1858-1860 Netzley-Yender House

Built 1858-59 by the Netzley Family Original location: North side of Ogden Ave. between Western Ave. and Yender Ave. Primary use: family home, community church services, home store In 1849, Jacob and Mrs. Netzley with their ten children came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and purchased this home. Much of it was destroyed by fire a few years later, so reconstruction and additions were completed in three phases. The Netzleys were professional weavers, weaving carpets and other large textiles, and Jacob was a deacon in the Church of the Brethren. The original section contains a main floor hearth kitchen and two small bedrooms above. The four-square southeast section contains first and second floor bedrooms as well as a large double parlor that was used to hold teas and Church of the Brethren services. The final section completed was the summer kitchen (currently the north end). This is a unique structure: it contains a huge beehive baking oven oven that keeps the fire hot and the room cool and a smokehouse all in one masonry structure attached to the house. The tall windows and columns are characteristic of the Greek Revival style architecture, popular in America in the 1800s and found in older buildings throughout the Chicago region. Floor joist beams under the original kitchen are made of logs with the bark still on them. The outhouse located just north of the house and a “kitchen garden” that the children helped tend to make meals were used for decades. Holes made for bees to keep warm in the winter can still be seen on the outside structure and allowed the garden to be pollinated earlier in the spring season for the family’s food production. George Yender purchased the property in 1910 with his wife, Mary, and they raised four children. The Yenders operated a dairy business then opened a country style grocery store in 1939 on Ogden Avenue across from the home. These businesses were popular and an important part of life for the Yenders because of Lisle’s importance as an agricultural settlement and milk stop for the Burlington Railroad. Andy Yender, born in the bed located on the first floor, and his wife, Viola, helped donate the home to the Lisle Park District in the 1980s to preserve and demonstrate how the cultural heritage of family and idea of “home“ has changed over time.