In 1948, Donald and Betty Hansen moved their growing family
out of the city of Chicago to the western suburb of Elmhurst. There were four children when they moved into
the four bedroom, two story house. The
location of the house was ideal for the family since it was only one block to
Immaculate Conception school and church.
The Northwestern Railroad was a block in the opposite direction. The house had a large front porch that would
soon be screened in to serve as an outdoor “playroom” for the toddlers as they
would come along. And they would
come. That’s dad’s handwriting on the
photo. I’m guessing that he scouted out
the house and took the picture so Betty could see if it was a possibility
before arranging for a babysitter so that they could check it out in peace.
The date on
the picture is September but we moved into the house in either late November or
early December. Moving day was spoiled by
the trip dad took at the end of the sidewalk leading up to the house. It isn’t shown in the picture but where the
public sidewalk meets the walk to the house, there is about a four inch step
up. As dad was moving a box of their
crystal stemware to the house he tripped over this step. He was not hurt but the same cannot be said
for the crystal. A few pieces did remain
intact to reside in the china cabinet in the dining room. Entering the front door you were in a small vestibule
with a second door leading into a long hallway.
On the right there was a small office or library while on the left there
was a large archway with dusty ruby red velvet floor length draperies that led
to the living room. Entering the living
room through the archway on the right was another archway with the same dusty
draperies which led to the dining room.
Back in the hall passing the library you would pass the stairway and
continue to another shorter hallway which ran between the kitchen and dining
room. There was also a small powder
room. In all there were three ways to
enter the dining room: from the living room archway, from the kitchen and from
the long hall that went past the stairs.
The children quickly realized how much fun they could have running in
circles between the dining room and the hallways. In those days of leather shoes with hard
leather soles and heels running on hardwood floors produced no small amount of
noise!
Upstairs the house had four bedrooms and a full
bathroom. There was a small area in the
center of the second floor which was used a reading area of practice room if
someone was taking lessons. In the
beginning Mom and Dad had an upstairs bedroom, I think it was the one with two
closets. The boys, Tom and Paul were in the largest of the front bedrooms and
Suzy and I were in the smaller front bedroom.
The smallest bedroom at the top of the stairs is where mom’s helper or
housekeeper stayed.
Later, as new children joined the family, the bedrooms were
re-assigned. Dad and mom remodeled the
downstairs library/office to use as their bedroom and closed off the archway
into the living room to provide a closet for the new bedroom. The entrance at the front door was re-configured
to enter directly into the living room and on the living room side of the
archway bookshelves were added.
That is also where the door to the attic on the third floor
was located. The attic was kept locked
with a skeleton key. But, the key was
left in the lock in the door. In the
attic Mom kept clothes that were not currently in use were kept in the
attic. This could be out of season
clothing as well as hand-me-downs waiting for someone to fit into them.
By 1957, with the birth of Donald, there were nine children (
five girls and four boys) and two adults living in the house with a single
telephone and one and a half bathrooms.
It was a challenge but then we didn’t know the difference.
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| Easter 1958 One of the very few pictures of the entire family. This was taken at Aunt Pauline and Uncle Bill Ryan's apartment at 152 N Menard Ave in Chicago.
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