* Built by Josiah Lombard.

        Born: 1820 

        Died: 1902

* Town named after him 

* Josiah never lived in Lombard.
 
 

This house was built  by Josiah Lombard in 1868 for Alonzo Chatfield.  The town of Lombard is named after Josiah.  But Josiah Lombard never lived in Lombard. 

In 1869, the village of  Lombard was called Babcock's Grove.  It wasn't even a real town.  Mr. Lombard was an important Chicago banker and land buyer.  He and some other important men wanted Babcock's Grove to be an official town.  When the town was formed, it was given the name Lombard. 

Josiah Lombard designed and built three houses in the village.  The Alonzo B. Chatfield House was one of these.

Chatfield was the tax assessor in Lombard from 1868-1871.   A tax assessor decides how much tax money homeowners will pay. 

No one knows why Lombard is named after a man who did not even live here.  Mr. Lombard did own 227 acres of land.  Josiah Lombard died in 1902 at his 
winter house in Pasadena, California.