By Mary Corrado
Editor
Back in 1891, Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott had a mansion built in the prosperous suburb of Ravenswood, at Wilson and Hermitage avenues. He went on to found what is now The Abbott Laboratories, with more than 55,000 employees in 130 countries (2003 annual sales: $19.7 billion). Meanwhile, the splendid house went on to several subsequent owners, and is now returning to Abbott Laboratories, which is expected to restore it to its original beauty. The site has the potential to be a museum, corporate retreat or community center.
"We are fortunate that the Khamis family came to us and let us know that they were interested in selling their home," said Karmin Maritato, director of public affairs, Abbott Labs. "Our heritage and company history are very important to us. We didn't want someone to tear the building down. We're just now exploring all of our early history and assessing what we will do with the property. Abbott purchased the property. We are now doing our due diligence and making some needed repairs—it needs a lot of work and we're taking our time."
Dr. Abbott was born on Oct. 12, 1857, in Windsor County, VT. He studied at St. Johnsbury College and Dartmouth, and earned his M.D. at the University of Michigan in 1885. The following year he married Clara Ingraham of Royalton, VT; they had one daughter, Eleanor.
Working as a general practitioner, he moved to Chicago in 1886 and established the Abbott Alkaloidal Company. An innovator, Dr. Abbott found a way to take the traditional liquid alkaloid medicines, which offered very irregular dosages, and convert them to granular form to offer dependable dosages. These he sold to other doctors. His interest in pharmacy soon superseded his actual practice of medicine. Among his products were Dr. Abbott's Tooth Ache Drops and Rock Candy Cough Syrup.
Dr. Abbott also served as managing editor of the xxxxITALxxxx American Journal of Clinical Medicine. Along with W. S. Waugh, he wrote "Text-Book of Alkaloidal Therapeutics" and "Text-Book of Alkaloidal Practice." He was a Republican and a Methodist.
His house, with 15 rooms, seven bathrooms, a front room of 1,300 square feet, and a great deal of charm, is still situated at 4605 N. Hermitage Ave. His production offices were in a building at 4753 N. Ravenswood Ave., which has been torn down. Dr. Abbott died July 4, 1921.
The company slowly grew, supplying penicillin during World War II. Among its famous innovations is the sedative Nembutal, the "truth serum" sodium pentathol, and the artificial sweetener Sucaryl. Today it is one of the 500 largest companies in the world, and the sixth largest pharmaceutical industry.
The neighborhood knows the house at Wilson and Hermitage avenues as the home of the Khamis family for the last 27 years. When they arrived, they were seeking a pleasant home for the large family of adults: parents Edward and Lillian, daughters Victoria, Suzanne, Valerie and Sharon. In this home each could have a personal bedroom and bathroom. Daughter Colette could live in the coach house with her husband. (Brother George already had his own house.) There would be plenty of room on the lot, about three times the usual size, for dogs, cats, rabbits, flowers and trees.
The family decided to gut the house to replace wiring and plumbing, even change a wall or two, and add central air conditioning for each of the three levels. Before the work began, Harold A. Nelson made a set of blueprints of the original layout which will greatly help restoration efforts.
When the old porch was taken down, under it were very old milk bottles and copper items. Within the house, rising from one floor was a gas pipe which had provided the gas lighting where Dr. Abbott apparently liked to read, in a chair in the home office. The office, with its own entrance (facing Wilson Ave.), was separated from the living space by a hallway. Gas fixtures, which had been eventually replaced by electric ones, were still in storage in the house.
The house, though built in 1891, has only one fireplace. Being a very modern man, Abbott had one of the first central heaters installed. The fireplace was there for pleasure rather than necessity.
"Everyone thought we were insane and would never get our money back" from purchasing or from rehabbing the house, Victoria Khamis told Inside. Over $100,000 was invested in the rehab over six years. She credits a "very ambitious and involved alderman, Gene Schulter," for helping the neighborhood change only for the better. "It's a wonderful place to live, with so many ethnic groups. The neighborhood is community-based."
The family was part of the neighborhood too. Two sisters taught in Chicago public schools. Two others, including Victoria, ran free day camps from local churches such as Ravenswood Presbyterian Church for eight years. "We had 157 kids at a time, and gave them breakfast, lunch, snack, and field trips to every site...They went to the museums, to Candlelight Playhouse, to picnic on Montrose Beach, to the Zephyr for sundaes. They were involved with Lill Street Art Studio. They made pottery, learned how flowers grow. We had a grant for eight counselors from Northwestern University." Those children remember the experience. Last week as a patient in Weiss Hospital, Victoria was approached by a nurse named Richard. "I went to your day camp!" he told her.
Through the years, Edward has died and so has Colette. Lillian is now 91. "It's very difficult to leave this landmark. I will miss the magnolia tree blooming," said Victoria. "But no one can treat it better than the original owner—or the company of the original owner—and they will be kind to the community. It has ended up in the right hands."
Abbott Laboratories, with its headquarters in Abbott Park, IL, has emerged as one of the world's top health care companies. Today, Abbott develops products and services that span the continuum of care from prevention and diagnosis, to treatment and cure. Abbott focuses on areas with the greatest unmet medical need, such as cancer, infectious diseases, diabetes, obesity, immunology, and cardiovascular disease. |
