07/16/2025
2744 (1529) North Mozart Street
2744 (1529) North Mozart Street is a 2-story brick dwelling with a stone front and frame porches. One of Chicago’s iconic greystones, its front facade is fashioned from Bedford limestone mined in Indiana, smooth stones on the upper level and rusticated on the bottom.
The building permit was registered on August 5, 1897 by architect Edward H. Nordlie and mason Charles W. Labinsky. The permit indicates their plan for a 2-story brick flat at the cost of $2,200. Labinsky’s name on the permit is miswritten as “Lovinsky” and in the building permit log it is miswritten as “Loviensky.” The Chicago Masons’ and Builders’ Association directory from this period allows us to identify those as typos.
Edward Nordlie was a native Chicagoan and son of Norwegian immigrants. He was an architect, a contractor, and eventually Chief Examiner of Plans for Chicago’s Department of Buildings. Charles W. Labinsky was a native Chicagoan and son of German immigrants. He worked as a masonry contractor, eventually going on to form the Abbey Brick Company. At the time the house was built, Nordlie and Labinsky were working together under the name “Labinsky & Nordlie,” masonry contractors.
The year prior to the build date, Labinsky made the papers after engaging in a bar fight at “Matt Brown’s salon at Lincoln and Graceland” when another patron’s horse pulled their buggy up against his and blocked him in. Labinsky and the horse’s owner, Frederick Kohlmeyer, had words and exchanged blows and Frederick fell backward striking his head on a street car track. Though he was booked for “assault with attempt to murder,” the article notes that he was known in Lakeview as a “hard-working young man of peaceful disposition who had accumulated a snug sum by strict attention to business.” Luckily, from what I can tell, Kohlmeyer lived.
Despite Nordlie and Labinsky’s permit designation of a “flats” dwelling, as early as 1910 this building was listed for sale as a “stone front house…8 room modern residence.” Again in 1918, the building was listed for rent as a “2-story brick residence.” And from that time forward every sale or rental listing lists the property as a single family dwelling. Additionally, census data consistently records single families residing in the house, and only occasionally with borders.
With its 1897 build date, we just miss the earliest Sanborn map of the area, published in 1896. In that unrevised 1896 map sheet, there is only one brick residence with stone front, located at 2726 (1511) Mozart St. (Clinton Ave) (9 lots north of Schubert (Conneaut)) on the sheet. There are no other greystones, only frame and brick structures. So certainly, 2744 is one of the first greystones to be built in the immediate area.
Luckily, the Chicago History Museum has a copy of the 1896 Sanborn map with corrections through July 1920, so we get an earlier glimpse of this house than is printed in the 1921 map! The revised 1896 map shows 2744 (1529) as a two-story plus basement dwelling with brick construction and a stone front. The main roof is indicated to be composition. There is a one-story frame back porch with a shingle roof, but interestingly there is no porch on the front of the building. There is also no out-building at the back of the lot.
By the 1921 edit, the house has a one-story frame front porch with a slate or metal roof added. The back porch now has a composition roof. Interestingly, there is a third frame structure indicated on the south side of the building in front of the side bay window. To the back of the lot there is a one-story frame shed with a shingle roof. At some point between then and 1950 the shed was revised to a one-story frame garage with composition roof.
Notably, the Sanborn map shows the building originally had a stone or metal cornice (versus frame, indicated by a solid line around the front of the building). Hints as to what the original cornice may have looked like can be found in the two merlons that still exist on the north and south ends of the roof, which bring to mind a crenellated roofline. There is also some stone ornamentation surviving above the north side second story window on the front facade that may hold clues to the architectural style once exhibited. 2744 is an early greystone and there is no reason not to think that it would have originally had an ornamental stone cornice.
The first family to live in here were the Roeders, who built the house, according to the historical tract sheet. The house makes its first census appearance in 1900 with the Roeder family in residence. In 1900, Henry Roeder, a 51-year-old station engineer was listed as head of household. Also living in the house was Henry’s 51-year-old wife Annie. At the time of the census they had been married for 29 years. Both emigrated from Germany in 1865. The census indicates they had one child, living, but not living with them. In December of 1899, Henry transferred ownership of the house to Anna’s name. In January of 1900, he petitioned for bankruptcy, listing no assets. In 1901, Henry petitioned the Chicago Civil Service commission to be transferred to work at the crib (offshore structures that channeled lake water into underground tunnels for drinking), a position that had “been refused by many engineers.” A new crib, named for Mayor Carter H. Harrison had just been completed in 1900, so perhaps this is where Henry Roeder was asking to be stationed.
By 1903, 2744 was home to the McGaffey family. Judging by the historic tract sheet, the McGaffey’s were renting from the Roeders. Ernest McGaffey was an attorney, a poet, and private secretary to Mayor Carter H. Harrison. McGaffey appears to have experienced his heyday while living in in this home. Although considered a minor poet today, at the time McGaffey was well-known and well-published nationally. He was even referred to as the “poet laureate of Chicago.” McGaffey published his celebrated book “Sonnets to a Wife” in 1901. The book was dedicated to his wife Cecilia Rafalsky and was highly praised in newspapers across the country.
McGaffey’s past, however, was both less public and less rose colored. In 1884, before Cecilia, McGaffey met Lizzie Gordon. They were married two years later. In 1890, Ernest and Lizzie had a son, Wyatt Gordon, who passed away at just five weeks old. One year later, their daughter, Edith, died at just four months. According to a newspaper notice published by Lizzie’s lawyers in 1895, Ernest deserted her in Chicago in 1892. They were divorced in 1896.
Around that time, McGaffey shared an apartment with Edgar Lee Masters (also an attorney and poet), who would go on to write the Spoon River Anthology. Also sharing the apartment was attorney Kickham Scanlon. All three lawyers practiced law in Clarence Darrow’s firm (considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century, gaining fame for the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "monkey" trial). In 1898, McGaffey set his attentions on an old childhood neighbor of his, Cecilia Rafalsky. Rumors of their rumored elopement made front page news.
The McGaffey's first child together was born in the house on November 6, 1903, just two months before Ernest was called upon to send a telegram to Mayor Harrison harkening him back to the city from a hunting trip to attend to the aftermath of the Iroquois Theater fire disaster.
In February of 1904, newspapers reported that “Ernest McGaffey Has Pneumonia” and was “ill at his home, 1529 Mozart.” His physician Dr. Burroughs was summoned to treat him.
Theodore Roosevelt admired McGaffey’s work and in 1902 “asked him to dine with him. The invitation of course was accepted.” A correspondence between the two began and many wonderful letters from Roosevelt to Ernest can be found in the digital library of Dickinson State University’s Theodore Roosevelt Center.
There is also a wonderful handwritten artifact from Ernest McGaffey in the California State Library Biographical Files. On the index card bearing his name, he writes his own biographical note: “Lawyer, appointed on Board of Local Inspectors by Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago for 2 year term from 1901 to 1903. From 1903 to 1905 was private secretary to Mayor Harrison to retiring in 1905, am active Democrat, Do not belong to any learned societies and do not know nor have ever met any learned people.” On the line “Where educated,” McGaffey writes, “College of ‘Hard knocks,’ 2 years in public school.”
By 1909 the McGaffeys had ended up in Portland, where the Oregon Daily Journal printed a story about their involvement in efforts against the White Plague (tuberculosis) that included a wonderful photograph of Cecelia McGaffey and referenced their friendship with Theodore Roosevelt.
In mid-1904, Marie Mahr purchased the house. The 1910 census shows 50-year-old Marie Mahr as head of household. Mahr immigrated from Germany in 1882. In 1897 she married Ernest Mahr, and according to the census this was her second marriage. I was not able to find anything conclusive about what happened to either of her two husbands, but Marie was not indicated as widowed and Ernest was not listed as residing at the house. Marie’s two daughters, her brother, and a border were living with her at the time of the census: Katherine Lange, 24, who was working as a foods demonstrator; Louisa F. Lange, 18, who was working as a stenographer; Henry Schoening, 46, a shoe maker; and 26-year-old Florence M. Crocker who, like Katherine, was working as a foods demonstrator.
In March, April, and May 1910, 2744 was listed for sale with the note that the owner was leaving the city. The building was described as a “brick stone front house…. Sale - bargain 8 room modern residence” and later as a “7 room brick residence.”
Around 1912 until 1922, Julius Fergan bought the property, but it appears that he rented it out and did not actually live in the house himself.
The 1911 & 1912 Lakeside Annual Directories show Frank E. Falkenberg, living at 2744. Two of his sons, Charles V. and William A. are also listed in residence at the house.
At the Falkenberg’s prior residence (829 (320) N Damen (Robey)) Frank and his wife, Mary Elizabeth McNamara, were living not only with Charles and William, but with sons Frank E. Jr and Clarence T., as well as daughters Marie A. and Helen Genevieve. In the census subsequent to their move from your house, the family remains together, minus Helen who sadly passed away in 1918, so it is reasonable to assume the entire family was living at 2744 at the time that Frank, Charles, and William appear in the city directories at the address.
Frank was a pharmacist and drug store owner. Mary Elizabeth McNamara, the matriarch of the family, was a graduate of the Hershey School of Music and was the organist at both St. Malachy’s church and St. Columbkille’s church. According to the Directory and Register of Chicago’s Women’s Clubs of 1914, she was active in the Catholic Women’s League and The Women’s Club of the Allied Drug Trade. Daughter Marie worked as a music teacher and Frank Jr. and Clarence both worked as assistant traffic managers for a piano company at some point. William worked as a print designer for a construction company. Charles V. was a lawyer and was noted by the Chicago Tribune as one of Chicago’s civic leaders.
I was incredibly lucky to find photographs of both Frank and Mary Falkenberg in the public trees on Ancestry.
A 1915 classifieds listing advertises the sale of all of the “furniture of a 7 room house,” including a piano and bench, an oak phonograph and records at 2744 Mozart St, so perhaps this is when the Falkenberg’s left the home.
Information for the years between 1915 and 1920 is scant, but draft registration cards from 1917 show two single Swedish men at the address: Axel Oscar Antonson, a piano polisher for Cable Piano at 22nd and Paulina and Carl Elis Johnson, a packer at Marshall Fields & Co at Quincy and 5th. Throughout this time, Julius Fergan still owned the property.
In April 1918, 2744 was listed for rent as a two-story brick residence, with instructions to call on Fergen at 2636 Washtenaw.
The 1920 census confirms renters were eventually found. The Keefe family was in residence with 46-year-old Mary Keefe as head of house. Mary was Irish, but born in England. Her husband Daniel, a plumber, had died in 1916. Living with her at the time of the census were her five children: Ruth, a 26-year-old bookkeeper; Raymond, a 24-year-old plumber; Vera, a 20-year-old stenographer; and Warren and Richard, 16 and 15 years old respectively, who were both at school. Professional publications from 1921 and 1922 show Ray Keefe as the president of the Lutz Plumbing corporation, but by 1923 Lutz Plumbing had been dissolved.
In 1927, Frank C. Adams bought the house from Julius Fergan. The next three census reports, 1930, 1940 and the last publicly available census in 1950, show the Adams family as owners and the tract sheet confirms the Adams family did not sell the property until 1970!
Though the tract sheet shows Frank C. Adams as owner, on census sheets Frank’s widowed mother Wilhelmina was listed as head of house. The family patriarch Gustav Albin Theodor Adam, whom Wilhelmina had married in Dresden in 1890, had passed away in 1902.
Wilhelmina Adams immigrated from Germany with Gustav in 1892 on a steamship called The Stuttgart. The 1930 census shows her as 65-year-old head of house. The purchase price of 2477 is listed as $10,000. Living with her were three of her children: 36-year-old Frank, a traveling salesman for a hardware manufacturer; 27-year-old Walter, a bookkeeper for a hardware manufacturer; and 46-year-old Hulda Koch, who was widowed like her mother. The 1930 census shows they had a radio in the house.
Hulda Koch, formerly Wetzel, was Gustav’s step daughter, born eight years before Wilhelmina married him in 1890. Wilhelmina had seven other children with Gustav: Arthur Theodore who died in childhood, Ida (Bullett), Frank, Frieda (Carls), Theda, William, and Elsie (Beeny). Hulda and Ida had come with Wilhelmina and Gustav from Germany, when they were just five years old and six months old, respectively.
The 1940 census shows circumstances unchanged with Wilhelmina, by then 75, still living with three of her single adult children. Not listed on the census, but indicated as in residence via 1940 draft card records, were Wilhelmina’s daughter Ida and her husband Paul Bullett, a sign painter who owned his own business at 2445 S. Princeton.
Wilhelmina passed away in 1947, and Frank took over as head of house at 2744. In the 1950 census, Frank is 56 years old and still single. Living with Frank are Paul and Ida, Hulda, and Walter, who was by then working as an accountant for a steel foundry and was also still single. Frank passed away in 1958. Walter and Hulda both passed away in 1970.
Ownership of the house passed from Frank to Walter to Ida to Hulda and then briefly to Frieda before the property was sold in 1975 to M. B. Burka.
The property was listed for sale again in 1983 - publicized as the home of an avid antique collector.
References
Census Reports
Year: 1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 15, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 265; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0497
Year: 1910; Census Place: Chicago Ward 28, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T624_273; Page: 5a; Enumeration District: 1220; FHL microfilm: 1374286
Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 28, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_343; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 1693
Year: 1930; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 1321; FHL microfilm: 2340207
Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00987; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 103-2078
National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 2954; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 103-3110
Maps
Sanborn Map Chicago Volume 10, sheet 43 for 1921
Sanborn Map Chicago Volume 10, sheet 43 for 1921 revised to 1950
Directories, Reports, Catalogs, Professional Publications
The Economist: A Weekly Financial, Commercial and Real-estate Newspaper. United States: Economist Publishing Company, 1897.
Official Directory. United States: Chicago Masons' and Builders' Association, 1899.
Annual Report of the Chicago Civil Service Commission. United States: Chicago Civil Service Commission., 1901 & 1902.
Who's who in America. United States: A.N. Marquis, 1903.
The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago. United States: Williams, Donnelley & Company, 1912.
Radford's stores and flat buildings, Radford Architectural Company, 1913.
The Construction News. United States: Construction News Company, 1913.
Directory and Register of Women's Clubs: City of Chicago and Vicinity, 1914
Board of Ill. Federation of Women's Clubs. United States: Linden Brothers & Harry H. De Clerque, 1917.
Architect and Engineer. United States: Architect and engineer, 1929.
California State Library; Sacramento, California; Biographical Files
The Chicago greystone in historic North Lawndale, City Design Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2006.
Ephemera & Photographs
Streets -- Mozart Street -- Illinois -- Chicago [graphic]. Physical Description: 1 folder of photographic prints, Image file, Topic S, Chicago History Museum Abakanowicz Research Center
Turn of the Century photographs of Logan Square greystones, Copyright Holder
Logan Square Preservation Archive.
Souvenir Program of the Logan Square Festival & Circus, 1931, Logan Square Preservation Archive.
Ancestry Public Trees, Falkenberg_Susan
Articles
“McGaffey - Gordon Marriage Notice.” Boston Evening Transcript, Boston, Massachusetts, Sat, Aug 28, 1886
“Wyatt Gordon McGaffey Obituary.” The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois, Mon, May 26, 1890
“Edith McGaffey Obituary.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sat, Nov 28, 1891
Public Notice of Lizzie J McGaffey. The Daily Item, Lynn, Massachusetts, Sat, Nov 9, 1895
“Charles Labinski in Trouble.” The Chicago Chronicle, Chicago, Illinois, Tue, Apr 21, 1896
“Building Permits.” The Chicago Chronicle, Chicago, Illinois, Fri, Aug 6, 1897
McGaffey- Rafalsky Wedding Notice. The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois, Sun, Oct 16, 1898
Roeder to Roeder property transfer notice. Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sat, Dec 9, 1899
“Untried Men are Named By Mayor.” The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois, Tue, May 14, 1901
Ernest McGaffey’s Beautiful Young Wife.” The Kalamazoo Gazette, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sat, May 25, 1901
“Ernest McGaffey, the Chicago Poet.” Minneapolis Daily Times, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sun, Jun 23, 1901
“Current Literature Ernest McGaffey’s Rosary of Songs to Womanhood’s Honor.” The Inter Ocean
Chicago, Illinois, Mon, Jul 1, 1901
“Situation Wanted.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Fri, Jan 16, 1903
“McGaffey Now Wishes Muse Had Been Dumb.” The Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Indiana, Mon, Nov 9, 1903
“Furnishings of the Mayor’s Office.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wed, Dec 9, 1903
“Ernest McGaffey Has Pneumonia.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sat, Feb 27, 1904
“Portland Citizens Help Fight Great White Plague.” The Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, Oregon, Sun, Mar 28, 1909
“For Sale - A Ready Made House Never Fits Your Needs.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Thu, Apr 7, 1910
“For Sale at great Sacrifice.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wed, May 18, 1910
“New Incorporations (Abbey Brick Co).” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Fri, Jan 27, 1911
“Fruits of Executive Folly.” Pasadena Star-News, Pasadena, California · Saturday, September 07, 1912
“Classifieds - Mah. Piano and Bench.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tue, Sep 7, 1915
“For Sale Furniture of a 7 Room House.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tue, Nov 2, 1915
“To Rent - 2744 N Mozart St.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sat, Apr 20, 1918
“City of Chicago Refused a Loan.” The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Fri, Jun 18, 1920
“City’s Building for Year will Break Records.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tue, Dec 2, 1919
Wilhelmina Adams Obituary, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sun, Mar 23, 1947
“Edward H. Nordlie Obituary.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Thu, Mar 26, 1953
“Logan Sq Greystone / Antique Collector.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Sun, Nov 20, 1983
Websites
Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University
TheIroquistheater.com
Law Lit Net, Strangers to Us All, Ernest McGaffey
