• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Mount Prospect Historical Society

#wrap

  • About Us
    • Our Museum
    • History
    • Virtual House Tour
    • Hometown History Video Series
    • Vanished Mount Prospect
    • Guided Tours of Dietrich Friedrichs Historic House Museum
    • Presentations
    • Dollhouse Tours
  • Shop
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Become a Member
    • 2025 Junior Camp Counselor Information
  • Donations
    • Donate
    • Donate an Artifact
    • Giving Tuesday
  • Events
    • Afternoon Teas
    • Bessie’s Workbasket
    • Evening Creations
    • MPHS Book Club
    • 2nd Sundays at the Society
    • Youth Programs
  • Newsletters
  • Central School
    • For Educators
    • Donors
  • Research Resources
    • Pandemic Moments 2020-21
      • COVID-19 Survey 2021
      • Contributing to Pandemic Moments
      • Personal Accounts
      • Youthful Insights
      • Contact Release Form web format
      • Contact Release Form in PDF format
      • Pandemic Reflections
    • Mount Prospect Businesses
    • Churches of Mount Prospect
    • Essays on Mount Prospect’s History
    • Houses of Mount Prospect
    • Lost and Found Mount Prospect
    • Mount Prospect People
    • Schools of Mount Prospect
    • Mount Prospect Stories
    • Structural Memorials
    • Other Sources for Research
    • Centennial 2017
    • Neighborhood Walking Tours
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / People of Mount Prospect / Dietrich and Lena Friedrichs

June 5, 2012 By HS Board

Dietrich and Lena Friedrichs

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 101 S. Maple Street

Birth Date:
Dietrich: August 8, 1881
Lena: May 23, 1885

Death Date:
Dietrich: July 15, 1955
Lena: July 6, 1964

Marriage
Date: 1904

Children: Bessie (Dietrich) Barnes

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

The Friedrichs were the original owners of the house in which the Mount Prospect Historical Society is now headquartered. The Friedrichs were both born in the United States but were both the children of German immigrant families. During the 19th century this area was largely made up of German immigrant farmers. These were often large families with many children to help on the farm. Dietrich and Lena Friedrichs were both from this tradition but decided to be different in a number of ways. First, although they were both from very large families, each having ten brothers and sisters, they decided to only have one child. Their only child was a named Bessie and she lived most of her life in their house.

Dietrich was also different from his family in that he did not support himself by farming. He worked as a house painter and decorator. This was an interesting occupation to choose considering that there were only twelve other houses in Mount Prospect. Arlington Heights and Des Plaines were more developed at that time and much of what is Mount Prospect today was simply unincorporated Cook County, Dietrich must have found work in these areas to support his business. The Friedrichs always painted their house white; in fact in the early twentieth century it was simply known as the “white house on the corner.”

The lives of the Friedrichs illustrate a number of larger trends. Their German immigrant background illustrates the history of the settlement of Mount Prospect and much of the upper Midwest. The large families that they were born into demonstrate the agricultural past of the area. Their choice to only have one child and work in a non-farm occupation shows the early twentieth century transition away from an immigrant agricultural community into the beginning of independent small communities. The Friedrichs and their home have a lot to tell Mount Prospect about it’s past.

Filed Under: People of Mount Prospect

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Rails and Wright!
  • “Lucille Ball” Scheduled to Visit the Mount Prospect Historical Society
  • Mount Prospect Historical Society Book Club will Discuss Memoir About Growing Up in the Village
  • Housewalk 2024
  • Milwaukee Bus Trip PR
  • Edwin C. Wille
  • Art Fusion: Creativity on Campus
  • Milwaukee Bus Trip

Community Links

  • Journal and Topics Media Group
  • Mount Prospect Public Library
  • The Daily Herald
  • Village of Mount Prospect

Forms

  • Pandemic 2020 Release Form

Resources

  • Central School
  • MP Lost and Found
  • On-Line Activities
  • On-Line Resources

Social Networks

  • Facebook MPHS
  • Twitter

Footer

Mount Prospect Historical Society
101 South Maple Street
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
847.392.9006
info@mtphistory.org

The Mount Prospect Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is committed to preserving the history of Mount Prospect, IL, through artifacts, photographs and both oral and written memories of current and former residents and businesspeople.  On its campus in the heart of the Village, the Society maintains the 1906 Dietrich Friedrichs house museum, the ADA-accessible Dolores Haugh Education Center and the 1896 one-room Central School, which was moved to the museum campus in 2008, renovated and opened to the public in 2017, the 100-year anniversary of the Village.

Archives

Copyright © 2025. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED · Mount Prospect Historical Society Log in