Avenue, or west, side of the house, with the address 10621 S. Seeley Avenue, was added in the 1940s by the second owner of the house, the Fenn Family.
The Fenn family shared with RHS the brochure on the house that was produced when the Graver family put the house on the market in 1940. It is not known if the Gravers altered the house from the original design during their years living there.
The contents of the 1940 brochure are shared here.
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