| Additional Information: | Description and historical information from the 2023 WisDOT survey report for STH 32/N. Lake Drive, Fox Point, Milwaukee County:
Oriented to E. Green Tree Road, this two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house is sheathed with brick on the first floor, while the second floor, which extends slightly over the first, is covered with wooden shingles. The home’s front door faces E. Green Tree Road and is located left of center and is set within a classical wooden surround with fluted pilasters. Right (east) of the door is a single, floor-to-ceiling, multiple-light bay window, while the upper level includes three, symmetrically arranged, six-over-six-light, double-hung, replacement sash windows flanked with decorative (albeit non-working) shutters. Windows throughout the remainder of the house are double-hung sash examples. A shed-roof, open porch, constructed in 1950, connects the main block to the attached garage, which extends from the rear and is accessed from N. Lake Drive.
Designed by Charles J. Keller and Son, this house was built in 1930 by Shorewood real estate agent George Douglas for an estimated cost of $10,000. Notably, the Douglas family never resided in the house and the first confirmed occupants of it were Herbert G. and Margaret Horneffer, as of 1933-1934. Born in Milwaukee in 1884, Herbert worked as an insurance agent. The Horneffers remained in the home until the late 1930s, after which it was owned by New York native Iva Evelyn Smith, who rented to the widowed Mrs. Alice M. Newbold, who was born in Washington, D.C.. Both Iva and Alice were in the field of social work, with Iva working with the Childrens Service Society and Alice as the director of the Domestic Conciliation Department of Milwaukee County. Iva moved to Chicago in 1942, and Alice remained in the house, with other female lodgers, until circa 1946. By no later than 1948, the house was purchased by H. Eldred and Dorothy Stephenson, who married in 1943. Eldred worked at Cutler-Hammer and, at the time of his death in 1964, was the firm’s controller. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Citations for information provided in the Additional Comments below:
Permit for rear porch addition at 702 E. Green Tree Road, 29 May 1950, owner: H. E. Stephenson, est. cost, $1,100.
There are two scanned permits in the building permit file records for this house; one from 1929 and the other from 1930. Based on the size noted on each permit, it is assumed that the 1930 permit is correct, Building permit for the NE corner of Lake Drive and Green Tree Road, 23 September 1930, owner, Geo. Douglas, architect/contractor, Charles J. Keller & Son; Whitefish Bay, Fox Point and River Hills Village Directory, 1932-1939; “Herbert Gordon Horneffer,” U.S., World War II Draft Registration Card, 1942, Available online at www.Ancestry.com, Accessed September 2023; U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1940, 1950; “Herbert G. Horneffer,” obituary, Janesville Daily Gazette, 8 June 1954, 13; “Alice Newbold Speaks to Community Group,” Los Gatos (CA) Times-Saratoga Observer, 28 May 1948, 8; “Iva Evelyn Smith,” obituary, Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), 4 January 1994, 9; “H. Eldred Stephenson,” death notice, Chicago Tribune, 30 March 1964, 62. |
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