The Reagan Hotel
Riverside, Illinois
By Herb Reagan, March, 1999
It seems like the big house in Riverside has always been called the Reagan Hotel, but in fact the name came later in the story. Just as often it is referred to as "82" or "82 Nuttall", the street address. In actuality, if you were to go to that address today, you wouldn't see anything remotely resembling the photo – but that too comes later.
The house was originally built for the MacArthur family late in the last century. My guess is about 1885. Mr. MacArthur was a very successful general contractor in Chicago at that time and I'm sure the house represented his family's step up the ladder of prosperity. Plenty of servants were on hand to help out. When Herbert Reagan married Ethel MacArthur in 1902, they lived in another house until after their first two children were born. After Mr. MacArthur died, they moved into the house to live with Ethel's mother. When Mrs. MacArthur died the three MacArthur daughters, Ethel, Maud and Florence inherited the property. Mr. Reagan bought out the interests of Maud and Florence.
Five children were born of this marriage – Arch,1904; Keturah, 1906; Ethel (Babbie), 1909; Barbara, 1910; and Ruth, 1911. A sixth child, Irene lived only a short time and died about the same time as her mother in 1916.
Where did the name Goddard fit in? Let's let Grannie (Ellen Ware) tell that part of the equation from her memoirs written in 1967. "Joseph Sterling Goddard of Chicago and I were married in 1905 in Riverside, a suburb of Chicago, where I had grown up. We built a modest house and enjoyed evenings quietly at home reading or sewing. Sterling poured over seed catalogues planning his garden, or we often spent an
evening playing bridge with friends, We went to the theater in Chicago a few times and on anniversaries during the year...."
Born of this marriage were Caroline, 1907; Elizabeth, 1909; Joseph Sterling, Jr., 1912; Lester, 1913; and Jaquelin, 1915. In November 1916, Mr. Goddard contracted pneumonia and died in less than a week.
Among their friends were Ethel and Herbert Reagan whom they saw on a regular basis in the preceding years. Herbert Reagan was helpful to Ellen and I'm sure they helped each other to handle the grief they both felt. Over the next two years love blossomed and they decided to marry and bring the two families together in the large house on Nuttall Road in September 1918.
From all I've been able to gather, from my
older brothers and sisters, the union of the two families went well from the very start. I can only surmise that these two parents were well equipped for the job they had undertaken. It wasn't long before all were just brothers and sisters and the word
"step-" was not part of the language. Both parents were careful not to show favoritism for their own, and treated all equally.
Born of this marriage were Herbert, Jr., (1919) and Benjamin (1921).
In 1923, Mr. Reagan succumbed to Pernicious Anemia, for which there was no cure at that time. He had been a partner with a Mr. Yale, in the construction business, and had finished a major contract deepening the Erie Canal just before World War I. However, after the war ended they had been unable to land any sizable contracts. They did have an interesting contract digging out several lakes at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, not too far from Riverside.
Mother was not aware of this until after his death, when she found out there was no money in the bank. Fortunately he had the foresight to take out a sizeable insurance policy which provided for the family and for her for her lifetime.
During the next eight years, Mother took care of the whole gang of twelve children and a very large house with the help of an old Norwegian maid named Rina and by assigning daily and weekly tasks to all those who were old enough to handle them. By the mid-twenties there were four teen-aged girls attracting lots of boys to the house, as well as other friends from around town. That's when the name, The Reagan Hotel, was born... As a matter of fact one of the neighbor children ended up in the community Saturday night bathtub one night before anyone noticed!
To most of us, in retrospect, that period of time – the late twenties – seemed kind of like Camelot -- a brief period of time when life was fun and beautiful. In 1927, '28 and '29 there were three full blown weddings at "82." Those were the glory days! Then the Great Depression set in and life wasn't quite the same anymore.
By 1932, most of the children were out on their own in one way or another – either in school, married, or moved away and working. Mother decided that she wanted to
go to Rome to get re-acquainted with a man she had met five years before and who she had been corresponding with during that time. With the help of three of the married girls, Caroline, Elizabeth, Babbie and their husbands, some internal walls were changed, rooms modified into kitchens, etc. to make three apartments for them. It was a good solution for three couples hit hard by the
depression, as well as avoiding leaving the house totally empty. This resulted in a lawsuit by the town, because the property was not zoned for multiple dwelling. The suit was eventually settled in our favor because only "family" occupied the apartments.
In the meantime the Chicago papers picked up on the story putting a "poor Mother Hubbard" twist on it. I'm sure the story sold at least a few copies! Incidentally,
Mother did marry her man, Mario Saint-Cyr, in Rome in October 1932.
By 1935, everyone had moved out of the house and it was on the market for two years with no takers, No wonder! Twenty one rooms, seven baths or half baths, 10 fireplaces! Worst of all, no insulation of any kind. Even in those days it was horribly expensive to keep up.
After Elizabeth's first husband died, she married Dan Field in
1935. They saw the possibilities in the old homestead and bought it from the five original Reagan children who had inherited it from their mother. Dan and Liz did a complete remodeling job on the property, removing the third floor completely, removing most of the porch surrounding the front, and squaring off the whole structure into its present appearance. They also removed the second floor of the big barn, making a smaller and better looking "modern" garage. They lived there for about three years, when Dan took a new job in Baltimore.
I'm sure old "82" has been a good home to a number of families since that time.