Thomas Bassett descends from William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett of Plymouth and wife Elizabeth
William Bassett (b. 1624) and wife Mary Rainsford
William Bassett (b. 1656) and wife Rachel Willison
William Bassett (b. 1681) and wife Abigail Bourne
Thomas Bassett (b. 1718) and wife Patience Tobey
William Bassett (b. 1749) and wife Mary Smith
John Bassett (b. 1783 and wife Lucy Fessenden
Thomas Bassett (b. 1823) and wife Maria Cutler
An earlier story about this Thomas Bassett can be seen at the following link:
http://www.bassettbranches.org/newsletters/2013/12/201312.shtml
Chicago Tribune Publication, Thursday, February 11, 2016
Winnetka’s Thomas Bassett house slated for demolition
Former farmhouse was built in the 1860’s
By Bridget O’Shea, Pioneer Press
The house at 461 Maple St. has been standing for almost as long as Winnetka has been a village. One of the oldest houses in Winnetka, the house, also known as the Thomas Bassett house, has reached the end of its long life.
Built in the 1860s as a small farmhouse, the home was originally owned by Thomas Bassett, one of the first village council members in Winnetka. The house is now slated for demolition.
“This is probably one of the oldest structures in the village,” said Louise Holland, former village president and chair of the landmark preservation commission. “It’s very sad, but there’s not much more we can do. The village won’t extend the wait period on a historical home that we don’t want to be seen torn down.”
But Sean Freeman, founder and president of Highland Park-based Twenty9Inc. Construction, sees it differently.
“It’s a rich history and a long history and I know that people get emotional when things get torn down,” he said. “We understand some people are upset, but because something has a date on it doesn’t make it significant. It didn’t line up with any of the other homes and that’s unappealing. From a neighbor and city perspective, the way the house sits is awkward.”
Freeman said the new, mostly stone structure that will replace the Thomas Bassett house would be roughly the same square footage (38,000 square feet) but will sit further back on the lot.
“It’s going to fit in more as a new home than it did as an old home,” he said.
Freeman said it wasn’t just the exterior of the existing home that made it unappealing.
“It was not well maintained,” he said. “There’s no bathroom on the first floor. It just wasn’t prudent to take that home and try to remodel it.”
The home’s most recent owners were Mary and Richard Larkin, according to a village house file. In the file, Richard Larkin said the house was in “embarrassingly bad shape” before he left Winnetka for Florida last year. As for the ho9me’s history, Freeman said an exhaustive study of the home did not say if one of Winnetka’s founding fathers resided there.
“Did one of the founding fathers of Winnetka live there? I don’t recall that,” he said.
But Holland said the study did find that 461 Maple St. was the home of Thomas Bassett. The village file also stated the original owner as Thomas Bassett.
“In the body of the study is the whole story of Thomas Bassett living in that house,” Holland said. “He (Freeman) should just look at the report that he commissioned and paid for.”
Freeman, however, said he want to look more toward the future of a property and its prolific location, en route to parks and beaches.
“Cherry and Maple is an important corner,” he said. “Our goal is that when you go by Maple and Cherry, people won’t know it’s a new home. It’s not going to be one of those vanilla box homes. It will fit in with the rest. Whether you’ve lived there for two years or two generations, I think people will agree that the aesthetics of the home are very pleasant.”
Patti Van Cleave, executive director of the Winnetka Historical Society, said while she recognized that the Thomas Bassett house has history, she agrees that it makes more sense to build a new structure in its place rather than remodel.
“It’s an old house, but I didn’t see anything about it that would be significant,” she said.