This friendly, little house was the home of Adolph and Estelle Link’s son, Robert “Bob”, and his wife, Blanche or “Bee” as she was known. Their daughter, Pat, tells us that as soon as Bob returned from his service in the Army Air Corps in 1946, he and Bee became engaged and Bob immediately began building the house.
Like the Reynolds family, they intended for the house to later become a 2-car garage for a more extensive home. By the middle of December, it was habitable and Bob and Bee were married. Pat says though, that “the only garages [for both the Link and Reynolds homes] were at Grandpa’s house. So we parked our car there, especially in the winter. Then we had to trek down a steep hill to our house. It was a challenge on icy days!”
Unlike the Reynolds, the Links added onto their existing house around 1950-51 when their son, Gary, was born. The addition included a basement, a bedroom for Bob and Bee and a large room for their two children that was later split up into two smaller rooms.
Later, in 1963, Bob and Gary worked on an addition that wound up being a four-car garage, rather than a two-car garage. Pat says, “So Dad ended up with a lot bigger one than he would have had and we probably ended up with a smaller house.”
The card is dated 1957-58, which tells us that Adolph drew this card after the house addition but before the garage addition. Note the rose trellises leaning against the house, the landscaping at the base of the house and the chimney on the right side. Mr. Link did a wonderful job of incorporating these details and, also, drawing that shingled roof!
To top off the card, Mr. Link included this “cheery little rhyme” as a seasonal message to all of those who received the card. And, he signed it “The Links” in a singular style that we have not yet seen.
This house was eventually purchased by Bob and Bee’s nephew, Dennis Reynolds, and his wife, Kathy. They lived there until 1987 when they sold it to the Schaumburg Park District prior to the widening of Plum Grove Road. The only bit that remains is the Bob Link Arboretum at Spring Valley that Bob began before he left the area. It is a wonderful place to walk.
If you read down to the prior two cards, you can see the unique style of the Adolph and Estelle Link home, the Bill and Mary Lou Reynolds home and the Robert and Bee Link home. How nice that Mr. Link gave his family fond memories of these houses where the families shared many happy days. What a nice legacy to leave.
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org
History of Schaumburg Township 
When the house was torn down, the evergreen in front of the house, by the rose trellises, was saved. By then, of course, it was huge! The tree still stands. My sister Sue and I saw it a few weeks ago.