
Historic Home dating back to 1869, sustains fire June 15
Thursday morning June 15, 2023 the Chicago Fire Department responded to a 911 call about a fire that broke out in the upper floors of a historic home in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. Several homes on Central Avenue and connecting streets are considered original to the area with tales of the city’s past.
As a 40-year Chicago based company, Restore Construction Inc. was the trusted choice for securing the property when the building was fully extinguished and in need of board-up services. Restore has assisted over 10,000 homes and businesses in the Chicagoland area with fire damage board-up, restoration, and repair services.
Photo credit: Abc7chicago.com
Video Credit: Abc7Chicago.com
Considered one of the oldest homes in Chicago, this house was built before the Great Chicago Fire by an earlier settler Seth P. Warner in 1869. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also as a Chicago Landmark. Over the years this house hosted travelers of the Chicago World’s Fair and a music academy. Through the decades James Bower and his wife, owners of the property for 38 years, have maintained the property and continued to restore the iconic features of it’s facade. The Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest published an article written by Lacey Sikora on December 20, 2021 about the history of the building and the Bower’s determination to claim Landmark status for their home with the city of Chicago. Read more: Wednesday Journal
Photo right: The Seth Warner House in 1953 when it housed the Austin Academy of Fine Arts. By this time significant changes had been made to the roofline, but the date of these changes is not known, and in the 1980s the changes were reversed. (Austin Community Collection, Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections)