Samuel Eberly Gross

Built more homes than anyone else in Chicago history. Gross was nominated by the Joint Labor Party as their candidate for mayor in 1889, but he refused to run.¹

In the decade of the 1890s, Gross was worth some $3-5 million, making his fortune by selling real estate and homes in Chicago. By 1894 he had sold 30,000 lots and built over 7,000 homes.²

He was an interesting character, however, and at one point Gross went to court claiming Edmund Rostand stole the idea for Cyrano de Bergerac from his comedy The Merchant Prince of Cornville. The court would decide in Gross' favor.

He died bankrupt.³

Footnotes

1. Miller, Donald. City of the Century - The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. Pg. 279-80

2. Mark, Norman. Mayors, Madams and Madmen. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1979. Pg 101

3. Mark, 102