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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Wordless Wednesday: On the Front Steps of 1043 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, 1918 and 2017

I superimposed a photograph of my great-grandparents, John Pape (1851-1945) and Gertrude Kramer (or Cramer) Pape (1859-1919) standing in front of their home at 1043 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, onto a present-day photograph of that home, which John built in 1893:




And here is the "present-day" photo in full, from August 10, 2017, almost 99 years after the black-and-white photo was taken, probably in December 1918.




© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Monday, August 28, 2017

Mappy Monday: 1043 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, August 2017

Here are some photos of the house my great-grandfather John Pape (1851-1945) built in 1893 at 1043 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, as of August 10, 2017.

 Here is the front of the house as viewed from Sherman Avenue. To your left (while looking at the house) is the corner house, 1045 Sherman (more about it in a future post).



Below is the back north side of the house as viewed from Greenleaf Avenue.  Again, 1045 Sherman appears in the foreground - it is being renovated.  You can see in the photo below that later owners apparently added a back deck pergola. 



The view below is from the entrance to the alley behind the houses, off Greenleaf Avenue:




And this shot was taken from the alley, looking over the top of the backyard gate:




The garage originally built in 1920 has been rebuilt or remodeled a number of times over the years, including a conversion from frame to stucco at some point and then apparently back to frame (there were a number of building permits for the garage in the house file for 1043 Sherman at the Evanston History Center, I just did not have time to study or copy them all). Through at least 1975, the doors faced Sherman Avenue, but sometime after that the garage was reconfigured so that the doors faced the alley, as pictured below.  The garage was also expanded from one-car to two-car before 1975.




Here is a close-up of the second floor as viewed from the front of the house on Sherman Avenue:



You can see in the photo below the old driveway that once led to the garage when it opened towards Sherman.  I also thought the bay-like area on the south side of the house was an interesting feature:




And here are a couple views of the front of the house.  The stairway has been reconfigured to be parallel to the front porch, rather than perpendicular to it.




And here is a close-up of the front porch area.  These photos will show up again in future posts.




And here is a map locating 1043 Sherman (from the City of Evanston's Property Browser):





© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday to My Sweetie - tomorrow!


Mark Gresham, 1948, Corpus Christi, Texas


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Sentimental Sunday: 1893 Building Permit for 1043 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Illinois

Another day trip in our a week-long visit to Chicago was to another north-side suburb, Evanston.  My German immigrant great-grandfather, John Pape (1851-1945), was settled there by 1882.  His home according to the 1882-3 Evanston City Directory was on the "w[est] s[ides] Sherman av s[outh of] Greenleaf."

The 1883 directory, which includes separate listings for the village of South Evanston, says his home was at "Sherman ave se cor[ner] Greenleaf." By the 1889 & 1890 directories, it is "e[ast] s[ide] Sherman av 2d s Greenleaf."  The abbreviation "d" is not explained in the guide, but I think this must mean two doors south of Greenleaf.  That's where 1043 Sherman Avenue, the house my great-grandfather lived in from at least 1894 through at least 1925, was located.

I'd always wondered if my great-grandfather, who started out as a carpenter, built that house.  Now, thanks to the Research Room & Archives at the Evanston History Center, I know that he did (click on documents throughout this post to enlarge them):




I found these documents in the house file for 1043 Sherman, containing old city records (such as building permits and inspection reports) and real estate listings.  The "Application for Building Permit" above and the "Permit Granted" form below were the oldest in the file, dated April 7, 1893.  The two-story with basement house (apparently designed by John Pape, as well) would have nine rooms and be 28 feet wide, 35 or 35.5 feet deep, and 30 feet tall.  It would include a water closet with sink, bathtub, and toilet bowl, be heated by steam, and lighted by gas.   The total cost of building was estimated to be $800, and the mason was James Wigginton.  The legal description of the property at the time referred to the south quarter of Lot 2 of the J. M. Meyers Subdivision (lot 6 according to the tax accessor).  The building permit cost $2.




Apparently there was an additional fee to pay for water service, based on the amount of brick and plaster used in the house, according to a note on the back of the previous document:




The next form is a bit puzzling.  Although the date written on it is April 7, 1893, it is written on a form printed for the 1920s.  It doesn't tell us anything new, and some of the details (depth of house, and subdivision name) are slightly different - perhaps information copied incorrectly from the original permit:





The file also contained a building permit, below, dated November 8, 1920,  to add a frame garage, 12 feet wide, 18 feet deep, and 11 feet 6 inches high, to cost $80.  This structure had its owner, John Pape, as architect and carpenter.  Interestingly, though, this form and the next one are both signed "John Pape per L. J. Pape," L. J. being son Lee John Pape (1893-1979), also a carpenter.





The back of the previous form had a rough sketch showing the relationship of the garage (the small rectangle at the back of the lot) to the house (the large rectangle on Sherman Avenue):




The building permit was issued (below), the permit costing $1.08 (one dollar plus one-tenth of one percent of the cost of the building):




The other document I copied from the house file was a circa-1975 real estate listing.  By this point in time, the house had been divided into three 4-5 room apartment units, likely one on each floor, but each with a bathroom and a range.  The two-car garage was rented separately, and the total monthly income was $624.  Estimated expenses included taxes of $692.73, insurance of $192.60, and electricity, gas heat, and water bills likely passed on to the tenant.  The asking price was $49,500.



And here is a photograph of the house, circa 1975, from the other side of the real estate listing.  Note the garage to the right, near the back of the lot.




Finally, the Evanston History Center also had a large file cabinet with "house cards," "index cards with basic information noted by other researchers."  Here is the one for 1043 Sherman.  You'll note that according to the 1894 city directory, a molder, Carl Wegener, and his wife Elsie also lived in the house.  I'll be doing some more research on Carl to find the connection.  Around 1900, the Pape family was living in a house closer to the Senge & Pape Dry Goods store on Armitage in Chicago, and they rented out the house at 1043 Sherman.  John and Gertrude's children got separate listings in the city directories as they reached adulthood.




Someone had handwritten a note "nothing in CBR [city building records?] to indicate when built.  Here in 1893."  Apparently that notation was made before the 1893 permit was put in the file.  I'd like to know what, then, was used to determine that the house was "here in 1893."  Also, why does an arrow go from the handwritten "1889D" (D in this case meaning directory) to John's name?  The 1889 directory says only  "Pape John carpenter  r e[ast-]s[ide] Sherman av 2d s Greenleaf."  The house next door at the corner of Greenleaf, 1045 Sherman, is designated an Evanston historical landmark and was supposedly built by a Luxembourg immigrant in the 1880s.

Could it be the house was actually built before 1893, and the permit was issued retroactively?  Materials in the house files at the Evanston History Center only go back to 1893.  Maybe another trip to the Evanston History Center for more research is in my future!

ETA 29 March 2020:  See an update to this post here.


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Treasure Chest Thursday: Uncle Lee's Advertising Ballpoint Pen

As mentioned in my previous post, we recently returned from a week-long trip to Chicago.  Our first full day there, we went to Wilmette.  After a stop at Walker Bros for brunch, we visited the wonderful Wilmette Historical Museum.  I had corresponded with its curator, Patrick Leary, about Papes in Wilmette in the past, and had sent him a quick e-mail that morning letting him know we were coming.

Imagine my surprise - and delight! - to find upon our arrival that Patrick had pulled a number of items for us to view - including this mechanical pencil with my great uncle Lee J. Pape's name on it!




Here is a close-up view of the information on the pencil.  I will use it in this post to help date the pencil.





The Overhead Door Company began in Detroit in 1921, and its Miracle Wedge was invented in 1925.  The Overhead Door Company ribbon logo has been in use since the 1930s.

On the 1930 Census, Uncle Lee listed himself as a garage door manufacturer's agent, and simply as a manufacturer's agent in the 1933 Evanston-Wilmette directory.  The 1940 Census says he is proprietor of a building business, and he describes himself as self-employed on his 1942 World War II draft registration, but these are not inconsistent with being a distributor for this franchised company.

On the silver pocket clip of the pencil are the words, "Autopoint / Pat. Made in USA".  I wish I had gotten a photograph with a good image of the word "Autopoint," as the trademark in use at the time might have helped to date the pencil.  The pocket clip is not bolted on, and that change, according to an Autopoint identification guide, happened in 1940.

The phone number, Wilmette 3437, is another key.  That first appears as Lee Pape's number in the December 1926 Wilmette phone book.  His number is the same in the 1945 Wilmette telephone directory the last one I could find online.  A 1948 directory for nearby Evanston has numbers in the three letter - four digit format, which still could work for this pen (WIL-3437).  This would tie in with the introduction of the North American Numbering Plan in October 1947, which also introduced area codes - not necessary for a local call, though.

All-number calling (ANC - seven digits) was introduced about 1958.  According to the article "By the Numbers" in the May 11, 1962 issue of Time (pages 53-54), "11 million of the 76 million telephones in the U.S." were on ANC by that point, including many in the Chicago area (by April 1961).  I could not find detail on when ANC was implemented in Wilmette, but in September 1948 in nearby Winnetka (included in Evanston and Wilmette directories around that time), telephones were converted to the two-letter, five-digit format around the same time as in Evanston and Chicago.  I would think if that was the case in Wilmette, Uncle Lee would have changed his pens shortly afterward.

Therefore, I am guessing that this pen dates back to the 1940s.


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Mappy Monday: Chicago Nostalgia Trip

I just got back from a week-long visit to Chicago that included visits to all the sites in green (both pegs and diamonds) and orange.  Diamonds are museums or libraries; pegs are mostly houses, apartment buildings, or churches.  Green indicates an original building that I visited and/or photographed; orange means the original building is no longer there but I visited the site.  Blue indicates facilities I didn't get to visit this time that are still standing; red means I also didn't see it this visit but the original building is gone.  Purple pegs and yellow stars are other points of reference for this visit, not relevant to family history.

You can use the plus or minus in the lower left corner to enlarge or reduce the size of the map.  Click on a marker to read more about it - and maybe even see a photograph!  You can also click on the map and drag it around to better view different areas.

Markers are in Wilmette, Evanston, Rogers Park and West Ridge in far north Chicago, and Bridgeport and Marquette Park in the near south side of Chicago.  There are a number of other markers for places on the north side of Chicago that I was not able to visit on this trip; those will be for the future!

Watch this blog for future posts on these sites!



View Evanston and North Chicago, Illinois in a larger map


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Wedding Wednesday: Radauskas Mother and Daughter, 1983 and 1966

Continuing the story of Ona "Anna" Tamošiūnaite Radauskas (1907-1988):  After the death of her husband Leo Radauskas, my first cousin twice removed, in 1973, Ona remarried on July 2, 1983, to widower Michael William Marcinkus (1899-1987),  another Lithuanian immigrant.  Here is a photo from their wedding:




Another photo from the wedding, a section of which is below, is of Ona and her and Leo's daughter Bernice Ann Radauskas Dylo (1940-2004).  




Here is a photo of Bernice (Bronyte in Lithuanian) from 1955:




And this photo is from Bernice's June 1966 wedding to Donald J. Dylo (1941–1996) in Chicago.  That's her father Leo Radauskas in the white jacket behind her.




The first three photographs in this post came from the private album of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė, the daughter of Steponas Radauskas, a brother of Leo Radauskas.  The last photo came from my third cousin Mary Gina Hulshoff-Stitz, whose grandmother is Leo's younger sister Anastasia Radauskas Polianski (1892-1978), and who attended Bernice's wedding.  Thank you to Aldona, Mary Gina, and my third cousin Osvaldas Guokas, who sent me Aldona's photos.


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Sentimental Sunday: Trys Damos - Ona and Two Agotas, ABT 1937


From left: my second great aunt Agota Guokaitė Radauskienė (1861-1942), sister of my great-grandfather Charles Guokas (1863-1939); her daughter-in-law Ona (Anna) Tamošiūnaitė Radauskas (1907-1988), the wife of Agota's son Leonas (Leo) Radauskas (1889-1973); and Ona's mother Agota Kiškūnaitė Tamošiūnienė (born ABT 1875).

Ona visited her mother and mother-in-law in Lithuania, and brought them new (and nearly identical) dresses from the USA.  I'm thinking the visit might have been in September 1937, as I found Ona on a passenger list traveling from Gothenburg, Sweden, to New York City at that time (click on the image to enlarge it):




As you can see, Ona is on the passenger list as a U. S. citizen.  She became one on April 25, 1935.  Here is her petition, which provides lots of useful information on her date (June 17, 1907) and place (Smilgiai, Lithuania) of birth, the date (October 8, 1928) and place (Smilgiai) of her marriage to Leo; his date (June 22, 1895- the year is not right) and place (Kovno, Lithuania - more specifically, in Gikoniai) of his birth, and the dates of his U.S. entrance (June 28, 1909, in New York City) and naturalization (December 23, 1926 in Chicago).




And here is her oath of allegiance:




The photo in this post came from the private album of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė, the daughter of Steponas Radauskas, a brother of Leo Radauskas.   Thank you Aldona!  Thanks also to Osvaldas Guokas, who has been sharing all these photographs and information with me!


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday to My Brother Mark (tomorrow)!


Mark's 8th birthday, August 3, 1968.  Our maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997) is on the right.


© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.