Louis and Dorothy Greenwood moved from their home on LaSalle, next to the old corset factory and across the street from Doney, into 615 South Lincoln around 1964. They bought the home from Doney for only $13,000. They were members of Our Lady of Good Counsel church, and had five lively Boomer children--twins Mary and Margaret, Betty, Robert, and Pam. The children loved running races down the long upstairs hallway with their dog, Bruno, who was allowed to run around the house as much as he pleased. They had furniture in the basement, and the children watched T.V. down there during the hot summers before central air conditioning was common. Louis Greenwood worked at FermiLab, and Dorothy, the first working mother to inhabit the home, worked at Carson's.
Louis Greenwood was a man with varied interests. He loved to work outdoors, and he took pride in his ability to landscape and garden the backyard. His daughter, Mary Luba, says that they always had "the most beautiful backyard," and son Robert told me that he filled it with irises, snapdragons, and rosebushes. Flowers adorned the north side of the yard, the edge of the sidewalk and the space under the kitchen window. He planted yew trees in the back and two large evergreen trees in the front which, unfortunately, have been chopped down; but, amazingly enough, the perennials he planted along the north side still come up every spring. The fence did not yet exist. Louis also enjoyed playing his organ, which was positioned between the two windows in the dining room, and making wine and grape jelly in the basement closet where previous generations had stored coal. We have found many artifacts from the Greenwood years: antique matchbooks, Louis's canning jars, a Melmac saucer, a ping pong table, an old football and gardening supplies.
Louis made several modifications to the house. He planted grass in the driveway, which ran along the north side of the yard, so he could have more space for his gardening pursuits. He also enclosed the sunporch and installed a new kitchen door, which had been taken from an old farmhouse. Mary claims that he removed the wall separating the upstairs back bedroom from the adjacent storage area, so Robert would have a bigger bedroom, but Robert says he never did this. The home, during this era, had siding that looked like tiny pebbles, a design not commonly seen anymore. Like the Boltie's, the Greenwoods were able to park cars in the garage, and Robert and his dad often worked on cars together in it during the 1970's.
During the 1980's, Greenwood children gradually married and moved out. Louis's health deteriorated and, as he grew increasingly ill, he moved his bed downstairs, as Carl Boltie had done. He suffered a stroke one evening during a trip to the store, and came home unable to speak. He died that August night in the den. Dorothy stayed there alone until her death in September, 1991. Robert, the executor of the estate, rented out the home until James Franklin, a young worker for the Joliet Beacon-News, bought it for $58,000 in April, 1993.
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