535 Cherry

While much of the Italian Renaissance style home at 535 Cherry was designed and built in 1916, elements of the house were actually built much earlier.

The origins of the original house at 535 Cherry are a bit mysterious. Although title records date back to 1882, it’s unclear when the house was built on the property. Historic structure maps show, however, that the original house existed on the property by 1896 and that it still stood in 1914. While we know that the house was there, interestingly, there are no directory listings for this property between 1900 and 1914. It is possible, then, that what was likely an old frame house was rented or left vacant by the time it was purchased by notable architect Ralph Wesley Varney.

Varney was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1879. In the early 1900s, he moved to the Chicago area and began working as an architect both locally and across the state of Illinois. Throughout his career, he designed several notable structures. Many of his designs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the David Hall House in Lake Villa, the Clifford Milton Leonard Farm House (also known as Meadowland Farm) in Lake Forest, the Julius Goldberg House in Highland Park, and the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity House in Champaign.

In 1916, Varney purchased the property at 535 Cherry and on July 31, filed a building permit application for “rebuilding [the] residence.” Rather than rehab and add onto the original house in its original style, Varney seemingly incorporated elements of the existing structure into this elegant Italian Renaissance design.

While little evidence of the original frame structure is apparent, upon close examination, remains can be found. According to the evaluation for landmark status report, some “interior features, including window frames and stair balusters that testify to an earlier era house, still exist in the third floor attic space.”

In 1929, Varney subdivided the property and designed a stone Colonial Revival house on the north end of the property, now 465 Poplar, which he subsequently sold. For the next decade or so, Varney split his time between Washington D.C. He died on March 23, 1950.

Around 1940, Varney sold 535 Cherry to Francis and Eleanor Wilson. Many long-term Winnetka residents remember Eleanor Wilson well as the head of Mrs. Wilson’s Dance School at the Winnetka Woman’s Club.

After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1919, she began teaching at the Alicia Pratt School of Dance in the 1920s. She took over the dance school in the 1930s and renamed it Mrs. Wilson’s Dance School. While Mrs. Wilson was known well-known throughout the North Shore for teaching dance to multiple generations of children for over six decades, there is one little known fact about her – during World War II, she moved to Michigan City, Indiana to work as a riveter making military weapons and equipment. She died in Lakeside, MI in 1998 at 98 years old.

Thanks to the Wilsons and subsequent homeowners, Ralph Varney’s Italian Renaissance design at 535 Cherry has been well preserved and is now a local designated landmark.