7331 N. Sheridan Road
7331 N. Sheridan Road, Hyman Holsman, 1919.
7331 N. Sheridan Road was the Camelot School.
It later became the Shambhala Meditation Center.
The mansion at 7331 N. Sheridan Road (currently the Shambhala Meditation Center) is a lovely, 95-year old, Prairie School style home. It is constructed with cream-colored brick and now colorfully-painted, wood trim. This is the last remaining Sheridan Road mansion in Rogers Park south of Jarvis Avenue.
This luxury home has many mature-growth trees around it and large green spaces for its front-and side-yards. The historic home has a unique story and has served several uses over its lifetime which many people remember.
Like all the mansions on Sheridan Road, the residence at 7331 N. Sheridan has a colorful and enlightening history. As early as June 1918, Chicago Tribune articles refer to the home’s original long-time residents. Thus, the building dates back to at least 1918.
The 7331 N. Sheridan home was constructed about the same time as the nearby 1915 Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Emil Bach House. As with many pre-1920 Chicago residences, no building permit, which lists the architect and construction date, is on record. Nevertheless, various Tribune articles from 1918 to 1936 discuss the mansion’s long-time residents, Mr. Hyman Holsman and his family.
According to his 1934 Chicago Tribune obituary, Mr. Hyman Holsman was a local philanthropist and a jeweler by trade. Mr. Holsman owned a jewelry store initially at 179 W. Madison Street and then eventually at 5 S. Wabash Avenue. This address on Wabash is known as “The Jewelers Center” at the Mallers Building and is one the most famous addresses on the historic “Jewelers Row” in the Loop. As of 2003, “Jeweler’s Row” is now a Chicago Landmark District.
Mr. Holsman resided in the home with his second wife, Nell and his three stepdaughters, Hortense, Jeanne and Elizabeth. His first wife passed away in 1911. He had a son, George, from his first marriage.
Also according to his obituary, Mr. Holsman was philanthropic participating in several important Chicago institutions. He was an early vice-president of the Edgewater Hospital (1929) which still stands albeit abandoned, at 5700 N. Ashland Avenue and was one of the primary hospitals in the area for many decades. (Hillary Rodham Clinton was born there!)
Mr. Holsman was a member of Temple Mizpah at 1615 W. Morse Avenue, now known as the Church “Christiana Elim” on the southwest corner of Morse and Ashland. Temple Mizpah was organized as a congregation in 1919 and the structure on Morse was built in 1924. Temple Mizpah was one of the early, more liberal, “Reform” congregations in the city and later, the congregation relocated to Skokie in the 1970’s.
Mr. Holsman was also a director of the Marks Nathan Home for Orphans. The Marks Nathan home near Douglas Park opened in 1912 and took in children during the height of the immigration boom in America. Many West Side Jewish immigrants were poor and fell on hard times, and an orphanage was needed. This orphanage provided a very good education and environment for its children. Some of the famous people who lived there as children include Elmer Gertz, the prominent constitutional law attorney, and Barney Ross, the famous boxer.
One Tribune article also indicated that Mr. Holsman’s son, George, went to the aviation school at the Great Lakes Naval Station during WWI. In 1936, the Tribune reported that Mr. Holsman’s step-daughter, Jeanne, eloped and married Phillip Weintraub, a first basemen for the Cincinnati Reds at the time. Weintraub later played for the New York Giants and become one of the most famous Jewish baseball players in American history having played first for Loyola University in Rogers Park.
"According to the encyclopedic 1924 book by Hyman Louis Meites, History of the Jews of Chicago, Temple Mizpah was actually organized in 1919 in Mr. Holsman’s home at 7331 N. Sheridan! The synagogue building on Morse was constructed in 1924 to accommodate the congregation of 350 families. Sixty years later in the 1970s, the then smaller congregation relocated to Skokie.
After a prolonged battle to save it, the house's demolition began Monday, October 7, 2013.
See also Pritzker Parking Garage
