Builder
Name: Anna Safford
Emma C. Kennett, ca. 1920s. Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.
Name: Emma Kennett
Date of Birth / Location: February 9, 1891 / Illinois
Date of Death / Location: June 13, 1985 / Santa Barbara, California
Date of Death / Location: Kennett Construction Company, 1923 - ca. 1952 Kennett Realty Company, ca. 1952 - 1960. Kennett designed all of her own buildings, assisted only by with local architects including Arthur C. Buckett and Herbert J. Richter to ensure the technical details were correct. As for a contractor, Kennett partnered with one of the first African American contractors in the city, Joseph Frederick Rousseau.
Mary Willis (center) circa 1930s. Courtesy of ancestry.com
Name: Mary E. Willis
Date of Birth / Location: 1862 / Wisconsin
Date of Death / Location: 1938 / Chicago (or possibly suburbs)
Awards & Honors: All in all, at least what was so far able to be uncovered by digging through the annals of the Daily Tribune, Chicago’s “ancient” building permits, American Contractor, and the Economist, Mary Willis built more than 60 homes and buildings. The majority of them were in Portage Park, on the 4600 and 4700 blocks of N. Laramie; the 4600 block of N. LeClaire, the 5000 and 5100 block of W. Wilson Avenue; the 5000 and 5100 blocks of W. Windsor Avenue; and the 4600 block of N. Lawler Avenue.
Jean Wehrheim from the Chicago Daily Tribune 30 October 1955
Name: Jean Wehrheim
Date of Death / Location: September 22, 1977
Education: Bachelor's of Architecture, University of Illinois, 1948.
Date of Death / Location: Ran an architectural practice with her husband, John Wehrheim, in Lombard, Illinois.
Awards & Honors: Jean joined AIA in 1969.