510-514 N. Milwaukee Avenue - Hanby & Butler Buildings

After the Great Libertyville Fire of 1895 destroyed the east side of Milwaukee Avenue from Cook Avenue north to almost School Street, a series of new buildings sprung up from the ashes. Lewis Hanby, a cattle buyer and one-time Libertyville village board member and Josiah W. Butler, Libertyville mayor (1885-1886) and son of Libertyville pioneer Horace Butler, commissioned adjoining buildings on this spot, likely as real estate investments.

510-512 N. Milwaukee Avenue – Hanby/Enderlin Building

Jeweler C.R. Sherman, who also sold bicycles, moved his shop to the Hanby Building in August 1896 and photographer A.B. Lewis, who lost a previous studio in the 1895 fire, moved in upstairs. By about 1901, the Darby Brothers Jewelry store replaced C.R. Sherman. The firm specialized in watch repair but offered a broad range of wares including jewelry and silverware, clocks, a variety of string instruments, pianos, and bicycles. Fred Enderlin, a German immigrant, moved his four-year-old Libertyville saloon to the Hanby Buidling in 1905. When Libertyville Township went “Dry” in 1914, predating national prohibition by several years, the Enderlin saloon closed. J.B. Morse & Co., an established Libertyville “men’s furnishing store”, leased the first floor in what was now referred to as the Enderlin block. (Fred Enderlin had purchased the building in the intervening years and lived upstairs. After Prohibition ended, Enderlin opened another saloon in a small building he had built behind the Morse store. That saloon is now known as The Island Tap.)

Proprietor Jay B. Morse kept the men's apparel store running until 1940. Morse was very involved in local affairs during this time. He served as town collector, mayor (1915-1921), county treasurer and held the office of county clerk for 12 years. His wife, Daisy Morse, was also civic minded. The organizational meeting for the Alpha Club (later the Libertyville Woman’s Club) was held in her home in April 1903. Mrs. Morse was one of the first women to vote in Illinois in a village bond issue that just happened to be the very first election to take place in Illinois after the state granted women a limited franchise in June 1913. In the 1920s, she was a member of the Libertyville Township High School board.

Chandler’s stationary store did business here in the 1950s and 1960s before moving a few doors down to the Schanck building on the northeast corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Cook Avenue. Bill West opened Studio West about 1970. The studio still occupies this space under different ownership.

514 N. Milwaukee Avenue – Butler Building

In August 1896, J.W. Butler was lining up contractors to begin work on a building to adjoin the Hanby building on the north. The Butler building was complete by July 1897. A general merchandise/dry goods store on the first floor and a printing concern upstairs occupied the building at that time.

Smith & Davis general merchandise store, established in 1900 by C.H. Smith and W.E. Davis, conducted business on the first floor of the Butler Building as early as 1903. C.H. Smith was the son of F.C. Smith & Son, a dry goods store launched about 1885. W.E. Davis was the principal of the Libertyville public school. The partners sold groceries, boots, cigars and tobacco, and crockery from the store which had electric lighting, and modern heating and ventilation of the day.

Druggists Decker & Bond replaced the Smith & Davis shop about 1909. In December 1910, the Alpha Club established a subscription library at the shop. The Alpha Club collection would later be part of the original collection of the Cook Memorial Library. The pharmacy changed names to Decker & Neville and eventually just Neville’s. The Perkin’s Drug Store operated here in the early to mid-1950s following the death of pharmacist Mark Neville.

Taylor and Seiler Paint and Hobby served hobby enthusiasts from this location starting in the mid-1960s and running through the late 1970s. Over the past forty years a number of businesses have come and gone from the building including the Orchard Country Store, Interior Dimensions, and Bliss Diamond. The space is currently operated by Edie’s Boutique which opened in 2018.

“Laid in Ashes.” Waukgean Weekly Gazette, September 7, 1895, p.1.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1897, 1912, 1924, 1933, 1948. https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/

City directories, Cook Memorial Public Library.

“A new firm.” Lake County Independent, July 10, 1896, p.1.

“C.R. Sherman.” Advertisement Lake County Independent, Libertyville 07/24/1896, p. 5

“C.R. Sherman moved across the street…” Advertisement Lake County Independent, Libertyville 08/07/1896, p. 7

“The contract for the mason work…” Lake County Independent, August 28, 1896, p.5.

“Hanby Block” Lake County Independent, Souvenir Edition, September 25, 1903.

“Darby Brothers.” Lake County Independent, Souvenir Edition, September 25, 1903.

“Smith & Davis.” Lake County Independent, Souvenir Edition, September 25, 1903.

“Butler Block.” Lake County Independent, Souvenir Edition, September 25, 1903.

 “Moving.” Lake County Independent, July 10, 1914, p.5.

Libertyville telephone books. Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society collection.

Decker’s Store-Enderlin Property assessment. 1935. http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/cookmemo11/id/8123. Accessed September 2, 2020.

Morse’s Store-Enderlin Property assessment. 1935. http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/cookmemo11/id/8125. Accessed September 2, 2020.

Barry, Jenny. Libertyville’s World War I Veterans: Mark Neville. ShelfLife – The Past is Present blog. Cook Memorial Public Library. https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2019/01/02/libertyvilles-world-war-i-veterans-mark-neville/. Accessed September 2, 2020.

Barry, Jenny. The Second Woman to Vote in Illinois - ShelfLife: The Past is Present blog - Cook Memorial Public Library. https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2016/06/05/the-second-woman-to-vote-in-illinois/. Accessed September 2, 2020.

“Library is assured.” Lake County Independent, November 18, 1910, p.5.

Kohl, Stephanie. “Q&A: Studio West Photography’s Jeff and Mary Mateer.” Libertyville Review, October 22, 2009, News Section.

“Fred Enderlin will Monday…” Lake County Independent, April 14, 1905, p.5.

“At a special meeting…” Lake County Independent, June 21, 1901, p.5.

Mikus, Kim. “Libertyville shop offering unique designs for home.” Daily Herald, May 8, 2001, p.1.

Zawislak , Mick “No whining about winter in downtown Libertyville.” Daily Herald, February 6, 2019, p.3.

Daily, C. L. Waller. “Time has little impact on the Island Tap.” Daily Herald, October 6, 1999, p.1.

MilwaukeeAveN510-514. HistoricLibertyville.com. Accessed September 2, 2020.