by Emily Dattilo
Does this house look familiar? You may have seen it while driving down West Kensington Road before May 2001, or you may have taken a virtual tour through its miniature counterpart on the 2020 Dollhouse Video Tours. Though this house at 211 W. Kensington Road no longer stands, its distinctive red and white siding make it memorable. However, few remember the Russel family who lived there and farmed the
surrounding land. The only indication that the Russels were ever there is the street named after them, which intersects Kensington Road near the farmhouse. Despite their relative obscurity in 2021, the Russel family left their mark on the community. Their lives and the life of their house and farm offer a snapshot of the development of Mount Prospect from a small farming community to a busy suburb.
It’s unclear when the farmhouse at 211 W. Kensington Road was constructed, but it was connected to the Russel family. Hans Heinrich Russel, also known as John Henry Russel, arrived in the United States from Germany in 1849. He was one of many German immigrants who fled economic and political hardships in the Germanic states during the 1840s. Hans made his way to the present-day northwest suburbs, and there he married Engel Maria Schilling of Schaumburg. They had a son, Henry. Engel Maria died in childbirth, and a few years later Hans married Louisa Katz of Elk Grove. Louisa gave birth to another son, John. She was probably related to the Mount Prospect Katz family who owned much of the land north of Central Road, including the surroundings of the red and white farmhouse. Even with this close connection it’s not known how Hans acquired the farmland neighboring the Katz family. His 1904 Cook County Herald obituary suggests that he began farming that land around the time of his marriages in the 1850s. In 1878 Hans also constructed a house on the 200 block of Russel Street. Almost 50 years later Ludwig or Henry Katz split that house in two and moved the other half across the street.
Despite the geographical distance between neighboring farms, farm families maintained close ties with their community. They helped with each other’s farm work, especially at harvest time, and they came together to socialize and celebrate. Hans must have been a good neighbor to be remembered in his obituary as “one of our substantial German citizens, an early settler who by industry and honesty rose to affluence and influence, highly esteemed by all who knew him.” By the 1900s the family and their farm were so well-known in Mount Prospect that the Russel farm was noted as a landmark when the Cook County Herald announced the beginning of Mount Prospect’s rural mail delivery service.
While Hans and his oldest son, Henry, were actively involved in the farm community, John’s career path headed in another direction. As the long-time secretary of the Des Plaines Mutual Insurance Company he insured the goods and farms of families all across the area. He also served as the school treasurer of Wheeling Township and became an elder and trustee in
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights.
Russel family members began moving off the farm and into Arlington Heights in the early 1900s. Henry rented the farm and sold the equipment at auction in October 1911 and the Russel farm went up for sale after his passing in 1918. A public notice in the Cook County Herald announced the public auction of the farm on September 21, 1918. The records do not clearly note who purchased the estate, but the H. Roy Berry Company discussed developing Northwest Heights, which includes the Russel Estate, in a January 1926 issue of the Cook County Herald. They boasted of turning the farm into “small country estates” that are “especially suited to the man who has a desire to raise his own vegetables and live the life of a small farmer while being employed in the city.” This series of events for the Russel farm was mirrored elsewhere in Mount Prospect, especially during the 1920s development boom. For example, William and George Busse purchased the rest of the Owen Rooney farm in 1916 and over the following years subdivided the land into Busse’s Eastern Addition. These sales laid the groundwork for Mount Prospect’s transformationfrom a small farming community into a growing suburb.
In 1942 Margie Atwood and her family moved into the Russel farmhouse. The Great Depression halted much of the redevelopment of the 1920s, so the
rest of the neighborhood, like much of Mount Prospect, was still surrounded by farm fields. Prospect High School and Randhurst Shopping Center, two present-day landmarks in the area, hadn’t been built yet. The Atwoods were at the edge of town.
The Russel farmhouse appears run-down in a photo from the 1940s (and for this reason was included in the book Lost Mount Prospect), so it may have been impacted by the Great Depression’s slowdown. Fortunately, the Atwoods brought the Russel farmhouse back to life around the same time that development resumed in the rest of the neighborhood. By the 1964 photo (page 1) the house appears well-cared for. In this way the Russel farmhouse successfully transitioned to its role as one of many homes in a suburban neighborhood, a feat not guaranteed for most historic farmhouses.
The Russel farmhouse stood facing Kensington Road until it was destroyed by fire in May 2001. A new house with a new design was constructed in its place. However, the story of this house doesn’t end here. Margie Atwood was so charmed with the farmhouse after living there for almost 40 years that she decided to build a dollhouse replica. This project fulfilled her lifelong dream of having her own dollhouse, according to a 1982 Daily Herald article. She renamed the house Atwood Manor.
This dollhouse not only represents a long-time resident’s labor of love, but it also serves as the only remaining physical link to the neighborhood’s agricultural past. Through this dollhouse the Russel family continues to have a place in the Mount Prospect community.
Thank you to Jean Murphy for research assistance!
Note: The spelling of “Russel” appears most frequently with one L.
