This post continues our brief tour of Open House Chicago 2018. The second building we toured was right across the street from the Gunder House.
It is the Conway House, now the property of Sacred Heart Schools as the Driehaus Center. 
The home was designed by the architect William Carbys Zimmerman in the Tudor-Revival style, and built by Richard Francis Conway for $40,000.  Conway’s paving company also built Lake Shore Drive. The architect also designed several of the Chicago Park District’s field houses.

Richard Conway, the house’s owner, was a widower with 11 children (good Catholics!). He also had a houseman and two servants. In early 1922, the house was sold by the Conway estate for $78,500, a considerable sum in those days.

The restored building is a survivor from the days when Sheridan Road was a millionaire’s row. This is the front entrance of this building which is rarely open to the public.

In the 1950s it became the North End Women’s Club. In 1959, Sacred Heart Schools purchased the house and Hardey Preparatory classes were held there until 1972.

This landmark home now hosts events on the main floor and has offices for Admissions, Communications and Development on the second and third floors. It has a third-floor ballroom, Ionic columns, mahogany woodwork and even lion gargoyles guarding the drainage outlets on the porch.


The first floor is lavishly decorated with period furniture.


The staircase was carpeted with floral patterns.

Interior paneling

The interior design, windows and fixtures in this curved room were beautiful.



An alcove with beautiful stained glass windows

Miniature chairs – there were two of these. I took a photo of my husband standing next to one of them to get perspective on their size.

Embossed wallpaper detail

Upper floor window seen from the outside of the building

Since 1972, the house has been home to the Religious of the Sacred Heart, Parents of the Heart activities and an early childhood intervention program for families in the neighborhood.