"The northwest corner of Ridge Avenue and church Street looms large in the lore of Evanston. Alexander McDaniel (1815-1898) purchased the site in 1843 and built a one-and-a-half-story house: it was the house that Philo Judson (1807-1876), the financial agent of Northwestern University, purchased in 1854; it was the house that Julius White (1816-1890) was renting when he entertained Abraham Lincoln on April 5, 1860. When Robert and Jennie Hill bought the property in 1884, they had the house moved in order to build 'another of the beautiful villas for which Evanston is becoming distinguished.' Designed by an unnamed architect from Milwaukee, it was built in 1884-85 by James C. Connor. After Hill accepted the vice-presidency of the Wisconsin National Bank in Milwaukee, he sold the house to Richard Conover Lake (1846-1919) in 1894. His widow sold the house at 1708 Ridge Avenue in 1945 to Ross Twichell, who remodeled it for a rooming house; and in 1969 it became the home of the Young Women's Christian Association. (Photograph from Fireman's Relief Fund Souvenir, courtesy Clara Andersen)"
Buchbinder-Green, Barbara J.,
Evanston: A Pictorial History, G. Bradley Publishing, Inc.,
Evanston, Illinois, 1989.
