Chicago Lithuanian Catholic Churches

This is the second  in a series of three posts about researching Lithuanians in the Chicago area, where many of them settled after immigrating to the United States. (Here is the first post, and here is the third post.)

I created a mapping tool to help people with Lithuanian ancestors who settled in Chicago before 1915-1925 to find Catholic Church records (baptisms, marriages, and deaths) in that area.  The tool uses Google's My Maps feature, and can help you find the nearest Catholic Church (serving predominantly Lithuanians) to a given address.  Here's a link to it:  https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ptiPg9tl9szvKo-q7MItfQGRahkkMzd6&usp=sharing

For this example, I'm looking for the church where two of my relatives married - Juozapas (Joseph) Guokas (my second cousin thrice removed) and Petronėlė Šukytė (Petronella Sukys).   I had an address for Joseph from his 1904 naturalization index card, so I started by entering that address.*  When you start to type it in, Google will make suggestions, and in this case the first one was correct.

Once you hit enter, a pin will be dropped at the address location.  Then, you can zoom outward on the map to find the nearest church icon - in this case, it was really close (see the red arrow).

Click on the church icon, and it will bring up some information about the church - its address, current use (some are no longer Catholic churches; some have been demolished), and links to a 1920 book that often has pictures and history of the church.  There's more information too - we'll get to that in a bit.

Immigrants often moved around a lot, especially in their early years in the United States, and I had another address for Joseph, this one from a 1911 directory.  (I've been unable to find him on the 1910 Census).  When I entered this one, I could see right away that the closest church was the same - All Saints on S. State Street.

Clicking on the church icon again, and this time scrolling down a bit, you'll see that I have also included a link to the church records available (free) on FamilySearch.  

Clicking on the link for All Saints brings you to the page pictured below.  Some -not all - of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Church records are indexed (searchable) there, and some (not all) are indexed and available at FindMyPast.  All Saints' records are not indexed (yet) in either place.  However, often there is an internal index available.  That's the case here, so I clicked on the link for "Marriages, 1906-1925 with index."

This brings up the first image in the record set.  Since I want to jump around a little bit, rather than scroll through page by page, I click on the View Grid icon.

This brings up small images of each page in the record set.  If you click on the image below to view it larger, you can tell that the first 3+ rows have the index pages in them.  I'll make an educated guess as to which one has the surnames beginning with G (the groom's name is almost always the only one indexed), and then scroll backwards or forwards as needed to get to it.

So here is the top half of the page with surnames beginning with G.  While none of the names are exactly what I'm looking for, the third one on the left, Juozas Goks, looks closest to Guokas.  (The other name I marked, Stanislaus Gokas, turned out to be Joseph's brother).  Keep in mind that surnames will often be misspelled, and that first names are often in Latin form (although in this case, it's Lithuanian).

Although the "Pagina" (Latin for page) would seem to indicate that Joseph's record is on page 28, in this case, 28 is a record number.  And here is the marriage record for Joseph and Petronella - below, I have combined an image of the top of the page with their record, which actually appears at the bottom of the page.  (Click on the image to view it larger.)

These Catholic Church marriage records will always have, at a minimum, the names of the bride and groom (including the bride's maiden name), the date of the marriage, and the officiant.  Sometimes there is other useful information.  In this case, we have the bride's and groom's ages (which can help you narrow down the year of birth), the names of both of their parents (including their mothers' maiden names), and the names of the witnesses, who are often relatives.  As mentioned earlier, Stanislaus Goks (Stanislovas Guokas) is Joseph's brother.  Petronella's grandmother was a Banaitis, so witness Justinus Banaitis is probably related to her.  Sometimes you are lucky and even get the name of the places where the bride and groom were baptized.

If you don't find the people you're looking for at the nearest Lithuanian Catholic Church, try zooming out more on the map to find the next closest one.  Pay attention to the year the church opened - the event you're looking for may have happened at an older Lithuanian church nearby.  It's also possible the event occurred at a parish that was not primarily Lithuanian.  You might try Chicago Ancestors, a good mapping tool from the Newberry Library to find churches and other points of interest near a particular address.

Also, keep in mind that the Chicago Archdiocese has only made records available through 1925 - and, in cases of churches that were still open when these records were originally microfilmed, only through 1915.  

* Check the "Location Links" tab here on my blog for other useful Chicago and Lithuanian research links.  I used the "Street name changes" link in the "Chicago - Maps, Streets, & Property" section there to find the current street name for Joseph's 1904 address - it had changed from Curtis in 1904 to Edbrooke today.

I hope you find this map helpful.  Please send me an e-mail (use the link at the end of this post) or comment if you find any broken links in the map.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Mapping the Steeds

This post is a continuation of the work I've been doing with my stepson's mother-in-law, Emily, with her family tree.  Emily was curious about where her Steed family had lived in Chicago, so I decided to map them out - ideally with fire insurance maps, so one could get a sense of what the homes might have been like at the time the family lived in them.  All the homes were in the Canaryville area, west of the Union Stockyards. and they're all gone today. 

Emily's grandmother, Della, was born in Ohio on 23 December 1889 and baptized there on 29 December 1889.  The next child was born in Chicago on 31 May 1891, so the family must have moved there in 1890 or early 1891.  I compiled a list of addresses and dates, some from church records, some from civil records (particularly deaths), and some from directories available online in FamilySearch.  Here are the addresses I found:

4077 Seneschalle (also spelled Seneshall and Seneshalle) - 1891 city directory, and church records from 11 December 1892 through 16 July 1893.  This street no longer exists.  

534 Root - 1895 city directory.  This address was renumbered to 432 in 1909.

518 [W.] 42nd St. - church record from 17 May 1896.  This address was gone by 1909, and the lot was vacant on the 1925 and 1950 Sanborn maps, but it would have been renumbered to 418, and a brick home was built at that address sometime after September 1950.  

4141 Butler (aka 4141 Wright) - church records starting with 25 December 1898, civil death records in 1900, and city directories for 1898, 1899, and 1900.  This address is gone and the street has been renamed S. Normal Avenue.

524 Root - widow Margaret in the 1901 city directory.  This address was gone by 1909.  It is vacant on the 1925 Sanborn map and has the Bunge Brothers Coal Company coal yard on it on the 1950 Sanborn map.

456 W. 42nd St. - Margaret's 18 July 1909 death record, Della and her younger sisters on the 1910 Census, and church marriage records for two of Della's siblings on 10 January 1910 and 12 November 1913.  This is the post-renumbering address - before 1909, it was 556 W. 42nd St.  The original house was still there on the 1925 Sanborn map, but gone by the September 1950 map, so the brick house at the address today was constructed sometime after September 1950.

Below are two fire insurance maps that show the location of the long-gone 4077 Seneshall.  The first is from Rascher's Atlas of Chicago, Volume 11, July 1885; Revised to September 1891.  That's why you see so many things pasted in - additions and corrections were made to the original July 1885 map simply by pasting over it.  This shows how the neighborhood looked about the time the family moved into it.  It should be noted that on this map, north points to the left.

Above:  annotated section of Rascher's Atlas of Chicago, Volume 11, July 1885; Revised to September 1891, sheet 86 (Source: Library of Congress).

Below:  annotated section of Sanborn Insurance Maps of Chicago, Illinois, Volume Thirteen, 1895, sheet 10 (Source: Library of Congress).

As you can see from the map above, the area was quite industrial, with the Chicago Forge and Bolt Company right behind the Steed family home.  During the time the Steed family lived at this address, they attended St. Cecelia Roman Catholic Church (now gone), an Irish parish that was at S. Wells Avenue and W. 45th Place.  Three children were baptized here (and two died) between 7 June 1891 and 31 December 1893.

Sometime in 1894 or 1895, the family moved a bit south and west, to the other side of the railroad tracks.  The other five addresses (1895-1901 and 1909-1913) are shown on the map below (click on the image to enlarge it), all within a block and a half.  Note that on the 1895 map below, the address from 1909-1913 (456 W. 42nd St.) has been located using its pre-renumbering address of 556 W. 42nd St.  The homes were all wood frame and were eventually torn down.

When the Steed family lived in this neighborhood, they attended St. Gabriel Roman Catholic Church at 600 W. 45th, which still exists today, although the interior has been renovated.

Above:  annotated section of Sanborn Insurance Maps of Chicago, Illinois Volume Thirteen, 1895, sheet 8  (Source: Library of Congress).

Below:  part of a Google My Map I created showing the locations of the Steed family homes in the Canaryville neighborhood of Chicago, with a current base map.

Finally, in the map above, I used Google My Maps to place these homes on a current base map - since none of them exist any more.

Last, I'm including images from the pages of the Chicago city directories where I found Michael or Margaret Steed listed.  There are directories available in FamilySearch for the 1884 to 1901 period that they were in this area, and I checked every one of them, but only found them in six directories.  This is not that unusual.

Above:  Michael Steed on page 2177 in the 1891 "Lakeside Directory" published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DX-8NLC?cat=308691&i=1111 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1891 > image 1112 of 1582; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Michael Steed on page 1653 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1895," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89DX-DWWZ?cat=308691&i=2049 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1894-1895 > image 2050 of 2411; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.
.

Above:  Michael Steed on page 1707 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1898," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DX-8N2G?cat=308691&i=961 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1898-1899 > image 962 of 2595; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Michael Steed on page 1742 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DX-881B?cat=308691&i=2223 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1898-1899 > image 2224 of 2595; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Above:  Michael Steed on page 1802 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1900," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DX-82JR?cat=308691&i=923 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1900-1901 > image 924 of 2602; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

Below:  Margaret Steed on page 1872 in "The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1901," compiled by Rueben H. Donnelley and published by The Chicago Directory Company, Chicago. "Chicago city directories," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89DX-8FLH?cat=308691&i=2210 : 30 December 2024), Chicago directories 1900-1901 > image 2211 of 2602; from W.C. Cox & Co. (1974: Tucson, Arizona) microreproduction of original directories published by various publishers.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

Gikoniai, Pakruojo district municipality, Šiauliai county, Lithuania - Maps for 1924 and 1940

Some years ago, my third cousin Osvaldas Guokas sent me some maps of the Lithuanian villages where our ancestors and kinfolk were from.  One of those was Gikoniai, a village on the east bank of the Daugyvenė river, seven kilometers south of the town of Rozalimas.  Just east of Gikoniai is Čelkiai village, the birthplace of my great-grandfather Charles (Kazimieras) Guokas, 1863-1939, and many of my Guokas relatives

The 1923 census recorded 30 homes in the area with a population of 148.  Below is a 1924 map of the area (click on the image to view a larger version), showing landowners (surname first) and the amount of land they owned (in hectares, abbreviated ha.).  I am related (albeit distantly, and usually not by blood) to almost everyone on this map.

The map below (click on the image to make it larger) was drawn in 1995, of Gikoniai in 1940, based on the memories of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė (1934-2018), who is my second cousin once removed.  Aldona shared many photographs and other information with Osvaldas and me before her death in April 2018.

Aldona was the daughter of Steponas Radauskas (1899-1944), whose land was in the upper left hand corner of the maps (shown as Radausko Stepano in 1924 and Stepano Radausko in 1940).  He was the son of my great-grandfather's sister,  Agota Guokaitė Radauskienė (1861-1942), and inherited the property from his mother after her death.  Aldona lived on this property for some time during her childhood.  It is near the Daugyvenė river and a forest with, according to Osvaldas, "the wonderful name Mėlynbalos miškas - Blue swamp forest."

The map has a legend (sutartiniai ženklai) in the lower right corner.  It shows surviving homesteads (išlikusios sodybos), homesteads destroyed by the Soviets (panoikintos sodybos), and new homesteads (naujos sodybos), such as the one with the note "perkettos ir perstatytas Bernardo Radausko nemas," which indicates Bernardas Radauskas' house was moved and rebuilt there.  Bernardas Radauskas (born 1861 in Gikoniai), is the father of the famous Lithuanian poet Henrikas Radauskas (1910-1970).  That fact is noted on the 1940 map on Bernardas' original property ("Bernardo Radausko poeto Henriko Radausko tevo").  The house on the original property was not completely destroyed; it was in good enough condition to be moved and rebuilt.

Osvaldas also tells me that, because there were so many people with the same surnames (and sometimes the same given names), the villagers used nicknames for daily communications.  A couple examples are on the 1940 map.  Justinas Radauskas (1896-1977, Justo Radausko on the map), the father of sculptor Elvyra Radauskaitė (more on her in a future post), was called "Martyniuko" or "Martyniukas" (his father's name was Martynas).  Another Justinas Radauskas (Justino Radausko on the map, perhaps the son of Agota and Steponas' brother) was called "Bauko" or "Baukas."

There are a number of crosses indicated on the 1940 map.  Many are gone now, but one that has been added since can be seen in Google Maps Street View on Radauskas property near the intersection with the road that crosses the river and goes into the village of Plaučiškiai.  There will be more about crosses and bridges in future posts.

Other places identified in the legend are roads (keliai, keleliai), chapels (kapeliai), a milk skimming [or collection] point (pieno nugriebmo puntkas), and a [wind]mill (malūnas).  The latter two will be the subjects of future posts.

It is amazing how the Soviet regime changed the village. Today there are only a few houses in Gikoniai.

© Amanda Pape - 2024 - e-mail me!

What I've Been Doing in 2023

Those of you who follow my blog may have noticed I haven't been posting very much.  My spouse fell and fractured the top of his left femur at the end of 2022, and underwent a partial hip replacement.  That was followed by a number of complications - three dislocations in the first seven weeks, revision surgery, and ten weeks after that in a brace, then lots of physical therapy - interspersed with flare-ups of a couple other health issues.  There were eight emergency room visits and five hospitalizations totalling fifteen days, from the end of December through the end of March.

Therefore, the first four months of the year, we were pretty much stuck at home, followed by a few more months where numerous appointments made it hard to go anywhere else.  Now we're in the brutal heat of a record summer, and I don't *want* to go anywhere else - just stay inside my nice cool house.

So what have I been doing to keep busy?

When my parents passed away in 2017, I wound up with all the photos they still had - old family pictures and travel snapshots.  My 93-year-old aunt recently passed all her photos on to me as well.  I had a box full of snapshots of my husband - an oldest child whose father had easy access to film processing, so there were LOTS of them.  And I had my own personal photo albums.

I worked on the snapshots of my husband first, and then halfway through April, started on a set of my photo albums, which cover mid-1986 (I'd already organized photos prior to that time) through 2005 (when I moved from Washington state back to Texas, and got my first digital camera).

I decided to go through all the pictures, get rid of ones that were out of focus, or were places or landscapes (or people) I couldn't identify, and then give most of the remaining "good" photos to the offspring (especially photos *of* the offspring).  Most importantly, I wanted to label the back of every single photo.

I used Stabilo aquarellable pencils to write on the backs of the photos.  I wrote who was in the photo (full names including maiden names), and when and where it was taken.  I also made a note, if there was more than one copy of an image, who had other copies.  This will help the offspring later on when disassembling my albums, to know who already has the images.

I've also done some other interesting things in this project.  I've used my Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner to scan color negatives, so I can blow them up to make out details not visible on the prints.  That's actually not the case for the photo below - it just happened to be on a strip with another negative I needed to enlarge, and it's a picture of me having fun that I really like.

Above:  Amanda Pape on a hike with the offspring on the Rainier View Trail #1155, off the Corral Pass trailhead, partly in the Norse Peak Wilderness in the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, September 11 or 12, 1999.  [This is what I wrote on the back of the photograph with a Stabilo aquarellable pencil.]  Photo by the offspring.

Below:  Red, black, and navy blue Stabilo aquarellable pencils sitting on top of a page in a Pioneer X-Pando post style, patented bi-directional slip-in pocket memo photo album (Style No. BP-200) I bought years ago.  The photo at the bottom is of my son's sixth grade class in June 1998.  Photo by Cathy Wilterding.

Believe it or not, I saved a bunch of calendars (mostly pocket, but one wall) from 1991 through 2000 that have helped me put exact dates on many photos.  I also found old Christmas newsletters and copies of a few other e-mails I'd sent to be helpful on determining times and places.  And interestingly enough, envelopes holding the negatives often have notes on when and where photos were taken - that's what helped me figure out the photo at the beginning of this post was from the Rainier View Trail #1155.

After I took the photos and had the film processed, I had slipped the photos into the albums in (more-or-less) chronological order, but in most cases I had not written down any details on the photos, either on the backs, on a sticky note, or in the memo field of the album.  Just as well on the latter, since I'm getting rid of so many photos (either by tossing them or by passing them on to the offspring).  All photos will have information safely written on the backs.

I've also scanned some photos in order to upload them to Google Images for a search.  For example, I did these two photos - which actually aren't from my albums, but rather from my parents' travels.  All they said on the back was "Albuquerque."  Read the captions to find out what they actually are, thanks to Google Images.  This didn't work for every image I wanted to identify, but it worked for many.  I may hang on to some photos I really want to identify for a bit longer, and try running them through Google Images again in the future.

Above:  San Agustin De Isleta church at the Isleta Pueblo, 15 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Photo taken by one of my parents.

Below:  Rectory garden at San Felipe De Neri Catholic Church in Old Town, 
Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Photo taken by one of my parents.

The photo below was one from my albums, from the summer of 1998.  I knew it was from a park somewhere in the Seattle, Washington, metropolitan area, but I couldn't remember which one.  Even though this structure was torn down in 2015, Google Images found a match when I uploaded it (see the caption).

Above:  The offspring in the upper play area of the silo restroom building at Farrel-McWhirter Park in Redmond, Washington, summer 1998.

Below:  Texas state highway maps with the routes of vacations in March 1995 (top) and summer 1997 (bottom) highlighted.

Finally, my albums include a lot of ephemera, such as postcards, brochures, and in some cases, maps.  I had used big folding paper Texas state highway maps on many trips (long before GPS systems were available), and plotted our routes when we got home.  I scanned a few of those (above) to have copies for the offspring. 

As I write this, I am finishing up with 1999 - just six more years (2000 through 2005) to go.   Good thing, as I want to deliver the offspring's photos this autumn.  I got 14 years worth of albums sorted in about three months, so I figure I can do six years in the remainder of this hot summer. 

© Amanda Pape - 2023 - e-mail me!

Corpus Christi - North Beach Tourist Camp - Christi Court

Two weeks ago, someone posted this picture in a Corpus Christi (Texas) Facebook group:

Lee, Russell, photographer. Insignia of nationally affiliated tourist courts. Corpus Christi, Texas. Oct. 1939. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017784576/.  Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-034513-D.

The photo - and all the other black-and-white photos from October 1939 and December 1940 that you'll see in this and future posts about North Beach in that era - were taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information.  They are in the public domain and are available at the Library of Congress.  

Someone in the group asked where this Christi Court was.  As my in-laws were living in Corpus Christi in 1939 and 1940, I knew there were some city directories available at Ancestry.com.  Sure enough, on page 100 of the 1940 city directory for Corpus Christi, I found Christi Courts at 3207 C Avenue.

But where exactly was C Avenue?  The street guide in the 1940 city directory said (page 641) said that it was on North Beach, "2nd w[est] of Av A."  Well, where was Avenue A?

The street names on North Beach have changed a number of times over the years.  I'd figured out some of these before, but here is the process I used this time to figure out just where Christi Courts were.

The Sanborn maps aren't especially helpful for this situation.  The last one that is freely available online, from January 1927, only has details for the parts of the peninsula that were developed at that time.  Later updates, in 1931 and in May 1950 (which I cannot display here as they are still under copyright), did not expand the covered area, despite great development in this area in the 1940s in particular.  Avenue C does not show up on any of these maps.

However, one can make some assumptions from the 1927 map.  Here's a cropped, edited portion of Sheet 1, the key map for that year:

Cropped and edited from Sanborn Map Company. Corpus Christi 1927 Sheet 1, map, 1927; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth553065/: accessed March 19, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

Some of the streets that run southwest to northeast are marked "F", "G", etc.  From that it's pretty easy to figure out where Avenues A through E lie.  In addition, in the top right corner of the map (click on the image to see a larger version), one can see a street marked Ave. "C", that is also Timon and Chaparral further southwest.

In addition, the May 1950 update does show both old and (then)-new names for these southwest-to-northeast streets.  For example, Avenue A, which is Rincon on the 1927 map, is labeled both Avenue A and N. Shoreline in May 1950.  

It's also important to note that the construction of the Harbor Bridge in the 1950s altered North Beach - particularly these avenues - significantly.  Parts of them were completely obliterated.

Here's what I figured out for Avenues A through E:

- A became Rincon and later N. Shoreline (and further north, disappeared entirely).

- B became N. Water AND Hamilton (due to the orientation of the Southern Pacific Railroad line, visible on the 1927 map), and is Surfside (on the southern end) and Gulfbreeze (on the northern end) today.

- C was Chaparral on the 1927 map, and later became Timon and Surfside, or W. Surfside (yes, confusing), which it mostly is today.

- D was Bluntzer on the 1927 map, and later became Seagull (what it is today).

- E was Mesquite on the 1927 map, and later became E. Causeway (what it is today).

The streets that crossed these Avenues - the ones that run northwest to southeast on the map - also changed names - or disappeared - over the years.  One thing that did not change was block numbering.  That helps with matching up streets - and addresses - from the past.

Starting at the south end of North Beach:

2600 block - from Bessie (gone today) to Bennett (also gone today).

2700 block - from Bennett to Pearl.

2800 block - from Pearl to Market (now Breakwater).

2900 block - from Market (Breakwater) to Garner (now Bridgeport).

3000 block - from Garner (Bridgeport) to Vine (now Coastal).

3100 block - from Vine (Coastal) to Elm.

3200 block - from Elm to Plum (which is Golf today east of Timon/Surfside and the Harbor Bridge).

3300 block - from Plum (also Golf) to Walnut (which is Paul today east of Timon/Surfside and the Harbor Bridge).

3400 block - from Walnut (also Paul) to Siegler (only a small piece of this remains, thanks to the Harbor Bridge and North Beach ramps on and off it).

3500 block - from Siegler to Burleson (which is Breaker east of Timon/Surfside).

3600 block - from Burleson (also Breaker) to Custom (now Churchdale).  This street roughly lines up with Bushick east of Timon/Surfside.

3700 block - from Custom (Churchdale) to St. Charles.

3800 block - from St. Charles to St. Nichols (now Tourist).

3900 block - from St. Nichols (Tourist) to Oxford (now Treasure).

4000 block - from Oxford (Treasure) to Perry (now Surfboard).

4100 block - from Perry (Surfboard) to Davis (now Gulfspray).

4200 block - from Davis (Gulfspray) to Neal.

4300 block - from Neal to Ohio (now Hayes).

4400 block - from Ohio (Hayes) to Walldue (now Beach).

4500 block - from Walldue (Beach) to Annie (now Reef).

North of this point, Foggs became Sandbar, and Woodrow and Hull streets disappeared.

So 3207 C Avenue would be 3207 Timon/Surfside - or W. Surfside - today, between Elm and Plum streets.  But which is it?  Timon, Surfside, or W. Surfside?  The routing of the Harbor Bridge really affected this area.  The image below is from a topographic map from 1971.  The area outlined by the yellow square is the area in which the Christi Courts would have been.

Cropped and edited from Geological Survey (U.S.). Corpus Christi Quadrangle, map, 1971; Reston, Virginia. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth457559/: accessed March 19, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

My next strategy was to search the deed records for Nueces County, to see if I could find a legal description for the Christi Courts property that would line up with Nueces County Accessor District data for today.  I was lucky that an advanced search in the field "Document Image" for "christi courts" brought up this backfile deed record from 1949, volume 734, page 408:

So according to this, Christi Courts was located on "...All of Lots Three (3), Five (5), and (7) in Block Fifty Six (56) Brooklyn Addition of the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, as shown by the map or plat thereof recorded in Volume "A", page 32 of the Map Records of Nueces County, Texas..."

I was able to pull up that November 6, 1909, plat as well, with the volume and page number:

Here's a closeup of the relevant section of the map:

On this, you can just make out the Avenue A and Avenue C labels, to the right.  The title box for the map provides a little more information:

Note that Avenues A, C, and E are 100 feet wide - other streets are 60 feet wide.

So knowing that Christi Courts was in Block 56, we can find that on the present-day Nueces County Appraisal District map:

This proves that Christi Courts was at the present-day address of 3207 W. Surfside Blvd. in Corpus Christi.  The southeast edge of the property was likely taken in the construction of the Harbor Bridge in the 195os, hence the legal description for the property is BROOKLYN NW POR[TION] OF LTS 3, 5 & 7 BK 56.

Stay tuned for future posts on North Beach establishments from the 1940s.

© Amanda Pape - 2023 - e-mail me!

Dad Diving at "Norshore C.C." - 1940

I was looking for a picture of my dad, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017) to post on his upcoming birthday.  You really can't see him (on top of the diving board) in this 1940 photo very well,  but the image spurred me to do a little more research on "Norshore C. C."

I think Dad was referring to the North Shore Country Club (or North Shore Golf Club), which was originally located on Sheridan Road in Kenilworth, Illinois, around 1900.  Sheridan Road borders Lake Michigan in Kenilworth, hence the name North Shore.

By 1922, the club had moved to a 170 acre site west and inland near the suburb of Glenview.  The clubhouse (pictured below) was designed by architect Arthur G. Brown.

Above:  captioned "North Shore Golf Club, Glenview, Illinois; Arthur G. Brown, Architect; Federal Engineering Company, Plumbing and Heating Contractors."  From The American Architect. United States: Architectural and Building Press, 1925.  Volume 127, Number 2468, March 25, 1925, page 61.

  https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Architect/vxTMIP6RsZQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22north%20shore%20golf%20club%22%20illinois

Below:  North Shore Golf Club Clubhouse, 1924.  Clip from https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g017901924A/?sp=77&st=image&clip=2718,621,2744,1778&ciw=1170&rot=0.  
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, Vol. A, 1924. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01790_068/.  Page 90, Image 77, upper right quadrant.

Below is a July 1950 Sanborn map of the property.  Although the pool is not marked, I believe it was located between the two dressing room buildings in the upper right corner of the image.  That aligns with an aerial view of the property today.

Above:  North Shore Golf Club Clubhouse, July 1950.  Clip from https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g017901950A/?sp=81&st=image&clip=2812,546,2806,1804&ciw=1154&rot=0.  Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, Vol. A, - July 1950, 1924. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn01790_133/.  Page 90, Image 81, upper right eighth.

Below:  Enlargement from the above map showing the location of the two dressing room buildings.  The pool was likely between them.

I'm not sure if my dad's family were members of this country club, or visiting with friends who were.  My grandfather Paul Pape was a member of the Dairymen's Country Club in Wisconsin, so it is certainly possible he was a member here.

© Amanda Pape - 2023 - e-mail me!

Alonzo Peyton Gordon House in Granbury

This past Saturday, I went to a presentation by the Bridge Street History Center about Alonzo Peyton (A. P.) Gordon (1847-1921), an early settler here in Granbury, and his 1882 house, which is one block south of the History Center (itself in the 1879 D. L. Nutt - Watkins House).  

Both of these places are just a couple blocks from my home.  The Gordon House is now part of the Dora Lee Langdon Cultural Center, which includes all the buildings and grounds on the entire block, and is owned and operated by the City of Granbury.

Here's how the Gordon House looked in December 2021:

Above:  A. P. Gordon House, Granbury, Texas, 22 December 2021 / Amanda Pape 

/ CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Below:  A. P. Gordon House, Granbury, Texas, undated, between July 1898 and 1956 

/ Dora Lee Langdon Cultural Center Facebook page

The presentation included a handout with an old photograph of the house dated 1924.  I don't have access to a good copy of that image, but the one above is similar.  The presenter remarked that "some of our preserved houses sure don't look like they used to!"

That got me wondering what Sanborn fire insurance maps might tell us about the changing footprint of the house.  Here's the house on the March 1893 Sanborn map, on the corner of Brazos and Pearl streets:

Above:  Granbury 1893 Sheet 2 (cropped).  Below:  Granbury 1898 Sheet 1 (cropped).  Both from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection,

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Texas (1877-1922), University of Texas at Austin.

The March 1893 Sanborn map doesn't make it very clear if the front porch (on the Pearl street side) is one story or two, but the July 1898 map (just above) does - it's two stories.

By the time the January 1905 Sanborn map was made, the front porch had been extended to wrap around the front and sides of the house, as shown below:

Above:  Granbury 1905 Sheet 4 (cropped).  Below:  Granbury 1910 Sheet 5 (cropped).  

Both from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection,

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Texas (1877-1922), University of Texas at Austin. 

By the time of the July 1910 Sanborn map (above), the two-story porch had been extended around almost the entire house.  The back wing that had the water tank had been removed, but the rest of that back wing had been extended to two stories.

The March 1945 Sanborn map (from the TexShare Proquest Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970 database) shows the same configuration for the house.  In the article "Chrysalis Rings New Theme in Old House" by Ardyce Pfanstiel in the March/April 1984 issue of granbury! The Journal of the Historic Brazos River Valley (volume 1, number 2, pages 26-28), I learned that the two-story porch was removed in 1956, as was the rear two-story wing, and the existing one-story kitchen addition was constructed.

So based on all this information, the old photograph near the beginning of this post would have been dated after July 1898 (the last Sanborn map that shows only a smaller two-story front porch).

However, I would date the photograph below (also undated) as falling sometime between July 1898 and January 1905 (the first Sanborn to show a two-story front porch wrapping around the front and sides of the building.

Why?  Notice in the photograph below, you can see the projecting bay windows on the lower floor (as in the December 2021 picture at the beginning of this post).  Those bay windows do not appear on the July 1898 Sanborn.

Above:  A. P. Gordon House, Granbury, Texas, undated, between July 1898 and January 1905 / Dora Lee Langdon Cultural and Educational Center

Below:  Combination of Granbury 1905 Sheet 3 (cropped) and Granbury 1905 Sheet 4 (cropped).  Both from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection,

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Texas (1877-1922), University of Texas at Austin. 

Click on the image to make it larger.

Speaking of the bay windows, a descendant of Alonzo P. Gordon who was at the presentation told us a story about Alonzo, who owned a store on the square on the southwest corner of the intersection of Pearl and Crockett.  He said Alonzo used to walk home for his midday meal, and ate it sitting in one of the bay windows.  From there, he could see if someone entered his store, and then hurry down the street to help the customer.

The 1905 Sanborn map above shows the sight line from the westernmost bay window (hidden under the two-story porch) to Gordon's store on the corner.  I stepped into that window area while at the house, and sure enough, I could still see the building (formerly the Nutshell Bakery, now the Square Cafe, and St. Helens).

© Amanda Pape - 2022 - e-mail me!