By Susan Diamond
A house is built by man and a home is built by God. It’s a holy partnership, a union of earthly and Divine talents.
I am an imposing figure. I was conceived in 1879. I am a three-story, 24,000 square foot Victorian mansion located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Wealth was everywhere at the time of my conception. They called the era the “Gilded Age” and I represented the fortunes of man.
Edgar White was the architect to whom I owe my beauty and stature. Morris Daggner was the successful businessman who commissioned White to create a house that would be a showplace.
As it turned out, I am more than that. I am a member of the Daggner family, with a heart and a head, and a foundation and a loving spirit that I share with everyone who walks through my doors. I am now and have always been known as the Daggner House – even today though Morris and Fannie Daggner are long deceased and there are no more Daggners who reside within me.
I was completed in four years and blessed with my family in late July of that year. That’s the story I am here to tell you today.
The summer of 1883 I was brand new. I didn’t know what to expect when the Daggner family of five crossed my threshold.
Morris appeared to be a stern fellow, gruff on the outside. But as I soon found out – he was a softy in the inside where it counts. He adored his wife Fannie and called her “Sweetie” when he was feeling affectionate, which for Morris was often.
He was a doting father to his three children. At that moment in history, captains of industry weren’t expected to be involved in the upbringing of children. Yet, Papa Daggner was hands-on. I loved listening to the bedtime stories he would read to the children when he tucked them into bed at night. When his bedtime job was done he would join Sweetie in the parlor where they would talk about the happenings of the day and simply relax in each other’s company...READ MORE
