2064 W. Pratt Boulevard

2064 W. Pratt Boulevard, William J. McDonald, 1913.

2064 W. Pratt Boulevard, Charles Arthur Tilt, 1918.

2064 W. Pratt Boulevard, Dr. Shirley Roy, 2013.

2013 Annual House Tour

This Robert E. Seyfarth-designed home was built in 1913 for William J. McDonald, then president of the Edgewater Golf Club. McDonald’s neighbor, Charles W. Moore, was the contractor. Charles Seyfarth, the architect’s brother, designed the garage. It is built in a classical Palladian design with a red brick exterior, white wood trim, and a green asphalt/shingle roof. The flanking front pavilions were later additions.

Around 1918, the house was sold to Charles Arthur Tilt, who lived there until 1930. He was the founder and president of the Diamond T Motor Company. Based in Chicago, the company manufactured the Diamond T, a powerful touring car but later became better-known for its trucks. Mr. Tilt was also a yachtsman whose family featured prominently in local society pages.

Another resident was prominent attorney and Democratic fundraiser James O’Keefe, who was chairman for the Chicago Host committee for the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The current owner brought the house from Dr. Stephen A. Gaymont, a Hungarian born bacteriologist who introduced yogurt into the United States in the 1940s and was famous as the ‘yogurt king’.

Robert E. Seyfarth (1878-1950) was a fashionable residential architect who designed houses for affluent businessmen during the first half of the 20th century. He built hundreds of houses in the city and especially on the North Shore that have been described as “gracefully proportioned and finely detailed often combining Colonial and Tudor elements with strong geometric forms.” For more information, go to: http://www.robertseyfartharchitect.com/.