When I was growing up, I considered seven places to be neighborhood landmarks: First Methodist Church, Hemingway’s Birth Home, the Jesuit Provincial Home, the Art League, Hemingway Boyhood Home, O.W. Holmes School, and Dunne’s lot.
Hemingway’s Birth Home is about one half block south of Chicago Avenue on the west side of Oak Park Avenue and across the street from First United Methodist Church (formerly First Methodist).
My grandfather pointed out this home on one of our many walks and told me some facts about Hemingway’s life and work.
When I was in high school, though, I found out that none of Hemingway’s books were permitted to be read in English classes because they were considered to be risqué.
My uncle Gene was a Hemingway fan, and he had a large collection of Hemingway’s books, so I decided that I would read some of them and see how risqué they really were.
After reading three or four, I didn’t feel that I had been immersed in obscene literature. In fact, I read most of Hemingway’s novels and short stories during my eight years in high school and college.
First Methodist Church was a block and a half south of my home, and though I was never in the building, I was good friends with Austin Jarvis, the minister’s son. I frequently went to the Jarvises home and had the opportunity to meet the kind and friendly Rev. and Mrs. Jarvis.
The Jesuit Provincial Home was located on the northwest corner of Oak Park and Chicago avenues and directly across Oak Park Avenue from my house.
As I have related in earlier stories, I sold Cub Scout tickets there and even got to know a few of the priests, especially Father William Flynn.
The Art League is located on Chicago Avenue behind 508 N. Oak Park Ave., and across the fence that bordered the south end of our backyard.
I was sent there by my mother when I was 11 to study drawing and painting, but I didn’t last long because the teacher told my mother that I was artistically handicapped. That was OK with me because I only wanted to play baseball.
The Hemingway Boyhood Home stands on the northeast corner of Kenilworth and Iowa, and when I was a kid, the home was a private residence.
My pal Bob Guillemin lived next door to the Hemingway home, and he often told me that the owners complained constantly about the number of Hemingway fans who wanted to gain entrance to the home. Bob learned that most of the fans wanted to see Ernest’s bedroom.
I attended Holmes School from 1948-1953.
The building was on the north side of Chicago Avenue between Kenilworth and Woodbine. The main building contained the fifth through eighth grades, the east wing housed the kindergarten and primary grades, and the west wing housed the third and fourth grades.
The plot of ground on the northeast corner of Oak Park and Chicago avenues, which the neighborhood kids called Dunne’s lot was not famous, but it meant a great deal to us. It was here that we played soccer, football and softball until 1956 when a ranch house was built on the field, much to our chagrin.
Every neighborhood has its landmarks — famous or sentimental — but the seven I have written about here had meaning for me.
John Stanger is a lifelong resident of Oak Park, a 1957 graduate of OPRF High School, married with three grown children and five grandchildren, and a retired English professor (Elmhurst College). Living two miles from where he grew up, he hasn’t gotten far in 75 years.