House of the Season: An American Gothic in Winnetka
Categories: Gazette
270 Scott Ave., photo courtesy of Paul Konstant Architecture.
Appeared in the Spring/Summer 2024 Gazette
by Cindy Fuller (first published in the Gazette 1997, updated in 2024)
A picturesque Victorian Gothic at 270 Scott Avenue is a reminder of life in Winnetka in the late 1800s before the village became a commuter suburb. A pastoral, rural atmosphere prevailed – a wonderful setting for an artist’s studio with a view to the treetops and sky all around. Willa and Herman Menzel, undated. Chicagoan William Sewell Hamm. Willa Hamm, his oldest daughter, became a well-known artist, studying at Chicago’s National Academy of Art. While in school, she met and married fellow art student Herman Menzel.
The story of the Victorian Gothic house at 270 Scott begins with Jared Gage, a businessman turned banker who made his fortune running the first flour mill in downtown Chicago in the 1840s. Gage arrived in Winnetka in 1855, where he built an imposing Italianate house at 1175 Whitebridge Hill.
Along with prominent Winnetkans James Willson and Charles Peck, Gage funded and oversaw the construction of the Lakeside (now Hubbard Woods) train station. When the station was completed, Gage built a road to connect his home on the lake to the station – Scott Avenue.
In the early 1870s, Gage built four houses on Scott Avenue – three for his children and one, 254 Scott, as a rental property. He built two houses for his son – 270 Scott for either John or George, his eldest sons, and 278 Scott for his youngest son, Frank. 271 Scott was built as a wedding gift for Gage’s daughter, Mary and her husband, George Stoutenburg, a wholesale drug salesman who served as a Village trustee.
One year after his four Scott Avenue houses were completed, Jared Gage lost his fortune after the Panic of 1873. His bank, Fidelity Savings Bank, closed and he was forced to vacate his house on Whitebridge Hill and move in with his son, Frank, at 278 Scott. Gage died in Frank’s house in 1880.
While all four Gage houses still stand today, only three remain on Scott Avenue. In 1999, 278 Scott was threatened with demolition but saved by a homeowner who moved the structure to 274 Hazel Avenue in Glencoe, where it remains today.
The Gage house at 270 Scott has a particularly interesting history. In 1903, it was purchased by Chicagoan William Sewell Hamm. Willa Hamm, his oldest daughter, became a well-known artist, studying at Chicago’s National Academy of Art. While in school, she met and married fellow art student Herman Menzel.
Willa went on to become a successful art director with Marshall Field & Company. Although Herman rarely exhibited his work, he later became known as an important “regionalist” artist, expressing scenes of everyday life in a simple, honest manner. When Willa and Herman Menzel moved to Winnetka in 1943, they moved into the house she’d grown up in at 270 Scott.
While living in Winnetka, Herman worked in a private studio on the grounds of 270 Scott. After he died in 1988, Willa remained in the house until her own death in 1997.
270 Scott has undergone some changes over the years, most notably the modern addition on the east side of the house. The addition was designed by Paul Konstant and completed in 2004 after three years of planning and construction. In designing the addition, Konstant was sensitive to the original portion of the house, leaving many of the original Victorian Gothic elements intact. The gingerbread trim on the steeply pitched gable roof, the pointed arch window above a first floor bay, and the entry porch with Gothic arch door are all typical features of the style and remain today.
