Chicago Magazine - 09.2019

THE 312

28 CHICAGO | SEPTEMBER 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF REDFIN

Illustration by JOHN KENZIE

A

COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER

Dan and Wendy Radakovich

completed the massive

exterior paint job on their six-

bedroom Queen Anne house in Beverly in

2003, Wendy mailed a letter to former

justice John Paul Stevens. She thought he

might want a photo of his former home.

“The house looks great,” Stevens (who

died in July) replied on Supreme Court let-

terhead. “The picture brings back many

fond memories — the house has the best

sleeping porch in the world — as well as

the reminder of how many gallons of paint

must have been used to put it in its pres-

ent handsome condition.”

Stevens isn’t the only noteworthy

name associated with 9332 South Damen

Avenue, recently listed for $875,000.

Architect D. Everett Waid, best known

for codesigning the Metropolitan Life

Insurance Company Complex in New

York, had the house built for himself in

1894. In 1906, architect and car manu-
      facturer Henry K. Holsman added a front
      gable for symmetry.
      The Radakoviches are selling the
      home, where they lived for 25 years
      and raised four children, because 4,300
      square feet is “too much house” now that
      it’s just the two of them, Dan says. “I’m
      already grieving,” Wendy says, “because I
      consider it a privilege to have lived there.”
      That second-floor sleeping porch
      of which Stevens spoke so highly still
      looks like one from the outside, but the
      Radakoviches converted it into a heated
      reading and laundry room. They also
      added a three-car garage and overhauled
      t he k itchen, add ing moder n cabinet s a nd
      quartz countertops.
      However, original features abound,
      including beamed ceilings, stained
      glass, and built-in drawers underneath
      the stairs. Inside them, you’ll find a bay-
      onet and what appears to be a samurai
      sword. In fact, the house holds a trove of
      antique items. The Radakoviches have
      come across a Pond’s Extract bottle and a
      wooden exercise pin in the walls. “Those
      were k ind of presented to us a s pa r t of t he
      house,” Dan says, “which of course will
      remain part of the house when we move.”

Name

Calling

With their new

service Future

Perfect, two local

moms — Macaire

Douglas and

Chicago contributor

Cara Sullivan — help

solve baby-naming

conundrums. We

tested them with

three scenarios.

— ADRIENNE GUNN

Challenge Millennial

couple seeks

hashtaggable name

with no heteronor-

mative affiliation.

Solution XEN

Not Jen, not Ben,

just Xen. Free of the

confines of assigned

identity, this child is

woke AF.

Challenge Euchre-

playing, artisanal

pickling couple

requests name for

accidental girl. Must

look good tattooed

and on a résumé.

Solution DAHLIA

Mom can get the

bloom inked on her

arm. Dad can have

the letters scripted

across his chest.

Challenge Him:

Two adult children

from previous mar-

riage named John

and Julia. Her: First

baby, loves city

names like London

and Austin.

Solution JAMESON

It sounds like a

place, but no one

has to tell Mom it

isn’t. She can call

him by his full name;

Pop can shorten it

to James.

SQUARE FEET

Storied

Walls

Prominent architects and a Supreme

Court justice have both called this

125-year-old South Side manse home.

By ALISON GOLDMAN