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There is no shortage of grand homes surviving along Garfield Boulevard, but none is grander than the house just east of Halsted, built at the turn of the 20th century by one James O’Leary.The name, of course, rings a bell: Mrs. Catherine O’Leary – and her cow – the fabled causes of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire.
It was a bum rap, but the pair remain at the pinnacle of Chicago folklore.
James O’Leary was Catherine’s son, born in 1869.