Occupants: Ebenezer Buckingham
Location: 2036 S. Prairie
Life Span: 1875-1924
Architect:
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Buckingham Ebenezer (J.& E. Buckingham) foot South Water, house 2036 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1884
Buckingham Ebenezer (J.& E. Buckingham) foot South Water and pres. Traders’ ins. co. 160 Lasalle house 2036 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Buckingham Ebenezer (J.& E. Buckingham) foot South Water and pres. Traders’ ins. co. 160 Lasalle house 2036 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1887
Buckingham Ebenezer pres. Traders’ ins. co. 160 Lasalle house 2036 Prairie av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Buckingham Clarence real est 653 The Rookery h 2036 Prairieav
- Buckingham house at far left in 1880.
Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1898
Ebenezer Buckingham has been in Chicago and likewise a resident of Prairie avenue for many years. He is a widower, and resides at 2036 with his son, Clarence Buckingham, and his daughters. He is a bank President, and is also much interested in the elevator business. In the old days the firm name was Sturges & Buckingham.
Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1937
Miss Kate S. Buckingham, wealthy and distinguished patron of the arts, died yesterday at her home at 2450 Lake View avenue. She was 79 years old.
Miss Buckingham, last member of an eminent Chicago family, had been ill with spinal arthritis since last summer. Dr. Laurence H. Mayers, attending physician, attributed death, however, to heart disease, from which had been desperately ill for two weeks. Funeral services and burial will be in Zanesville, O.
To tell the life story of Kate Buckingham would be to tell the story of Chicago. Her father, Ebenezer, helped build it. She later sought to beautify it.
Fountain Is Outstanding Gift.
The contribution to the city for which she is best known is the Buckingham fountain, which she built in 1927 as a memorial to her brother, Clarence, who died in 1913. This she endowed for perpetuity. It was, however, only one facet of an overwhelming generosity which she at all times insisted be anonymous.
She was godmother to the Art institute; the collections for which it is most famous were her gifts. She was godmother to the opera; at the time of her death she was a guarantor. She was godmother to some 200 or more music and art students. She was a heavy donor to the Field museum, to innumerable Chicago charities, to many, many nameless Chicagoans.
She was planning still another great gift to the city, a memorial to Alexander Hamilton for the lake front. She set aside $1,000,000 for its designing, sculpture, and maintenance in 1928, but its construction was delayed pending the acquisition a suitable site on the shores of Lake Michigan from the park board.
Proud of Being Chicagoan.
When, upon occasion, the voice of the public or of a friend was raised in thanks for her generosity, she would fly into a rage. “I never did anything more than I should as a Chicagoan!” she would flare back.
Miss Buckingham was proud of being a Chicagoan. Although born in Zanesville, O., in 1858, she was brought to Chicago when a year old. Her mother was Lucy Sturges, whose father, Solomon, built Chicago’s first grain elevator. Her father was Ebenezer Buckingham, who, too, built grain elevators, banks, and later the elevated.
Charitable as Young Girl.
Chicago’s youth accentuated, perhaps, the temerity of Miss Buckingham’s first charitable act. This S was shortly after publicized, the great fire of 1871, when she, a young girl of 15, decided to raise Christmas funds for the children in the County hospital.
This, in the ’70s, was an unheard on the part young girl, but Kate, with her father’s permission, set out, and on Christmas eve the Christmas tree, heavily laden with gifts, was set up in the children’s ward and its many candles were lighted.
Tragedy swiftly followed. Through some mishap the burning candles started a fire. The tree and all its Christmas largesse burned down. But young Miss Buckingham, nothing deterred, set forth to raise anew money enough for gifts for each child. And did.
Inherits Fortune of Millions.
When her father died in 1912 he left a fortune of several million dollars for his three children, Kate Sturges, Lucy Maude and Clarence M.
Clarence, financier and broker, died unmarried the following year, leaving his sisters his $1,500,000 estate. Maude, an invalid, died in 1920, leaving her $2,500,000 estate to Kate.
Miss Kate Buckingham therefore became one of Chicago’s wealthiest women. By virtue of her birth and wealth, she had every right to be dowager of Chicago society, but she spiritedly scorned it. She ordered her name removed from the Social Register, and limited her circle of friends to those whom she really cherished.
During her lifetime she traveled extensively in Europe, but for the last few years remained in Chicago except for trips to Arizona. Until 1923, lived in the old mansion winter, her father had built at 2036 Prairie avenue, but at that time built a cooperative apartment house on Lake View avenue, which had much of the Prairie home interior rebuilt in it. Then she razed her family home.
Self-Effacing in Donations.
Her interest in the arts, however, amounted almost to a passion. She first planned to establish a fine arts gallery in Chicago, but later decided to give a series of valuable and beautiful gifts to the Art institute, of which she was a life member. Completely self-effacing, she requested that none be listed as coming from her, but as memorials to her brother or sister.
Miss Buckingham also was an enthusiastic patron of music. Tall, regal, with her white hair worn still in a Queen Mary pompadour, she was a frequent attendant at the opera, usually accompanied by one or several of her young protégés.
With the exception of artistic or musical events, Miss Buckingham rarely appeared public in recent years. A well authenticated anecdote deals with one of her rare visits to the Continental Illinois National bank and Trust company, in which she was an important stockholder. On this occasion she stopped at the cashier’s cage to get money. She had no identification papers with her and the teller asked if any one in the bank could identify her. She cast a brief, flashing glance around the nearby desks.
“They’re all dead,” she snapped.
- 2036 S. Prairie Ave.
Robinson Fire Insurance Map
1886
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