Philip Brooks Maher, like his father, was an Architect.
EDGAR STANTON was called "Edgar Stanton, Jr." He grew up at the family home at Winnetka, Illinois, and spent many summers beginning in 1915 at the family lodge on Killaly Point near Desbarats, Ontario Canada, and later at the L Bar T Ranch on the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River near Cooke City, Montana, where the family vacationed for many summers beginning in 1924.
Edgar attended Greeley Elementary School (grades K-5) and the North Shore Country Day School (grades 6-8) in Winnetka, Illinois. From 1923-1924, he prepared for high school at the Harris School in the Webster Hotel at Chicago. In 1924, he entered The Hotchkiss School at Lakeville, Connecticut, and graduated in 1928. He entered Yale University in 1928 and graduated with a BA in Greek in 1932. At Yale he also studied Italian and took courses at the Yale Music School where he developed an interest in Opera. After graduation, he studied voice at Chicago and later took up classical guitar.
He married June 24, 1933 at Lake Forest, Illinois, ROSAMOND LARRABEE BAKER, born May 9, 1914 at Chicago, daughter of Edward Larrabee and Frances (Pratt) Baker of Lake Forest, Illinois. She is called "Rose." They first lived in an apartment at 400 Demming Place, Chicago, before moving to Winnetka, at 160 Woodly Road in a home designed by Edgar's brother Francis.
Edgar was employed by the Belden Manufacturing Company and became Manager of Advertising. He later became a director of Belden for 28 years from 1951 to 1979. He was a trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra both before and after World War II.
From 1942 to 1945 during World War II, Edgar served in the U.S. Navy primarily in the Pacific theater. He enlisted as an Ensign and was initially stationed at Honolulu, Hawaii for six months. He was then assigned to Palmyra Atoll, a refuelling stop for airplanes travelling between Hawaii and Australia, for one year. At Palmyra, he specialized in communications and was part of the effort to intercept and decode Japanese radio messages, and he also helped to load and unload ships. He was next stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for another six months. At the end or his tour, he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to the Bureau of Ships at Washington, D.C.Following the war, in February 1946, the Stantons planned an extensive skiing vacation at Mt. Tremblant in eastern Canada with Robert H. Collins and his wife Josephine. The snow conditions being poor, they decided to look elsewhere and all four travelled by train to Aspen, Colorado. At that time, there were no lifts or cut trails and the 14 skiers in town had to hike over the mountain to Little Annie Basin for the one run of the day. They stayed at "Pioneer Park" as guests of Walter Paepcke. The Stantons liked Aspen so much they purchased an option to buy 100 acres of land on Red Mountain from an old potato farmer.
In November 1950, with his brother Francis and wife Louise, Edgar and Rose bought half interest in "Victoria House" at 525 North Second Street, Aspen, one of the oldest houses in Aspen and a national landmark since 1990. It was built by Arthur B. Shilling about 1890. It was next owned by Alfred S. Lamb, and then it passed to the Aspen Company, Walter P. Paepcke, president, before the Stantons bought it. Edgar and Rose, who spent their winters in Aspen, sold their interest in Victoria House to his brother Francis and Louise in February 1955.
In 1953, the Stantons exercised their option and bought land on Red Mountain at Aspen to build a new home. On September 1, 1954, Edgar retired from Belden at the age of 45. The Stantons sold their Winnetka house to the Cremin family and moved to Colorado. Their new home was completed in February 1954 and later given the address of 0223 Placer Lane. It was known locally as the "bonnet" house from the parabolic shape of its roof, and it was also designed by his brother. The Stantons lived in it from 1954 to 1981.
At Aspen, Edgar became secretary-treasurer and a director of the Aspen Skiing Corporation, director of the Aspen Ski Club, trustee of the Aspen Skiers Educational Fund. He was chief timer for the Aspen Skiing Club for ten years and built an electric starting gate used in many of the divisional races. In 1956 Edgar was the "Grand Icicle" of the Winterskol Festival at Aspen. In 1960 he was the official liaison between timers and race jury at the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, California. Edgar was briefly filmed as a timer at the 1950 FIS championship at Aspen in a movie entitled "Aspen Album," and he is shown skiing in a film by Dick Durrance entitled "Aspen Winter Mood" made in 1961.
He was a trustee of the Music Associates of Aspen from 1954 to 1985. Beginning in 1957, he was the official recorder of the Aspen Music Festival concerts for the U.S. State Department's "Voice of America" broadcasts. The original archival tapes of the concerts he recorded through 1977 are stored in the Edward Kettering Marsh Memorial Music Library located at the Pitkin County Library at Aspen. His work with the Music Associates of Aspen led him to establish a workshop to help prepare students for the occupation of recording engineer. This activity was the precursor to the founding of the Aspen Audio Recording Institute in 1978. The Institute was renamed the "Edgar Stanton Audio Recording Institute" in 1990. Edgar was also instrumental in starting Grassroots public television in Aspen.
He served on the Pitkin County Planning and Zoning Commission and the Pitkin County Board of Adjustment for eleven years from 1960 to 1971 and he was chairman of each for eight years. He was founding director of the First National Bank in Aspen (now Central Bank), president and director of the First Aspen Corporation, and a trustee and teacher of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School at Carbondale, Colorado. He also helped to found and was a trustee of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies at Hallam Lake. He sang in the choir of Christ Episcopal Church at Aspen.
In 1978 the Stantons bought a second home for use in the winter at Tucson, Arizona. Edgar was a trustee of the Tucson Symphony Society from 1979 until 1986. In 1981 they sold their Red Mountain house (which was subsequently demolished in 1990) and bought a condominium in the Calenden at 625 West End Street in town. Edgar permanently moved to Tucson in 1987.
Edgar and Rose Stanton were inducted into the Aspen Hall of Fame on February 2, 1990. Edgar died February 17, 1991 at Tucson, Arizona, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 82 years old. His ashes were buried in Aspen Grove Cemetery on July 2, 1991.
Rose Stanton was the guiding force in improving accessible hospital facilities for Aspen from the late 1950's through the 1970's. She joined the Aspen Valley Hospital Board of Directors in 1956 and help dedicate a new hospital in 1962. But it was soon realized that it could not keep up with the demand due to the boom in the ski industry. As president of the Hospital Board, she helped form a new Hospital District. Through her efforts, the county was persuaded to donate land for a new hospital near the high school and for the Assisted Living Facility. She turned the first shovel for the new hospital in September 1975 and helped cut the ribbon at dedication ceremonies in October 1977. Rose resigned from the Hospital Board in 1978.
FRANCIS REW STANTON was born at Evanston Hospital, Evanston, Illinois. He was called "Franny." He grew up at the family home at Winnetka, Illinois, and spent many summers beginning in 1915 at the family lodge on Killaly Point near Desbarats, Ontario Canada, and later at the L Bar T Ranch on the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River near Cooke City, Montana, where the family vacationed for many years beginning in 1924.
At Winnetka, he attended Greeley Elementary School (grades K-5), the North Shore Country Day School (grades 6-8), and New Trier High School (grade 9). From 1924 to 1925, he attended The Harris School in the Webster Hotel at Chicago. This prepared him for The Hotchkiss School, a boarding school at Lakeville, Connecticut, where he entered the sophomore class in 1925 and graduated in 1928. At Hotchkiss, he played accordion with the Society Syncopaters and was Drum Major of the Band his senior year. He was also on the swimming and tennis teams at Hotchkiss.
Francis entered Yale in 1928 and, as a freshman, shared the Hugh Chamberlain Greek prize with McCalmont, also a Hotchkiss graduate. He was on the Freshman Tennis Team and the University Tennis Squad for the next three years, receiving a letter in his senior year. In 1932, he graduated with a BA degree with a major in Greek. In 1935, he graduated with a BFA in Architecture from Yale Architectural School. He spent the summers of 1931 and 1934 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts Americaine at Fontainebleau, France. In his final year at the Architectural School, he was made "Grand Massier," which is equivalent to the student head of the school.
He was leader of the Yale Freshman Orchestra and, in his sophomore year, of the Blue Racketeers Dance Orchestra. In 1931, he was a member of Local 234 of the American Federation of Musicians at New Haven. He accompanied Milt Newman and his Yale Blue Orchestra to Europe on the Cunard Line and played accordion and piano. He occasionally appeared at the Roseland Music Hall at Savin Rock, Connecticut, and was billed as "Franny Stanton, The Wizard of the Piano Accordion." He could also play the organ, string bass, trombone, and the E-flat Alto horn. He was an officer of the Chicago Rhythm Club when it was founded in the early 1940's. His large collection of rare 78 rpm jazz records was recorded for the Chicago Jazz Archives of the University of Chicago in 1978.
He worked the summer following graduation in 1935 for R. W. DeGroat & Associates at New Haven, Connecticut. In the fall of 1935 he got a job as a draftsman at Holabird & Root at Chicago. That winter, he started working for Allen & Webster at Chicago.
Francis married January 4, 1936 at Chicago, Illinois, LOUISE KELLOGG PARSONS, born March 11, 1915 at Chicago Illinois, daughter of William Edward and Myra Louise (Matthews) Parsons. They lived at 2457 North Orchard Street in Chicago (1936-1938) before moving to Winnetka at 879 Willow Road (1938-1943) and later at 527 Cherry Street (1944-1963). They now live at 715 Prospect Avenue.
In May 1937, he left Allen & Webster. He was licensed as an Architect in Illinois by examination in July 1937. From August 1937 to December 1938, he worked for Edwin H. Clark & Herbert Banse, Inc. of Chicago. From January 1939 to April 1939, he worked for Philip D. Maher of Chicago who at that time was the husband of his first cousin, Madeline Michelson Maher. In April 1939 he returned to Edwin H. Clark, Architect, where he became a junior partner during the last six months of 1940. In 1941, he became the sole owner of Francis R. Stanton, Architect, Chicago. In 1944, after the death of his father, he sold the family interest in Mrs. Snyder's Homemade Candies back to the Snyder family at Chicago.
From August 1942 to October 1946 during World War II, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District Office. He was assigned to the Pressed Steel Car Company of Hegewisch, Indiana, and was later stationed at Camp Ellis, near Macomb, Illinois in 1943. He concluded his service stationed at Chicago and was promoted to Major, C. E., Chief of the Contract Termination Division in 1946.
In November 1950, with his brother Edgar, Francis and Louise purchased half interest in "Victoria House" at Aspen, Colorado. In February 1955, after Edgar's home was completed, Francis and Louise became its sole owner. In December 1957, Francis bought a ranch style house from Robert B. Hurst on Red Mountain. This house was built before 1950 and was one of the first homes constructed on Red Mountain. It was later given the address of 0132 Placer Lane.
In June 1958, he sold Victoria House to Elizabeth D. Ickes. The family spent many summers at Aspen from 1946 until September 1983 when he sold the Red Mountain house to Robert S. West, a tax attorney from Los Angeles, who built a palace on the site in 1991. The house formerly owned by the Stantons was still standing in its shadow in the summer of 1992.
In 1946 with Matthew L. Rockwell and Raymond W. Hazekamp, he formed the partnership of Arkon Associates. In 1948, the partnership was changed to Stanton & Rockwell, Architects and Planners. This partnership, which included Marwood Rupp after 1959, lasted until 1964 when Mr. Rockwell moved to Washington, D.C. From 1964 to his "retirement" in 1989, he was in business by himself as Francis R. Stanton, Architect. For most of his career, he was faithfully supported by Toshio Tokunaga, his draftsman, and Mary Claps, his secretary.
He specialized in residential remodeling, but he also designed several buildings including the Darling Company of Chicago, the U.S. Post Office at Winnetka, and the Christ Episcopal Church at Aspen, Colorado. His office was located at 222 West Adams Street (1946-1955), 23 North Wacker Drive (1955-1961), 20 North Wacker Drive (1961-1971), 4849 Golf Road, Skokie (1971-1980), and at 1845 Oak Street, Northfield (1980-1989).
He was a Director of Eversharp, Inc., of New York City, for 21 years from 1941-1962, and a Director of Belden Manufacturing Company for 31 years from 1949 to 1980.
He was a member of the Yale University Council Subcommittee on Architecture, Painting and Sculpture from 1948 to 1954. Serving with Eero Saarinen, Joseph Albers, George Nelson, Robert Osborn, and others, they updated the entire curriculum of the three Yale departments. He was also a member of the organizing committee of the Yale Festival of Arts at Chicago in April 1956 under R. Sargent Shriver.
Francis served on the Winnetka Zoning Board of Appeals for six years from 1948 to 1954. He was the first representative from Winnetka on the North Suburban Mass Transit District (NORTRAN) from 1971 to 1974. He was Chairman of the Planning Committee from 1973 to 1974, and Vice Chairman of the District in 1974.
He enjoyed billiards and fly fishing, but his favorite sport was tennis. He served on the board of the Chicago District Tennis Association from 1936 to 1942. He has been a member of the Indian Hill Club, Winnetka, since 1936, and was on the board from 1948 to 1954. In 1948 with Edgar Buttenheim, he was ranked as the Number Two Men's Doubles tennis player in the Western Section of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. With his mother in 1954, he founded the Ridge and Valley Tennis Club at 2138 Waukegan Road, Glenview, and has been its President and Director ever since.
He was on the Board of Directors of the North Shore Country Day School from 1963 to 1978 serving as President in 1968, 1969, and 1973. He was President of the Alumni Association from 1972 to 1982. During this period, alumni participation in the annual fund drive increased four times and donations increased ten times. He instructed a course in Architecture there from 1973 to 1978, and he was the Tennis coach from 1972 to 1985. In June 1981, he was the first recipient of the Francis R. Stanton Alumni Recognition Award. In December 1989, he was the recipient of the Foster Hannaford Recognition Award for distinguished service to the school. He has been Vice-President of Alumni Giving since 1985.
LOUISE KELLOGG PARSONS was born at St Luke's Hospital at Chicago, Illinois. She attended the Girls Latin School at Chicago and the Holmquist School, a boarding school at New Hope, Pennsylvania. From 1933 to 1935, she studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts at New Haven, Connecticut.
She married, on January 4, 1936 at Chicago, Illinois, FRANCIS REW STANTON, born April 17, 1910 at Evanston, Illinois, son of Edgar and Harriet (Rew) Stanton of Winnetka, Illinois. They first lived at 2457 North Orchard Street in Chicago (1936-1938) and later moved to Winnetka at 879 Willow Road (1938-1943). In 1943-44, while Francis was stationed at Camp Ellis, they lived at Macomb, Illinois. Later, when he was reassigned to Chicago in 1944, they moved in with his mother at Winnetka for about a year.
Louise continued to study art, and in 1937 she studied under Alexander Archipenko, a Russian sculptor at Chicago. Moving to a home at 527 Cherry Street in Winnetka in 1944, she converted a sleeping porch into a studio so she could study and paint whenever time permitted.
From 1950 to 1952, she attended evening adult classes at the Institute of Design at Chicago. In 1954, one of her oil paintings won the F. H. Armstrong Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago and was honorably mentioned at the Ohio Valley Oil and Water Color Exhibition. She works in several media including oils, water colors, inks, colored pencils, and craypas. She applies her talent to modern theories of painting, particularly to the creation of abstractions derived mainly from nature.
She has exhibited her work in group shows at Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, New York City, and Aspen; in one man shows at Chicago, Elgin, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Aspen; and in juried exhibitions at Chicago. She is a charter exhibitor at the Chicago Art Institute Rental and Sales Gallery. Her work is in the collection of the Harris Bank in Chicago, the St. Charles Public Library, and in many private collections.
After the death of her Aunt Katharine in 1951, she inherited Holabird House and other land at Falls Village and three parcels of land at Robbins Swamp, Connecticut. She sold the house in 1965 and donated the land to the Connecticut Chapter of the Nature Conservancy in 1988.
She is a member of the Junior League of Chicago, the North Shore Art League, the Tavern Club, and the Indian Hill Country Club at Winnetka, Illinois. The Stantons live at Winnetka, Illinois.