Leading off from the post on Gertrude Blackwelder.
This is the Ingersoll-Blackwelder-Simmerling House as it looks today. And I really mean TODAY – March 7, 2019. I took this picture this morning. While the landscape looks barren, it's good to get these pictures before all the new plant growth comes in in the Spring and blocks the view of the house.
Houses are named for the person for whom the house was originally built. Then you can add additional hyphenated names if famous people lived there. The house was built in 1874 for grain broker John Ingersoll. The Blackwelders added the Queen Anne front in 1877.
There were other owners, but the house was allowed to fall into real disrepair. Then along came artist Jack Simmerling. Jack was a wonderful man, very concerned about preservation of Chicago's historic homes. He bought the dilapidated house and lovingly restored it, and his family lived there for many years. He told the story that at the time of purchase, the roof had caved in, and the main internal staircase was so covered with ice and snow you could literally sled down the stairs from the second floor bedrooms. When Jack died in 2013, the family sold the house.
Jack owned the Heritage Gallery on 103rd St., which is now run by his daughter Vicki. He was a founder of the Ridge Historical Society. This picture of Jack is from the Glessner House Museum website, which now houses his collection of artifacts from many of the Prairie Avenue mansions, demolished long ago.
– Carol Flynn, Ridge Historical Society Communications @ridgehistoricalsociety