Paul Strayer probably never would have imagined it–or would he?
They’ll never know, of course, but it’s likely one of the few details of Strayer’s life that will forever elude Rhonda and Michael Shires. The Shires, who have lived in the River Forest home designed by Strayer for about eight years, have done considerable research on the painter who resided there from 1916 to 1981, when he died at age 96.
“He was a pretty eclectic guy,” said Rhonda Shires, who noted Strayer was an avid photographer whose work appeared in magazines such as Time and Life. “Paintings of his hung in the White House, and we found four or five letters back and forth to Maxwell House Coffee about their logo. He wrote letters to the company and sent a painting and what he thought should be their new logo. They sent a letter back saying `no thanks,’ and he disagreed.
“He was persistent that way; he was entrepreneurial. That’s how he made money.”
For those who appreciate historic homes, there are a number from which to choose. Research by the Chicago Historic Resources Survey (CHRS) completed in 1995 with Chicago to analyze the historic and architectural importance of buildings constructed before 1940. In 12 years of fieldwork and follow-up research that started in 1983, CHRS surveyors identified 17,371 properties considered to have some historic or architectural importance.
An elderly neighbor helped open the door for Kelli and Tom Kline to information about the 1887 Queen Anne Victorian they bought in Oak Park.
“When we moved in, the first thing we did was fix the chimney because it was falling a part,” said Kelli Kline, president of Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. She was standing on the corner looking at the chimney when a woman walked up and said, “Are you the new owner?”
“I told her my name, and she said she knew the grandson of the man who built my house,” Kelli said. “I asked his grandson’s name, and she said it was also John Jones and he lived in Bellwood.”
The neighbor passed along the Klines’ information to Jones. A few months later, Kelli and her husband received a call from Jones, who later visited with his wife and cousin.
“We were in the midst of restoring the house, so it was a total mess,” laughed Kelli, who said her visitors brought photos that she and her husband used to re-create the original look. “Ironically, he had never been in the house before because his grandfather passed away before he was born.” The Klines struck up a relationship with John and his wife, Marilyn, who continued to check on the progress.
Earlier this year when Jones died, relatives in town for his funeral asked to see the home. Kelli said that was gratifying. “They appreciated the opportunity to see that this was their grandparents’ home, and they could get a look at what had been done to it. When we bought the house, it needed a lot of TLC.”
Kelli says she “fell in love with” Victorian architecture when she was 10 while vacationing in Cape May, N.J., and always has liked Victorian decor and style, which she said included a lot of wallpaper.
Kelli Kline stops sort of romanticizing that era. “It’s not that I’d have wanted to live in that period,” she said. “You realize it wasn’t as romantic as everyone makes it out to be. It wasn’t an easy time in which to live unless you were wealthy. I suppose I just took a fancy to that period.”
The Klines’ kitchen includes a 1916 stove and cabinets replicated to that timeframe. “I wanted people to walk into my kitchen and say, `you have original cabinets,’ and I don’t. It’s all new to look old,” she said. “Everything in the kitchen was ripped out–it was ugly ’70s [style]. The bathrooms are also restored to the Victorian period, including antique plumbing fixtures, toilets and showers.”
While the idea of living then didn’t appeal to Kelli, Frank Lipo, executive director of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, said it’s hard for some people to pass up the chance to live in such a home. “Living in a historic home offers a unique experience. The craftsmanship and one-of-a-kind features like woodwork or art glass panels give homeowners a sense of place that says you are special, you are unique.”
He explained that Chicago’s inner-ring suburbs have “a higher concentration of historic homes” Because the commuter rail lines radiated out of the city like spokes on a wheel. Residential development initially followed these trains, where many of the oldest suburban homes remain today.
Rhonda Shires, a hotel manager, said the moment she and her husband, Michael, a music teacher and musician, set eyes on Strayer’s second-floor studio, their interest in the 1916 home ballooned. “It sounds kooky but as soon as we saw it, we knew this was the house we were supposed to be in,” said Rhonda. The approximately 800-square-foot upstairs area was where Strayer painted in natural light from a large picture window. “The house really had a soul.”
So why all the interest in Strayer? “We didn’t have children, and it was something to do,” she said. “My husband and I are very interested in history. It’s so hard for us to understand people who live in a house where they don’t research the owners.”
One person who undoubtedly agrees is Chandra Sefton of Re/Max Showcase in Gurnee, who said selling historic and vintage homes was a “perfect fit for me back in 1979.”
“I had just completed the research of over 500 homes in my hometown of Waukegan for the local historical society,” said Sefton, who was president of the Waukegan Historical Society when the Near North Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The appreciation of the past, she said, was “entering into our minds after much destruction and loss of a lot of the beautiful old homes and buildings in the 1960s.” “The old Lake County courthouse was torn down in 1967 and that created my awareness of how fragile the old buildings were,” she said.
She said there was a “surge of interest” in old homes in the 1980s when cookie-cutter subdivisions were going up and houses required less work, were more energy efficient and had updated amenities.
“Now there is much more interest in the charm and quality of the old again,” she said. “It took about 20 years to bring people back to the quality construction and character of the historic and vintage homes of yesterday. People are coming from the larger cities and starting to form new clusters of great neighborhoods.”
A new job several years ago meant a move to the Chicago area for Faith and Craig Wilson. They found a home in Waukegan while searching the Internet. “Our last home was built 1912, and it was more Arts and Crafts.”
Faith Wilson, a professor, said she and her husband learned more about their home’s history “once we moved in and the owners gave us a folder full of materials.”
According to Waukegan’s Legacy, a booklet published by the Waukegan Historical Society, the 1872 house, designed in an Italianate style, was built for Warren Ellis, a prominent businessman and politician. But it has long been identified with Fred Buck, who bought the house in 1919. Buck ran a butcher shop in the area and was mayor from 1909-1911.
Faith said she and her husband, a statistician, like to study interior design and architecture from the Victorian era.
“One nice thing about the era of the house, in the 1870s and later, is paint companies began to standardize color mixing, so a lot of the chips from painting dealers and sellers survived. It provides a good sense of what was popular then.”
The Wilsons picked three colors “we felt were pretty representative of 1870s Italian,” Faith said.
“Then when we were scraping, we found out we accidentally picked the same three colors, the only difference being the trim and body colors would have been reversed. When we stripped down the paint, we found out it was kind of mustard gold and burgundy. Most people don’t picture Victorian era having very bold contrasting color, but they did and they were vibrant.”
