The Villa Turicum Blog

2008-02-19T15:39:00.001-06:00

I found these photos last night while doing some research. Chicagoan or not, I think you'll get a kick out of them.

My neighborhood, circa 1955. Notice the horrid 1000 Lake Shore building in the distance. (Palmolive to the right)

Old Chicago wouldn't be complete without the old Palmer mansion.

These pictures were taken in the 1940's.

Ugly, yes, but still a shame it was torn down in 1951.

Cyrus McCormick's mansion in McCormickville, (West of Michigan Ave.) torn down as well.

City skylines, circa 1950's.

Keep in mind that at this time Prudential was the tallest building in Chicago..

Exceptional Emeralds - Fascinating Women

2007-11-29T12:48:00.001-06:00

(Edith Rockefeller McCormick at the Pagent Vivant in 1907, sans emeralds)

Above is of course the infamous Barbara Hutton wearing the emerald tiara and earrings that once belonged to Edith. (Edith sold many of her jewels to Cartier in the early 1930's, in order to assuage debts. She died not long after)

I found a New York Times article written in 1922; that claims the emeralds once belonged to Catherine the Great, and had been sold to Carier's Paris branch by the revolutionary government. I can only guess that Edith read the article (or one similar) and decided that she had to have the stones.

The last known owner of the earrings is Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis.

From The Air

2007-10-16T15:50:00.000-05:00

My pal Greg in Indiana sent me the above snap (click to enlarge) today of Villa Turicum. I had never seen it before, but what is snazzy is that I always lamented that my photo below (primarily showing "Walden") only shows the Villa Turicum service court and gardens in the distance:

Thanks again Greg!

Monday, Oct. 08, 1928

2007-10-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

AGAIN, GANNA

Actors and esthetes and opera singers return to their stamping grounds in the autumn. As the leaves fall from the trees, to pile in crackling heaps on roadsides, the people of the artistic world gather themselves together, frayed with the merry ardours of the summer, into troublesome bunches, to be lifted and scattered by weird, enthusiastic winds. None should know all this better than Harold Fowler McCormick, the mildly extravagant reaper scion of Chicago.

He, in the days when he was relatively unsophisticated, married Edith Rockefeller and entered the bright, ineluctable world of fame and fashion which awaited him with terrible certainty from the day of his birth. Much later, still a little puzzled by celebrities, and somewhat irked by their cost, he married famed Ganna Walska, who astounded the world by frantic attempts to sing grand opera.

Now Harold F. McCormick knows what to expect in this most melancholy season of the year. Last fortnight, when he heard that Ganna Walska was coming back from Paris, he waited further developments with a heart made heavy by foreboding and cheered only by the vague hope that perhaps, this once, Ganna Walska would be able to come home, like other people, without eccentric fussing or publicity.

This vague hope, most notable as an indication of the heroic optimism which has always characterized the friendly Harold McCormick, was of course unjustified. Ganna Walska achieved, not merely the notoriety which generally attaches to her doings; before she had put foot on the U. S., she became a cause célèbre, a wronged woman, an international affair. In short, she surpassed herself and Harold McCormick's worst presentiments. Ganna Walska arrived with 15 trunks, containing, she said, $2,500,000 worth of personal effects; and when customs officials demanded that she pay duty of approximately $1,000,000 upon these, Ganna Walska refused to do so.

Her arguments were not entirely illogical. Ganna Walska said that she was a nonresident citizen; she pointed out that she was the owner of a residence, a beauty shop and a theatre in Paris and that her principal activities were carried out in that capital. Her entity was an individual one, not to be confused with that of her husband who could if he wished stay at home throughout the year. He was a resident but she was not. Since nonresidents do not pay customs duties, she would pay no such.

When the customs officials refused to allow this alibi, on the ground that wives, however undomestic, if not legally separated from their husbands, must share the citizenship of their men, Ganna Walska produced a lawyer who last week said he would appeal to Washington because:

"The enlightened and progressive conception of feminine rights has worn away every rule of law or custom which placed the wife in a different or less favorable position as a human being than her husband.

"The right to own and manage her own property, to retain her earnings and protect and safeguard her rights by the vote and otherwise has now become an accepted fact.

"The proposition that a wife is an independent thinking being whose wishes are not subordinate to those of her husband is now almost universally accepted as axiomatic."

Customs officials at Washington, unlike those at the Port of New York, showed some sympathy with this viewpoint. They admitted solemnly that for several years the right has been recognized of a woman of foreign birth (Ganna Walska is a Pole) who married a U. S. citizen to retain her own nationality together with its privileges. In addition they confessed that there were precedents for a U. S. citizen who has established legal residence abroad (as Ganna Walska has done in Paris) bringing personal effects to the U. S. without paying duty.

While her position grew thus to appear more tenable, Ganna Walska adopted different and less characteristic tactics. She went down to where her trunks were being held and proved that most of the private fortune which they contained she had taken with her away from the U. S. on the occasion of her departure in 1925. This accomplished, she took most of the things away with her; the crisis of Ganna Walska's dresses and jewels dwindled into an almost entirely theoretical question of "women's rights." Harold McCormick, who by this time had gladly produced an affidavit corroborating his wife's statement that she lived abroad, was doubtless glad to see the rumpus dwindle, even after so hideous a sputter, to a conclusion that did not include a senate investigation or even a hanging.

Bubbling with conceit and excitement, Ganna Walska revealed her true self, a feat which Harold McCormick has never been able to achieve, to reporters in Chicago. "My object in this world," she said, "is to think new thoughts."

Monday, Nov. 22, 1926

2007-09-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

Royalty Rambles

"As one queen to another, Denver greeted Marie of Rumania." Thus, one day last week, the Denver Post, self-styled "The Best Newspaper in the U. S.A." touched off its red-spattered front page. The city, its major streets decked with bunting in the Rumanian colors (red, blue and yellow), accorded Her Majesty perhaps the warmest welcome she had received on her American tour (TIME, Oct. 18 et seq.).

At Omaha the National Convention of Hoboes adopted last week a resolution: "It is offensive to us that the railways are providing free transportation to Queen Marie while our members are obliged to steal rides at great risk of life and limb."

From Hastings, Neb., Her Majesty spoke over a broadcasting hook-up with Eastern radio stations to His Majesty Ferdinand I., King of Rumania, who listened in at Bucharest. Said Queen Marie: "My King, it seems incredible that I should be able to talk to you from a far away land." King Ferdinand, unprovided with a trans-Atlantic patent transmitter, could not reply.

At Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Albert Isaac Beach declared at the height of a spontaneously enthusiastic reception: "This is the greatest day in the history of Kansas City!"

At St. Louis Queen Marie acted as godmother for a child of Rumanian parentage, two-year-old Marie Weber of Smackover, Ark. Before the St. Louis Women's Clubs luncheon, Her Majesty said: "I am struck with the wonderful lives of the women here."

Arriving at Chicago Queen Marie halted for a longer time than at any other stop except Manhattan: four days.

A luncheon in Her Majesty's honor at the greystone mansion of Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick was actually if not officially the focus of the Chicago stop. While the ever present Rockefeller-McCormick special police prowled, the Rockefeller-McCormick gold plate was laid out for a luncheon of 80 covers. Various McCormicks, several of the Armours, and Prince and Princess Cantacuzene provided the background of local aristocracy. At the Queen's table, beaming with good nature, sat "Sam" Hill, rich railway tycoon, who had rushed to Chicago from Seattle in his private car. He has followed Queen Marie about the country, sometimes in his private car, sometimes on her private train, and announced last week his intention of continuing this procedure until Her Majesty sails for Europe in December.

Chicago Tribune columnist R. H. L. (Richard Henry Little) implored his fellow citizens last week as follows:

Now daylight bandits, a word to you,

Don't fill us full of shame

By stealing from the railroad tracks

The Queen's own special train.

Today let's don't be rude or mean,

There's naught could be absurder,

Let's keep our faces bright and clean,

And boys—now, please, no murder.

To refresh herself prior to visiting the steel mills of Gary, Indiana, Queen Marie hastened to the Chicago Racquet Club, donned a modish bathing garment, swam with vigor for ten minutes in the pool. Hastening to Gary, she viewed the mechanical operations of steel working from a glass-inclosed moving observation platform, but descended from it to stand beside the thrilling cascades of moulten metal. Amid the glare of the furnaces her regal and commanding presence was revealed at last in an approximately iridescent milieu.

Hot Wheels

2007-09-11T12:57:00.000-05:00

I have had this photo on file quite some time as I knew there was a tale behind it related to Edith Rockefeller McCormick. I recently discovered the source of the photo, with the attached story concerning the Brander family of Chicago.

The Brander family were in the banking business, & they were close friends of the J.P. Morgans and the Rockefellers. Concerning the Rockefellers, a relative wrote:

One of the fun stories that went with the V-16 was that the Cadillac agency phoned my grandmother asking if they could have her car for a day to show Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick, so she could have an identical car made. My grandmother told them that Mrs. Rockefeller should have her own car made, not a copy of my grandmother's car. (Incidentally...they were very close friends.)

1 July, 1929

2007-09-10T15:22:00.000-05:00

Heiress, Inc.

The conventional modes of employing great wealth have not appealed to Edith, daughter of John D. Rockefeller, one-time wife of Harold Fowler McCormick, lion huntress, psychoanalyst, philanthropist, social arbiter. Her method of using her money was to incorporate herself. In 1923 she organized the Edith Rockefeller McCormick Trust, capitalized with a five-million-dollar contribution from her and $1,500 apiece from Chicago realtors Edwin D. Krenn and Edward A. Dato. Last week the E. R. M. Trust announced a new financing of eleven million dollars in five year 6% gold notes, "unconditionally guaranteed as to payment of principal and interest by Edith Rockefeller McCormick." The notes are secured by Edith Rockefeller McCormick's holdings in Standard Oil Companies of New Jersey,

New York, Indiana, Ohio, California; Union Tank Car Co., Vacuum Oil Co., Atlantic Refining Co., Illinois Pipe Line Co., Continental Oil Co., Columbia Gas and Electric Corp.

Proceeds of the issue will be applied to the operation and expansion of the Trust's real estate, which is mostly in north side Chicago property. The Trust has developed many a Chicago subdivision, has bought up many a Gold Coast home and erected apartment buildings on the sites. Thus all U. S. citizens with $1,000 or multiples thereof have the opportunity to make a conservative short-term investment with no tremendous yield but with almost governmental safety.

Lake Shore Drive 1926

2007-08-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

Looking north from the Drake Hotel in 1926 is a portion of the famous 'Gold Coast' before the days of the double drive. The home of Edith Rockefeller McCormick is seen at the left, at Bellevue Place and the Oak Street Beach at the right.

August 25th 2007

2007-08-25T02:01:00.000-05:00

Edith Rockefeller McCormick

b 31 August 1872 - d 25 August 1932

Enjoy Your Week-End

2007-08-24T13:26:00.001-05:00

Edith's Desk

2007-08-23T11:27:00.000-05:00

This desk was once a part of Villa Turicum. I am currently researching it for a woman who is moving it to California. (So many Villa Turicum articles have made their way there.)

1 August, 1932

2007-08-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

Dowager at the Drake

A pale, ailing dowager who bears an increasing resemblance to her father, John Davison Rockefeller, was installed in a four-room suite at Chicago's Drake Hotel last week. The rooms, overlooking Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan's wave-rimmed shore, were so expensive that many persons would be glad to call them "home." But to Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick the move was a heartbreaking acquiescence to the condition she always speaks of as "the change." Once worth 40, 50, perhaps 60 million dollars, last week in her 60th year she found her tremendous fortune largely vanished.

"To say that Mrs. McCormick is broke is absurd," protested a plumpish, rosy-cheeked' little man who is seen with Mrs. McCormick almost every day. "When one is broke one cannot meet one's obligations. Mrs. McCormick can meet hers."

It was Mrs. McCormick's obligations which led her into her stringency. They began to arise in 1921 when she and the plumpish little man began doing business. He is Edwin D. Krenn, reputedly 37 years old, a Swiss architect. He and his future patroness met while they were studying at Dr. Jung's clinic of psychology in Zurich in 1913. He was with Mrs. McCormick when she returned to the U. S. in 1921. That year he formed the real estate firm of Krenn & Dato, in which Mrs. McCormick is thought to have invested $13,000,000. Although at one time it employed hundreds of salesmen, to whom Mrs. McCormick on occasion gave "pep talks," it has not been strikingly successful.

In 1923 she formed a trust bearing her name to consolidate, operate and develop some of her real estate properties which as late as 1931 were valued at $12,000,000. They consisted chiefly of office buildings in the business district, subdivisions at Highland Park Highlands, Edithton (named for her) Beach and a section near Evanston. In 1929 the Trust needed new working capital, had to pay off bank loans. Mrs. McCormick endorsed an $11,000,000 bond issue which was further secured by $18,000,000 worth of securities, chiefly in Standard Oil of New Jersey.* When 15,000 tenants found themselves unable to pay rent she was unwilling to evict them. The Trust's income and securities both began to fall. The securities were sold to pay the bond issue. Bank loans were called. Mrs. McCormick met her obligations but in doing so had to place a $220,000 mortgage on her Lake Forest home and a $557,500 mortgage on the mansion at No. 1000 Lake Shore Drive which was a wedding present from her father. Now, on sunny days, she sometimes leaves the Drake to cross the Drive and enter the garden of her closed home. She must often muse over the scenes behind the foreboding Romanesque walls of grey stone when she was Chicago's No. 1 Hostess, serving meals off gold plates, discussing her favorite subjects of art, astrology, numerology, "synthetic psychology." Mrs. McCormick is not left lonely in her adversity. Mr. Krenn is as constant a companion as ever although until Mrs. McCormick recovers her health they will not be seen as of old in the neighborhood cinema, where they sat always in the back row, or at the theatre, chatting in German. Mrs. McCormick's brother, John D. Jr., recently rushed to Chicago to advise her, the first time he had seen her since she returned to the U. S. in 1921 with Mr. Krenn. Although Brother John is not thought to have aided his sister to a great extent, the reconciliation is said to be such that soon she may pay a visit to the Rockefeller Patriarch at Pocantico Hills. Chicago imagines that when she does, Mr. Krenn will not accompany her. For much as the Rockefellers respect his untiring devotion, and his confidence that she "will again be the richest woman in Chicago," they have had small respect for the business advice he gave the Dowager at the Drake.

*The bulk of Mrs. McCormick's fortune is in Standard Oil of Indiana, in which she is the largest shareholder. The company's dividend is now $1 annually against a regular dividend of $2.50 in 1929.

Mark Your Calendars

2007-08-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

I've been communicating with the Director of Programs at Lake Forest - Lake Bluff Historical Society this summer. For those of you who might not be familiar with the organization here's an excerpt of their storey:

On January 6, 1972, the Lake Forester and the Lake Bluff Review carried an article, which stated, “In the midst of change, Lake Forest has a unique past, one which should not be forgotten. Surprisingly, Lake Forest is one of the few communities in the area without a historical society.” Almost simultaneously, the same thought occurred to several civic-minded residents of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, and they determined to remedy the situation by forming a local historical society. The first board met on April 22, 1972. One of the society’s first official projects was to support the saving of The Evergreens, a mid-nineteenth century estate.

Fast forward to this summer, in which the Society's event was tours of the Lasker Estate. This successful event led to an idea for next summer's agenda; "What about a program devoted to one of Lake Forest's lost estates - say, Villa Turicum? They did a google search which of course led them to the Villa Turicum website, and then on to me. I'm pleased to say that I have decided to contribute my time and research and materials to the effort.

I will keep you all posted as things develop, and those of you with information or photos (I'm planning to do a slideshow presentation) that could be of help would greatly be appreciated.

Oh yes. I titled this post, "Mark Your Calendars" didn't I? The LFLBHS Fall Benefit is just around the corner:

FALL BENEFIT
Thursday September 27, 2007
Save the Date!
Luncheon and Silent Auction at Shoreacres
Guest Speaker Caroline Preston, author of Gatsby’s Girl

I'll see you there!

Welcome

2007-08-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

This is my first post for the newly constructed Villa Turicum blog. This site is an offshoot of the more established website, http://villaturicum.com/. I created the Villa blog to keep people up-to-date on events and my discoveries concerning that magical place of Edith's. This also serves as a forum to express myself more casually concerning the estate; allowing all elements of me and my research concerning Villa Turicum.

What I am most excited about is this this blog presents the opportunity for you, the reader, to become involved as well. The comment section at the bottom of each post shall always remain open and unedited. The entire blog is designed for all of us to exchange ideas and opinions about the McCormicks, Edith, Harold, the Villa, Platt - you name it.

I look forward to serving you in the future as your blog administrator and acquaintance.

-Todd