While still in grade school, John developed double pneumonia twice in one year.  He needed surgery and carried the itching scars on his back for the rest of his life to remind him of that year away from school and physical activity.  After recovering, maybe to make up for lost time, John became more active than ever.   

          John could not wait and began his building career quite early.  Later in life he wrote to a friend "From a youngster I was always very interested in making things & must have been a great trial to my folks, as partly completely [sic] articles abounded in great confusion all around the place -- homes in trees, houses under ground, houses in the old barn, & houses above ground - not too well hidden by trees and bushes." ¹
          With all this activity, John's parents couldn't have had a moment's rest.  In this kind of stimulating environment, children never seem to stay out of mischief for very long.  It didn't help matters when John, who  was playing with his brothers one day, jumped off the coach house roof using an umbrella for a parachute and broke his arm in the process.  All of Oak Park was a playground for the Van Bergen children.  It was an exciting place for a young boy to grow up at the turn of the century.
          At this time in Oak Park, all the new buildings  going up were pretty much the same.  John must have noticed when, across the street and then next door to his own home on Fair Oaks, two new houses that were like none others on the block (or anywhere else) were constructed.  (First the Furbeck house in 1897 and the Fricke house in 1901).   Both were designed by that young architect who had come from Wisconsin - Frank Lloyd Wright.  Though his more conservative parents probably found these buildings strange, John did not. 

John's Sister,
Jessie Van Bergen in 1904
photo courtesy of Joan Kopplin

John S. Van Bergen at 14 years old
Photo courtesy of Joan Kopplin

John's younger brother,
Frank Van Bergen  - 10 years old
photo courtesy of Joan Kopplin