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211 S. Owen Street - William Pohlman House
This Victorian style house was built around 1873 as a farm house for William Pohlman and his large family. Born in 1849 in Germany, William immigrated to the United States and settled in Mount Prospect in 1867. Living in Mount Prospect, he married his wife Sophia, also from Germany, and worked as a farmer, renting the Owen Rooney Farm.
Among
the children that William and Sophia raised in this house was their son John,
who had a large role
in the formation of Mount Prospect. After marrying Anna Meyer from Chicago in
1915, he moved from this house to a house at 222 S. Emerson. John Pohlman was
one of the original six village trustees after the incorporation of Mount
Prospect in 1917. John was also a charter member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
as well as the Mount Prospect Volunteer Fire Department. John was also well
known as the community’s first stationmaster, a position he held from 1910 until
1953.
The William Pohlman Farm was
sold to a developer in 1926 and the house was bought by Dr. Louise Koester in 1932. Dr.
Koester was the first doctor to practice in Mount Prospect, a feat even more
noteworthy considering the fact that very few women entered the medical profession in
the 1920s. Studying medicine at Wheaton College, Dr. Koester hoped to become a
medical missionary to Africa. After hearing of the need for a doctor in Mount
Prospect, she was drawn to the small community because of its German heritage.
Born in Germany herself, she hoped to help the German immigrants living in the
town at the time. After a small stay in an office at VanDriel’s drugstore, need
demanded a larger location, which prompted the move to the Pohlman house. The
basement and first floor of the house were used in her medical practice, while
the second floor was her living space. She occupied the house until 1976.