Image of the Christ Church Parish House at 482 Linden, c. 1910. This building was originally built as the Kinney Store in 1854. It later served as a school and private home before it was expanded, renovated and sold to Christ Church in 1897. It was torn down in 1932.

by Christine Fullerton
Appeared in the Gazette, Winter 1997
Updated 2022

The southwest corner of Oak and Linden Streets has changed a lot in 140 years. The one thing that has remained constant is the concentration of traffic there. One of the busiest intersections in the village today, it also was a hub of activity in the early 1850’s when the Kinney Store was built at the corner.

U.S. Postal Service records showing Joel Kinney’s appointment as postmaster at Winnetka in 1857. He likely distributed mail out of the Kinney Store.

The first trading post established on the North Shore, the Kinney Store, was a simple, one-story, frame building with a porch in front. Built shortly before the railroad arrived here in 1854, the store was owned by Joel Kinney. His son, William Henry Kinney, was a veteran of the Civil War and the first station agent at the original Winnetka railroad station.

The Kinney Store was converted into a school for two years from 1867-1868. Described in a 1939 letter written by resident Eliza Dwyer, “…Thirty students barely fit into the tiny building.” Dwyer’s letter also mentioned after the school was relocated in 1869, the store housed Michael Waltz’s tin shop and, later, Huxham and Kingham’s meat market.

In the early 1870’s the building was sold to Chicago attorney, David Fales, a founder of the Winnetka Congregational Church. One of Winnetka’s first commuters, he took the train to his Chicago office every day. An early example of adaptive re-use, the Kinney Store was transformed by Fales into a private home, becoming one the grand mansions of its day.

Around 1897, the house was sold to Christ Church for use as its parish house. In 1932, the parish house was razed by Illinois Bell Telephone Company to make way for its new plant. 

From trading post to school, tin shop, meat market, private home, parish house, and telephone plant, the southwest corner of Oak and Linden Streets has seen a lot of change, and a lot of traffic.