1614 Chilton Avenue

Joseph Drevo, Sr. (1880-1957), his wife Johanna M. Luk Drevo (1882-1956), and their son William Luk Drevo, Sr, (1905-1993) sailed from Bremen, Germany aboard the SS Chemnitz and arrived to Baltimore, MD on 13 December 1905. They were natives of Pacov in what was then Austria-Hungary but now is the Czech Republic, and their contact in the USA was Joseph’s brother, Frank Drevo, who immigrated in 1903. In the 1910 Census the three of them were enumerated in the same residence as Frank and his wife Mary at 722 North Milton Avenue. Both Frank and Joseph were cabinet makers in a factory.

Joseph and Johanna, who was also known as Jennie, purchased 1614 Chilton Street in June 1923 and lived there until her death in 1956 and his death in 1957. Here are some photographs of that house and the neighborhood. Unfortunately there were no identities associated with the people pictured.

1614 Chilton Avenue 1

1614 Chilton Avenue 2

1614 Chilton Avenue 3

1614 Chilton Avenue 4

Group @ 1614 Chilton

Joseph and Jennie raised three children on Chilton Street: William who married Olga Nenadal (1909-1989); Anna Helen Drevo (1906-1999) who married Emil J. Novotny (1900-1971); and Joseph Charles Drevo, Jr. (1908-1985) who married Dorothy Victoria Jacob (1913-1958).

William Luk Drevo, Sr. was an architect who graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art and George Washington University, which probably explains why this batch contained photographs of buildings. The only building I can identify is the Standard Oil Building on St. Paul Street in Baltimore:

Standard Oil Bldg superstructure

Standard Oil Bldg

Here is the building as of November 2017:

Standard Oil Building

Of the several photographs of people in this batch, the only Drevo I can positively identify is Robert Joseph Drevo (1949), the son of Joseph Charles Drevo and Dorothy Victoria Jacob, whose baby picture is shown below, along with a note from his mother to his paternal grandparents:

 

 

You’ll notice there are no last names on any of these photographs, so where did the name Drevo come from? There were four Czech language postcards from Pacov in the batch, and one was addressed to Joseph Drevo at 1614 Chilton Street. Here is a sample:

Postcard 2 front

There are more photographs to examine but it’s time to move on. Next up, photographs of a Chilton Street neighbor family that was a little bit famous.