View full-size photo (and look for the child's goat-cart!) |
Schneider's Grocery
purportedly at 605 North Marion |
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Schneider Street, one block in length west of Marion Street, is named after
"Great-great-grandpa Schneider", who founded this store.
Schneider's descendants still remember hanging out at the store;
to quote Bruce Scheider:
When we were kids, my cousin John and I would play at Grampa Schneider's, 605 North Marion St., corner of Marion and Schneider, while our folks would visit. Grampa Frank worked as a barber in a shop on Westgate, and would give us kids haircuts in his basement, at 605. When Grampa died, my Uncle LeRoy, cousin John's dad, lived there. John and I and my brother, Allan Frank, of Racine, WI are also decendants of the Schroeder family. Albert built a lot of homes and some public schools in Oak Park. Most of them are burried at Forest Home Cemetary in Forest Park. |
Frank Lipo, director of the
Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest,
did some further research on the listed address at 605 North Marion Street,
and adds the following:
The photo of Schneider's Grocery is mis-labeled. The address should read northeast corner of Lake and Marion, today the site of the Bank One building, roughly 1044-48 Lake Street. The photo was taken 1880, according to our records. The building was still standing at the turn-of-the-century and the Philander Barclay caption mentions that Frank Schneider had his barber shop in the building. The grocery store building was a prominent commercial structure along Lake Street in those early days.
It is true that the street numbering system in Oak Park changed--several times in fact. For instance, the Schneider's Grocery store building was at 201 Lake Street c. 1900 because they numbered east from Harlem in those days instead of west from Austin.
On an 1895 map here at the Historical Society today's 605 N. Marion was then a vacant lot, but the number in the margin is 759. In fact, the 700 block of Marion starts at Chicago and goes north all the way to Augusta! Only a handful of houses are shown. And there are numerous Schneiders living in the area, too, in the 1900 directory including several in the 700+ block of Marion. I believe that 605 was built by a Schneider, but at the time the address was different. |
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URL for this page: http://www.oprf.com/Schneider/ Comments to opt@oprf.com. -- Updated September 15, 2000 |