William Schreiber’s great-grandparents came to Blue Island in the 1840s and founded a shop on Western Avenue that was the forerunner of the hardware business that served Blue Island for over a century. Schreiber, who served on the board of trustees of the Blue Island Public Library, commissioned his uncle, Robert Seyfarth, to design this house for himself and his …

Albert Roche was the son of Walter P. Roche and a stockbroker in Chicago. Albert married Alice Kile, a pioneer settler and daughter of Village Board President Merrill Kile, the year this home was built. The Albert Roche House has been expertly maintained, and is a wonderful expression of how 19th century architecture was able to unite very simple features …

This home, built for William and Elizabeth Buenger, was designed by their daughter, Elsa Buenger, who was inspired by the tours she made through Europe while studying there. The design is a dramatic set piece for European archetypes that at the same time presents a deeply comforting and familiar sense of domesticity. An arched entryway announces the home’s entrance, and …

Robert Seyfarth designed this home for his brother, William Seyfarth, who was a building superintendant in Chicago. Seyfarth’s home and several other landmarks are located in an area that was once known as “Roche’s Woods.” Purchased in 1855 by Walter P. Roche, the property – lying west of Maple Avenue, extending from Union Street south to York Street and back down the …

Robert E. Seyfarth was born in Blue Island in 1878 to Edward and Clara Seyfarth, well-to-do merchants whose hardware store was located at the site on which his grandparents had operated the tavern and boarding house they established when then came to Blue Island in 1848. The Seyfarth Building, which stood at the southwest corner of Western Avenue and Grove …