Preserving our Past: January

The Leland and Sylvia Thorpe Residence. a.k.a. the Jane Archer Home

5251 N. Idlewild Ave.

By Tom Fehring

This interesting home in Whitefish Bay’s Lake Crest Subdivision was built in 1926 by architect Herbert Ebling. Ebling is shown on the building permits as the owner of this and the adjacent similar home – he apparently built both residences on speculation. The home was first purchased by Leland and Sylvia Thorpe.

This craftsman-style home has a high-pitched hipped roof, which extends on the two sides of the home with dormers built into the second floor. The roof is truncated across the front face of the home, accommodating a pair of windows for the front bedrooms. A large bay-window is centered on the front of the home, flanked by entranceway doors.

This home was owned for many years by Horst Martin Schillbach and actress Jane Archer.

Jane Archer was born in Connecticut in 1910. In the early 1930s she went to Vienna Austria to the Max Reinhardt School of Acting. Among the instructors was Otto Preminger who eventually became a famous director and actor in the United States. While at the school, Archer helped Preminger learn English.

While at this school, Archer also met Horst Schillbach, an engineering student at the University of Munich. After returning to the United States, Archer acted on the Broadway stage for four years with Helen Hayes, Ruth Gordon, Robert Sherwood, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne. Among her acting credits, she stared in “Libel,” directed by Otto Preminger.

In August 1938, armed with a letter of recommendation from Lynne Fontanne, Archer took a position with the English Repertory Theater in Berlin, under what was supposed to be a one-year contract. Archer and Schillbach married a month later, shortly before the war broke out. Once the war started, it was difficult for the couple of move. Archer continued to act with the English Repertory Theater, performing in “The Millionairess, “Mary Stewart,” “George and Margaret,” “French Without Tears” and other well-known works and classics.

After the war, the couple worked with the United Nations Recovery and Rehabilitation group. The two eventually made their way to the United States – Archer in 1946 and Schillbach shortly afterward. Archer traveled across the country for a time on lecture tours, but in 1948 the couple moved to the subject home in Whitefish Bay. They had one son, Robert, born in 1949.

In the 1960s, Archer performed a one person show entitled, “Helen Hayes: Life-Career-Roles” in which she tells details from Hayes’ life and dramatizes scenes from several plays. She also developed a program for women’s and other club functions, specializing in dramatic readings.

Archer died on March 28, 1999 at the age of 89; her husband, Dr. Horst Martin Schillbach, died on December 8, 2002 at the age of 94. Dr. Schillbach is believed to have lived in the residence until at least year 2000.

The Whitefish Bay home that the Schillbach’s lived in was an early example of architect Herbert Ebling’s residential design. In 1935, Herbert Ebling and Henry Plunkett established Ebling and Plunkett Architects, which today is the well-known firm of Plunkett Raysich Architects, LLP. Not much is known about Ebling’s architectural career. While several buildings designed by the Ebling and Plunkett firm are listed on the Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, Ebling’s work is not explicitly identified.

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• More information: Historic designation application and procedures online