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By Bob Pratt, Docent Class of 2019
Photographs by the author

It’s time for a North Shore history quiz:

1. Which is the youngest lakefront suburb on the North Shore?

2. What village’s founder lived in a Prairie Avenue home designed for him by his good friend Daniel Burnham before moving to his own new community?

3. What village’s streets are angled on a Southwest-Northeast grid, optimizing available sunlight? 

4. In which village did famed Prairie architect George Washington Maher design more homes (including his own) and public buildings than in any other?

5. What village’s name and street names were borrowed from a romantic novel by Sir Walter Scott?

6. What village’s founder is the grandfather of our own Barry Sears, for whom our library is named?

Yes, the answer to each of these questions is Kenilworth.  If you join us on one of the six scheduled Kenilworth walking tour dates this year (two of them in June), you’ll discover much more about the surprisingly rich history and architecture of this compact community, whose 2,500 residents occupy a village covering less than two-thirds of a square mile. 

The tour focuses on Kenilworth’s early days, from its founding in 1890 through the late 1920s, when it became part of an early wave of suburban exodus from the city, along commuter train lines and near the lake. 

As Chicago became increasingly crowded and unhealthy, Prairie Avenue resident Joseph Sears saw an opportunity for a new planned lakefront suburb. Sears acquired some 223 acres of undistinguished woodlands and wetlands between the established communities of Winnetka and Wilmette. He, along with a small group of colleagues, created the Kenilworth Company and set about to plan and develop a community with an English theme, inspired by an earlier family visit to Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. His new community would emphasize quality of life and access to civic, educational, and religious institutions. This was not just a business proposition—Sears and his friends would make Kenilworth their own homes. 

Kenilworth became a showcase for notable architects hired by new residents who were required to meet minimum building cost requirements. In addition to George Maher, we’ll see examples of the work of Joseph Lyman Silsbee, John Van Bergen, George Nimmons, and Franklin Burnham, Kenilworth’s official architect for eight years.

We’ll also meet some fascinating first residents. Mary Pratt was a spiritualist and an accomplished musician who regularly entertained her living neighbors as well as “invisible ones,” for whom she rented extra chairs from the local livery. “Sunday at Mrs. Pratt’s” was an occasion for music and for speakers. Jane Addams  spoke in 1895 on the importance of the settlement house movement.

Paul Starrett was an architect in Daniel Burnham’s office until he found his true calling as a builder. He became the best-known American builder of the early twentieth century. Firms he led constructed the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, the Lincoln Memorial, among others. A home he designed for himself is on our tour.

Timber magnate James Culbertson was the first President of the Village Board of Trustees and a prominent benefactor. Wintering in Pasadena, also a leader there, he helped transform a small college into the pre-eminent institution we know today as Cal Tech.

We offer the Kenilworth tour in cooperation with the Kenilworth Historical Society that co-markets the tour and offers an optional reception and open house at its conclusion. 

2023 TOUR SCHEDULE:

All departures 1:30 PM from the Kenilworth Train Station.  Sundays unless otherwise noted.

June 11   

June 30  (Fri.)

July 9

August 11  (Fri.)

Sept. 17

Oct. 8

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