If someone is going to be fascinated enough by a home to compile its history, make a documentary, write a book and then later revise and expand that book, it helps if that house is a castle.
“Obsession” is the word Errol Magidson uses to describe his feelings for the historic Givins Castle in Beverly, which was honored as Best Preservation Project of 2021 by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. “Chicago’s Only Castle” is the name of the second iteration of Magidson’s book, released in late 2023, updating a work first published in 2017.
“It’s not just about the structure, it’s about all the history connected with it, the history of the world that connects us all,” said Magidson, a retired City Colleges of Chicago professor of psychology and former Beverly resident. “That history continues to unfold as more information has become available.”
Magidson first laid eyes on the massive stone edifice at 10244 S. Longwood Drive in 1977.
In 2009, he engaged with fellow members of Beverly Unitarian Church, the Castle’s current owners, to review historic documents and artifacts for the creation of a film documenting the building’s history.
Magidson was semi-retired, working part-time at St. Xavier University. “I had never made a documentary film before,” he said. “The words just popped right out of my mouth.”
For the filming, he enlisted the help of Josh Van Tuyl of the university’s Media Services Department.
For historical context, Magidson also relied heavily on Linda Lamberty, a historian affiliated with Ridge Historical Society. She assumed the role of associate producer of Magidson’s documentary film. She also helped him decipher old street names and community names, which changed frequently as Chicago expanded its borders through the turn of the century.
The new book, edited by Lamberty, reveals plenty of new and fascinating factoids, along with those already published.
The Castle’s massive limestone blocks were quarried in Joliet and shipped by rail to the Washington Heights home of Peter Millen, a young stone mason. He oversaw the work of several stone masons, housing the men in his home. He also oversaw the transportation of the carved stones by horse cart to the construction site.
Besides featuring a photo of Millen with his family, same as before, the new book includes an entirely new chapter detailing more recent reconstruction efforts that shored up the Castle’s three crumbling turrets and gave the building a new lease on life.
Standing more than three stories tall amid stately oak trees and other mansions on Longwood Drive, the Castle is an iconic symbol for the Beverly community. Consequently, the renovation effort drew plenty of support and attention.
Originally completed in 1886, the structure has known a succession of owners and caretakers.
The first was Robert Givins, a flamboyant real estate baron and prolific author. Givins founded the Chicago Real Estate Board, now known as the Chicago Association of Realtors. Though he envisioned a structure that would resemble an ancient castle, his home would be built in a rapidly changing new world.
The Castle would be located in an area then known as Tracy, which at the time seemed far away from the south border of Chicago, then set at 39th Street.
Givins wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. In published news articles and opinion pieces, he let the world know he appreciated modern conveniences, like the Rock Island commuter train.
People in those days also skated to Chicago along a frozen ditch that hugged the Rock Island rails, Magidson said.
A robust looking man with a handlebar mustache, Givins had a knack for oration and organizing crowd-pleasing promotions. He also wrote novels about world travel, and sponsored bicycle races, not so different from cycling events later held in Beverly.
Givins made mind-boggling and sometimes oddball predictions about the rapidly accelerating speed of travel and futuristic inventions, including a device that could manufacture a ready-made husband.
Magidson’s new book confirms that Givins had real estate offices in Pasadena, California, in addition to those in Chicago. Givins was also one of the first Realtors to promote snowbird living in Florida after moving to Sarasota.
Like Givins the snowbird, Magidson now spends winters in Palm Desert, California, and the rest of the year in Northbrook.
Along with telling how Givins came to the Chicago region from Canada and ended up shaping several Chicago area neighborhoods as a developer, the new book recalls how a home deed Givins sent aloft with a balloon at the World’s Fair of 1893 opening ceremony was later discovered on a beach in Michigan. Even though the deadline for collecting the promotion prize had passed, Givins still awarded the property.
While Givins still owned the Castle, the Chicago Female College occupied it from 1895-1897. In 1901, when Chicago was considered the goldfish capital of the United States, two sisters used the Castle property as a goldfish farm.
Givins eventually sold his home to the racecar-loving Burdett family in 1909.
John Burdett’s inventions and his manufacturing company supported the family in high style. His dumbwaiters were used in the Ritz Carlton in New York City.
Prior to moving into the Castle, Burdett was arrested for driving 12 miles per hour through Lombard in 1904. The Chicago Automobile Club rallied around him to protest and pay the $100 fine, which in today’s dollars would equal $3,500.
Miroslaw Siemens, the Castle’s third owner, was a physician at Roseland Community Hospital. “He takes on new significance in light of the current war in Ukraine,” Magidson said. “He was one of the most prominent people of Ukrainian descent in this country.”:
The founder of Ukrainian National Museum, Siemens convinced President Woodrow Wilson to issue a proclamation setting up a tag day collection for Ukrainian widows and orphans. Siemens also led the group responsible for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933.
New to the book’s second edition, Siemens was interviewed in the 1930s by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, which investigated Nazi propagandists before World War II. The committee would later face public condemnation for blacklisting Hollywood celebrities as Communists in the 1950s and 1960s.
Siemens denied having had anything to do with Nazis, though one organization he presided over owned airplanes used to train young men affiliated with the German American Bund, an organization that did support Nazis. Siemens made sure the airplanes were sold immediately.
In World War II, one of Siemen’s sons, Roman, became the only U.S. military medical doctor stationed in Bastogne, France. American soldiers stationed there were credited with helping to win the decisive Battle of the Bulge.
The latest and longest owner and caretaker of the Castle is Beverly Unitarian Church. With the church as overseer, the Castle serves as a congregational space but also a community space for meditation workshops, yoga classes, and al-Anon meetings. It’s also known for Christmas tree sales and community breakfasts with Santa. In 1962, the church also created an addition to house The Castle Preschool.
The social justice legacy of local Unitarians occupies a good portion of the book. New information places S. Hunter Leggitt, Jr. at the 1965 civil rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alab. Leggitt, then 28, would eventually serve as a minister at Beverly Unitarian Church.
More information continues to surface about the Castle and the people whose lives it has touched, Magidson said. But he won’t be compiling a third edition just yet.
The book and documentary DVD are available at Bookie’s bookstore in Beverly and can be ordered online.
Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
