STEP INTO THE PAST AT 830 CENTRAL AVENUE
At the corner of Central Avenue and 9th Street, there is a fascinating portal to the past. 830 Central Avenue, which was built in 1885, along with its next-door twin at 822 Central, retains more of its original details than many homes of its age. One reason for this is the current owners are only the second family to own the home during its 140-year lifetime. When the old house changed hands in 1993, the house, attic and original barn were full of furniture, art and family memorabilia that belonged to two generations of the previous family. Chuck and Cathy Reiter, the house’s current proud owners, retained many of the original objects, including a dining room sideboard, and an upright piano purchased in 1891 that still had its handwritten receipt of sale stashed in the piano bench. These antiques, and the Reiters’ decisions to honor and retain the home’s original floor plan as well as many of its historic details and trimmings, give the house the feeling of visiting the past.
The home was built in 1886 by Everett and Alice Wheelock. Everett’s younger brother Seymour A. Wheelock built the nearly identical house next door at 822 Central Ave, at the same time. The two brothers, who descended from Eleazor Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College, migrated to Chicago from Barre, Massachusetts in 1880. They bought a small grocery business, according to Seymour’s grandson, Dr. Seymour A. Wheelock, and later moved to Wilmette where they worked as bankers and real estate developers. They owned a large tract of land between Central and Lake, where they built their homes on half-acre lots, and gradually sold the remaining properties. Everett Wheelock was in the real estate business in Chicago for more than thirty years, and his wife Alice was one of the founding members on the Wilmette Woman’s Club.
Everett Wheelock, 1890s
Alice Wheelock, c. 1893
Multiple generations of the two Wheelock families lived side-by-side in the twin houses for several decades, until 1936 when 822 Central was sold, upon the death of Seymour A. Wheelock. The house at 830 Central, in contrast, had Wheelocks living in it until the youngest of Everett and Alice’s children, Margaret, died there in 1992 at age 92. (She was born and died at the same address, something not many of us can say.) At that point, her estate sold the house to current owners Chuck and Cathy Reiter, who were nearby neighbors and had admired the old home for years.
The Wheelocks were a family of “savers,” and the Reiters are too. The barn behind the house, which is original to the property, and one of only a handful of original barns remaining in Wilmette, is still full of Wheelock castoffs. This includes scraps of wood from the original construction of the house, old trunks, wooden barrels, the crate that delivered the piano in 189, the old Wheelock porch furniture and wooden swing, and many crumbling receipt books. In the house, the Reiters made necessary upgrades such as adding sufficient electricity for modern life and removing the gas lines the Wheelocks used for lighting. But the Reiters have not changed the floorplan from its original design and have even made efforts to reverse some of the “modernization” efforts made by the Wheelocks. In the 1930’s the Wheelocks removed the wrap-around front porch to update the appearance of the house to match the contemporary fashion. Then in 2000, the Reiters used old photographs and wooden remnants discovered in the barn to return the front porch to its original design, even building a new porch swing to match the old one found in the barn.
822 Central
When a family stays in one home as long as the Wheelocks stayed in 830 Central, they are not forced by the prospect of moving to “purge” their belongings of the regular objects of daily life. As a consequence, the Museum has been the grateful recipient of many items that belonged to the families of both Everett and Seymour Wheelock. These include written reminiscences, early 20th century children’s toys, photographs of family members and the two houses, albums, receipts, and several items of clothing, including the wedding dress and shoes worn by Alice Leland upon her 1881 marriage to Everett Wheelock. Additionally, the Museum now holds military regalia thought to be a pre-Civil War uniform of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, brought by the brothers from Massachusetts. The uniform hung in an upstairs closet at 830 Central until Margaret Wheelock died in 1992.
Wedding dress worn by Alice Leland on the day she married Everett Wheelock in 1881.
“Straight” shoes worn by Alice Leland with wedding suit above on the day she married Everett Wheelock. Straight shoes are not shaped for a left foot or a right foot, but made to fit either foot.
The twin houses at 822 and 830 Central have been neighbors and companions for all these years. For the last thirty years or so, the house at 822 was occupied by old-house enthusiasts who worked to restore and maintain their old Wheelock house, just as the Reiters have done at 830. When they had to move, they were unable to find buyers interested in the ongoing labor of love that old houses are. The house at 822 was sold to a real estate developer who will tear down the house this year and currently plans to subdivide the big lot to build two houses. Wilmette is losing one of the twin Wheelock houses, but 830 Central still stands watch over the corner of Central Avenue and 9th Street.
Does your house have a good story to tell? Let us know, or drop by the museum, and we’ll help you research!
-Diane Grauer, Sunday Coordinator