BoxRec

1. This is one of the two breweries, Packey co-owned with Spike O'Donnell. the above is at Jackson-Collins.

2. This is Packey's mansion on Western Avenue. He lived here for 2 decades and also passed away here in 1936.

3.The family plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Joliet

4.Close up.

Cheers.

That house looks like it has some character.

Great shots Seamus.
Where on Western ave. is Packeys Mansion?

Big mistake on the Brewery. The location is actually Collins-Van Buren and it's on the SE side of Joliet. It was called the Joliet Citizens Brewing Company.

The mansion is on the West side of the DesPlaines River, at the NW corner of Western-Prairie.

That was pretty interesting. He must have done well with his ring earnings. He is a guy that you don't hear a whole lot about.

McFarland did extremely well in business for awhile. He retired from boxing, with personal savings of around a quarter million dollars. In his final bout alone, vs Mike Gibbons, he signed for $17.500, but ended up making 40.000 through movie royalties and other endorsements. That was 8 times more than what he got for his 1908 bout with Freddie Welsh. By the way, BoxRec now gives McFarland a win over Gibbons on the consensus opinion of more newspapers.

In addition, McFarland married into the very wealthy Loughran family of Joliet, and ended up a partner in two breweries, two banks, a paving business, as well as the owner of a large apartment building and a real estate business. He tripled his financhial assets, but then lost about a half million during the Great Depression.

That's the kind of home I'd love to live in. With its wrap-around veranda, bay windows, balcony on the second floor. Looks like a comfortable place to live. Compared that to the ugly shoulder-to-shoulder homes they've built recently--with virtually no yards, no alley ways, etc.--or the crappy condos.

His home is just spectacular.

Wow, he died pretty young. What did he die of?

Ric wrote:That's the kind of home I'd love to live in. With its wrap-around veranda, bay windows, balcony on the second floor. Looks like a comfortable place to live. Compared that to the ugly shoulder-to-shoulder homes they've built recently--with virtually no yards, no alley ways, etc.--or the crappy condos.

- Standard Victorian type the wealthy class built up to WW2 back when craftsmen built homes of substance with first rate materials.

Bit of a nightmare to own today due to multiple roofs and all the busy detailed woodwork that needs replacement along with some of the massive wood structures such as columns and such. Add in the need to seal and insulate, rewire, replumb, and update cooling and heating to modern standards. When redone to the exacting standards of the day that respect superior design of period architects, the results would yield that comfortable home you visualize.

The wealthy tend to build ugly concrete and steel bunker like compounds today, ie, Gates, Dell, ect, and drive massive ugly SUV boxes that double as armoured personnel carriers over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'd rather live in the Brewery. It's small capacity that could be a nice sized micro brewery and bar. I'd build a small unobtrusive penthouse to live on the roof and make sure all the original windows are restored with updated designs, ect.

Quoting from the Chicago Tribune.

Death was due to strange malady which caused high fevers and produced periodical attacks of coma. The former great lightweight boxer, whose weight had increased to nearly 200 pounds, lost about 50 pounds during his illness, which lasted around 2 months.

BroughtonRulesRefuge wrote:I'd rather live in the Brewery. It's small capacity that could be a nice sized micro brewery and bar. I'd build a small unobtrusive penthouse to live on the roof and make sure all the original windows are restored with updated designs, ect.

How would Mrs BRR feel about that?

It looks more like a morgue than a bar.