Emard House update

At long last, the Emard house (2042 S. Oxford Avenue) is on the market. We had to stop working on it sometime. (See the archives for previous posts plus the history of West Adams Heights/Sugar Hill.)

Emard is the name of the current owner. We don't yet know the original owner's name, because there's no building permit on file.



Writer Danny Miller, poured through Census data, via Ancestory.com; and, he relates the following:

In 1910, the house was owned by Emile H. Breidenbach, a 46-year-old man who was born in Louisiana to German immigrants. He lived there with his wife Rose, 40, and their son, Emile H. Breidenbach Jr., age 7. The father was some kind of buyer but I can't tell if it's hardware or hardwood.

By 1920, it was owned by Isaac B. Milliken, 44, a druggist from Pennsylvania,
and his wife, Julia F. Milliken, 48.



By 1930, the house had changed hands again, and was now owned by the Sedgwicks. Emily Sedgwick, a 53-year-old widow, lived there with her SEVEN children: Jane, Allen, Sarah, Robert, Frederick, Emily, and Julius, ranging in age from 27 to 8, AND her 78-year-old mother-in-law Jenne T. Sedgwick. Quite a full house! I'm surprised you didn't see more attempts to make additional rooms.

The younger Emily Sedgwick was still living there in 1938 when she got engaged
to James C. Stone, but I'm not sure when the Sedgwicks sold. I believe it was
up for sale in both 1948 and 1956.




A few details that I can offer: the property has served as a dance studio, a home for wayward girls, and--like all of West Adams' grandest--a boarding house.

I'll have it open on Sunday, stop by if you're around.