Robert Allerton - Early Life

Early Life

Robert Henry Allerton was born on March 20, 1873, as the second child and only son to Samuel Waters Allerton (1828–1914) and Pamilla Thompson Allerton (1840–1880). Samuel Allerton was a self-made man who made his millions in land, livestock, banking, and other commercial enterprises. Pamilla Allerton died in 1880, five days before Robert's 7th birthday. Two years later, Samuel Allerton married Agnes Thompson, Pamilla's younger sister. Agnes Thompson Allerton (1858–1924) became mother, friend, and cultural mentor for her stepson/nephew. She kindled his interests in literature, music, gardening, and above all, visual arts.

The Allertons lived on Prairie Avenue in Chicago, which was the most fashionable residential street in that city in the 1800s. The Allertons were neighbors of Marshall Fields, the Pullmans, the Kimballs, and the Amours. Robert attended Allen Academy and Harvard School in Chicago, after which he and friend Frederic Clay Bartlett, were sent east to St. Paul's School, a prestigious college prep school in Concord, New Hampshire. The young Chicagoans decided not to go on to college, but rather to study art in Europe.

In 1922 he met John Gregg (1899–1986), an orphan and aspiring architect, who after the stock market crash of 1929, came to live with Allerton. He was to become his lifelong companion. After a change in Illinois law in 1959, he legally adopted Gregg as his son.

There is considerable speculation that the two men were, in actuality, lovers. They were, in effect, one of the most prominent same-sex couples of their day. However, due to the lack of marriage equality in that time, they became father and son in 1959.