Clarke House Museum - Chicago, IL - History Museums on Waymarking.com

From their website: "The gracious Greek Revival style house shows what life was like for a family in Chicago during the city’s formative years before the Civil War. Its fascinating history began at a time when Chicago received its city charter and much of the area was still undeveloped prairie. Over the years, the house survived fires, belonged to a church, and was moved twice – during the second move, the house was stuck in the air for two weeks. The house is now located in the Chicago Women’s Park in the Prairie Avenue Historic District, and operated as a museum by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events."

"Henry Brown Clarke, a merchant from Utica, New York, moved to Chicago in 1835, having heard of the prairie town’s economic promise from his brother in law. Caroline Palmer Clarke and two of her three young children soon followed her husband to Chicago. Mr. Clarke became a partner in the wholesale hardware firm of Jones, King and Company. Their firm dealt in construction, farming, and trapping implements that were in great demand in the rapidly growing city of Chicago and throughout the Midwest."

"By 1977 the City owned what was considered the oldest surviving structure in Chicago. The decision to save the house was influenced by the availability of an appropriate site where it could be relocated. With grants from the State of Illinois, the City had purchased land near the original Clarke property between 18th and Cullerton Streets. The Clarke House could be relocated to the east side of Indiana Avenue between 1800 and 1900 south, approximately one block south and one block east of its original site, and it could face east toward the lake as it had in 1836."

For more information about the history of the Clarke family and their house see the website.

We visited during the annual Open House Chicago event in October 2014.

Theme: Chicago cultural history Street Address: 1827 S. Indiana Ave. Chicago, IL 60616 Food Court: no Gift Shop: no Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 1pm and 3pm Cost: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Museum Size: Small Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/17/2022 adgorn visited it 05/08/2022 libbykc visited it

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