A rare, circa-1920 stadium chair from Wrigley Field will be auctioned off at the Nov. 12 Festival of Trees to be held at Holiday Inn Northwest in Elgin.

“The chair was purchased from a St. Charles man who bought it in the late 1960s at Wrigley Field,” said Kay Catlin, events manager for Ecker Center for Mental Health, hosts of the fundraising gala.

Ecker Board of Directors member Dave Conroy and his wife, Lori, residents of St. Charles, donated the chair to the Nov. 12 live auction.

Authenticated by a vintage stadium chair expert, the chair is a free-standing Heywood Wakefield model in original condition save for two back slats. These were replaced many years ago and have since aged themselves. The seat mechanism has been shored up so it is a functional chair, not to mention a conversation piece for the home, office, even a local sports bar.

“This particular chair dates back to the golden days of baseball when Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Gabby Hartness, Kiki Cuyler and Grover Cleveland Alexander were Cubs. It was there when the first World Series was played at Wrigley Field in 1929, when WGN broadcast its first Cubs game, when the Cubs and Phillies played the highest scoring game ever with 49 total runs, a record that still stands today,” Catlin said.

Although it’s easy to locate similar Haywood Wakefield chairs installed around the same time at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and Crosley Field in Cincinnati, the dark green Cubs version is scarce.

“Whoever wins this one will legitimately own a piece of Cubs history and be in a league of his or her own,” Catlin said.

Tickets to the Nov. 12 gala are now on sale. For more information or to purchase a ticket, call 847-695-0484 x 1913.

• Click here to make a donation to Ecker Center.

About Ecker Center’s 16th Annual Festival of Trees

This year’s Festival of Trees — Ecker Center’s 16th annual — will be held Saturday, Nov. 12, at Holiday Inn Northwest in Elgin.

There will be music, great food, great company and fabulous auctions, both live and silent.

In addition to spectacular one-of-a-kind trees, Ecker Center’s live auction this year will include a Disney Trip, exquisite art and something quite unusual — a vintage stadium chair purchased from Wrigley Field in the late 1960s.

SOURCE: Ecker Center news release