2025.01.24

Dian's memories of "Ingle Brae," her family's rustic summer cottage at 3438 Riverside Drive in Saugatuck Township. Originally owned by the author's mother's Hemingway family, the 1917 cottage was passed down to her grandparents Jean Hemingway and William "Dutch" Gorgas who wed in 1923. The memoir mentions her parents courting, riverside cottagers being seen as less respectable than Lakeshore Drive cottagers, visiting in the fall of 1938 when polio closed Chicago schools, details about the cottage layout and how it changed over time, the furniture including the perfect reading "swing" made from a mattress hung on chains, visiting her mother's friends including Mrs. Perotte, Mrs. Leland, Gail Hutchins, Mary Bell Saunders of the Job House, buying the Chicago Tribune at Pfundstein's newsstand and barber shop, seeing Oak Openings campers, walking out to the shore thorough the Cook-Bennett mansion property, the Big Pavilion, climbing the Mount Baldhead stairs, viewing the annual art exhibits on display on the second floor of the Saugatuck Village Hall. When Dian's parents Jean and William Gorgas retired, they transformed the celotex-walled cottage into an all-season home. Her mother sold the property in 1972. Although it is not mentioned in the memoir, Jean Gorgas was a president of the Saugatuck Woman's Club.

Literature, poetry and memoirBuildings: Homes, cottages and private residencesChildhood

Winthers, Sally

06/24/2025

06/24/2025