CHICAGO — The Clarke-Ford house claims to be Chicago’s oldest, built in 1836. It’s now a museum.
The Noble-Seymour-Crippen house also claims that title, but Norwood Park wasn’t technically in Chicago when it was built in 1833. It is now the Norwood Park Historical society.
The Netterstrom House in Lake View is among the oldest houses in the city – but this one is still a home.
“I live here now,” said Woody Slaymaker, the home’s owner. “I might be one of the few people still living in a building that survived the fire. Maybe I need a therapist to explain why”
Slaymaker is only the fourth owner in the more than 150 year history of the house.
“I’m not a picky person,” he said. “But there are a lot of inconveniences that come with this home, the biggest one would be plumbing.”
What it lacks in modern amenities, it makes up for in historical charms. As the 67-year-old Cleveland native labors in the yard, and in his workshop, it’s clear he is perhaps the perfect person to preserve the historic home.
He sees himself as the steward. He is a sort of renaissance man: a musician, artist, and carpenter, who became a worldwide art dealer then a Chicago real estate investor.
“I took all of the money and I put every dime into real estate in Chicago. So, every penny of my profit went into real estate instead of art,” he said.
At one time he owned more than half a dozen buildings on Clark Street, but his heart is in the historic home where he lives, and where he raised two daughters.
“I would go over to my friends’ houses, and they were much more modern and maybe easier to live in,” said Martha Slaymaker, one of Woody’s two daughters. “Some of my friends really liked it but others would refuse to spend the night because they were a bit scared of staying in the house.”
She also gained an appreciation for history — and Hollywood. Part of his 2009 film “Public Enemies,” a gangster story set in 1930s Chicago, was filmed using props from the house.
The home is one of the only remaining examples of early architecture in Lake View, a combination Queen Anne, and Italianate home, built by Charles Netterstrom.
Netterstrom was Swedish immigrant skilled in business and building.
The windows served as a showcase for his construction business, displaying various styles, like arched bricks with keystones or flat arches with decorative red terra cotta.
In its heyday it was certainly one of the fanciest homes in the city, but by the time Slaymaker bought the property in 1993, it had fallen into disrepair.
Restoring its glory has been a labor of love, and a project of purpose for Slaymaker, who took us on a tour of the 22-room home.