254, 270, and 271 Scott

The stories of Victorian houses at 254, 270, and 271 Scott begin with Jared Gage, a businessman turned banker who made his fortune running the first flour mill in downtown Chicago in the 1840s. Gage arrived in Winnetka in 1855, where he built an imposing Italianate house at 1175 Whitebridge Hill.

Along with prominent Winnetkans James Willson and Charles Peck, Gage funded and oversaw the construction of the Lakeside (now Hubbard Woods) train station. When the station was completed, Gage built a road to connect his home on the lake to the station – Scott Avenue.

In 1872, Gage built four houses on Scott Avenue – three for his children and one, 254 Scott, as a rental property. He built two houses for his son – 270 Scott for either John or George, his eldest sons, and 278 Scott for his youngest son, Frank. 271 Scott was built as a wedding gift for Gage’s daughter, Mary and her husband, George Stoutenburg, a wholesale drug salesman who served as a Village trustee.

One year after his four Scott Avenue houses were completed, Jared Gage lost his fortune after the Panic of 1873. His bank, Fidelity Savings Bank, closed and he was forced to vacate his house on Whitebridge Hill and move in with his son, Frank, at 278 Scott. Gage died in Frank’s house in 1880.

While all four Gage houses still stand today, only three remain on Scott Avenue. In 1999, 278 Scott was threatened with demolition but saved by a homeowner who moved the structure to 274 Hazel Avenue in Glencoe, where it remains today.

270 Scott also has an interesting history beyond the Gages. In 1903, it was purchased by Chicagoan William Sewell Hamm. Willa Hamm, his oldest daughter, became a well-known artist, studying at Chicago’s National Academy of Art. While in school, she met and married fellow art student Herman Menzel. Willa went on to become a successful art director with Marshall Field & Company. Although Herman rarely exhibited his work, he later became known as an important “regionalist” artist, expressing scenes of everyday life in a simple, honest manner. When Willa and Herman Menzel moved to Winnetka in 1943, they moved into the house she’d grown up in at 270 Scott. The Menzels lived there until Willa’s death 1997.

While 270 Scott has undergone some changes, many of the original Victorian Gothic elements remain. 254 and 271 Scott look today much as they did when they were first built by Gage in 1871.