Happy St. Patricks Day All,

I just received my book about Waukegan (Greentown). It is called Waukegan Illinois Images of America. I ordered it from Amazon for $12.99 new. It normally is $20.00. This looks really good, it is put out by the Waukegan Historical Society. Its full of old pictures and stories about the town. I have perused it and it has pictures of the Ravine, Trolley, all of the town, including the United Cigar Store. The reading looks good too. It really is a fascinating town. Whenever I travel someplace new, I always delve deeply into wherever it is so that I can fully explore and savor it when I arrive including stuff that might be off the beaten path that might ordinarily be missed.

Biplane, this book looks wonderful, I wonder if Ray has it, if he doesn't, it would make a nice gift because it is full of pictures from when he was a boy and I'm sure he would remember the landmarks shown. Maybe next time you talk to him, you can subtlely ask him. Just a thought.

I don't have it but I sure considered it.

I looked at that book in the hope of finding a photograph of the mansion of Ray's great-grandparents, which was the inspiration for Doug Spaulding's grandparents' home in Dandelion Wine, and for the home in From the Dust Returned. Unfortunately, it's not there.

On the other hand, I got to see a lot of the places that Ray knew when he grew up in Waukegan. The trolleys, the Ravine, the library, the city hall with its clock tower. . .

Oh, so there WAS another house which was an inspiration! Because the actual grandparents' house, next to Ray's parents' house, is quite plain. Is the great-grandparents' house still standing?

Is the mansion in question the one that had been torn down and replaced by that ugly apartment building? What was it called, "Lilac Ledge" or something like that? What a blot on the landscape...

I believe that Bradbury's grandparent's house would have been much more attractive in the past--I'm guessing that it has had all the Victorian detail stripped off, as have so many houses of that era...

Could be. The colored window panes were still there when I visited in 1984.

You can take a look at recent photos of Ray's grandparent's house that was for sale in Waukegan this past year...in these postings:
http://www.raybradburyboard.com/groupee/forums/a/albumc...901/m/2651046711/p/1

Sam Weller tells us that the home we're looking for — or dreaming of — was actually the home of Ray's great-grandparents:

quote:

The house has long since vanished, but it once stood at 22 North State Street, which would later become Sheridan Road. From the living room windows, through lace curtains, one could see the expanse of Lake Michigan. The house had an ornate wraparound front porch with a lacework of wooden railings and banisters and a central tower that rose four stories high; the grand residence was the inspiration for the fictional Spaulding grandparents' home in Dandelion Wine. Though Ray's grandparents lived in a smaller, more humble home, he chose to imagine them in the old Bradbury residence with its high attic window looking out upon the entire green world below.

Ray's great-grandfather Samuel I. Bradbury was a newspaper publisher and mayor of Waukegan (1882).

The site of today's Lilac Ledge Apartments on Washington Street is several blocks west from where the Samuel I. Bradbury mansion was on State Street (Sheridan Road), overlooking Lake Michigan.

I've had the darndest time trying to pinpoint exactly where the Bradbury mansion was on old Sanborn fire insurance maps going back to the 1880s; the address numbering system was different then from today. I think it would be lovely to find a photograph of the mansion.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Walloon,

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THAT MANSION ARE A MUST!!!

A Bradbury historian has just informed me that a photograph of Ray's great-grandparents' house appeared in a guidebook for a Bradbury walking tour a few years back. I have contacted the Historical Society to see if any copies are left.

Here is the followup to my Waukegan Historical Society inquiry, sad and disappointing as it is!

There was, indeed, an ornate Victorian mansion in Waukegan which was a very twin of the Addams Family house and cousin, if not sibling, to the Psycho house. By the photographs, it was all that could be hoped or expected of the house of the great-grandparents of the great Ray Bradbury. UNFORTUNATELY (here it comes) NONE of the Bradbury family EVER lived in that house--alas! Fire insurance maps clearly indicate it was owned by the Yeoman family, while the Bradburys lived in a much less elaborate and prepossessing house next door.

Ray had this great story, years after first telling the Mr. Electrico tale, of "running from death toward life" by escaping the car that was supposed to be taking him to his uncle's wake, held after the funeral (in the very old tradition, a wake was before, now they're after) to see Mr. Electrico at the carnival. Sam Weller's research revealed the carnival took place on Labor Day weekend, while newspaper articles clearly revealed the uncle died more than a month later--closer to Ray's favorite holiday of Halloween! What's more, the grave remained unmarked (still does, as far as I know--Ray seems to have NO interest in memorials of any kind), reinforcing the myth in the mind of not just Ray, but his cousins, that the uncle actually died over Labor Day!

The Bradburys were gone from the house next to the Yeoman mansion by 1901. Maybe it became a family tradition that the great-grandparents owned the big, cool house, or maybe Ray's father just gestured as they were driving by and mentioned it as a family home, and Ray naturally gravitated towards the best house--I know the exact same thing happened to me in my father's home town, when my uncle or cousin gave the general location of a house where my father lived, I went and photographed a big, cool mansion, then my cousin told me the real house was the quaint little place next to it...these things happen easily...*sigh*.

Anyhow, if Ray thinks that mansion was his great-grandparents' house, it might be best not to disabuse him at this point.