The brick pillars remnants of the Chew Family's acreage still remain...

Despite the degradation of Berkeley, if you squint your eyes while passing the corner of Evergreen and Airport Road you will find a small vestige of the brick pillars that remain today of the Chew home from the late 1800's. Phil Chew was a real estate promoter and in the late 1800's sponsored visits via the Wabash train to the area hoping  "City Folks" would buy his real estate offerings. He had a 3 acre estate on this corner and erected the brick pillared entrance to his home.

This later became the home of the C.C. Miller family and I remember the beautiful brick pillars which greeted me when I visited the Miller family. I always wondered about the brick pillars and just recently found out the above facts as to who was responsible for them.

Mr. & Mrs. Miller provided five students to our school system. (Ruth, Laddie, Don, Joan and Jean). Mr. Miller served on the School Board for many years. Joan (AKA Red Miller) and I started our education in 1938 under the tutelage of Mrs. Barker and we graduated in 1950 along with 24 other classmates (including my bride of 60 years) who completed all 12 grades together. Jean (AKA Wee) is scouring her memorabilia files in the hope of finding a picture of these pillars to remind all of us who glanced at them in passing and never gave them the proper respect they deserved.

Berkeley is replete with many historic events and with the help of many who are furnishing me this valuable information, I will endeavor to post it as quickly as I can. Deann Deimeke sent me a commemorative issue of the 1957 Public News special edition marking twenty years of Berkeley's progress.  It is chocked full of historic data that I will post. The paper is a bit degraded by age and requires a bit of eyestrain to properly record it's valuable historic information. I  am also indebted to Shirley Wilkins, The Bean sisters, (Leverne and Azlee) Jean Miller and the Combs sisters for all their historic facts and data they have provided. (and a thank you to all others if I have forgotten you).   Keep checking, there is a "whole bunch" more coming!

Eureka! In the 1957 Public News, I found the picture below of what Phil Chew's Estate entrance looked like in it's heyday.  From what I see in this picture, the house on the left appears to be the home the Millers lived in. The home near the entrance had been replaced with the Miller's large garage during my time. Today, only a few bricks remain of the Pillared entrance.