Rose Selfridge
| Rose Selfridge | |
|---|---|
Rose Selfridge 1890
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| Born |
Rosalie Amelia Buckingham 5 July 1860 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | 12 May 1918 (aged 57) Highcliffe, Dorset, England |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Resting place | St. Mark's Churchyard, Highcliffe |
| Spouse(s) | Harry Gordon Selfridge (m. 1890) |
| Children | 5 |
Rose Amelia Selfridge (née Buckingham; 5 July 1860 – 12 May 1918) was the wife of the department store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge. She was a member of the wealthy Buckingham family of Chicago and had inherited a large amount of property and money from her ancestors. She was well educated and had travelled extensively when she met Harry Selfridge in the late 1880s. After they were married, Rose lived for some time with Harry in Chicago and enjoyed the company of her family. Later they moved to London when Harry built his new department store on Oxford Street. Her story has recently been portrayed in the television series Mr Selfridge, where she is shown as the patient wife (played by Frances O'Connor) of the famous businessman.
Rosalie (Rose) Amelia Buckingham was born in 1860 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was Benjamin Hale Buckingham, and her mother was Martha Euretta Potwin. Her grandfather was Alvah Buckingham, who had founded the firm Buckingham and Sturges. This firm built the first grain elevator in Chicago and signed a contract with the Illinois Central Railway to handle all of their grain warehousing for ten years. Rose's father Benjamin was part of this family business. Unfortunately, he died in 1864 when Rose was only four years old.
Despite her father's death, Rose's family continued to live well. The 1870 census shows that Rose, her mother Martha and her sister Anna each had inherited considerable wealth consisting of both property and money. Between the ages of 13 to 19, Rose acquired an education by traveling through Europe with her mother, studying languages and music. She was said to be a very gifted harpist and was described by a Chicago socialite in the following terms.
Between the ages of 24 and 28, Rose traveled through Europe, Russia and the Middle East with several members of the Buckingham family. She appears to have been sensitive about her age, as in some of her travel documents she subtracted up to six years from her true birth date. She met Harry Selfridge when she was about 28 and married him in 1890 at the age of 30. Rose and Harry eventually had five children, three girls and two boys (one of whom died as an infant).
At that time, Selfridge worked for the department store firm of Marshall Field & Co., where he rose in time to become an executive. Rose, meanwhile, was already a 30-year-old successful property developer in her own right; she had inherited both money and expertise from her family. In 1883, Rose had purchased land on Harper Avenue between 57th Street and 59th Street in Hyde Park, Chicago and hired architect Solon S. Beman to create a row of elegant homes, which came to be known as the Rosalie Villas. Beman supervised the project and designed most but not all of the homes. W. W. Boyington designed a brick home for brick manufacturer Charles Bonner, which Bonner built in 1889 at 5752 S. Harper Ave. Using Beman's plans, Rose built a total of 42 villas and artists' cottages within a landscaped environment. Most of them survive fairly intact, but the Rosalie Inn and Cafe on the southwest corner of 57th and Harper was demolished; the restaurant was once known as the Café Red Roses. The inn marked the entrance to Rosalie Court. Powell's Bookstore now stands on that lot.
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