528 Maple

This historic home was built c. 1895 for Dr. Arthur Murdow, who was the very first dentist to open a practice on the North Shore north of Evanston. He was born in Chicago in 1869.

After graduating from Northwestern’s medical school, he met Helen Miller and in 1895, they married and moved to Winnetka. Helen’s parents hired Winnetka architect, William Otis to design the house as a wedding gift for the couple. Otis was one of Winnetka’s busiest architects. He designed a number of exceptional houses and public buildings, including Christ Church, Horace Mann School, Lloyd Memorial Library, Greeley School and his own house at 644 Oak.

Once living in Winnetka, Dr. Murdow recognized the need for a local dentist, and he opened his practice above Ruldolph Bros. Grocery at 738 Elm in 1897. Just a few years later, he decided to move his practice to this house, creating an entrance on Elm with the address 680 Elm. He maintained his dental practice here until he died in 1938 when Loris and Gladys Miller moved into the house. They remodeled it extensively, removing many of the original historic elements designed by William Otis. For example, they removed the two-story front porches, the round front posts, and wide stone entranceway steps. This house stayed in the Miller/Murdow family until the early 1980s.

In recent decades, new homeowners have restored some of these elements, including the round posts and front porch. Even with the addition on the south side, the house looks more today like it originally did than it did in the 1980s.

While it has no historic status currently, this house has been identified as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.