The Highland Park Baseball Club, is Highland Park's amateur baseball team. They played against other North Shore Teams and had many home games at Sunset Woods Park. The teams had a manager and a mascot. Mascots in the early years of Highland Park would be a young boy. In the 1930s attention shifted away from adult amateur leagues and began focusing on local youth teams. Today both adult and youth leagues can be found in Highland Park.
Rhoda Perlman founded Lakeside Realty in Highland Park. She served as the president of the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce, the first woman in that role, where she initiated the sidewalk sale and other business district initiatives.
According to Perlman's obituary in the Chicago Tribune, her "great passion was the theater" as a supporter and participant. She was a founding board member of Steppenwolf and Apple Tree Theaters. She was active in "Senior Producers" where she hosted Cuisine Scene. a
Perlman was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago. She and her family, husband Harry and daughters Barbara and Joan, moved to Highland Park mid-century.
Edward Smith Manufacturing Co. (Highland Park, Ill.)
Edward “Izzy” Smith (b. Isadore) (1909-1991) grew up in Highland Park with his parents, brother “Sammy” and sisters Lillian and Rose. His father Joseph worked as a peddler, then established a successful junk dealing business in Highland Park. According to the census, Russian and Hebrew were spoken in the home.
Smith used his gift as “life of the party” to establish Edward Smith Manufacturing in 1928, the year he graduated from High School. His party game aids became staples at children’s parties and baby and bridal showers. The games were printed and bound at the manufacturing facility, 1316 Skokie Valley Road.
Smith suspended company operations for three years to serve in the United States Army during World War II. He was reluctant to discuss his years working with tank recovery in Europe as a Sargent. However, he shared tales of the different young women he met across the continent.
Smith played timpani in school and with local ensembles. His high school class voted him “Most Helpful to Class” and “Class Clown.” He placed second for “Noisiest Boy” and “Boy with the Best Line.”
Highland Park High School (Ill.)
The Gieser family, according to family history, are the descendants of the Duke de Guise in France. The family immigrated to Highland Park from Germany in the late 18th century. Adolph August Gieser ran a grocery store business in Highland Park and served as chief of the volunteer fire department. Adolph was married to Annie Christensen, originally from Denmark, and they one surviving child, William [Windsor] Gieser. William married Elise Weisenberger in 1932.
The Weisenberger family in the U.S. was headed by Albert Weisenberger, born in Germany. After emigrating at 20 years old, Albert worked as the gardener at the Ed V. Price estate, Bonita Vista, in Ravinia. Albert was married to Elise (nee Widmer) and they had two daughters, Elise Weisenberger Gieser and Marion W. Parker. The girls were raised on the estate and attended Ravinia School and Deerfield Shields High School.
Charlotte (Lottie) Pinkerton Blazer (1879-1966) was born to missionaries in South Africa and spent her earliest years in Wisconsin. As a young woman at the beginning of the 20th century, Pinkerton attended the Art Institute of Chicago and worked as a lantern slide colorist. She worked in California and founded the Santa Cruz Art League after her 1914 marriage to lawyer James Blazer. Pinkerton’s work can also be found at the Autry Museum of the American West, Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and in other collections.
Grunewald taught at Elm Place School for 36 years, retiring in 1946.