House Hunting

February 7, 2022

Last winter, Josh Leith from Leclaire shared a photo of an artifact with me, that was shared with him by Ed Rabe. Ed and his sister, Susan, were born in the house at 4133 N. Leclaire. The house was purchased brand new by their grandfather, Axel Sorenson in 1918 from Dickinson Reliable Homes. The house has been in the family ever since.

According to Ed, who sadly passed away last year, Axel saved everything related to the house purchase. One of the items, which he shared with Josh, was this brochure:

The photo on the brochure, was fascinating, of course, and we really wanted to figure out which block this was. Neither Josh nor I, nor others I showed it to, could identify it. Why had we never noticed a corner house with a wrap around porch with two sets of stairs? Rather than wandering around the neighborhood, I pulled out the trusty 1924 Sanborn maps in search of a house with a similar footprint. I did not come up with a match. So I posted the photo on the Portage Park Neighborhood Watch group on Facebook to see if anyone recognized it. Just a couple of people responded suggesting houses in the Old Irving Park area. Hmmm…I don’t think so.

This is where my thought process went:

• Just because the house had a wrap around porch doesn’t mean it still had one. Many people have modified their front porches or enclosed them.
• Was that corner house still even standing?
• It sure seems to be a corner house.
• Those curly topped columns did not seem like a typical Dickinson style.
• I didn’t think Arthur Dickinson would put a photo of a house that he did not build on one of his real estate brochures, so the house had to be in “Dickinson territory”.
• Was I limiting my perspective of what the scope of “Dickinson territory” was?

I don’t know about you, but for some reason, living on a block west of Milwaukee somehow makes blocks east of Milwaukee seem like they are part of a different neighborhood. Don’t know why. So I bravely headed east (“go west young man” – go east old gal). I walked east on the south side of the 4800 W. Warner block, and then walked back west on the north side. At the end of the block, there it was! 4872 W. Warner. No longer a corner house. The side set of stairs removed. Tucked back behind new townhouses built on Milwaukee. I did the whole nine yards research – permits, census, blah, blah, blah. It all made sense. I was able to ID the next two houses as a match as well. Phew, what a relief!

By the way, I estimate that the photo was taken before 1910.

Armed with a copy of the brochure photo, I knocked on the door of 4872 W. Warner. A gentleman answered, stating he was not the owner but that he lives there. I was told that the owner lives there as well. I was able to get a peek inside the house which has been nicely maintained. So far, I have not been successful communicating with the owner via email. Oh well, no matter.

I tried to take a current photo from the same angle but it is impossible because of the townhouses and trees. The port-a-pot in front of the house is a nice contemporary touch though, as is the airplane in the upper left corner of the photo.

When I was walking around and taking pictures, I kept hearing a faint “Can I help you?” I thought it was someone inside one of the houses wanting to know what I was doing. Then I realized that it was the drive-thru at Burger King across the street. Funny.

The hunt for the house is over. On to the next neighborhood history adventure.