29 Dover St. 3 1-13-2020

To: Stacy McClure

Hi Stacy, 

We all love our memories and this is especially fun now with new snow stifling our outdoor aspirations. We handled the basement flooding with a standpipe that screwed into the floor drain by the furnace. It was over four feet high. We never had flooding from the garage or the wash room. I think it became more complicated when we installed a toilet. We always had everything down there up on blocks but even then when it flooded it was disastrous. We lost a part of my father's 1865 four poster bed to one flood. It was too large to get up the stairs to the attic where the the headboards and the mahogany posts were stored. We have a dry basement now - a godsend.

The original roof was wavy shakes. It was just too hard for the roofers to figure out so when the roof had some damage in the 50's it was replaced with shakes but they were straight across. Years later when my folks had to replace the roof they switched to standard shingles, much to our distaste. 

But their finances had changed after sending three boys through medical school and a daughter through nursing school.

We had a number of beloved dogs in the house. They were Susie, a Springer Spaniel; Blaze, a Pointer; Shine, a black Lab( who was tragically killed by the Denver Zephyr), and Topsie, a spaniel that was contrary and seemingly lived forever.

We never realized how small the kitchen was until we left home. My mom cooked for the six of us with no problem. Storage was always an issue.

Although I was unaware of ghosts in the house but if they were there they would have been kind ghosts with a great sense of humor. I am sure the parties and music that you heard were from those happy times our family had in abundance. We were fortunate to have been surrounded by happiness and love despite floods and a World War and losing occasionally to Hinsdale.

More to come as my memory bank has been upended.

Don

On Jan 12, 2020, at 11:40 PM, Stacy McClure wrote:

Hi Don,

Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories. We love the house and even my daughter Evey says when she gets older she is going to buy it back.

Your story of the basement flooding with sewer water happened to us 4 times. There was a drain in the floor of the garage which would spew sewer water like a geyser. The water would run straight into the basement. When we tore up the floor of the basement we found another drain there too that was covered by an elevated floor.

We, of course, plugged up both these drains. That and a sump pump still didn't stop the basement from flooding every 1-2 years. We would tear out the entire floor and 2 feet of drywall each time. Finally 2 years ago we had Permaseal come and fix the problem. Cost a bit to do but it had been dry ever since.

I don't know if you noticed but the roof is also new. I wonder if the house had the wavy roof at one time? It would be beautiful to put back. 

We installed gas logs in the fireplace so can't throw anything into the fire. It's a nice big fireplace and is great to have it instantly. 

We installed a vinyl wood planks in the kitchen floor where the red brick tiles were. It keeps it warmer in the winter. We also installed a antique style tin ceiling and rustic chandelier in the kitchen. My kitchen growing up in Texas was half the size and my Mom too made meals every night so this one seemed big to me. 

One night when my daughter was about 18 months old(she is now 12) and my husband was out of town, she started singing, "There's a ghost on my ceiling yes there is, and his name is Harry". Of course this did not sit well with me as I thought about Harold Zook. She then said, dada has a ghost that follows him around named Fifi.

I dare ask if you had any pets by that name?

I hope I don't come off weird but my Mom and myself included sometimes hear parties and music in the house at night.

Anyway, I'll keep you updated with what happens!

Stacy 

On Jan 12, 2020, at 7:46 PM, Don wrote:

Stacy: See what you started. As you can see my whole family loved our house. As I  remember: My folks lived in Marietta Georgia after they were married. It was during the depression and my dad (Arch) and mom (Gladys) moved to La Grange in 1929 or 1930 when my dad got a job at the First National Bank of Chicago. My grandfather (Robert V. Thomas) was quite successful (Hooker Paint and glass Co.) and lived on south Seventh Avenue in La Grange. He and my grandmother had five children - one died at childbirth; two died over one weekend in 1909 of Scarlet Fever; my mother and her brother were the only survivors. My recollection is that when Arch and Glad moved "home" Grampa Thomas bought them the Zook 

House which was always described as an Irish Hut possibly from either Mr Zook or more probably from the Bancrofts. My folks added the master bedroom and the garage in the thirties. It was before I was born (1935) as one of my earliest memories was being in a crib in the folks master bedroom with them.

From: David Sessions

The Hoags lived next door to us. Bobby Hoag's parents the Bancrofts built the house with Zook as the architect. I don't think they ever lived in it. They lived with the Hoags when we were kids. Mr. Bancroft went to the Christian Science Reading Room (religiously). 

On Sun, Jan 12, 2020 at 3:12 PM Gordon Sessions  wrote:

Not sure when they bought it?

There is a plaque on the wall in one of the pics staring the architect was Harold Zook.

 Roscoe Harold Zook (21 May 1889 – 17 April 1949) was an American architect best known for his work in suburban Chicago, Illinois. He received a degree in architecture from the Armour Institute of Technology (now Illinois Institute of Technology, or IIT) in 1914. In 1916 Zook married his first wife, Mildred Barnard. They divorced in the late 1930s. They had one son, Harold Barnard Zook, who followed in his father's footsteps to become an architect in Corona del Mar, California. In the early 1940s, Zook married his second wife, Florence (Barkey) Nissen, whom he met through mutual friends (and clients). Zook died in April 1949, just short of his 60th birthday.^[1][2]

On Jan 12, 2020, at 4:03 PM, Chris Sessions wrote:

Grand memories indeed. It's pretty wild to see the place now. I remember how big the place used to seem back then. A wonderful place. Do you know who originally built the place? Were your parents the original owners?  

Chris