Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
While on my first reconnoiterer of my new neighborhood on a Halloween night in 1952, I happened to walked past a two-story frame house on the northeast corner of Harlem Avenue and 55th Street. I stopped and lingered awhile to look at this strange and startling large house; every room of which had its lights on, but the house appeared to be unoccupied. I was puzzled then by this house that seemed out of place and time, and unaware then that it was once the farmhouse of John Wentworth.
Many years later, I learned this about Wentworth:
1815 -- Born in New Hampshire
1836 -- Arrived in Chicago and becomes editor of the first Chicago newspaper, the Democrat.
1843 -- Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and served six terms until 1855.
1857 and 1860 -- Mayor of Chicago.
1868 -- The year that the farmhouse was built, but Wentworth chose to live at the Sherman House Hotel.
Photographs and drawings of the farmhouse --- click on "next--->"
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=john%20wentworth%20farmhouse&sg=true
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/il0496.photos.061789p/resource/
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2013 05:29PM by nordsider.