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3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

May 14, 2011
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Welcome to the 3rd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour! Be sure to visit all 10 or so bungalows on the tour (links from-and-to the next blog are provided at the bottom of each bungalow’s post). As always, comments and questions welcomed and encouraged! Built in 1929, our bungalow is a classic Chicago-style brick bungalow, one of [...]

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2nd Annual Bungalow Blog Tour

May 7, 2010
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I’m pleased to join the Bungalow Blog Tour that StuccoHouse organized this year — be sure to check out all the bungalows on the tour by following the links at the bottom of each post. Welcome to our near-north suburban Chicago home! Here in the Windy City we do many things Chicago-style, from politics to [...]

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Friday June 24 1932

June 24, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the previous-POs, the Milke’s, who owned the house from 1932-1966. In honor of the 85th anniversary of their daughter Muriel’s birth, I give you this snippet that appeared in the local paper on this day in 1932: Mr. and Mrs. Leo Milke entertained 17 guests Sunday evening [...]

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Bungalow Art Glass

March 5, 2009
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I don’t think I’ve talked much about our art glass windows. If you’ve read my blog for a while or have seen it on Houseblogs.net, you know my banner used to look like this: Nowadays I’ve taken a more subtle approach in the banner and just use a few elements from the windows, but there [...]

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Who was Thomas K. Valos?

February 13, 2009
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In the Cook County Recorder of Deeds files, one name that kept popping up with many of the houses in the neighborhood was Thomas K. Valos. In later years of the logbook I noticed a reference to Valos Realty Company. This led me to believe that he was perhaps the developer for the neighborhood. His [...]

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Piecing History Together

February 12, 2009
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As I mentioned the other day, I went downtown to the Recorder of Deeds in the Cook County building at 118 N. Clark to try and learn more about the history of our house. Down in the basement you’ll find large binders containing handwritten logs which recorded all of the transactions related to your house [...]

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Club Rendezvous Trajedy

December 18, 2008
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I continued my research on our 1930 neighbor, who during Prohibition ran a speakeasy in his basement. I came across links to articles in various papers across the country: Reno, NV, Sheboygan, WI, and others. At first I thought, these must belong to another Elmer Cowdrey. Then I thought maybe he moved to one of [...]

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Roadhouse Hot Spot

December 12, 2008
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The next chapter in our little neighborhood’s 1930 history continues. In the last post, after years of rumor and hearsay, I wrote about discovering an article in the Chicago Tribune confirming that our neighbor’s bungalow was, in fact, a speakeasy during Prohibition. That owner, Elmer (Al) Cowdrey, went on to own and operate Club Rendezvous, [...]

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Speakeasy or Not?

December 10, 2008

When I decided to start researching our 1930 neighbors, the first ones who came to mind were the inhabitants of the middle bungalow across the street. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you might remember that this certain bungalow was rumored to be a speakeasy during Prohibition. The people who owned the house [...]

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The Ol’ Toilet Switcheroo

November 29, 2008
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Last Monday we decided it would be really nice to have a bathroom, or at least a working toilet, in the basement for the 14 guests we were having on Thanksgiving Day. Pete’s father will be 89 next week, so we certainly don’t want him to have to climb stairs, but with five kids in [...]

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