First the Laugh-o-Gram and now the house in which he was born and lived until he was four: the significant buildings of Walt Disney’s early life all seem to be in the news lately. The Chicago Tribune has a story about 2156 N. Tripp Avenue, Walt Disney’s first home.
It’s nothing special, just another building on a street with others that look kind of like it. Two-flat, new windows, hardwood floors, and it’s been on the market for over a year. It’s not an official historic landmark and it doesn’t even have a bronze plaque. Yet this is the building in which, on December 5, 1901, Walt Disney was born on the second floor.
The house is currently owned by real estate developer Radoje Popovic. He bought the house from its previous owner, June Saathoff, in 2002. Popovic says that Saathoff was opposed to making the house a landmark; she was worried that would mean it wouldn’t sell. Perhaps it’s true; Popovic is offering the property for a good price, but although he’s had interested buyers none of them were able to get the financing to purchase it.
What he does have, from time to time, are tourists, some from all over the world. He says people have come from as far away as Madrid, and a camera crew from Germany came to take pictures. This is, after all, the place of Walt’s birth and his childhood home.
Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney came to Chicago in 1890, then moved to the Midwest in 1906 when Walt was four. They moved back to Chicago when he was old enough to attend high school, but they didn’t return to the same house.
Still, even if Walt only lived at 2156 N. Tripp Avenue for four years they were the first four of his life; his birth there alone should be enough to gain the site more attention, or at least landmark status. In 1991 the Commission on Chicago Landmarks started proceedings to consider designating the site as one, but the process takes time. They looked at the case six months later, but that’s when Saathoff began to protest.
For one reason or another, the case has gotten so drawn out that it’s not even currently under active deliberation, and the site remains without landmark status. As long as Popovic owns it, however, Disney fans don’t need to worry about its destruction. Although he’s trying to sell he also wouldn’t mind if the property ever did get landmark designation, and he’s not particularly in a rush to sell, either. “It’s no problem,” Popovic said to the Chicago Tribune. “I’ve got good tenants.”
It’s mind-boggling to me that the Laugh-o-Gram studio has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, but the place of Walt’s birth still hasn’t even been made into a landmark. I’m not really familiar with how these things work; perhaps they need active sponsors, and for some reason Disney fans chose the studio over Tripp Avenue. Maybe having active tenants, or being zoned as a residence versus a commercial space, makes it harder to landmark.
Disney fans interested in seeing the house in which he was born and grew up still have the opportunity to go see it, but they should do so while they still can. The fate of 2156 N. Tripp Avenue is up in the air, but at least for now it’s safe.
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*(This photo by Agence Meurisse from the Wikimedia Commons is in the public domain and thus is free for use).
