It was a Perfectly Good Entrance

1404 N. River Rd., McHenry.

Montgomery Ward Maywood.

I have to admit, I have never seen a house with an entry gable that has had its front door removed. It looks like someone photoshopped it out. They even removed the window adjacent to the door. 

There's the new front door, which puts visitors directly into the living room. Capture from Google Streetview.

Homeowners move front doors for a variety of reasons, but I don't understand the benefit to moving this particular door. The only reason I can come up with is that the owners wanted easier access to the driveway, and so the side door now leads directly into the living room. That still does not explain why they didn't they leave the original front door intact.

Floor plan of the Maywood.

Interior illustrations of the Maywood. The drawing on the far right shows where the front door is on the McHenry house.

This Maywood is authenticated. Montgomery Ward gave a mortgage to Everett Hunter, Sr. in October 1930.  Hunter owned the Hunterville Park subdivision in which the house was built. Hunterville Park had the last riverfront properties still available on the Fox River in 1930.

Hunter also was the owner of the Everett Hunter Boat Company, a manufacturer. The company offered boat excursions in the summer to see the blooming lotus beds that blanketed Grass Lake. Thousands of tourists would come to see them. 

The Gladene, one of the Hunter Boat Company's excursion boats.

The lotus beds on Grass Lake. These plants were almost completely gone by the 1940's due to boaters on the lake. Today the lotus flowers are coming back thanks to preservation efforts.