December 30th, 2008
I thought I better get these Christmas photos up before 2008 is over! I’ve been around, but just either too busy or too lazy to post lately. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday — we certainly did.
Thankfully, despite nasty weather on Tuesday, my stepdaughter and her husband managed to fly in from the East [...]
December 18th, 2008
I continued my research on our 1930 neighbor, who during Prohibition ran a speakeasy in his basement. I came across links to articles in various papers across the country: Reno, NV, Sheboygan, WI, and others. At first I thought, these must belong to another Elmer Cowdrey. Then I thought maybe he moved to one of [...]
December 16th, 2008
I hate waking up exhausted.
It was freezing in the house last night. Since Günter had the coveted spot sleeping with me, Axel couldn’t settle down (I’m talking about the cats). I woke up at 3 and heard him wandering around, using his scratching post, eating, then throwing up (made mental note of general proximity [...]
December 12th, 2008
The next chapter in our little neighborhood’s 1930 history continues.
In the last post, after years of rumor and hearsay, I wrote about discovering an article in the Chicago Tribune confirming that our neighbor’s bungalow was, in fact, a speakeasy during Prohibition.
That owner, Elmer (Al) Cowdrey, went on to own and operate Club Rendezvous, a popular [...]
December 10th, 2008
When I decided to start researching our 1930 neighbors, the first ones who came to mind were the inhabitants of the middle bungalow across the street. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you might remember that this certain bungalow was rumored to be a speakeasy during Prohibition.
The people who owned the house [...]
December 9th, 2008
I spent a little more time researching the Blasen family, whom it appears were the first owners of our bungalow. Their son Leo, who was 12 as of 1930, went on to marry and raise 10 children. It looks like they migrated to the western suburbs and retired to Florida. He has passed away, although [...]
December 9th, 2008
With the realization that we are not the third owners of our bungalow as originally thought, but at least the fourth owners, it was time to discover who owned the bungalow prior to the Milke’s.
Based on additional newspaper articles, it appears that the Milke’s moved to Morton Grove at least by the summer of 1932, [...]
December 8th, 2008
The starting point for a majority of my house history research last weekend was the 1930 census. Although earlier censuses played a part as well, our house was built in 1928, so this particular census would be the first one in which our house was included.
On Ancestry.com, my search for Leo Milke came up with [...]
December 8th, 2008
After reading about Bungalow Insanity’s recent house history findings with the help of Dawn over at Bungalowcious, I decided to renew my efforts on our house history.
While I (jokingly) curse them for causing me to spend an entire weekend researching, I’m so glad I did it because I found some really interesting information, both about [...]