I’ve just read with great sadness of the passing of George E. Manning II, a longtime resident of Austin and a most interesting man.
I am, among other things, a docent at the Chicago Architecture Center. “Historic Austin” is one of the tours I conduct. George’s Queen Anne home is the second of Frederick Schock’s designs we view and discuss. On each tour we have one or two homeowners who come out to speak about their homes, giving us insight into both the history of a home and of the travails of ownership of, in many cases, landmarked Chicago buildings. George was one of our regulars. Like our other hosts, he was most engaging, full of stories and a font of information.
One day all of the docents who do this tour were walking the route ahead of a new tour season. We got to George’s house, and he spotted us as we stopped. He invited us in, something we as docents could do, but not something we can indulge in with a formal tour’s guests. We were there for over an hour as George regaled us with his personal history and showed us the collections of furniture and objects he had in each of the 18 rooms of his home. A highlight was the top-floor ballroom, with its multiple pianos, where he had regularly held concerts and soirees.
George’s home is next door to architect Frederick Schock’s own home on Midway Park. It was completed in 1891 for Frederic Beeson, one of four Austin homes Schock designed for Beeson, the president of a veneer company. Schock’s design for his own home is a large potpourri of Queen Anne elements and a remarkable tour de force. Beeson House #2, the Manning house, is a toned-down Queen Anne, remarkable in its own right. When George acquired it, the home was in terrible shape. He worked for a very long time to restore it.
We Historic Austin docents will very much miss George. It will be a bit strange to stop at his home on a tour and not have him come out to greet us.
May he rest in peace.
Ed McDevitt
River Forest