August Wacker Home - 2663 East Riverside Drive

Year Built: 1899

Architecture Style:

Key Features:

• Large Porch with Column Supports and Balustrade
• River Rock Wall
• Tall Narrow Windows

August Wacker immigrated from Germany as a young entrepreneur in 1870. He found great success as a florist and gardener, buying land, developing it and selling for a profit. This led him to eventually purchase 90 acres of farmland near Cold Spring Road and 30th Street, where he developed his family farm and a large home, a brick mansion, that was later used as a country club, a military station during WWII, and is now the Iron Skillet Restaurant.

Wacker retired from gardening in his 50’s and turned to city development. In 1898, he sold his family farm to the city, including more acreage east of the river. Its vineyard grapes were harvested by city park staff in 1899 with the intent to make wine. This land became part of the 900+ acre Riverside Regional Park.

In 1899, with his remaining land just east of the new park, he built this "retirement” home, a cozy cedar Folk Victorian overlooking the park. He immediately expanded development around this home by helping create the Miller-Wacker Parkway Addition, which was platted in 1902 and contains 410 individual lots. Many of its features were inspired by the City Beautiful movement, including sidewalks, tree-lined streets, wide east/west boulevards with landscaped medians, and traffic circles at each intersection on Koehne Street. Early newspaper articles note that fountains were planned for the traffic circles.

This addition is unique in its prolific use of river rock or “glacier bowlder” walls. These stones are also incorporated into the architectural features of many homes, including foundations, porches, chimneys, and even a carriage house or two. Neighbors and volunteers helped to collect nearby stones to construct the walls.

Sadly, August Wacker’s wife, Louise, suffered from insanity and lived only 4 years after moving into this home. She was temporarily institutionalized, and Walker had to sell much of his land to pay for her care. In fact, since her name was jointly on the deeds, he had to sue his wife for ownership of each property because she was too ill to sign anything. A 1903 news article offered sympathy for Wacker’s struggle through this cruel process. She died at home in 1904; her funeral photo was found wedged into the home’s walls during a renovation, 110 years later.

The Wacker family sold the home in the 1950’s. Ward McLendon, a jazz club owner during Indiana Avenue’s hay day, owned the home into the 1990’s. He rented out the top floor bedrooms to a variety of tenants including music legend Wes Montgomery’s bass player Mingo Jones, who would hold jazz jam sessions in the driveway.