LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION:
HISTORY OF YOUR WILMETTE HOUSE

Sources in the Wilmette Public Library

The library has some materials that might be helpful as you begin a search on the history of your house. Newspaper articles and house-walk programs detail the history of some of the older houses in the village. Names of previous owners can be found by consulting city directories and telephone books. Maps show changes in street names and zoning, and the Sanbourne maps may show the outline shape of the house itself. Photographs can be useful for documenting changes in appearance over the years. The Wilmette Historical Museum has published a useful brochure Researching the History of Your Wilmette House.

Architects

The Local History Room has some materials on local architects in the files under ARCHITECTS.

Books

Bach, Ira J., A guide to Chicago’s historic suburbs on wheels and on foot. Chicago: Ohio University Press, 1981. [Ref 917.73 BA]

Organized by county, and then by town, the book consists of thirty-five walking tours from one historic house to the next in each of thirty-five towns. The walk in Wilmette includes twenty-four houses in east Wilmette primarily along Lake and Forest Avenues (pp.535-547). Kenilworth sites are located along Kenilworth and Melrose Avenues (pp.551-564). Some photographs are included. Check for available copy.

Architectural album, Chicago’s North Shore. The Junior League of Evanston. Evanston: Junior League, 1988. [917.731 AR]

Contains photos and descriptions of eight architecturally significant houses in Wilmette in addition to those featured in Evanston, Winnetka, Kenilworth, Highland Park, Glencoe, Highwood, Fort Sheridan, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff. At the end of the book is a bibliography of books about architecture in the area. Check for available copy.

City Directories and Telephone Books

The library owns an 1893 city directory for Wilmette and Evanston, and five Polk City Directories covering Glencoe, Kenilworth, Wilmette, and Winnetka for the years 1927-1928, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1939. Directories are indexed by address and by name of inhabitant. The library also has telephone books for Wilmette and Kenilworth for the following years: 1909-1912, 1924-1942, 1945, 1961-1963, 1965-1968, 1982. Telephone books are organized by the name of the owner, not by address. Telephone books and city directories are kept in the wooden cabinet opposite the work counter in the Local History Room.

Examination of Titles

Several examinations of titles and deeds for early land transaction in the village are kept in the local history room. Included is a title search dating back to the Ouilmette family. Copies of deeds to property owned by some of the early residents are also among these papers. The material is unindexed, and requires a knowledge of the legal description of the property to identify the deed for a specific lot.

Maps

Chicago Illinois: Vol. J. Sanbourne Map Company, 1914. The library owns one copy of the Sanborne insurance maps covering the Wilmette area. The maps show the outline of each building on its lot. The volume of maps is located in the library’s Local History Room. ****No photocopying is permitted because of the fragility of the book***

Olcott’s Land Values Blue Book of Chicago and Suburbs. Chicago: Olcott. [Local History 333.332 OL]. This series of books contains maps showing zoning and value of land in each area.

The library owns only 1991 and 1994, but issues back to 1925 are can be found at Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville. Use this series to document changes in street names, zoning, development and the value of land at the time. Check catalog for holdings.

Newspaper clippings

Clippings about local houses are organized in the history files by address under the heading HOUSES. In addition, if you know the year or approximate year of the building, you may find a story about its construction, or its owners, in the newspaper of the time. The library has microfilms of local newspapers dating back to 1890. Some older papers are included in the library’s online index to the local papers.

Ownership indexes

These indexes are organized by address. The library has two copies of the basic ownership index for Wilmette dated July 1, 1936 and the following supplemental ownership indexes: July 1, 1936–September 1, 1936; July 1, 1937–March 1, 1959; October 1960–March 1962. The ownership indexes are located in the local history room. They may not be photocopied because of the fragility of the books.

Photographs

The library has a few photographs of local houses. The Index to photographs, kept on the counter in the Local History Room, groups the photos by address under HOUSES, OLD. Copies of the photographs for personal use can be made for a fee through a joint program with the Wilmette Historical Museum. The fee schedule is located in the notebook with the index to the photographs.

Sale records

1978 -1997 listings of house sales clipped from the Wilmette Life are filed under HOUSE PRICES in the Local History Room. If you know the approximate date of the sale of the house, the clippings give the price of sale. Names of seller and buyer were included only after March 1994. Since 1998, property transfers are found in the library’s online index to the Wilmette Life linked to the web page at http://news.wilmette.lib.il.us. Browse under “House sales,” or search by address.

Tax lists

Cook County real property assessments for New Trier Township are published periodically in the Wilmette Life. The lists are organized by address and provide the owner’s name in addition to the value of the property. Paper copies of recent lists are kept at the Reference Desk, and older issues can be found in the microfilmed Wilmette Life.

Wilmette Community Development Office, 1200 Wilmette Ave, Wilmette, IL 60091 Phone: 847-251-2700

This office has microfilm copies of building permits dating back to 1920. Many of the earlier records were destroyed by a tornado that swept through the village in that year. The office also has architectural inventories conducted of the buildings in east Wilmette in 1992, Grosse Point area in 1991, and in Indian Hills in 1995. These surveys included photos and information on the architectural significance of each building. Copies of the surveys are also located in the Wilmette Historical Museum

Wilmette Historical Museum, 609 Ridge Rd.,Wilmette, IL 60091 Phone: 847-853-7666

Wilmette Historical Museum contains numerous resources for researching Wilmette houses. These include abstracts of titles, house walk programs, real estate listings form the 1940s to the 1970s, street directories, telephone books, building permit receipts, house files by street address, information on noted architects in Wilmette, data on houses recognized by the Wilmette Historical Society and Wilmette Preservation Commission as having historical and architectural merit. Detailed information on the Museum’s holdings can be found in its publication, Researching the History of Your Wilmette House.

Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Tract Department, County Building of Chicago, 118 N. Clark, Chicago.

Complete records of ownership of property since 1872 (after the Chicago Fire) can be found in this office. If you provide the street address, you will be referred to the appropriate books, or you can pay a title search company to do the work for you. You cannot always find the date of actual construction of the building, although you often can make some determination of it from the record.

Compiled by Karen Miller, Revised September 2005.

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