Graham-Ginestra House - Rockford, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 42° 15.685 W 089° 06.038
16T E 326740 N 4680938
Historic stone house in south Rockford, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WM4059
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/15/2008
Views: 35
"The Graham-Ginestra House was constructed in 1857. The original owner,
Freeman Graham, Sr., was a prominent local businessman who built the first sour
mash distillery in the State of Illinois, and achieved a national reputation for
his whiskies. Graham was also part owner of the Rockford Cotton Mills, and
his home at 1115 S. Main Street was located approximately midway between the
Mills (202 S. Main) and the Graham Distillery (1602-08 S. Main).
The Grahams were one of the most influential Rockford families to settle on
the city's southwest side. Freeman Graham originally came to Rockford to
manage Emerson, Talcott, & Company, a manufacturer of farm implements located in
the city's "Water Power" District a few blocks from the (later) Graham
residence. He had been apprenticed for seven years in the east as a maker
of cotton and woolen machines, and had served as both a justice of the peace and
a member of the Connecticut Legislature before migrating to the Midwest. In
Rockford he was elected as the Fifth Ward Alerman.
On the death of Freeman Graham in 1896, the family business was divided among
three sons, and the house itself bequeathed to a daughter, Julia, and her
husband, Henry S. Warner, secretary-treasurer of the Graham Match Company.
The Warners lived in the house until 1927, when they sold it to a Sicilian
immigrant named Leo Ginestra.
South Rockford in the 1920's was the center of a rapidly-expanding Italian
immigrant community (eventually to become the city's second largest ethnic
group), and the Ginestra home on S. Main Street was situated along its
main commercial thoroughfare, directly across the street from the Rialto and
Capitol Theatres.
Leo Ginestra lived in the house until his death in May 1978. He was a
real estate assessor, machinist, and maintenance mechanic, who owned a mobile
home park on S. Main Street beyond the city limits. He enjoyed a
reputation in the Italian community as both an amateur musician and wine-maker,
Though the complexion of South Rockford changed in later years as many of the
original immigrant families moved to other parts of the city, and S. Main Street
itself suffered increasingly from commercial blight, the Ginestras continued to
maintain the house and grounds. Today the house is easily the most
habitable structure on S. Main Street with the city limits." -
National Register Nomination Form