Stupey Log Cabin

08/31/2026

Just about a mile southwest of Port Clinton were the Stupey and Rectenwald farms.

With the taking place, it seems a good time to bring out the plat of the plat of the Town of Port Clinton, 1852. Some street names have changed. For example, Maria Street residents successfully petitioned to change the street name to Port Clinton Road in 1932. Roslyn Lane and Edgecliff(e) replaced Clark and Broad Way by ordinance in 1923, inter alia. Some original homes survive on Bloom Street and environs, generally with significant alterations.

Jacob Clinton Bloom (1815-1890) founded the town with significant collaboration from the Steele family (four brothers). Born in Canada, Bloom lived and worked in Waukegan, St. Joseph, MI and Michigan City, IN after selling the property to the Port Clinton Land Company, 1853. He remained a shareholder. However (infamously), Walter Gurnee became a sole shareholder; and, sold the company and more to the folks we know as the Highland Park Building Company.

N.B. A.B. Bloom is likely Atassa Maria Bloom (née Porter) who later went by Mara A. Bloom (1815-1890)

08/17/2026

Tonight, the City Council of Highland Park will vote on sub-dividing and removing the local landmark status of this dwelling, building and lot. It might be difficult to find a better example of second wave of post Treaty of Chicago settlement and neighborhood, educational and community. development may not exist

08/02/2026

06/18/2026

This Saturday's Stupey Open house is extra alléchante as it will be the Highland Park Historical Society 's 60th anniversary. We will be having extended hours so please stop by 11am-5pm.

06/07/2026

The door will open for the first Stupey first Sunday of the Summer at 2PM. Please stop by. Photo by Henry X Arenberg, October 1978.

06/02/2026

If you're interested in learning more about Highland Park, Illinois history, please stop by the first Stupey Sunday this year, June 7, 2-4 PM.

In this Part 2 of Hollywood in Highland Park, Cookie Monster pauses for an interview in this neighborhood captured in this circa 1900 slide : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGiNsz_5_Sg one century later.

Happy one-day late birthday to HP resident and Highland Park High School graduate, .

05/30/2026

Looking down the river from Kanahwa Falls, West Virginia, 1911/ photographed by Jesse Lowe Smith. Smith photographed this site to use in the curriculum at Elm Place School. While there are no notes with the slide one might surmise that this as used as part of discussion of events leading to both westward expansion and the American Revolutionary War.
(Lord) Dunmore's war of 1874 between American colonists and Alqonquin tribes, including the Shawnee, marked the first formal military actions by settler-organized militia, albeit under the aegis of the "Crown." Many bloody native and Civil War battles also took place in this valley.
Kanahwa was the preferred name by many when West Virginia became a Union state in 1863. Legends translate Kanahwa as She-Who-Sings-to-the-Stones. In 2026 the Falls are a short distance from the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve .

05/28/2026

Our Stupey fox stops by.

05/25/2026

05/21/2026

The Stupey Cabin will be open Sundays, 2-4PM, excepting June 14 and 21, this summer and fall, beginning June 7. Please stop by! We are also open by appointment.
The Historical Society obtained these photostats from the Royal Prussian Archives in Berlin, Germany in the 1960s. The Prussian script and German language were transcribed and translated by Ravinian Dr. D. Warren Strange.