96-23 DESIGNATING A LANDMARK - Laserfiche WebLink

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I i:.' i i, !',I`� ;(': '.I., !I , *Montgomery House i 695 West ��Iound Road Cuca 1840 i ;, "; The white farm house at the southwest corner of West ' '' Mound and North MacArthur Roads has been owned and occu- I,�� pied by a Montgomery since 1856. Prior to that the land�s owned by Philo Hale who gained title A�ril 1, 1837,from the �; U. S. A, Martin Van Buren, President. Aftec Mr. Hale died in � � 1847, the property was managed by the executors of his estate ��; until January 1, 1856, when W_ F. Montgomery purchased �; "forty acres more or Iess",including the homestead"for a con- sideration of S 1000." • The builder of the house is unknown;howeve;,members of the Montgomery family have given 1840 as the probable date of construction. Ihe rear part of the house is original with the front porch, entrance hall, parlor and poRions above, including the widow's walk on the roof, being built in 1885, by the first Montgomery owner, Wiiliam Fletcher Montgomery. Upon his death in I886, lus widow Amelia held title for her lifetime (1902) when it went to their daughter, Miss Emily S. Montgomery, who lived in the house until her death in 1928. In 1929, Mrs. Minnie Carolyn Renshaw Montgomery(Mrs. J. F.), sister-in-law of Miss Fmily, purchased the house and approximately forty acres for$8844. In 1941, Mrs. Montgomery turned the property over to her daughter, Miss Alberta Montgomery, who at this date holds title to the houze and to 4.16 acres of the land. The re- mainder of the farm was sold in 1958 for real estate develop- ments,the Montgomery Hills addition being one of them. Miss Alberta Montgomery is well known for her abilities in handcrafts and cookery, having acquired many Illinois State Fair blue ribbons over the years. Perhaps this is not unusual ,, considering that Miss Montgomery, an early art teacher at -• Decatur iugh school, was chosen during World War I to set up the largest occupational therapy unit in the United States at the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Washington, D.C. Later �� she did similar work at tlie Iowa University liospital in Iowa City. ;' This eight-room house with three fueplaces contains many family heirlooms inc(uding the wedding furniture of Miss Montgomery's parents. � ji �� 98