Burley & Tyrrell, Chicago's Forgotten Retailer

Among the decorative objects in the Glessner House collection is a large majolica vase with a label on the base reading BURLEY & CO., CHICAGO, identifying the store from which the Glessners acquired their item. This discovery started a journey to learn more about the business and resulted in uncovering a story of one of the most prominent retailers in 19^th century Chicago, and one of its most prominent families. In this article, we will share the story of Arthur G. Burley, his business, his family, and their interactions with the Glessners.

Arthur G. Burley

The founder of the company was Arthur G. Burley, born in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1812. When he was 22 years old, he headed west in search of his fortune, arriving in the town of Chicago in May 1835, where he initially clerked in the boot, shoe, and clothing store of John Holbrook. Two years later, he accepted a position with the book and stationery store of his stepbrother, Stephen Gale. (Gale would go on to make a fortune in Chicago real estate, and his grandson, William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson, would serve three terms as mayor between 1915 and 1931).

Burley received his big break in 1838 when he purchased a large quantity of crockery from the State Bank of Illinois in a bankruptcy sale. In April of that year, he established A. G. Burley & Co. and opened his retail and wholesale business on Lake Street, then the primary business thoroughfare. Noted at the time of his death as “a man of invincible energy, rugged honesty, and sharp foresight,” Burley grew his business as quickly as his rapidly growing adopted city.

In 1849, he married Welthyan Loomis Harmon, the youngest daughter of Dr. Elijah Harmon, and the union brought together two pioneer Chicago families. Elijah Harmon is credited with performing the first surgical operation in Chicago (at Ft. Dearborn), and in 1833 purchased 138 acres of land from the U.S. government for $1.25 per acre. That parcel of land included the future site of Glessner House and the entire neighborhood around it, stretching from 16^th Street on the north to 22^nd Street (Cermak Road) on the south, and running west from the lake to State Street.

John Tyrrell

In 1850, Burley’s half-sister, Caroline, married John Tyrrell in New Hampshire. Two years later, the couple moved to Chicago and Tyrrell became a partner in the growing business, which was renamed Burley & Tyrrell. Both men became prominent in civic affairs, Tyrrell being one of the founders of the Chicago Historical Society, and Burley serving as president of the Union Defense Committee during the Civil War.

In 1868, Tyrrell purchased a large lot on South Prairie Avenue and engaged architect Otis L. Wheelock to design a substantial two-story frame house in the Italianate style. (He sold the house at 1720 S. Prairie in 1878 and relocated to Evanston). Burley settled into a comfortable rowhouse nearby at 1620 S. Indiana Avenue where he would live for the remainder of his life.

Site of Glessner House shown at bottom center.
Red arrow: Burley house at 1620 S. Indiana Avenue
Blue arrow: Tyrrell house at 1720 S. Prairie Avenue

The meteoric growth of the city fueled the business which continued to expand its business into larger quarters on Lake Street. In 1870, C. W. Baldwin invented and installed the first hydraulic elevator in a Chicago building for the firm. Just one year later, in October 1871, the building was completely destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.

Post-Fire growth

Within a few weeks of the fire, Burley & Tyrrell had set up offices in a three-story stone front building at the northeast corner of State and Sixteenth streets. Demand for their goods was greater than ever, and they coordinated huge shipments of crockery and other items from New York to help supply the 100,000 people who had been burned out in the fire.

In April 1872, just six months after the fire, the business moved into the recently finished Averill building (shown above), located at 274-278 Wabash Avenue, on the northeast corner of Van Buren Street. State Street quickly emerged as Chicago’s preeminent business street after the fire, and by 1875 Burley & Tyrrell had moved yet again, this time occupying a five story building on the east side of State Street between Washington and Randolph streets, immediately north of Field, Leiter & Co. (later Marshall Field & Co.).

Majolica is listed in this advertisement from 1875

White House china

In the spring of 1879, President Hayes and his wife placed an order for a new state dinner service. The china was designed by Theodore R. Davis, an artist for Harper’s Weekly, who had suggested to the First Lady that the new service should depict American fish, game, fruits, and plants. Davis spent six months generating the watercolor studies which were then turned over to Haviland & Co. in Limoges, Frances for production.

The total service, made to serve a nine-course dinner, comprised 592 pieces in 130 assorted designs including game, fish, and fowl for the pieces on which they would be served and consumed. Butter dishes were designed as miniature lily pads, oyster plates featured seaweed, and coffee and teacups featured free flowing foliage as handles. Many of the pieces were in unconventional shapes – platters with upturned corners, dessert plates shaped liked apples, and others with asymmetrical borders. Perhaps the most unusual pieces were the ice cream plates decorated with snowshoes.

The service, delivered to the White House on July 2, 1880, was extensively covered in art journals, and attracted great attention. Manufactured at a considerable loss for Haviland, the decision was made to produce a limited number of modified sets of plates which would be offered in only the finest department and jewelry stores in the United States.

Burley & Tyrrell was selected as the exclusive dealer for the White House china in Chicago, beating out Fields and others for the honor. An advertisement appeared in the Chicago newspapers on December 15 noting that the china had arrived and was available for inspection. The next day, Frances Glessner noted in her journal, “To Burley & Tyrrell to see White House china.”

Continued growth

By 1882, with business continuing to grow, the wholesale division was moved to a large building on Lake Street, so that the State Street location could be used in its entirety for the retail store.

An article in the Chicago Tribune from that year regarding the annual Interstate Industrial Exposition (held in an enormous building on the current site of the Art Institute), noted:

“Burley & Tyrrell have the only exhibit of all that is artistic and elegant in French, English, and American china, glassware, bronzes, etc. – particularly noticeable is the exquisite Sevres china set of fifteen pieces, in a fine case, valued at $350.”

Left to right: Central Music Hall, Chicago Business College, Burley & Tyrrell (dark facade), and Marshall Field & Co. (From "Picturesque Chicago," 1882).

The article continues with a summary of a visit to the State Street retail store:

“To give even a brief description of the goods seen would take too much space, so attention is called to a few only. The ground floor is stocked with a miscellaneous class of goods, including dinner, breakfast, and tea sets, and glassware, also everything suitable for household furnishing. The second floor has been arranged in suitable style, to show to advantage the many pieces of art displayed, chief among which were noticed many antique designs in bronzes, and a large line of brass goods, including mirrors, umbrella-stands, candelabras, hall-trees, etc. . . Hammered copper lamps in various styles; clocks set in Delft plaques with small musical box attached; Persian lamps in various styles and colors . . .”

The year 1882 also saw the huge company split into two. The retail and hotel portions of the business were purchased by Burley’s nephew, Frank, and incorporated as Burley & Co., while the lucrative wholesale business continued under the old name. In 1888, Burley & Co. moved into larger quarters immediately to the north (shown below), adjacent to Central Music Hall.

(The two buildings immediately north of Marshall Field & Co. were razed in 1901 after Field acquired the entire block. In the top image below, Fields is the large building occupying the right half of the block; the two buildings occupied by Burley can be seen to its left; Central Music Hall is barely visible at far left. In the lower image, the north half of the present Macy’s building has replaced these three structures, the prominent columned entrance situated exactly where the Burley store had stood.)

By the early 1890s, Burley & Co. had moved again, this time to the east side of State Street south of Madison Street (the building was later razed for construction of the Schlesinger & Mayer/Carson Pirie Scott store). Burley carried extensive offerings of silver, glassware, and crystal, as well as china from the leading makers in Europe including Minton, Haviland, Copeland-Spode, Villeroy & Boch, and Doulton. It even stocked Mettlach steins and established its own porcelain factory in Germany. In 1897, it became the exclusive Chicago dealer for Royal Copenhagen, and a number of platters and serving bowls acquired by Frances Glessner in the 1890s may well have come from the store.

Burley also purchased huge quantities of blank china and specialized in china decorating and custom orders for both private households and hotels.

Glessner connections

Frances Glessner’s visit to see the White House china in 1880 is the earliest mention of Burley in her journal, but there are a number of entries which follow in later years. An interesting entry from October 1883 helped to explain the condition of a china fruit dish in the collection which had clearly been repaired at some point:

“While we were at lunch, the china fruit dish presented me by Miss Grail was jarred off the upper shelf of the sideboard and fell to the floor breaking off both handles. It has since been sent to Burley & Tyrrell’s for repairs.”

Another journal entry, from July 1885, notes that Frances Glessner had her purse stolen outside the store.

It is not known when the Glessners purchased their majolica vase from Burley & Co., but as it does not appear in historic photographs taken soon after they moved to Prairie Avenue in December 1887, it was most likely purchased in the 1890s.

The wheel-thrown, exaggerated baluster form majolica vase measures fourteen inches in height and is nearly ten inches across at its widest point. The polychrome decoration in green, puce, and blue on a yellow ground is dominated by three large, stylized flowers, each of unique design. The evidence of the hand of the maker with its irregular surface and crudely painted decoration, exemplified the tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement, and no doubt appealed to Frances Glessner’s sensibilities. In later photos of the house, taken in 1923, it is displayed atop the Isaac Scott bookcase in the second floor hall, which is where it can be found today.

There are numerous journal entries throughout the 1890s that mention Clarence Burley calling on the Glessners or being invited for Sunday supper. Clarence was a nephew of Arthur Burley and as a prominent attorney, would have come to know John Glessner in business circles. (Clarence’s father, Augustus, younger brother of Arthur, served as the first superintendent of Lincoln Park, and as comptroller for the City of Chicago).

The Glessner family continued to patronize Burley for many years to come. In 1913, Burley issued a small volume entitled The Story of a Hundred Operas which was given out gratis to its best customers; the Glessners’ copy still resides on a shelf in the library.

Later History

In April 1897, Arthur Burley’s wife Welthyan died after 48 years of marriage; the loss was devastating, and his health quickly declined. Burley’s prominence in Chicago, both as one of its longest residents, and as the founder of “the oldest business house in Chicago” at the time, is noted by the number of articles about his final days which appeared in the Chicago papers. On August 26, the Chicago Tribune noted that Burley was ill; the next day two articles in different editions noting he was “very low” and “failing.” His death on August 27 in his Indiana Avenue home at the age of eighty-four received considerable coverage, including an editorial praising his sterling character. Details of the funeral were reported on August 31, noting his internment in Graceland Cemetery.

John Tyrrell assumed the presidency of the firm following Burley’s passing, and served for six years, before his own death in 1903 at the age of eighty-three at his home in Kenilworth. Frank Burley died unexpectedly in 1906 at the age of fifty-six.

Courtesy of the University Guild, Northwestern University

Shortly before Frank Burley’s passing, he designed a unique piece for the store, which has become a much sought after collectible. Known as the “Chicago pitcher,” it depicts a series of scenes chronicling the history of Chicago from the arrival of Father Marquette in 1673 through the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Other events depicted include the Chicago Fire and the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the latter represented with a depiction of the monument George Pullman had erected adjacent to his home, immediately east of Glessner house. The pitcher was modeled by Copeland, Stoke-upon-Trent, England and retailed for $5.00 (the equivalent of $150.00 today).

With Arthur Burley, John Tyrrell, and Frank Burley all deceased, the decision was made to merge the two companies back into one under the name Burley & Tyrrell Co. The retail store remained at 118-120 Wabash Avenue (later renumbered as 7 N. Wabash), into which Burley & Co. had moved in 1900. For the first time in its history, the company was led by a non-family member, William O. Coleman, who served as president until his own death in November 1918, after which Clarence Burley assumed the role.

In the spring of 1919, Clarence Burley negotiated an agreement with Albert Pick & Company to purchase the company, which was estimated to add about $1,000,000 worth of merchandise and goodwill to Pick. By this time Pick, founded in the 1850s, was the world’s largest outfitter of hotels, restaurants, and other institutions. (Its enormous warehouse at Racine Avenue and 35^th Street in recent years has been successfully adapted into a new use as the Bridgeport Art Center.).

Conclusion

The sale was finalized in 1923, and for the first time in the history of the city of Chicago, the Burley company was no more. For the 85 years of its existence, it was, without a doubt, one of the most prominent retailers in Chicago, also having a significant impact far beyond through its wholesale and hotel divisions. Today, the name is frequently found on pieces in the secondary market and even in urban archaeology sites, such as pieces unearthed in recent years at the Charnley-Persky House on Astor Street.

The majolica vase is a tangible reminder of the long patronage of Burley & Tyrrell and Burley & Co. by the Glessners. No doubt other pieces in the house today were purchased there that have either lost their labels or which bear marks awaiting discovery.