Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Back to the life and career of Thomas G. Moses after getting sidetracked by the Ackermans. I am beginning the year 1921. Thomas G. Moses wrote, “The New Year was ushered in by a general clean-up of the studio, and a pleasant call from Tom McCall.”
This is the first mention of a Tom McCall in Moses’ diary and there is no additional context to help place this individual in a public or private setting. It remains unclear whether McCall came by the Sosman & Landis studio or to Moses’ home.
There were a few Thomas McCalls living in the Chicago area at time, including the attorney Thomas H. McCall, the doctor Thomas E. McCall and the architect Thomas C. McCall. I believe it was the architect Thomas C. McCall (1856-1925) who called on Moses near the beginning of 1921.
McCall was born on August 6, 1856, in Newburgh, Fife, Scotland. He was the son of William McCall and Catherine Fotheringham, sailing from Liverpool about April 15, 1883. He was naturalized in 1892, before the Superior Court in Cook County. McCall married to Anna Delle Penney (1859-1903) on April 6, 1892 in LaSalle, Illinois, and the couple celebrated the birth of two daughters, Catherine (1897-1972) and Arvilla (Arville) P. (1899).
The first mention that I have encountered of Thomas McCall as a Chicago architect was in 1892. At the time, he was primarily designing hotels, such as the Holland Hotel for C. B. Waite (Inter Ocean, 7 Aug, 1892, page 10). Other hotels that year included a four-story hotel for Mary J. Reynolds and another for Mrs. George Krick. In 1892 he also designed a five-story clubhouse and hotel being built by the Queen Isabelle Association at Sixty-first street and Oglesby avenue (Inter Ocean, 9 Oct. 1892, page 10). In 1893, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, McCall completed drawings for the Hotel Oceana erected by John F. Thompson at Nos. 6331 and 6333 Drexel Ave in Chicago in early 1893 (12 Feb 1893, page 30).
The first listing of McCall in the Chicago Directory as an architect is in the 1898 That year he was residing at 5344 Madison Avenue. McCall was also listed in the “House Beautiful” architect directory for 1899. His primary focus was “Specialty” and “Residences” (Vol. VI, No. 6, page xi). In 1900 McCall was working at 702, 167 Dearborn, and residing at 5344 Madison Ave. Throughout 1903, McCall continued working at 710, 167 Dearborn. By 1905, however, he was residing at 1710, 9 Jackson Boulevard.
By 1916, McCall was designing the plans for the Chicago Picture Frame factory on Western Avenue and West Nineteenth Street, as well as a three-story apartment house for John Coutts (Inter Ocean, 9 Dec. 1900, page 39). The next year he moved to Evanston, Illinois, where he continued to work as an architect there. In 1917, McCall was listed as an architect in the Evanston, Illinois, Directory, residing at 845 Ridge Ave.
A little more information about McCall surfaced in his passport application. 1924, he applied for a passport, described as a 67-years-old man, 5’-7” with blue eyes and gray hair. On their return trip, he and his daughter Catherine, were listed as passengers, sailing on the S.S. Aquitania. They left on August 16th and arrived in New York on August 24th.
McCall died on January 13, 1925 in Evanston, Illinois, and is buried at Ottawa Avenue Cemetery in Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois, USA His obituary in the “Chicago Tribune” noted, “Thomas McCall, Noted Architect Dies at 58. Thomas McCall, well known architect and prominent in fraternal circles died at his home yesterday, 843 Ridge Evanston, following an illness of a month. He was 58 years old and was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, coming to Illinois forty years ago. Mr. McCall is survived by two daughters, the Misses Catherine and Arvilla McCall. Funeral services are to be held at 3 p.m. today as First Baptist church, Evanston. Interment at Ottawa, Ill.” ( 15 Jan. 1925, page 12). By that summer, the “Chicago Tribune” announced the engagement of Arvilla McCall to Albert Linne Tholin of Dowers Grove, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Tholin (16 August 1925, page 71).
To be continued…
