Categories: Collections, Gazette
by Sally Schneiders A booklet comprised of striking block prints depicting scenes and events of North Shore history languishes in a folder, filed away out of view, at 411 Linden Street. The title reads: New Trier: A True History of this Township in Linoleum Cuts and the by-line at the page bottom reads: “Made by […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by: Laurie Starrett Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 1997 On a stormy September night 137 years ago, the sidewheel steamer Lady Elgin met her doom off the north shore of Chicago. She sank after being rammed by the schooner Augusta. Passengers and pieces of the ship were carried by wind and waves to […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by: Thomas S. Hermes Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 1998 Another clue to the mystery of the sunken ship lying off Winnetka’s lakeshore has been uncovered. The Winnetka Historical Society recently has discovered the results of a report from the Underwater Archeological Society of Chicago (UASC). These contradict earlier opinions that the wreckage […]
Categories: Gazette
Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 September 8, 2010 marked the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the Lady Elgin. The worst tragedy ever seen on the Great Lakes, this event looms large in Winnetka and Lake Michigan history. Just before midnight on September 7, 1860, a palatial sidewheel steamboat named the Lady Elgin left […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by Duff Peterson Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 Lady Elgin and Winnetka are forever linked in history. The Lady Elgin had a checkered history long before she came to grief off Winnetka. In August 1854, she hit a rock off Milwaukee and limped into Manitowoc, only to sink at the dock. In […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by Duff Peterson Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 ~Photo Courtesy of the Stephen A. Douglas Association~ The wreck of the Lady Elgin was directly related to the events leading up to the Civil War. The country was tearing itself apart over the issue of slavery, and had it not been for […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Column by Susan Whitcomb Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 Often ignored in the retelling of the Lady Elgin disaster is the reason that over 300 people from Milwaukee’s Irish Third Ward came to Chicago on September 7, 1860. Although some accounts claim the travelers were going to see the Lincoln-Douglas debates, this is […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Column by Helen Weaver Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 We’ve all heard of “six degrees of separation” but how about three degrees of connection? Hanging over the fireplace in the Evanich Room at 411 Linden is a painting with links to two our our past exhibits Palette of Our Past: Artists in Winnetka […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by: Joan Peck Have you ever wondered where Gage Street got its name? It came from one of Winnetka’s first settlers, Jared Gage. He moved from New York State to Chicago, where he operated the first steam flour mill. Later he went into banking with his nephew, John C. Haines, who became mayor […]
Categories: Gazette
Gazette Article by: Barbara Sholl Appeared in the Gazette: Winter 1996 The northeast section of Winnetka—Hubbard Woods—is named after one of the village’s founders and most prominent residents, Gilbert Hubbard. Born in Boston, Hubbard arrived in Chicago in 1849, when he and a partner started a ship chandlery business at 105 South Water Street. The […]
