455 Birch St
Winnetka, IL 60093, USA

Lola Maverick Lloyd House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Lola Maverick Lloyd House is a good local candidate for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion B for Social History as Mrs. Lloyd and her four children were instrumental in the formation and continuation of a variety of international social justice organizations, particularly the campaigns for world peace and one world government that began prior to the outbreak of World War I. The Lloyd House is also eligible for listing under Criterion C, Architecture, for its distinctive blend of Arts & Crafts form and detailing along with Swedish design influences from its builder, Charles Haag, and Texas design influences from its owner, Lola Maverick Lloyd. The period of significance for the Lola Maverick Lloyd House is 1920-55; that is, from the year the house was built until the National Register's fifty-year qualifying date. In 1955, the house remained in the family's possession and, indeed, was lived in by various family members at different times through 1999.

WINNETKA & THE LLOYD FAMILY
Although founded in 1836, like many Chicago suburbs, Winnetka's real development occurred following the 1854 construction of the Chicago & North Western Railroad (originally the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad) north from the city of Chicago. Under the leadership of a strong cadre of well-educated men and women, Winnetka became one of the most progressive suburbs on the north shore at the end of the 19111 -century. One of the most important of these early families was the Lloyds.

When Henry Demarest and Jessie Bross Lloyd moved to Winnetka in 1878 the town was small. The Lloyds purchased the Wayside, a large old house on Sheridan Road fronting the Lake Michigan shore that had been a stagecoach stop. There they raised their four boys and created an intellectual hub of activity. Social activist Jane Addams, a close friend of Jessie Lloyd's and a frequent visitor to the Wayside, described it as an "annex to Hull House" since the Lloyds often provided temporary respite and housing to Hull House staff and residents. The Wayside was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Thanks to Jessie Lloyd's large inheritance (her father was a major shareholder and editor of The Chicago Tribune newspaper and invested heavily in Chicago real estate) the Lloyds were able to pursue activities and fund philanthropies that interested them without regard to their profitability. Henry Demarest Lloyd wrote several major exposes of business and government corruption and greed 1 , traveled to Europe to study alternative systems of government, campaigned to end child labor and to achieve clemency for the men accused in the Haymarket bombing. He was also a founder of the Socialist Party in America. Both he and Jessie were good friends of Jane Addams and child labor activist Florence Kelley. Jessie was noted for her "executive ability”: at her funeral she was described as "a statesman by instinct and training".2 She advised her children to "never permit in their lives the indulgences which wealth encourages, but to devote all their resources and their powers to the principles of social justice and equality."

terms, public schools and library. At the time of his death in 1903, Winnetka, although still small, was well established as one of Chicago's more progressive suburbs, a place where women were allowed to vote in municipal elections long before suffrage for women had become a national cause. 4 By Henry and Jessie's example their sons had learned that their great wealth gave them great responsibility. William Bross Lloyd, Henry's oldest son, received a law degree from Harvard in 1902, returned to Chicago and eagerly took up the banner of progressivism. By 1905, he had joined the Socialist party and was startling his neighbors with his unconventional behavior and beliefs.

WILLIAM BROSS LLOYD & LOLA MAVERICK LLOYD
When he returned to Winnetka in 1902, William Lloyd brought with him his new bride Lola Maverick Lloyd. Lola was the granddaughter of Samuel Maverick, an early Texas settler and scion of one of the wealthiest families in that state. Her father, lawyer George Madison Maverick, and her mother, Lucy, were both native Texans. Although they raised their family of six in St. Louis, George and Lucy Maverick remained close to their San Antonio roots and often visited there for extended periods of time. Lola's grandmother, Mary Ann Maverick, was instrumental in helping to preserve the Alamo and Lola's sisters were active citizens of San Antonio, helping to found (and fund) numerous Texas organizations, including the San Antonio Conservation Society.6 Like the Lloyds, the Mavericks were able to use the proceeds from their wealth, largely comprised of extensive real estate holdings, to support civic activities and progressive causes.

William Bross Lloyd and Lola Maverick first met in Rhode Island in the summer of 1898 when they had both just graduated from college. 7 The Lloyd family owned a large summer house there and Lola was visiting her college friend Arney Aldrich. The little seaside community of Seaconnet (now Sakonnet), Rhode Island, was "free and easy and pleasant," according to Arney Aldrich. 8 Lola and Will were interested in each other immediately and were able to meet in Sakonnet again in 1899 and 1901. Lola also visited the Lloyds at their home in Boston during the winters. 9 In August of 1902, Will, fresh from Harvard Law School, and Lola, by now a young math teacher at Smith College, got engaged. They were married in San Antonio on November 1, 1902, and, for their honeymoon, camped cross-country on their way back to Winnetka.

The young newlyweds returned to Chicago and in the spring of 1903 built a small cottage, Half Wayside, across Sheridan Road from the Wayside. 10 That September Will's father died of pneumonia, followed just 15 months later by the death of his mother. After a contentious division of the Henry Demarest and Jessie Bross Lloyd estate Will, as the oldest son, inherited the Wayside. 11 In the meantime, Will and Lola's daughter Jessie was born in February 1904. Their daughter Mary was born (in Sakonnet) in June of 1906 and their son Bill was born in September 1908.

While they pursued various progressive causes and joined the Socialist party, Will and Lola's existence at the Wayside was very traditional, with plenty of household help, a chauffeur and a governess for their growing family. They kept a large sailboat docked at their lakefront pier and built a small winter house for themselves in 1911 on the Maverick Ranch in Bexar County, Texas. 2 As their eldest daughter, Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, notes in her autobiography, neither her father nor h.er mother held jobs during these early years of their marriage, so "as children we saw a great deal of our parents."

Sometime in 1913, this interesting and idyllic family life began to unravel. Lola's beloved father, George, died that year and she suffered through a long and difficult recovery from the birth of her fourth child, Georgia. That winter (1913-1914), while at their home in Texas, things grew tense between Lola and Will. Throughout the winter of 1914-1915 Lola struggled to hold the marriage together. In February 1915, Will abruptly left for a month in California. By the end of that year Lola had initiated divorce proceedings on the grounds of adultery. Divorce was still a rarity in 1916 and, due to the social prominence of the Lloyds and the wealth of both families, this one was front page news. 14 It was a wrenching time for the entire family.

LOLA LLOYD BECOMES AN ACTIVIST
In the midst of her personal crisis, Lola attended a lecture by Rosika Schwimmer, a Hungarian peace, labor and suffrage activist who was touring the country attempting to interest Americans in supporting peace efforts in Europe. 15 Lola was immediately struck by the validity of Schwimmer's case and went to hear her speak over a dozen more times. Inspired by "Mrs. Schwimmer," Lola became a founder of the Women's Peace Party in Washington in January 1915. 16 That April she traveled to northern Europe with forty-seven other American women for the International Congress of Women at The Hague. In Holland they were met by Jane Addams and a second group. Following the successful conference, Lola went with a delegation of women to call on the heads of the neutral countries, urging them to seek a peaceful resolution to the European conflict.

Lola returned to Chicago in June 1915 and, almost immediately, began helping to plan Henry Ford's Peace Boat expedition. 17 Like the International Congress, the Peace Boat, sought to bring a peaceful resolution to the war in Europe. In his telegram requesting her participation Henry Ford said "The time has come for a few men and women with courage and energy irrespective of the cost in personal inconvenience money sacrifice and criticism to free the good will of Europe that it may assert itself for peace and justice." While arranging for the Peace Boat Lola was also busy directing a newspaper campaign urging President Wilson "to endorse a continuous mediation plan." 18 Although none of these efforts were successful in bringing about an end to the war, Lola had found her calling. She began to use her Texas inheritance to support the Schwimmer family (and others) and the causes of peace, social justice and feminism. In 1918 she rented an office in downtown Chicago at her own expense for all her "red friends". When she was in town, she spent at least three days a week there corresponding, planning and preparing materials for publication. For the rest of her life she would publish, often at her own expense, a constant stream of pamphlets, proposals and commentaries on the need for world peace and democracy. 19 Despite the growing unpopularity of many of Lola's causes, her persistence and her productivity over the next thirty years were both remarkable.

Through her hard work and a growing network of contacts, Lola Lloyd became a citizen of the world. As she noted just before her death in 1944, "People of goodwill can always do something-if only to protest." 20 She worked both in the United States and in Europe on behalf of pacifism and cooperative solutions to the international strife that existed almost continuously from 1914 to 1945. The failed peace mission to the neutral countries in 1915 had left her feeling that "peace is too important to be left to the statesmen. " 21 She organized pacifist demonstrations, worked with suffragist Alice Paul to obtain the vote for women, built up the Women's Peace Party and its successor, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, authored with Schwimmer a plan for a Federation of Nations the precursor to the Campaign for World Government), and hosted Albert Einstein for lectures in Chicago. 2 Using her place in the progressive Lloyd family and her own · considerable intellectual abilities, Lola was able to draw on the resources of the potent core of politically and socially active women that existed in Chicago during the first two decades of the 20th century. She used this Chicago circle as the foundation of her vast international network for the remainder of her life. Lola was remembered at the time of her death in 1944 as "a tireless fighter for freedom, justice and mercy."

LOLA BUILDS A HOUSE
In March, 1916 Will and Lola Lloyd finalized their divorce. Given the public embarrassment of the divorce proceedings, Lola would have preferred to take the children and return to Texas. But the settlement required her to keep them in Illinois so that Will could have his visitation rights. Much to the children's relief, Lola decided to stay in Winnetka where she wouldn't have to explain her divorced status to her neighbors. 25 Daughter Jessie later remembered her relief at not having to leave her friends, "who seemed then our one link with normal human happiness. " 26 The children were 12, 10, 8 and 3 years old.

Initially, Lola and the children rented houses in Winnetka. 27 Eventually, however, Lola began looking for a lot on which to build her own house. She was determined to live in a neighborhood that was not "full of snobs" so her search took her away from the Winnetka lakefront and the Wayside to a neighborhood of small houses west of the railroad tracks and just south of the village's main commercial area. 28 In March 1920, Lola bought three lots at the northeast corner of Birch and Cherry Streets. This working class neighborhood of narrow lots and small houses was still lightly settled in 1920, with scattered houses dating from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A few stuccoes bungalows were beginning to be built on the lots between these earlier houses when Lola began planning a comfortable house for herself, her children and a live-in housekeeper.