Shadows on the Street: Haunted Tours of Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue

Over the weekend of October 27 and 28, 2012, Glessner House Museum will offer one of its most popular annual events – Shadows on the Street – haunted tours of Chicago’s historic Prairie Avenue.  This tour explores the street known in the late 19^th century as “Millionaire’s Row” or more popularly “the sunny street that held the sifted few.”  Prairie Avenue, between 16^th and 22^nd streets, was the most exclusive residential street in Chicago, if not the country, during the last decades of the 1800s.  Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, including Marshall Field, meatpacker Philip Armour, and the “palace car prince” George Pullman lived there, along with more than 70 other millionaires – the business and social leaders of the city.

In spite of the wealth and prosperity of the street, the neighborhood fell into serious decline in the first decades of the 20^th century.  Industry encroached on the west, increased train traffic on the Illinois Central tracks created a nuisance on the east, a growing African-American community developed to the south, and then there was the Levee, or Red Light, district which formed around Dearborn and 22^nd Street.  Families moved to other parts of the city, and their elegant homes were either torn down or converted into offices or boarding houses.  Eventually all but seven of the 90 mansions that lined the street were razed.

There are numerous stories of untimely endings, and even today, stories of unexplained sightings and sounds lead many to believe that the spirits of some of the residents of the street still remain.  Herewith are a couple of the stories which participants in the Shadows tour will hear this coming weekend.

The William W. Kimball House

This house, located at 1801 S. Prairie Avenue, is an elegant Chateauesque style home, designed by Solon S. Beman and built for the piano and organ manufacturer between 1890 and 1892.  It was one of the most beautiful houses ever built in Chicago, and even today, is noted for its beautiful carved stonework and stately turrets and dormers.  But ever since 1921, when the widowed Evaline Kimball passed away, there have been persistent rumors that the large windows on the north side of the house shake and rattle violently, even when there is no storm or other disturbance outside.  No satisfactory cause has ever been found to explain the odd occurrence, but some have suggested that it may be the ghost of Mrs. Kimball.  She was known for her extraordinary collection of Old Master paintings that lined the walls of the impressive two-storey entry hall.   The paintings are now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.  In her last years, Mrs. Kimball was known to suffer from dementia, and could be seen standing in her hall, elegantly dressed and welcoming her guests.  But there was no one around her.  Could it be that the spirit of Evaline Kimball has returned to the house looking for her Old Master paintings and is upset that they are no where to be found?  (The house also served as the setting for the 1996 film Primal Fear starring Richard Gere, Edward Norton, and Laura Linney).

The Marshall Field Jr. House

Perhaps no house on the street has attracted more attention than this home, which stands at 1919 S. Prairie Avenue.  Now comfortably renovated into six luxury condominium units, this house endured decades of use as a hospital and nursing home, and more than a quarter of a century of sitting largely empty and deteriorating.  But the story of the untimely death of Marshall Field Jr. in 1905 is what has kept the house in the public eye.  The official story is that Field was in the library of the house cleaning a rifle for a hunting trip when he accidentally shot himself.  He was rushed to Mercy Hospital where he died five days later, just 38 years old, leaving a widow and three young children.  The family never lived in the house again.  However, stories have persisted to this day that the story of Field’s last days was not so simple.  The most popular story is that he was in fact shot at the Everleigh Club, the most exclusive brothel in the city (conveniently located just a few blocks to the west on Dearborn Street).  After being shot, he was brought back to the house and then taken to the hospital to make it appear the shooting had taken place at home.  Ironically, the Everleigh sisters who operated the Club said the story was circulated by their competitors to discredit THEM and get them shut down by the city.  There were also stories that Field was despondent and attempted suicide.  Regardless, Field’s father, owner of the famous department store, was the wealthiest man in town, and the largest advertiser, so all the newspapers printed the “official” story.  The real story may never be known, and the rumors persist more than a century after Field died. 

Shadows on the Street tours will be offered on Saturday October 27 and Sunday October 28 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm each evening.  Tours are $10 per person and reservations may be made by calling 312.326.1480. 

New Aquisitions

Glessner House Museum is pleased to announce three new additions to the Prairie Avenue Collection. The items were generously donated by Roberta Nichols, descendant of the Fisk, Botsford, and Harvey families who resided at 2100 S. Calumet Avenue. This address is the only home known to exist in the neighborhood that was passed down through the female line. At one point, all three generations were living simultaneously under one roof.

The first part of the donation includes newspaper clippings relating to several Prairie Avenue families. We are grateful to Roberta for enriching our archives. Two clippings of particular significance relate to the shooting of Marshall Field, Jr. They were saved by Dr. Robert Harvey who rode with Field in the ambulance to Mercy Hospital prior to the young man's death. The Harvey family, because of the eye-wittiness of their patriarch, always held that Field's injuries were accidental and self-inflicted, though others suspect differently.

The second donation is a upright "squirrel cage" yarn swift. A tool for winding skeins of yarn, the swift's vertical shape has the advantage over other models of taking up less floor space. Two cylinder-shaped wheels, made from flat disks spanned by dowel rods, rotate on long wooden pins. These cylinders, commonly called "squirrel cages" because of their unique shape, can be moved closer or further apart by sliding the pins through holes drilled incrementally along the frame. The positioning of the cages determines the amount of tension that will be applied to the yarn as it is pulled by the user.

A turned wood cup sits atop the frame, presumably for needles and pins. The base is painted with scrolled initials, slightly worn from past uses placing their feet on top to sturdy the swift. This piece has been placed in the Female Servant's Room.

Painted initials on base








Squirrel cage and pin



Cup at top of frame

Tried & True Recipes: The Home Cookbook of Chicago

The third item donated to the museum is the Home Cookbook of Chicago, published in 1874 by J. Fred. Waggoner. The title page indicates that the cook book was "compiled from recipes contributed by ladies of Chicago and other cities and towns: published for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless." The cookbook is inscribed "Mrs. D. B. Fisk 614 Wabash Ave Chicago" on the front fly leaf. The book still has its pasted-in errata with corrected measurements and spellings for several recipes. The Home for the Friendless, founded in the 1850s, was an orphan asylum that housed hundreds of needy children. The book has a very dark green cover with marbled page edges. It is currently housed in the Glessner House Museum Archives.



Inscription on front fly leaf