Visit one of the oldest homes in the Beverly Hills/Morgan Park community, located within the Ridge Historic District. The home's original (rear) portion dates to 1874 and was built for real estate magnate John Ingersoll. A Queen Anne style expansion was added the following decade for new owner Isaac Blackwelder, president of the then-independent Village of Morgan Park. His wife, Gertrude Blackwelder, was the first woman to cast a vote in Cook County. The main level’s elegant Victorian spaces are ideal for entertaining, the primary use for the house today. The second level, meanwhile, preserves the rustic light-filled art studio of longtime owner Jack Simmerling. Some of the antiques and built-ins that remain in the home today are items salvaged by Simmerling from long-gone mansions on Prairie Avenue, in Englewood and other Chicago neighborhoods.
