The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
Local Architecture
July 31, 2022
The Ridge Historical Society is now open to the public, for free, on Sunday afternoons from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. RHS volunteers will be there to answer questions about the current exhibit, Hetherington Design Dynasty, which celebrates the Hetherington family of architects.
It’s summertime and people are enjoying outdoor activities at Chicago’s vast system of city parks. The Chicago Park District has over 8,000 acres of land and more than 600 parks. Devoting space to parks has been a priority in Chicago since the beginning – in fact, the motto of Chicago is “Urbs in Horto,” Latin for “City in a Garden.”
The Ridge community owes its wonderful Ridge Park at 96th Street and Longwood Drive to the Hetherington family.
The residents of Beverly wanted a park on Longwood Drive to go along with their fine homes. They asked John Todd Hetherington, an architect who lived in the community who was designing many of those fine homes, to design the park.
Hetherington designed the original park in 1913. In the late 1920s, Hetherington and his son Murray, now also an architect, designed the current field house.
Visit the RHS exhibit to learn all about the Hetherington family of architects and Ridge Park.
RHS is located in the historic Graver – Driscoll House, a Hetherington creation, at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue. The grounds are entered through the driveway on Seeley, where there is some parking right at the house. Parking is also available on Seeley Avenue. The Graver-House is not wheelchair accessible and is not air conditioned.
While you’re out and about for the BAPA Garden Walk this Sunday, July 10, please stop by the Ridge Historical Society, also.
RHS will now be open to the public on Sunday and Tuesday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome and admission is free. Visitors should enter at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue. There is limited parking right at RHS, and abundant street parking on Seeley.
The current exhibit at RHS is “Hetherington Design Dynasty” which explores the architecture careers of three generations of the Hetherington family.
John Todd and Jane Hetherington, their sons and daughter, and their grandchildren, lived in Beverly. It’s safe to say this community would not have become the architecture showplace it has been known as for decades without the contributions of the Hetherington family. They designed close to one hundred buildings in a variety of styles. Just three examples of their work which are publicly accessible are the Graver-Driscoll House (RHS headquarters) which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the Ridge Park field house at 96th and Longwood, and the Rainbow Cone building at 92nd and Western.
This Sunday, the three RHS representatives who developed the exhibit will be there in person to discuss their work. Meet Linda Lamberty, RHS Historian, the most knowledgeable person in the community about local history; Mati Maldre, the Chair of the RHS Historic Buildings Committee and the professional photographer whose images of Hetherington buildings grace an entire wall of the exhibit; and Tim Blackburn, owner of a local Hetherington-designed home, whose tireless research into all-things-Hetherington created the majority of this fascinating exhibit.
The Ridge Historical Society announces new OPEN HOURS for the public! Beginning this Sunday, July 10, 2022, RHS will be open on Sundays and Tuesdays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. All are welcome, no admission fee.
Enter the RHS grounds from the Seeley Avenue side – 10621 S. Seeley Avenue. There is limited parking by this entrance. Note that the Graver-Driscoll House is not air-conditioned or wheelchair accessible.
The current exhibit is on the Hetherington Family of Architects and their outstanding contributions to the community.
The exhibit celebrating the Hetherington family of architects drew visitors at the 50th anniversary party for the Ridge Historical Society. The Graver-Driscoll House, RHS's headquarters, designed by John Todd Hetherington, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Photos by D. Nemeth and C. Flynn.
Today's the day! The BAPA House Tour is finally here!! Starts at 12 noon at the Ridge Historical Society, 10621 S. Seeley Avenue. You can buy tickets at the door, and tour five residences designed by the famous Hetherington family of architects.
You have until 3 p.m. to purchase tickets and until 5 p.m. to tour the facilities. For information, visit the Beverly Area Planning Association Association website at: https://bapa.org/
You can also pick up an oak tree ready to be planted on your own property to help preserve the tree canopy in the Chicago area. Old growth oak trees are dying off on the Ridge and need to be replaced.
Tomorrow is the big day! The Beverly Area Planning Association Home Tour kicks off at the Ridge Historical Society (RHS) at 12 noon!
This is an annual event that has gone on for decades, showcasing the wonderful and unique architecture of the Beverly community. This year, because it is the 100th birthday of the Graver-Driscoll House, RHS’s headquarters, the houses on the tour are all “Hetheringtons,” that is, designed by the architecture family dynasty started by John Todd Hetherington, who designed the Graver-Driscoll House. Beverly residents John Todd, and his son and grandson designed upwards of one hundred buildings in the community. In addition to the Graver-Driscoll House, five more buildings will be on the tour.
RHS will premier a new exhibit on Sunday on the Hetherington family and their contributions to the community, and on the Graver-Driscoll House. Here are just a few photos of the exhibit being set up – photographs by Mati Maldre and displays by Tim Blackburn, Carol Flynn and Linda Lamberty. And this was just the beginning – there is a wealth of NEW information that will be shared!
Also at RHS, we will be giving away oak tree saplings. The community is losing its old growth oak trees to old age. Much of the historic tree canopy for which Beverly/Morgan Park is famous will be gone in the next 30 to 50 years. It’s not too late to start reversing this decline by planting trees NOW.
Tickets are still available online or in person tomorrow. All the details can be found at https://bapa.org/home-tour/?
Chicago Landmarks
Everyone will have their favorite landmarks in Chicago to go on a list like this one. And while I agree these are all interesting sites, not all of them would be in my top five.
These would be my choices:
Pullman Historic area – included in the list, definitely one of the most historically fascinating and important areas in the city.
The Chicago Water Tower at 806 North Michigan Avenue.
The Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue.
The Givins Beverly Castle at 103rd and Longwood Drive. This is the ONLY castle in the city!
The final one is up for grabs – there are so many interesting places to choose from. Cemeteries like Graceland or Oak Woods. Sculptures like Lorado Taft’s Fountain of Time. Lincoln Park or Grant Park or Jackson Park. The Cultural Center, the Tribune Tower, Sears (Willis) Tower. The old Stockyards Gate. The Haymarket monument. Buckingham Fountain. On and on.
The original list includes a building in Garfield Park. A number of parks have very important old buildings. Sherman Park’s field house was designed by the famous Daniel Burnham. The park is named for Burnham’s father-in-law, John B. Sherman, the founder of the Chicago Union Stockyards. The landscaping was done by Frederick Law Olmsted. In addition, the Sherman Park field house also has priceless murals completed during the 1930s through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). (Sherman also owned much of the land that is now Dan Ryan Woods and used the land for an experimental stock farm. After his death, the land was eventually sold to Cook County for the forest preserves.)
I am not up on industrial design like the bridge they mention in this article, but there are numerous bridges and industrial design elements for people to choose from – I will let others comment on that.
https://kevsbest.com/landmarks-in-chicago/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2pDDA57BWfo9jsJ7QGZRZe1RODUcWADU3mynJNSi8pIcse-sMgKeEPRtU
Do we have anyone out there who is into coats of arms and other heraldic crests? Homeowners on the Ridge have asked for some help in identifying this crest which is on their newly-purchased home. From the little bit of research RHS has done on the house, it appears to have been built in 1939 and the first owner was named Underhill, of Canadian-English Protestant descent, and he was a foreman at the steel mills. Any ideas? Family crest? Related to the steel industry? Some other organization? Later owners included King, McCarthy and McElroy, all Catholic.
We had a nice visit today to a historic home we are helping to research. I will write more about this at a later date. But these are two pictures I took that I like – they capture some of the best historic features plus they are rather dramatic. But the house is not at all dark and ominous – in fact these are more of an aberration than the norm for this house.
Time for another real picture postcard (RPPC) scene, then and now. This is standing about two houses in on 100th Street and Longwood Drive, east side of street, looking north. Looks like most of these houses are still there – the post card is probably ca. 1910. But there are so many trees (good!!) you can't really see the houses. We'll have to do this again in the fall/winter.