The Story of a House

The Glessners' final home - Graceland Cemetery

2012-02-20T10:11:00.001-06:00

On Thursday February 23, 2012 at 7:00pm, the museum will present a lecture on Chicago's historic Graceland Cemetery by Barbara Lanctot, author of the recently revised A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery. The following is brief history of the Glessners' plot.

Graceland Cemetery was not the first cemetery that the Glessners selected as their final resting place. When their infant son John Francis Glessner died on June 30, 1875 at the age of eight months, the Glessners purchased a plot at Rosehill Cemetery. By the early 1900s however, correspondence from Frances Glessner indicates that they were unhappy with the plot and the condition in which it was kept. As such, they sought a new location for their burial plot. Graceland Cemetery was a natural choice. This was the cemetery of choice for many of their friends and Prairie Avenue neighbors, and they were close friends with several of the officers and board members, including president Bryan Lathrop.

On December 9, 1909, the Glessners purchased Lot 2 in the Willowmere Section, along the western shore of Lake Willowmere. The lot contained 2,758 square feet and cost $8,274.00.

Frances Glessner died on October 20, 1932. At that time, the remains of her infant son John were exhumed from his grave at Rosehill and placed in her casket. By early December, John Glessner had selected the Harrison Granite Company to make the memorial stone. The company, founded in 1845, was based in New York, but maintained a local office in Room 739 of the Fine Arts Building. A letter to John Glessner from Harry L. Davis, the company’s resident associate, sheds light on the design of the stone:

“I feel that elements of refinement should enter into the Ledger stone and still retain a quiet dignity, thus to typify the interests of Mrs. Glessner, in life. A perfectly plain slab would seem to me to depart from the interests in art and architecture which were her’s.”

Another letter, dated December 28, reveals the one and only change made to the original design:

“I appreciate the call of your daughter, Mrs. Lee, upon me today and in accordance with her request I have sent a requisition by Air Mail tonight to our studio to have them prepare symbols of a Celtic character in place of the cross as shown on our presentation sketch.”

The stone was completed by the beginning of March 1933 and installed later that month. Made of Westerly granite, the total cost, including foundation, was $587.50. John Glessner was very pleased with the stone, as indicated in a letter from him to Harry Davis dated April 3:

“I went to Graceland Cemetery on Wednesday of last week, to see the memorial stone for Mrs. Glessner set up for me by the Harrison Granite Company. I was much pleased with the stone and the way it is set. Its appearance will be still further improved when the grass has been made to grow about it. The stone seems all right. (Please do not publish this as a testimonial.)”

By the spring of 1934, John Glessner was pursuing the establishment of a perpetual care fund. Correspondence from the cemetery indicated that the annual cost of maintenance was $30.00 for a lot of that size which included $10 for mowing, $15 for watering, and $5 for washing the stone. The fund had not been established by the time John Glessner died on January 20, 1936. (A second matching memorial stone was installed for him later that year).

In May 1937, R. M. Johnson, the executor of the estate of John Glessner, paid the amount of $1,000 to the Trustees of the Graceland Cemetery Improvement Fund for the establishment of a perpetual care fund. The document further stipulated that no other persons were to be buried in the lot.

Visitors to the Glessner plot today cannot help but be impressed with the beautiful and serene setting of the Glessner plot along Lake Willowmere, and the simple but elegant design of their stones.

NOTE: The Glessners’ two other children, John George Macbeth Glessner and Frances Glessner Lee were both interred at the Maple Street Cemetery in Bethlehem, New Hampshire near the family’s summer estate. The virtually identical design of their memorial stones would strongly indicate that they were also executed by the Harrison Granite Company, although the symbols used are different - a cross for George and his wife and a honeybee for Frances.

John and Frances Glessner: A Love Story

2012-02-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

John and Frances Glessner were married for nearly 62 years and shared an extraordinarly close and loving relationship. A few months after Frances Glessner died in October 1932, John wrote a loving tribute to his wife and helpmate. Several copies were printed and bound in elegant blue leather, complete with slipcase, which were presented to family and intimate friends. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we present a few excerpts from that tribute.

She was a home-maker, a home-preserver – that was her first ambition, that was her most desired and profound success. But the home was not to be confined within its own four walls. It was to bring other friends within its sweet influence. She was a home-making woman who sought not public applause. Wherever she went she took her workbag and work-basket and hung them in the room where she was, even in the sleeping cars, and they made the room a home. These are not idle words: they are true in every sense.

She was attentive to her obligations in every Society or Association of which she was a member: she was never known to neglect any duty, however disagreeable it might be.

She was a broad-minded, generous, charitable woman – admirable in every way, with all feminine graces and attributes. She was not a worldly woman, never vaunted herself, always ready with some helpful suggestions; ready to share her good fortune with those less fortunate – a woman of strong individuality, a rare character. Everybody who came in contact with her admired her.

A day or two before the funeral came this verse by mail, with nothing to identify the author except that it was in Mrs. Paul Shorey’s envelope:

“The crowding memories of the past,

The bonds of love that cannot end,

The ties that life and death outlast,

To such as these, no words can lend.

The essence still eludes the will,

Finite and infinite cannot blend,

Our grateful hearts can but distil

The simple words, ---

She was Our Friend.

10/20/32”

At the regular concerts of Thursday evening and Friday afternoon, October 20 and 21, Mr. Stock added to the program, out of respect for her, Bach’s wonderful Chorale Prelude, very impressive, after which the Orchestra and audience stood for a few minutes in silence.

And now her busy hands are still; her active brain is quiet; her heart and soul have passed beyond this earthly sphere. None knew her but to love her, none named her but to praise.

What would she have thought could she have stood beside me and looked down at that placid countenance in its last sleep. It was dignified. It was impressive. It was lovely. It was not the same. Its spirit had fled.

After sixty-two years of happy married life, no tribute that I can offer seems adequate to her merit. Rarely shall we look upon her like again.

Iznik Tiles at Glessner House

2012-02-06T17:48:00.000-06:00

During 1886 and 1887 when the house was under construction, John and Frances Glessner spent considerable time shopping for countless items for their new home, from fireplace fittings to rugs, and textiles to tiles. One of the most interesting items they acquired was a set of Iznik tiles for the dining room fireplace. (The name Iznik derives from the city in Turkey where the tiles were made).

In 1886, during a trip to New York, Frances Glessner records in her journal: “We went Thursday morning to hunt up tiles. We found some beauties at Lockwood de Forest’s.” Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932) was an important figure in the American Aesthetic Movement, largely remembered today for introducting East Indian crafts to America. He was born into a wealthy family that encouraged the study and pursuit of the arts; his older brother Robert Weeks de Forest served as president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for seventeen years. Lockwood de Forest studied painting with his great uncle Frederic Edwin Church and enjoyed moderate success. By the late 1870s however, he turned his attention to decoration and architecture, becoming a partner in the design firm of Associated Artists, along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler. His travels took him to the Middle East, North Africa, and most importantly British India, where he developed a passion for local craftsmanship. He opened a workshop in India, which produced architectural elements and furniture. After Associated Artists closed in 1882, de Forest opened his own company, which was hugely successful, supplying decorative items and architectural elements to such clients as Andrew Carnegie, Charles Tyson Yerkes, Mark Twain, and Potter Palmer. In later years he built a home at Santa Barbara, California where he resumed painting actively. He died there in 1932.

The tiles that the Glessners purchased from de Forest for their dining room fireplace were among the many objects that he acquired and shipped to the U.S. for his American clients. He apparently owned quite a few tiles in the design that the Glessner selected, for they appear in at least two other houses with which he was connected, including his own home in Santa Barbara (where they are used on a fountain in an outdoor courtyard). Correspondence between de Forest and the Glessners indicates that they bought the remaining tiles of this particular design that he had in his shop.

The square tiles, which measure roughly six inches square were made in Iznik region of Turkey in the middle part of the 16^th century. They were installed in various locations throughout the Middle East including the tomb of Muhi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi in Damascus (see above). Polychromatic schemes were developed during this middle period of Iznik pottery making using seven colors in various combinations – blue, purple, red, green, turquoise, grey, and black. The body of the tiles is fritware, a composite paste material made from quartz sand mixed with small amounts of finely ground glass (frit) and clay. When fired, the frit melts and binds the other components together. The tile was then coated with a thin layer of white slip, a liquid clay mixture, similar to the fritware paste, but more finely ground and purer in composition. The tile was lightly fired to dry it out, and then painted with pigments mixed with frit. The wares were then glazed with a lead-alkaline-tin glaze and fired to a trasparent sheen.

After the Glessners died in the 1930s, their daughter, Frances Glessner Lee, had the tiles removed and reinstalled on a fireplace at the “cottage,” her home at The Rocks estate in New Hampshire. They remain at the cottage today, but are promised to the museum and will be returned once sufficient funding is in hand to remove them and reinstall in the dining room. At present, only two original tiles are on the fireplace, distinguishable by their slightly darker color. They were a gift of Frances Lee’s daughter, Martha Lee Batchelder. All the other are reproductions created in the 1970s by artist Paula Garrett Ellis. A third original tile is displayed on the plate rail in the main hall, a gift from Dr. Edward Gamson of Washington D.C., who acquired it from an employee of Armour Institute, which occupied the Glessner house at the time the tiles were removed in the 1930s.

Glessner House Museum - The Newport Connection

2012-01-30T19:27:00.000-06:00

PART I – THE DINING ROOM

The dining room of Glessner house is a warm and inviting space that witnessed numerous dinners and entertainments during the years that the Glessners were in residence. The walls are covered in beautiful quarter-sawn oak paneling. Above the paneling and plate rail is a frieze, approximately 14 inches in height that was orignally covered in what was known as “Japanese leather paper.” These papers were introduced in England and the United States in the 1860s to simulate the look of highly embossed leather. Produced in Japan and offered for sale through various English and American dealers, the thick paper was pressed while wet into designs carved on wood rollers. After the paper dried, it was sized, covered with silver or gold leaf, stenciled, painted, and lacquered to produce a rich appearance. The original paper, although well documented in historic photographs, had been removed by the time the house was purchased for use as a museum in 1966.

PART II – CHATEAU-SUR-MER

Newport Rhode Island is known for its extraordinary collection of summer “cottages” – huge mansions constructed by some of the wealthiest citizens of the United States. Among these cottages is a home known as Chateau-Sur-Mer, located at 474 Bellevue Avenue. Built as a year-round residence, this National Historic Landmark is known for its extraordinary collection of furniture, wallpapers, ceramics, and decorative finishes. It was the grandest house in Newport until the appearance of the Vanderbilt houses in the 1890s. The house was completed in 1852 in the Italianate style for William Shepard Wetmore who made his fortune as a China trade merchant. One of Newport’s great social events, the “Fete Champetre” (an elaborate country picnic for over 2,000 guests) took place at the house in 1857. Wetmore died in 1862 and left the bulk of his sizeable estate to his son George who hired Richard Morris Hunt in the 1870s to remodel and redecorate the house in the popular Second Empire style. George Wetmore later served as governor of Rhode Island and as a U.S. Senator. The house was purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1969 and operates as a house museum today. (Visit www.newportmansions.org for further information).

PART III – RESTORATION OF THE GLESSNER DINING ROOM

The dining room of Glessner house was restored in 1974. Research on the room documented the original frieze as a Japanese leather paper. Through a fortunate chain of events, it was learned that original unused rolls of Japanese leather from the late 19^th century had been found in the attic of Chateau-sur-Mer. Glessner house was able to acquire a sufficient quantity to restore the frieze. Although the pattern is not identical to the original, it is very close, and the decorative surface closely replicates what the Glessners selected.

THE NEWPORT-GLESSNER CONNECTION CONTINUES

On Saturday February 4, 2012 at 4:30pm, the Victorian Society in America will hold an event at Glessner House Museum to promote their annual summer schools in Newport, Rhode Island and London, England. (Chateau-sur-Mer is included in the program). At the event, attendees will listen to short illustrated programs on both schools, scheduled for June and July 2012, respectively, and will have the opportunity to ask questions, and learn about scholarship opportunities. The event is free of charge but reservations are requested to 773-267-9336.

The Glessners escape the Chicago winter in Santa Barbara

2012-01-24T16:02:00.000-06:00

Frances Glessner experienced serious health issues during the year 1910. At the recommendation of her doctors, the Glessners left Chicago on December 16 for Santa Barbara, along with her sister Anna Robertson, John’s brother George Glessner, and a nurse. They arrived on December 19, 1910 and moved into their leased house at 131 E. Pedregosa Street. They returned to Chicago on April 5, 1911. The climate proved so favorable for Frances Glessner’s health that the Glessners made another trip to Santa Barbara during the winter of 1912.

The following journal entries were written by John Glessner during December 1910.

December 11: Frances lost eight ounces in weight this week and has found Chicago is not an inspiring place for a convalescent. About all she can do is to motor an hour or two in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, but always to the same places, and it is all too monotonous. After consultation with Dr. Favill I closed by telegraph lease of the Reddington house in Santa Barbara, and have engaged transportation for Simon and Mattie and Annie (three of the servants) on Tuesday night, and for ourselves and Miss Duncan, Anna Robertson and my brother George on Friday night next. I am hoping that Frances will not find the three days journey is too hard, though she dreads it. Dr. Favill thinks it can be done without injury and that the Santa Barbara climate may be good for her.

December 20: We left Chicago on Friday night, December 16^th, at 9 o’clock via CRd and PRR and Southern Pacific and reached Santa Barbara at 10:15 Monday night, without accident or delay, and with much more comfort for Frances than we had thought possible. Frances and I had the drawing room, and the rest of our party had the two compartments adjoining. Frances used my berth during the day and did not leave the part of the car belonging to us during the whole trip. She had coffee brought from the dining car each morning and for all the rest depended on her lunch basket and the French rolls sent by Mrs. Drake to the train. On Sunday Anna went to the dining car kitchen and told the cook how to prepare corn meal gruel for Frances’ lunch and watched him make it. This was after I had arranged with the conductor that she might do it. Later, the dining car conductor brought Frances a fine bunch of carnations in a glass vase. Our porter also was sympathetic and attentive.

December 25: Christmas Day, in Santa Barbara in the Redington house, 131 Pedregosa street on what we would call the northwest corner of that and Santa Barbara street, though the streets of the town do not run with the points of the compass. It seems strange to have Christmas with thermometer above 70 degrees in the shade. The house faces to the north of east, looking out upon the waters of Santa Barbara channel of the Pacific ocean about 1-1/2 miles away, with the water in plain sight from our porch, for the ground rises to our house and then very gradually falls away behind it, though it rises straight up the mountains to the north of us. The yard is large, with flowers – poinsettias, geraniums, heliotrope, begonias, daisies, roses, etc. and trumpet vines and other vines in bloom; and shrubs and trees – the largest rubber tree in town on the north of the house that continually drops its pods of seeds in the floor of the unroofed north porch, and a great hedge of arbor vitae making the south boundary a good yard – perhaps the tallest of these hedges in the town: trimmed square and angular and to Frances mind and mine very unhandsome. For the rental and as an appanage of the place is furnished a gardener to care for the grounds and him we pay a little extra compensation for caring also for the boots, carrying in the wood and out the ashes, etc. etc.

The house is quite roomy. The front porch is only half roofed over but all screened with vines, and from this porch the front door opens into the entrance hall, sitting room and library, all combined, with the parlor to the west shut off by folding doors, always wide open. Back of the sitting room is bedroom and bath (not occupied) having north and west exposure, much shaded, and denominated “the tomb” by Mrs. Ripley when she occupied the house. Back of the parlor are dining room and butler’s pantry and kitchen, all with south and west exposures. The second story has four master bedrooms and three bathrooms, and two smaller bedrooms, and the third floor has three servants’ bedrooms and bathroom. George G. and Anna Robertson have two of the large bedrooms and Miss Duncan and Annie the two small ones, and Frances and I the other two on the second floor. The library is well stocked with good books: there are some good pieces of Japanese furniture and some good Japanese bronzes, but the rest of the furniture and ornaments and linen and silver are very ordinary.

Prairie Avenue mansion designated landmark

2012-01-09T11:39:00.001-06:00

On January 5, 2012, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks gave its final approval for the designation of the Harriet F. Rees house at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue as a Chicago landmark. The house was designated for its exemplary architecture, as the work of a significant architect, and as an outstanding example of our city’s heritage. The designation is good news for preservationists who were concerned about the future of the house. Although it is in the hand of dedicated owners, who have spent several years restoring the structure, the building was threatened in recent years by plans to build a large hotel on the block to accommodate visitors to McCormick Place Convention Center, located one block to the south. Landmark status adds an important level of protection to the structure, the last surviving mansion on the 2100 block of Prairie Avenue.

The elegant row house was built in 1888 for Harriet F. Rees, the 70-year-old widow of James H. Rees, a prominent early real estate dealer and land surveyor, primarily remembered today for the set of maps he created of the Chicago area in 1851. The architects, Cobb & Frost, designed a significant number of homes in the Prairie Avenue neighborhood, most of which have been lost, except for the Joseph G. Coleman house at 1811 S. Prairie Avenue. The Rees house was designed in the Romanesque style and features a smooth limestone façade highlighted with rich ornamentation at the front entryway, on the oriel window, around the third-story arcade, and most prominently in the steeply pitched gable.

After Rees died in the 1890s, the house was purchased by Edson Keith Jr. who had grown up in a house at 1906 S. Prairie Avenue (demolished). His daughter Katherine was raised in the house and in 1916, became the wife of architect David Adler. She also published two novels, The Girl and The Crystal Icicle, before her untimely death in 1930, the result of an auto accident while traveling with her husband in France. In later years, the building housed furnished rooms, and during the 1970s was converted to the Prairie Avenue Café.

The interior is richly appointed and has survived largely intact, a pleasant surprise given its varied uses during the years. Cobb & Frost designed an interesting moulding pattern that is used on the main staircase and around the doorways of many of the principal rooms. The most prominent features however are the beautiful fireplaces which possess exceptionally fine tilework, each room being different. The dining room fireplace is surrounded by a full wall of built in cabinets.

Near the rear of the first floor is the original hand-crank elevator, one of the first to be used in a private residence, no doubt installed for the widow for whom the house was built.

The interior of the house will be open for tours on Sunday June 10, 2012 as part of the annual Glessner House Museum fundraising tour, A Walk Through Time. For further information, visit www.glessnerhouse.org.

Docent Diaries: Bonnet House and the Prairie Avenue Connection

2012-01-09T10:33:00.012-06:00

The entrance to Bonnet House

For many years, before I became a volunteer docent at the Clarke House and Glessner House museums, I vacationed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I would pass by Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, wondering who Mr. Birch was and why he had a park named for him. It wasn’t until I started my docent training that I learned about Birch. Birch was not only significant to Chicago history, but Florida history as well. On my most recent trip to Fort Lauderdale, I took a tour of Bonnet House and learned a little bit more about Birch and his extended family.

South Florida Paradise
Birch was a prominent corporate attorney who lived at 1912 S. Michigan Avenue and was part of Prairie Avenue society. A bit of an eccentric, Birch shunned crowds and preferred a more casual lifestyle. In the late 1890s, Birch traveled by train to Titusville, Florida, the end of the line for the railroad in those days. He then sailed further south by boat, encountering a storm that forced his ship ashore. When Birch saw the tropical beauty of the South Florida coast, he decided he needed to live there. He bought three miles of oceanfront property, that is now part of present-day Fort Lauderdale, for less than $1.00 per acre. According to the Genealogical Society of Broward County (GSBC), silent film director D.W. Griffith offered Birch $250,000 in 1920 for 2/3 of the land, but Birch refused the offer.

A Generous Wedding Present

View of the bird house in courtyard

In 1919, Birch’s daughter, Helen married artist and Prairie Avenue resident, Frederic Clay Bartlett (2901 S. Prairie Avenue). As a wedding gift, Birch gave the newlyweds 30 acres—a piece of his Florida estate. In 1920, construction, of what would eventually be known as Bonnet House (named for the bonnet lilies found on the estate), began and would continue for more than 20 years.

“Eclectic” Design
Bartlett was an artist and designer. Among his works are the thirteen pre-Raphaelite murals that adorn Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue. He had a practical interest in architecture and designed every aspect of Bonnet House. The home was modeled after a Caribbean-style plantation as interpreted by Bartlett. It includes a large courtyard with fountains and gardens. Almost every wall of the courtyard is decorated with paintings, pieces or art, and cultural artifacts from Europe and Asia. The docent that led my tour said there is no discernible decorating style. He described it as “eclectic,” which fits just fine. Bartlett painted almost every inch of the house, including intricate designs on the courtyard ceilings, walls, and floors. While the estate is large, it is not luxurious. Both Birch and Bartlett had luxurious homes in Chicago and elsewhere, but craved a more casual lifestyle. Fort Lauderdale, in the early 20th century was a sparsely populated tropical paradise that suited both men perfectly.

Carousel giraffes are typical of the whimsical artwork throughout the house

Art and Music Lovers
Frederic and Helen loved to travel around the world. During their travels, they purchased many Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings, including A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat. Helen was a talented pianist and composer, having several of her compositions copyrighted and published. Bartlett had his artist studio on one end of Bonnet House and Helen had her music studio on the other.

A swan swims in a pond on the estate

Helen died of cancer in 1925 and Frederic lost interest in their tropical retreat. He donated their important collection of paintings, including works by Picasso, Degas, and Matisse to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was the first major collection of post-Impressionist paintings to be acquired and exhibited by an American museum.

Six years after Helen’s death, Frederic married Evelyn Fortune Lilly, who was divorced from Eli Lilly. After their marriage, Evelyn convinced Frederic to return to the estate and the two turned Bonnet House into a one-of-a-kind retreat. The house looks pretty much the way it did during the 1930s and 1940s.

Frederic died in 1953. Evelyn continued to live and entertain at Bonnet House after Frederic’s death. She eventually gifted the estate to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983, but continued to winter there until 1997 as part of the trust agreement. Evelyn died on July 1, 1997 at the age of 109.

Wrought iron railings were crafted in New Orleans

Bonnet House Survives
Bonnet House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Fort Lauderdale Historic Landmark. If you have the opportunity to visit Fort Lauderdale, a tour of Bonnet House is a must. For further information, visit their website, http://www.bonnethouse.org/

Submitted by Stephen Reginald, Clarke House and Glessner House volunteer docent. Reginald is also a writer, editor, neighborhood blogger, and amateur classic film historian.

George Glessner and his love of technology

2012-01-02T17:05:00.000-06:00

George Glessner was a precocious child, and always took a strong interest in anything scientific or related to the evolving technologies of the latter part of the 19^th century. His mother records on a number of occasions in her journal comments that George’s tutors made about his abilities and interests. In May 1886, when George was fourteen, she made the following entry:

“George is intensely interested in chemistry – and his laboratory is wonderfully arranged. Dr. Mitchell (the tutor) says it is far ahead of his own. George has all kinds of printed labels and signs.”

When the Glessners moved into their new home on Prairie Avenue in December 1887, George installed equipment in the schoolroom, including a telegraph and a signal repeated. The telegraph allowed George to communicate with his friends in the neighborhood, as recalled by his father in The Story of a House:

“The school room, approached from the front door without going through other parts of the house was a rendezvous for George’s friends and teachers alike, for they were all comrades together. Here they had their long, long thoughts of youth, their boyish activities, their fire brigade, their regularly organized telegraph company, presided over, as a labor of love, by Norman Williams, one of the ablest and most astute of lawyers, with wires connecting seven different residences of the members, all centering in this house.”

The signal repeater allowed George to receive alarms coming into the local fire companies. George and his friends, the “fire brigade,” would run out to watch the fires, and in a number of instances, George would photograph the buildings after the fire had been extinguished, such as the image below. Only a few residences in the city were equipped with these signal repeaters.

His meticulous attention to detail and fascination with modern machinery continued into adulthood, as recalled by his nephew John Glessner Lee:

“In Chicago, where he and his family occupied a house which was contiguous to and a mirror image of our own, he had a basement shop. It was a metalworking shop with lathe and drill press, clean and neat with cabinets and drawers along the wall. At The Rocks the main shop in the Tool Building was much more extensive than was really necessary – a complete line of woodworking machines and several metalworking machines as well, all driven by a monumental gasoline engine with massive flywheels and an elaborate series of shafts and belts.”

His nephew also recalled the increasingly large role George played in the management of The Rocks:

“He undertook several major improvements, such as the installation of electric light with its own generating station, the acquisition of the old Bethlehem waterworks on Garnet Mountain and the piping from there to the farm’s reservoir. In those days The Rocks boasted more than twenty buildings and over eighty men were employed. How much of this activity he was responsible for I never knew, but I suspect that he had a major hand in most of it.”

He was chief owner and manager of the Bethlehem Electric Company and the managing director of the affiliated Lisbon Light and Power Company. It was said that he “found his chief interest and enjoyment” in overseeing the operations of these two companies. While serving four terms in the New Hampshire state legislature, he took particular interest in bringing electricity and other modern technology to all parts of the state.

George Glessner died on January 10, 1929 and in his honor, all businesses in Bethlehem New Hampshire closed the day of his funeral. One can only imagine what he would think of the unimaginable advances in technology that have occurred since his passing.

Museums features iconic William Morris chair

2011-12-26T10:22:00.001-06:00

The museum is proud to have an example of one of the most admired furniture designs of Morris & Company: the adjustable-back Morris chair. Big, roomy, and incredibly comfortable, it is a chair in which one of the Glessners could easily spend an evening reading by the fire. The chair has wide arms to accommodate books, a loose cushioned seat, and a reclining back that is adjustable by a hinge at the base and held secure with a brass rod across the back (see detail photo below). In a sense, this was the first Lazy-boy (albeit the former is arguably a more striking composition). The original Morris chair - as it is simply referred to today - was designed by Philip Webb in 1866 for Morris & Co. At the time, the company’s business manager, Warington Taylor, recommended that Webb create a chair based on one he had seen belonging to an old Sussex carpenter.

Eventually many variations of the design were being produced in different styles (Flemish, Spanish, Mission), materials (oak, mahogany), and price points ($4.25- $100). By 1905, nearly every manufacturer at the New York Furniture Exchange displayed some form of the chair and it went on to become a must-have for every household in America.

Webb’s design is the most common; however it is not the style that the Glessners chose. William Watt, another designer for Morris & Co., designed our Morris chair in 1883. The two styles, though not far apart in age, are quite different. Webb’s design is more formal with beaded scrolling and a slightly curved frame - more reminiscent of the Queen Anne style, while Watt’s simplistic form is a nice example of arts and crafts design.

Our Morris chair, located in the library, has an oak frame and is upholstered in green velvet. An historic photograph of the library taken in 1888 shows that the Morris chair was originally upholstered in a patterned fabric. It seems highly probable that a William Morris designed upholstery was used to match or compliment the adjacent sofa which also shows a richly patterned fabric.

Contributed by Jessica Blemker-Ferree (Intern, 2010)

100 years ago, Christmas lights come to the Glessner house

2011-12-19T10:01:00.000-06:00

Frances Glessner’s journal records an amazing amount of information on the house, including the yearly Christmas celebrations which took place. Because of this, we know that it was exactly 100 years ago – 1911 – when the Glessners first used electric Christmas lights on their tree. The following excerpt from her journal records this modern technology being introduced to the family and their guests:

“Cheney the electrician spent all of Saturday and Sunday (December 23 and 24) over our Christmas tree, and it was wonderfully pretty. Mrs. Tramonti came to breakfast on Sunday morning and was here nearly all day helping to decorate the tree. The tree itself was one of six that came from The Rocks, and was placed in an alcove made of curtains in the main hall, had many and various colored lights that “flashed” and twinkled; there were spot lights of various colors thrown on it, and snow fell from the canopy over it. It was lighted first at 9 p.m. for our company at Sunday supper – 19 in all at table, and again at 10 o’clock on Christmas morning for the benefit of the children and our guests and the servants – 36 or 37 in all, so that the tree blazed for about two hours on Sunday night and about two hours on Monday morning and then was taken down. It had its day and was no more. And before evening we were back to the original condition with only the memory.”

Guests included architect Hermann H. von Holst and his wife, and a number of individuals connected with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra including conductor Frederick Stock and wife, Frederick Wessels (Treasurer and Business Manager) and wife, Henry Voegeli (Asst. Treasurer and Asst. Business Manager) and wife, and harpist Enrico Tramonti and his wife Juliette. The Tramontis, who lived at 2218 S. Prairie Avenue, were favorites of the Glessners, and Mrs. Tramonti sent the following note the day after Christmas:

“My dear Mrs. Glessner,

I have not thanked you half as much as I felt yesterday, for the beautiful Christmas you made for us! It will be a long remembered one, the beautiful, inspiring tree, the fine family dinner, our beautiful present, and above all the sweet comforting feeling of being in a family (and such a one!) and being made almost to believe you belong to it – all that is above words, but I just want to tell you that we feel it deeply!

Thank you for all, dear Mrs. Glessner and believe me yours, all devoted

Juliette Tramonti”

No photograph exists of the Christmas tree from 1911. The photo above shows the current tree on display in the museum, which also came from The Rocks estate. It will be on view through December 31.

125 years ago today, the Glessners christen their new home

2011-12-12T14:31:00.001-06:00

On December 12, 1886, exactly 125 years ago today, John and Frances Glessner “christened” their new house at 1800 South Prairie Avenue. Although they would not move into the house for nearly another year – December 1, 1887 – the house was finished off to the point where they could walk through the entire building and clearly see what Richardson had created for them. George Shepley, one of the three architects who took over Richardson’s office after his premature death in April 1886 (and the one primarily responsible for supervising the completion of the Glessner house), was visiting Chicago with his wife, so the Glessners seized the opportunity to show them the house. The following is an excerpt detailing the event taken from Frances Glessner’s journal:

We took Mr. and Mrs. Shepley for their first view of the house. They were in raptures over it. Mr. Shepley said we were the first clients he had ever envied – but he would like to live in the house. We left the carriage at 16^th St. and walked down to look at it. We took down champagne and Italian bread to christen the house and have our first meal there. We went all over the house. Then to Field’s to see our rugs and some embroideries – then we dropped Mr. and Mrs. Shepley at the Richelieu.

This evening, December 12, 2011, sixty members, friends, and volunteers of the museum gather for a “re-christening” dinner to mark this notable event in the history of the house. A full dinner, including champagne, will mark the occasion, after which William Tyre, Executive Director and Curator, will give a talk on the life and accomplishments of John Jacob Glessner.

The celebration of the 125^th anniversary of the building of Glessner house will continue throughout 2012, culminating in December, when we mark the anniversary of the family moving into their beloved home.

Schoolroom preserves Christmas traditions

2011-12-06T11:36:00.001-06:00

On Saturday December 10 and Sunday December 11, the Glessner and Clarke House Museums will hold their annual Candlelight Tours. These tours, held at 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30pm, focus on Christmas traditions and decorations of the mid- to late-nineteenth centuries. A popular event for many years, the tours allow visitors the opportunity to experience the museums from a different perspective and explore how 19^th century families celebrated the holiday. The Clarke House interpretation is based on extensive research of the period, whereas the Glessner House focuses heavily on the documentation left behind by Frances Glessner in her journal. Reservations are required for the tours, call 312-326-1480.

A highlight of the Glessner tour is the schoolroom, a space designed specifically for the Glessners’ two children, George and Fanny, who were 16 and 9 respectively when they moved into their home in December 1887. Since the celebration of Christmas in the family revolved around the children, it is not surprising that the decorations were largely confined to this space in the early years.

The room is decorated with a small table-top tree, very similar to a tree the Glessner children decorated in 1888. Such trees were common at the time, and preceded the larger trees which stand on the floor and became popular by the early 1900s. Homemade ornaments including a tin foil wrapped bird and gold painted walnuts were typical decorations.

A somewhat unique part of the Christmas celebration undertaken by the Glessners was the “Christmas pie,” illustrated above. Each year, Frances Glessner prepared the pie, which contained small toys buried in rice with rhymes written on paper labels attached. Her journal entry in 1888 describes the tradition, “We had a lovely Christmas pie covered with holly and smilax. The presents were buried in the tin pan in rice. We had a great deal of sport pulling them out, the labels hung out. There were rhymes on each one.”

Sitting near the pie is a plate with two gingerbread cookies waiting for Santa. On the plate is a handwritten note composed about 1909 by Frances Lee, one of the Glessners’ grandchildren. The note reads, “Dear Santa Clause – This year I want surprises. Thank you very much for the lovely presents you gave me last year. I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, and please give my love to all the other children. Frances Lee.”

Surrounding the tree are gifts typical of what George and Fanny received through the years – a toy stove, a train, metal soldiers and Indians, books, a scarf and mittens, oranges (a luxury food item at the time) and a set of dominoes, the latter of which were made for John Glessner’s company, Warder Bushnell & Glessner, and distributed as a promotional item.

Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

2011-11-28T14:24:00.001-06:00

On Thursday December 1, 2011 at 7:00pm, Corinne May Botz, author of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, will present a free lecture on her research and photographs of Frances Glessner Lee’s amazing Nutshell Studies in the coach house of Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Ave., Chicago. The program is being held in conjunction with the Crime UnSeen exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. Botz’s work is included in the exhibition, which runs through January 15, 2012. For more information, visit www.mocp.org.

Legal Medicine

Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962) became interested in legal medicine through her friendship with Dr. George Burgess Magrath, a classmate of her brother George at Harvard. She enjoyed listening to his stories of cases where his skill as a medical examiner helped to uncover the true cause of unexplained death. During his career he personally investigated 21,000 deaths and testified at more than 2,000 court cases.

In 1932, Lee gave a gift of $250,000 to Harvard University for the creation of a chair in Legal Medicine in the Medical School. The endowment ensured the perpetuation of the department in which Dr. Magrath had taught since 1907.

Two years later, Lee presented the school with a library of over 1,000 volumes, which was dedicated as the George Burgess Magrath Library of Legal Medicine. The library, unique in the United States at the time, was assembled personally by her and contained many rare volumes, some dating back to the 15^th century.

Her continual involvement in legal medicine led to her appointment as a State Police Captain in New Hampshire in 1943, one of many titles that would eventually be bestowed upon her. For the remainder of her life, she was known affectionately as “Captain Lee.” At the time of her appointment, she was the only active female state police captain in the country. She subsequently became the first female member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Nutshell Studies

It was at this time that Lee came up with the idea of creating a series of eighteen miniature rooms depicting crime scenes to be used for the study and analysis of evidence by state police officials. Known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, the name was derived from an old police saying, “Convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.” The models were meticulously created on the scale of one inch to the foot. Doors swung on tiny hinges, windows moved up and down, and a minute mousetrap in the corner of one room operated like the real thing. Each room took about four months to build in an elaborate workshop set up in her home. Many of the pieces were crafted by her own hands; other portions were constructed by Ralph Mosher, a carpenter hired full-time to work on the project. The models were composites pieced together from different cases. Everything shown had actually happened, albeit under other circumstances. Some portrayed murder, others accidental death or suicide.

Seminars in Homicide Investigation

In conjunction with the models, Captain Lee initiated biannual seminars in homicide investigation. State policemen from around the country vied for the opportunity to attend the seminars. Outstanding speakers in the field of legal medicine were brought in to lecture, and a major component of each seminar was the analysis of the “Nutshell Studies.” Attendees were given 90 minutes to analyze the minute clues hidden in each model, and then present their findings. Graduates of the seminars became Harvard Associates in Police Science, a distinction they would use when testifying in court cases.

Captain Lee planned an elaborate banquet at the conclusion of each seminar, held at the Ritz. A typical banquet would run $3,000, with the dinner served on a set of gold-leafed china made especially for her use.

Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels, was one of the few “laymen” allowed to attend a seminar. Afterwards, he dedicated his newest book, The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom, to her. In addition to proclaiming her “one of the few women who ever kept Perry Mason guessing” he went on:

“I have dedicated this book to her as an expression, in some measure, of my appreciation; and in admiration of the manner in which her mind, working with the accurate precision of a railroad watch, has brought into existence the over-all plan of a course in training that is helping to make the competent state police official as much a professional man as the doctor or lawyer. I herewith tender her my profound respect, my deepest admiration, and my eternal gratitude.”

The Glessner parlor abuzz with Christmas activity

2011-11-22T11:10:00.000-06:00

Christmas is a special time at the museum. We are fortunate to have extensive documentation on Christmas customs in Frances Glessner’s journal, which allows us to recreate quite accurately how the family would have celebrated the holiday.

The museum will be decorated for Christmas from Wednesday November 23 through Saturday December 31. However, the Glessners would be shocked by that! Unlike today, where the sights and sounds of Christmas appear earlier and earlier each year, in the Glessners’ day, the celebration was confined to just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In Frances Glessner’s journal, she discusses the decorating of the house on Christmas Eve, and quite often the tree and other decorations are taken down the evening of Christmas Day. The tree was usually lit briefly (10-15 minutes) on each day.

Our newly restored parlor features a number of activities that the family would have undertaken preparing for the decorating and gift-giving parts of the holiday. The game table is opened in front of the banquet, and several activities are underway. To the left, popcorn and cranberries are being strung to decorate the tree, and this garland may be found on both the small tree in the schoolroom and the larger tree in the main hall. After the tree was taken down, the strings of garland would be hung outside on tree branches, so that birds could take advantage of the tasty treats.

At the right side of the table, pomander balls are being prepared using oranges, cloves, and cinnamon. The balls were meant to be decorative as well as fragrant and they were usually placed in a closet, piled in a bowl, or at Christmas, hung on the tree. They were decorated with ribbons and often small artificial birds or flowers. The dried fruits would last for an extended period of time.

Hand crafted items were popular Christmas gifts and several pieces are represented. The black wool muffler represents a similar piece Fanny once knit and presented to her father as a Christmas gift. The small red velvet pillow is in the process of having a vintage lace panel reading “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year” attached.

An interesting item, seen in the foreground of the photo, is the Glessners’ “literary salad.” This parlor game was a popular activity for Victorian-era teenagers. The host or hostess prepared the “salad” ahead of time by writing a selection of literary quotations on paper and then gluing them to green tissue paper “lettuce leaves.” Each guest, on being served “salad,” read the quotation aloud and guessed at the author’s name.

Frances Glessner, her two sisters Helen and Anna, and her daughter Fanny, were all extremely talented needle workers, and hand-embroidered items would have been popular gifts from the women. On the banquette, an embroidered panel of flowers is underway, sitting next to a red work bag. Frances Glessner had many of these bags, used to hold fabric, needles, thread and other items for her embroidery work. She also frequently made the bags and gave them as gifts.

To the left in the above photo is the Christmas 1890 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Periodicals such as this were widely read by women who relied on them to provide useful information on the latest trends in gift giving and decorating.

Special Christmas-themed tours of both Glessner and Clarke House Museum will be offered on Saturday December 10 and Sunday December 11, with tours at 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30pm. Learn more about these and other Christmas customs, and conclude the tour with refreshments at the nearby landmark Wheeler Mansion. Call 312.326.1480 for more information or to make reservations.

The Rocks Estate

2011-11-14T16:26:00.001-06:00

In August 1883, John and Frances Glessner and their children George and Fanny moved into their new summer home, which they called the “Big House” at their estate “The Rocks” in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, mid-way between Littleton and Bethlehem. The Glessners had first considered the White Mountains for their summer home at the suggestion of George’s doctor, who indicated that George might experience significant relief from his severe hayfever by leaving Chicago and traveling to this part of the country. When George first visited the White Mountains in 1878, the relief was dramatic and immediate, so the Glessners opted to make the locale their annual destination. The Glessners continued to make The Rocks their home every summer until their deaths in the 1930s, and both George and Fanny later made the estate their permanent home. A portion of the estate at the western end of the property is still in the possession of two descendants of George Glessner, making six generations of the family to call The Rocks home.

In 1977, two of the Glessners grandchildren, John Glessner Lee and Martha Lee Batchelder, made the decision to donate the majority of the property (1333 of the approximate 2000 acres assembled by their grandparents) to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. The Society had been formed in 1901 to acquire and protect forested lands throughout the state in response to widespread clear-cutting being undertaken by farmers. John Glessner was a strong supporter of the Society and joined in 1903, just two years after it was founded, so it was a very appropriate choice for the grandchildren to present the organization with The Rocks property. The estate includes numerous original buildings constructed by the Glessners from the 1880s through the 1910s designed by Isaac Scott, Hermann V. von Holst and others, as well as more than 500 species of trees and other plants.

The Rocks Estate is supported in large part today by its use as a Christmas tree farm, which satisfies one of the stipulations of the gift requiring the Society to keep an active crop growing on the estate at all times. Open to the public year round, the estate also offers a number of hiking trails and other activities which help visitors to explore the vast beauty of the property. Visit http://www.therocks.org/ for more information.

At the museum, we carry on a Glessner family tradition begun more than a century ago by shipping a Christmas tree from The Rocks every year. The Glessners originally used small table-top trees (their 1888 tree is pictured above), but by the early 1900s adopted the custom of a larger tree which they displayed in the main hall, where the museum places the tree each year. Click on the link below to see the tree selected for this year’s celebration:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRocksEstate#p/u/0/UC180Aapox0

Glessner and Clarke House Museums will be decorated for Christmas from Wednesday November 23^rd through Saturday December 31^st. A special part of the holiday tradition at the museums is our annual Candlelight Tours, scheduled this year for Saturday December 10 and Sunday December 11. During these special tours, attendees will learn about Christmas traditions of the mid- to late-19^th century and see both houses decorated in historically appropriate fashion. Afterwards, participants are invited to the nearby Wheeler Mansion for refreshments. For more information, visit http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Events.htm , or call 312-326-1480 to make reservations.

Novel on Prairie Avenue to be released in 2012

2011-11-07T10:50:00.002-06:00

Prairie Avenue is due to receive some well-deserved attention with the release of a novel, The Pursuit of Lucy Banning, in June 2012. The volume, book one of three in the “Avenue of Dreams” series, has just been added to the online catalog of the publisher, Fleming H. Revell.

The title character in the series, Lucy Banning, was born on October 8, 1871 (the same week as George Glessner, and also the date of the Great Chicago Fire), and is turning 21 at the time the novel opens. Banning has enjoyed the privileges of a Prairie Avenue upbringing, but yearns for more than a life of ease and the obligatory marriage to a banker that her family expects. Although the story is fictional, it is deeply rooted in the history of Prairie Avenue, with countless references to the actual people who lived on the street during its heydays in the 1890s. Just like Arthur Meeker’s fictional Prairie Avenue, which was published in 1949, the novel brings to life the “sunny street that held the sifted few” during one of the most remarkable periods in Chicago’s history, including the World’s Columbian Exposition.

The series was conceived by Glessner/Clarke House docent Stephen Reginald in collaboration with author Olivia Newport. Reginald did the research (including frequent inquiries to the Glessner house), and Newport did the writing and character development.

A release party and booksigning will be held at the museum in June 2012. If you are a fan of Prairie Avenue and Chicago history, this novel is sure to appeal to you.

For more information, click on the link below to The Pursuit of Lucy Banning on the website of Revell (now a division of Baker Publishing Group) at:

http://www.revellbooks.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&nm=&type=PubCom&mod=PubComProductCatalog&mid=BF1316AF9E334B7BA1C33CB61CF48A4E&tier=3&id=0492A9D0F9034A40B5A31CDCCA5CF867

The Glessners' Previous Home

2011-10-31T14:00:00.002-05:00

John and Frances Glessner and their family occupied two houses in Chicago before moving into their Prairie Avenue home on December 1, 1887. This week, we look at their second home, located at the northeast corner of Washington and Morgan Streets, which they occupied from 1875 through 1887.

From John Glessner’s The Story of a House we learn:

“We wished to possess our own home, and bought on Washington Street the house that had been built by Sylvester Lind and occupied by him, then sold to Jacob Beidler, who lived there some years, and sold to me. Both of these families were well known in Chicago at that time. This house was of brick, on the street corner, and the grounds extended for half the block frontage on both streets. Our neighbor, Thomas M. Avery, with a similar lot next east of this, joined with us to remove the dividing fence. His house on the corner of Washington and Sangamon Streets, close to Sangamon, and ours on Washington and Morgan Streets, close to Morgan, left one glorious lawn between, all grass, with bright flowers at the borders, and the only division visible was a big splendid elm tree that stood just inside of my line. At the Morgan Street side was a great pear tree, the largest I had ever seen, and several large maple trees. Again the house was made charming inside.

Frances

was born there. It really was a cross to leave that place, but the changing neighborhood and the demand for a little more room for you growing children made it necessary.”

In a tribute to his late wife that John Glessner wrote in 1932, he adds:

“I bought the brick house 261 West Washington, corner of Morgan Street, and remodeled it, and it was nearly ready to be occupied. The lot covered one half the block frontage on Washington, and my neighbor, Thomas M. Avery, lumber merchant and President, Elgin National Watch Company, owned the other half. We removed the dividing fence between the two lots, and if I do say it, we had the most beautiful lawn in Chicago. (Here later my children played with his grandchild, and it surely was a pretty sight.

“While living on Washington Street Mrs. Glessner arranged a series of meetings of ladies in our library and parlor to listen to talks and readings about the latest books by scholars and experts, which were well attended and interesting and became the nucleus and forerunner of the Monday Morning Reading Class, so that that afterwards vigorous society had its origination and beginning then and there.

“It was in this house our daughter was born, on March 25, 1878, and named

Frances

for her mother. Considerable illness of the mother followed. She was not permitted to nurse the baby and we had to provide a wet-nurse. With a wet-nurse in it, one cannot control her own house. She is at the nurse’s mercy. It was in this nurse’s reign that I first saw my lady really angry – perhaps the only time. In handling the child the nurse struck her head against the chandelier – such an utterly unnecessary thing that there is no wonder that anger blazed.”

It was in 1875 that the Glessners first met Isaac Scott, and most of the Scott-designed furnishings now on display in the museum were made for the Washington Street house. The two mantelpieces on display in the Isaac Scott exhibit were made for the master bedroom and library. When the house was sold in 1887, the Glessners removed the mantels and reinstalled them in their summer home, The Rocks. Scott also designed the new and much larger coach house as seen in the photo below.

It is interesting to note that one of the motivations behind leaving their Washington Street home was the “changing neighborhood.” Years later, the Glessners would see Prairie Avenue undergo enormous change as well, but at that point in their lives, the opted to remain in their Richardson-designed home for the remainder of their days. The Washington Street house was eventually torn down and replaced by a large brick loft building which remains on the site today.

Dovecotes

2011-10-24T12:37:00.001-05:00

One of the many interesting architectural features of the Glessner house is a pair of dovecotes at the west end of the building over the coach house. A dovecote is a structure built to house the nests of pigeons or doves. It can be free-standing or built into the end of a house or barn. The use of these structures dates back many hundreds of years to a time when pigeons and doves were an important source of food (both flesh and eggs) and dung, especially in Western Europe. Although the Glessners left no record as to why they had the dovecotes incorporated into the design of the house, an analysis of their structure from the inside clearly indicates that they were functional, and not merely architectural ornaments.

During the summer of 2011, museum volunteer Robert Herbst explored the attic space over the coach house to see how the dovecotes were constructed. The dovecote built into the north facing gable, which consists of nine openings, is accessed from the inside of the coach house by way of a small staircase. The openings measures 5-1/4” wide by 9-1/2” high and are 23 inches deep. A sliding wood door measuring 8” by 11” inches provides access to each opening. Several were found to still contain significant amounts of nesting materials and even egg shells.

The four-sided dovecote located at the peak of the roof over the coach house is much larger with 48 openings. This appears to be more of a “communal” dovecote with all of the openings accessing the interior of the dovecote, which has perches. This dovecote is virtually impossible to access from the inside of the coach house due to the beams forming the structure of the gables, indicating that this one was not accessed by humans on a regular basis. It is also unclear how the pigeons and doves were prevented from flying into the main attic space.

Although some questions remain about these structures, they are an interesting element in the design of the house. Be sure to look at them closely on your next visit.

Parlor Reopens Amidst Celebration and Remembrance

2011-10-16T11:58:00.000-05:00

On Friday evening October 14, 2011, the restored parlor was officially unveiled to the public. Over 70 members and friends of the museum were present to witness this long-anticipated event. Following is the text of the speech prepared by Executive Director William Tyre which was read just prior to the opening of the parlor doors.

In November 2007, exactly one month after starting my position as executive director at the museum, I received a letter and a donation check from long-time docent and supporter Aileen Mandel. In that letter Aileen expressed her wish that the museum would at long last undertake the important restoration of the Glessner parlor. I immediately contacted Aileen, whom I had known for many years, to enthusiastically let her know that I too had a dream of seeing the parlor returned to its stunning 1892 appearance. Over the next year and a half, two grant proposals were written to underwrite the project but were not accepted.

When Aileen lost her courageous battle with ovarian cancer on June 13, 2009, her children designated Glessner House Museum as one of the organizations to receive memorials. I quickly contacted Aileen’s daughter Ruth, explaining her mother’s particular interest in the parlor, and asking if we could designate memorials toward the project. She enthusiastically agreed, and the fund grew.

Less than a year later, on May 20, 2010, one of our “charter” docents, Bunny Selig, passed away, leaving a sizable unrestricted bequest to the museum. A second bequest was directed to the museum in honor of her long-time friend Robert Irving, with whom she had completed the first docent class in 1971. Bunny had often commented on how horrified Frances Glessner would have been to know we were showing her parlor in such an altered state, so immediately the idea came to mind to use these generous bequests to at last undertake the parlor restoration. The Board of Directors quickly agreed and work began on a year-long project culminating in tonight’s event.

The undertaking was complex – this was not the restoration of just another 1890s interior – it was the recreation of a very specific space designed to the particular taste and sophisticated aesthetic of the Glessners. Fortunately, through photographs and written documentation, we knew a great deal about how the space looked.

The Grammar of Ornament, a Denver-based company specializing in the recreation of historic interiors, had been contracted by the museum in 1991 to create a sample of the 1892 wall covering designed for the room by William Pretyman. You will all recall that sample which hung in the parlor over the doorway to the dining room. In 2010, I called Ken Miller, principal in the firm, to let him know that at long last we were ready to proceed! Fortunately Ken was a patient man, and had carefully kept the files and information ready, hopeful that someday he would have the opportunity to create this unique wall covering. He and his assistant Linda Paulsen meticulously examined an original fragment and historic photographs to determine the intricate process behind the original wall covering. You will hear more about that and about William Pretyman a little later this evening, when our own John Waters presents “Where’s William: In Search of William Pretyman” back in the coach house following the dedication.

Another major element of the parlor design was the beautiful Kennet draperies designed by William Morris. An original fragment of one of these drapery panels survived in the Textile Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. This piece was carefully examined to determine the beautiful and rich colors. Since the fabric was no longer being produced, we turned to David Berman of Trustworth Studios in Plymouth Massachusetts to bring together 19^th century design with 21^st century technology. Using a digital process, Berman reproduced the intricate pattern and five colors, producing a fabric that is true and accurate to the original. Our own assistant curator, Becky LaBarre, did all the sewing for the panels.

A major piece of furniture for the room had been removed over 100 years ago – the large banquette which occupied much of the south wall of the room. The piece, originally designed for the room in 1887, had apparently been removed by the Glessners about 1905 when John Glessner inherited his parents’ 1830s Empire sofa after the death of his father. We felt that the recreation of this piece was essential to give the room its proper appearance. Long-time volunteer Robert Furhoff, who specializes in historic interiors, spent many hours researching the appropriate construction and fabrics, resulting in a piece that would fool even the Glessners. Scott Chambers of Fine Woodworks Inc. and Gonzalo and Anna Gamez of G&A Upholstery produced a truly beautiful and unique piece of furniture.

Many other small details required attention as well. The drapery rods could be found fairly easily, but the original brackets were heavy and unique in dimensions, requiring the careful attention and craftsmanship of master metal smith John La Monica. The gold leafing of the various elements of the wood trim had deteriorated significantly over the years, and was replaced by Lee Redmond Restorations, who also undertook refinishing of damaged wood mouldings, and refreshing the trim throughout. Jeffrey Ediger of Oak Brothers refinished the surviving metal pieces.

An enjoyable part of the project was bringing the room all back together. This involved a careful analysis of the historic photos of the room, identifying objects that were currently elsewhere in the museum that needed to be returned to the space.

All of the physical work needed to actually restore the room has been undertaken in just four weeks starting with the removal of the old wall covering on September 19^th. An outstanding team of craftsmen kept the project on track, so that we only needed to close the room to the public for a little under one month.

As we get ready to unveil the room, a moment to thank those whose generosity has made it possible. As mentioned earlier, Aileen along with her family and friends, spearheaded the project, keeping it in the forefront as we set out goals for the museum. The passing of Bunny brought not only her bequests but additional gifts from her family and friends. As the project grew, the museum approached the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation who generously provided additional support, primarily to produce the Morris draperies. Finally, when the decision was made to recreate the banquette, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a generous gift to our 125^th anniversary fund, which was applied for this purpose. Lastly, many of you contributed to this project as well. The remaining funds needed to complete the room were taken from our House and Collections Committee Fund, which is supported by the proceeds from the various private tours and events held several times per year, and which many of you have attended.

At this time, I would like to ask Ruth Mandel to step forward representing her mother Aileen. She is accompanied by her brothers Mark and Eric. In just a moment, Ruth will be asked to cut the teal ribbon on the left doorknob of the parlor. Teal is a special color for Aileen – it is the official color for the fight against ovarian cancer.

I would also like to ask Dina Krause to step forward representing her cousin Bunny Selig, accompanied by Dina’s husband George and their daughter Sydnie. Dina will be asked to cut the purple ribbon on the right doorknob of the parlor. For all of you who knew Bunny, there is no need explain the significance of the purple ribbon.

(At this point, the ribbons were cut, the room was opened and attendees had their first glimpse to view the Glessners’ parlor as it appeared in 1892. Following the viewing of the room, the group reassembled in the coach house where John Waters delivered an informative presentation on decorator William Pretyman).

Museum volunteers honored at event held at historic Elmer C. Jensen house

2011-10-10T11:57:00.001-05:00

The historic Elmer C. Jensen house in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood was the setting for this year’s event held Sunday October 9, 2011 honoring docents and volunteers for their service to Glessner House Museum during the past fiscal year ended June 30. During the year, 60 volunteers contributed a total of 2,724.50 hours of service providing tours, working in the collections department, and assisting with various special projects.

The following thirteen individuals were honored for contributing the largest number of hours:

Dan Smaczny – 260.50 hours

Joan Stinton – 190.00 hours

Jackie Walker Dunscomb – 130.00 hours

Robert Herbst – 124.00 hours

Allan Vagner – 120.50 hours

John Kalmbach – 110.00 hours

Karen Oliver – 99.25 hours

Thressa Connor – 95.00 hours

Rebecca Williams – 80.75 hours

Robert Irving – 74.00 hours

Norman Cutler - 64.00 hours

Stephen Reginald – 53.50 hours

Marilyn Scott – 49.00 hours

Elmer C. Jensen worked as an architect in Chicago for 70 years, earning him the title of “The Dean of Chicago Architects.” Born in Chicago in 1870, he came to work as an office boy for William LeBaron Jenney at the age of 14, one of his first jobs being to run drawings and messages between the office and the site of the Home Insurance Building, regarded as the first modern skyscraper. He quit school to start work saying “I don’t feel that I can spare the time, I want to start right now.”

By age 18 he had designed several apartment buildings. Known as an excellent renderer, at age 20 he won 2^nd prize in the annual competition for the Chicago Architectural Sketch Club.

In 1893, he assisted with the design of a colossal theatre containing a great expanse of water for the presentation of a dramatic story of the discovery of

America

by Columbus at the World’s Columbian Exposition – the building was never completed as the sponsor lacked sufficient funds to pay for its completion.

In 1895, at the age of 25, he won the AIA gold medal for their annual design competition which that year had the theme “A Building for the Study of Botany.”

He was married in 1900 to Mary Nagle. In 1905 he was made a full partner in the firm of Jenney, Mundie & Jensen. In that same year, he completed his home on North Lowell Avenue in what is now Old Irving Park, the most noticeable feature being the massive portico featuring four 18-foot high concrete over brick columns. Two years later he designed the Irving Park Presbyterian Church a few blocks away, a combination of Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts designs.

In 1909, he moved to a Colonial Revival style two-flat he designed on West Logan Boulevard.

One of the projects of which he was the most proud was to replace the floating foundation under the Fair Store at State and Adams in 1923 – a massive engineering project completed without ever interrupting business in the store. He was also proud of his design of the current Union League Clubhouse (1925) including the 20^th floor swimming pool with a capacity of 50,000 gallons.

He became very active in various professional organizations and held leadership positions in the Chicago Building Congress, the Illinois Society of Architects, and the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

He had a deep concern for the poor and did much to help lead the effort to clear slum areas and replace them with affordable and respectable housing. He was involved in the design of the Jane Addams Homes along Loomis Street (1935-1938), today still considered among the best designs for public housing.

He helped in the design of or was solely responsible for the design of 29 skyscrapers in the Loop as well as 26 banks including:

LeMoyne Building

Leiter II Building

105 W. Monroe

Kraft Foods Building

New York Life Building at 39 S. LaSalle (his architectural offices were located here for 55 years)

Equitable Building

Fort Dearborn Building

Singer Building

In the Prairie Avenue neighborhood he designed the Locomobile building at 2000 S. Michigan Avenue (1909) and the Rogers and Company building at 2001 S. Calumet Avenue (1913), both of which have since been converted to residential lofts.

He died April 24, 1955 at his summer home in South Haven Michigan, and was interred at Graceland Cemetery.

He was devoted to Jenney and actively promoted his role in the development of the modern skyscraper. Of the Home Insurance Building he said “My personal opinion is that while he was fully conscious that his ideas and buildings were developing new forms, his main purpose was to create structural features which increased the effective floor areas and made it possible to secure more daylight within the buildings. I do not recollect that he made any remarks about creating new forms although he did remark that skeleton construction would bring about a revolution in the design of office buildings.”

He was also interested in preserving the records of the architectural profession in Chicago and launched the Architect’s Microfilm Project at the Burnham Library at the Art Institute of Chicago, where many valuable and irreplaceable drawings and records of Chicago architects are now housed.

His name remains a part of the firm that carries on his work today – Jensen and Halstead.

(Photo by John Waters)

Parlor restoration part III - the Morris draperies

2011-10-04T22:04:00.000-05:00

William Morris textiles and wallpapers were used extensively by the Glessners for their new home when it was completed in 1887. Although the original wallpaper in the parlor was not a Morris design, the Glessners did select a Morris textile for the window draperies and the portieres in the doorway leading to the dining room. In addition, two pairs of exceptional hand-embroidered Morris portieres were selected for use on the twin doorways leading to the main hall. (These portieres were donated to the Art Institute in 1918 by the Glessners and were not reproduced in the current restoration).

The Kennet design chosen for the draperies was a popular Morris design registered by the company in October 1883. Available in a number of colorways in printed cotton, velveteen, or woven silk, the design consisted of a large 27.5” repeat of two types of flowers with distinctive foliage vining upwards on the fabric. The textile for the parlor, produced by Morris & Company at their Merton Abbey Works, was executed in tones of coral and light pink, which coordinated beautifully with the Italian Sienna marble on the fireplace. It was a silk, satin weave with self-patterning ground wefts bound in twill interlacing. Silk brush fringe and large tiebacks completed the ensemble at the windows. Historic photos show that the draperies were always pulled open, with the only other covering on the windows being simple linen shades. This would be consistent with Richardson’s idea for the house whereby the main rooms, including the parlor, faced south to capture abundant natural light and bring it into these spaces.

In 1971, the Glessners’ granddaughter Martha Batchelder donated a large fragment of one of the drapery panels (shown above) to the Art Institute of Chicago where it was displayed as recently as 2010 during the Apostles of Beauty exhibition. This fragment was used to correctly identify the five colors used to create the textile. The design itself was created digitally and printed on a sateen fabric to closely replicate the sheen of the original. Production was executed by Trustworth Studios of Plymouth Massachusetts, the same company that produced the digital version of the Morris & Company Blossom wallpaper installed in Fanny Glessner’s bedroom in August 2009.

Work is rapidly being completed in the parlor. This week the wall covering is being installed and the drapes are being assembled. The formal dedication of the restored parlor will take place on Friday October 14 beginning with a reception at 6:00pm, followed by the dedication and a talk by architect/historian John Waters on William Pretyman, designer of the wall covering. For reservations, call 312.326.1480.

Parlor restoration, part 2

2011-09-26T16:58:00.002-05:00

A major element in the restoration of the parlor is the recreation of the elaborate hand-stenciled burlap wall covering created by William Pretyman. Since 1991, a sample of the wall covering has been in place over the doorway leading from the parlor to the dining room. The sample was created by The Grammar of Ornament, the Denver-based company now recreating the actual wall covering. It is based on an intact section found behind the broad back plate of the wall sconce on the north wall. Since that section had never been exposed to sunlight, the colors were perfectly preserved.

When the first sample was created in 1991, technology was limited in terms of “reading” the complex wall covering, which featured various layers of paint, glazes, Dutch gold, and more. As such, the sample on view through the years is actually a bit rough compared to what the Glessners had in place. As preparations were made for the new wall covering this year, advanced technology allowed for a much more thorough analysis of exactly what Pretyman created. Combining these findings with historic photographs showing the entire room, Ken Miller of The Grammar of Ornament was able to identify specific features within the design including birds, flowers, and foliage which bear a striking resemblance to William Morris designs found elsewhere within the house. In addition, the exact composition of the layers was determined, thus an extremely accurate reproduction will result.

When the Glessners first moved into their completed Prairie Avenue home in 1887, the parlor featured floral wallpaper in various shades of yellow and gold. For reasons unknown, within five years they decided to remove that paper and redecorate the room. France Glessner’s journal entry for June 19, 1892 indicates that “Mr. Prettyman (sic) called yesterday afternoon to consult about paper for the rooms.”

A few things were learned about Pretyman’s process when the original wall covering was removed last week. (The original panels have been carefully stored should technology become available in the future allowing the subsequent layers of paint to be removed without damaging Pretyman’s original design). For one, it was determined that each section of wall was covered with a single piece of burlap, including the large unbroken north wall which measures nearly 7 by 19 feet. (A penciled notation of the north wall indicates the exact length of this piece 18 feet, 8-1/2 inches). In addition it was learned that the paste used to adhere the burlap to the wall was apparently not sufficient to keep the burlap stable, so hundreds and hundreds of small brads were nailed through the burlap into the wall to keep it in place. (The removal of all these brads proved to be a slow and arduous task). The brads were found around all the edges of the wall covering, and were randomly found throughout the panels as well. Since the brads were clearly installed under the layers of paint, it was determined that Pretyman completed all of his design work on site, starting with the raw burlap and adding all the subsequent layers, rather than completing all of some of the work off site at his studio. Gold leaf was also added to the bead trim around each panel giving it a finished look. That small but important element is being recreated this week by another craftsman.

Pretyman had a fascinating career, and designed a number of significant interiors in Chicago before returning to his native

England

in the 1890s. As part of the dedication of the restored parlor on Friday October 14, museum docent John Waters will present a look at the life and career of this important but largely forgotten designer. Since all of his other Chicago commissions have been lost, the parlor wall covering will serve as the only surviving link to Pretyman’s years in Chicago.

Next week: The William Morris draperies

Parlor restoration begins

2011-09-19T16:46:00.000-05:00

Today marks an important milestone in the history of Glessner House Museum – the start of the long-anticipated restoration of the parlor. This project has been planned for twenty years and dates back to 1991, when a sample of the hand-stenciled wall covering (on display in the room since that time) was first produced. Reproduction of the intricate wall covering was very expensive, so the project was put on hold until funds could become available.

In June 2009 the museum lost one of its most ardent supporters and valued docents – Aileen Mandel. Aileen was passionate about the restoration of the parlor and her family graciously directed memorial gifts to the project. In May 2010, another long time supporter of the museum and one of its original docents – Bunny Selig – passed away, leaving a generous bequest to the museum which allowed the project to move ahead full force. Additional funding was provided through a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and gifts in memory of Bunny.

In addition to the recreation of the wallcovering, funds will be used to reproduce the original William Morris drapes and portieres, rebuild the long-lost banquette, and recreate other missing details. The room will also be reconfigured to more closely match the floor plan used by the Glessners. Articles in the coming weeks will focus on specific elements of the restoration.

The dedication of the restored parlor will take place on Friday October 14 beginning at 6:00pm with a reception in the coach house. Representatives of both Aileen’s and Bunny’s family will be present as we at long last open the doors to an extraordinary room – a true jewel box space within the museum. A special treat for the evening will be a presentation by architect, historian, and docent John Waters who will provide a fascinating look at William Pretyman, a significant but largely forgotten decorator who produced the original wallcovering, as well as interiors for a number of significant homes and buildings in Chicago.

Next week: The Pretyman wall covering

Reconsidering the newel post

2011-09-12T12:23:00.003-05:00

The main staircase of Glessner house is a major design element of the interior of the house, however its delicate detailing stood in stark contrast to the elaborate and intricate staircases found in many of the Prairie Avenue mansions of the period. For the Glessner stair, H. H. Richardson looked back to the Colonial period for inspiration. Such Colonial Revival details became fashionable at the time of the centennial of the

United States

in 1876, and Richardson frequently used them in his designs. Dentil mouldings, fluted pilasters, and the configuration of fireplaces, are just some of the examples seen in Glessner house.

For the Glessner staircase, Richardson utilized a slender turned newel post of quarter-sawn oak. The simple post tapers upward above which is found a delicately carved section featuring several motifs including acanthus leaves and a bead trim. The top of the newel serves as the start of the handrail which makes a graceful turn as it heads up the staircase. Beyond, the turned balusters are carved in five different designs, repeated once on each step. The idea for the alternating balusters came from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house, a home that the Glessners visited when meeting with Richardson at his Brookline Massachusetts office. Many years later, John Glessner recalled that the balusters cost $1.00 a piece to produce!

For those with an interest in learning more about the history and design of newel posts, Rolf Achilles, president of the Glessner House Museum board, has just co-curated an exhibit of newel posts at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University in Indiana. “The Art of the Newel” features more than 80 stunning newel posts from the collection of Jay W. Christopher. Running through November 18, 2011, the exhibit is co-curated by Erika A. Lusthoff with the assistance of Brauer Museum of Art Director/Curator Gregg Hertzlieb. This is the first known exhibit of its kind to focus on this specific architectural element and the assemblage is most impressive. Posts produced from the 1880s to the 1920s represent the Italianate, Eastlake, New Gothic (Gothic Revival), and Renaissance Revival styles. Although many appear to be hand-carved, most are in fact machine made, a reflection of the advances in technology during the mid- to late-19^th century. As such, many of the posts on exhibit were mass-produced, making them affordable to a growing middle-class.

Complementing the exhibit are period architectural catalogs and plates illustrating additional newels and their incorporation into full staircase designs. As a whole, the collection is an excellent way to view the changing tastes and styles of the period represented, as newel posts were frequently one of the most elaborate elements in the design of a house.

For further information on the exhibit:

Brauer Museum of Art

Valparaiso University
1709 Chapel Drive
Valparaiso, Indiana

219.464.5365

http://www.valpo.edu/artmuseum/events/index.php

Madeline Yale Wynne

2011-08-29T17:26:00.001-05:00

On October 28, 1904, Frances Glessner recorded in her journal: “I went to call on Mrs. Wynne to arrange to take lessons in metal work.” She had her first lesson in silver work on November 29, and soon after fashioned a salt cellar which she presented to her husband as a Christmas gift. The salt cellar, pictured below, is engraved “Made by F.M.G. for J.J.G. Dec. 25^th 1904” and is now in the collection of the museum. Frances Glessner vigorously pursued her hobby for more than a decade, producing countless pieces of silverwork, most of which were presented as gifts to friends and family.

Frances Glessner’s teacher, Madeline Yale Wynne, was a distinguished metal worker and important proponent of the Arts and Craft movement. She was born in Newport, New York in 1847, the daughter of the inventor of the Yale lock. Her father possessed considerable artistic aptitude as a miniature painter, and as a child, Madeline spent countless hours in her father’s garden-studio. She studied painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and later attended the Art Students’ League in New York, before advanced studies in Europe.

Widowed at a young age, Wynne came to Chicago in 1893 and took up residence with her brother Julian in his home at 9 Ritchie Place (current address would be 1311 N. Ritchie Court). The home soon became a Mecca for true lovers of art and literature, and the “imposing dowager” presided over a distinguished salon of Chicago artists and literati. She and her brother also created a home workshop where they began producing unique and fascinating items of silver and jewelry. Wynne’s designs, which frequently included enamels and semi-precious stones, were entirely original and usually featured obvious hammer marks (a trademark of Frances Glessner’s designs as well). The examples below were illustrated in the June 1899 issue of House Beautiful.

Wynne was one of the 126 charter members of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society when it was founded at Hull-House in October 1897. Members included metalworkers, designers, potters, artists, writers, and architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. The Society’s constitution promised “to cultivate in its members, and through them in others, a just sense of beauty” particularly in the design and decoration of everyday articles. Wynne was also a founder of the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts in Deerfield Massachusetts where she spent her summers for many years.

Wynne was a writer of some note and penned a short story called “The Little Room.” The title was adopted by an important group of Chicago painters, sculptors, writers, and architects who formed themselves into an informal group in the 1890s which lasted well into the 20^th century.

After the death of her brother, she took a studio in the Tree Studio Building. She died in Asheville North Carolina in January 1918 at the age of 70.

Lightner Museum Moves to Florida, Keeps Ties to Chicago

2011-08-22T14:53:00.002-05:00

In 1946, Otto Lightner moved to St. Augustine from Chicago on account of his health. On an earlier visit, Lightner had noticed the long vacant Alcazar Hotel, the second of the great hotels in St. Augustine constructed by Henry Flagler in his attempt to create a southern resort city. The hotel, completed in 1888, had been designed by the nationally prominent architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings. Designed in the Moorish Revival style, the massive structure with a central courtyard was constructed of poured concrete with elaborate terra cotta ornamentation decorating the walls and roofline. The hotel contained a huge indoor swimming pool, the first such facility in Florida, and also featured elaborate spa facilities, massage rooms, and much more.

The Alcazar Hotel closed its doors in 1931, and was purchased by Lightner for just $150,000. He, in turn, donated the complex to the city of St. Augustine with the understanding that it would forever house his museum of collectibles. Since the early 1970s, the building has housed both the museum and city offices.

The Lightner Museum opened in 1948, the huge spaces providing ample room for Lightner’s collections including furniture, architectural fragments, mechanical musical instruments, natural history, fine arts, ceramics, glass, toys and much more. Lightner died in 1950 and was buried in the courtyard just outside the entrance to the museum.

Although located in Florida for more than 60 years, the Lightner Museum continues to hold a fascination for those with an interest in Chicago history. A number of objects from the Potter Palmer castle on Lake Shore Drive may be found there including a stunning pair of Carrera marble columns and a throne chair, both shown below.

Items from Prairie Avenue homes include the dining room furniture from the Blackstone mansion (1912 S. Prairie Avenue) and a beautiful gilt Aesthetic movement chandelier from the home of Kate Buckingham (2036 S. Prairie Avenue), see below.

Even the infamous Everleigh Club, located at 2131-2133 S. Dearborn Street
in the heart of Chicago’s Levee district, is represented with a flamboyant Venetian glass chandelier.

The collections at the museum are vast and varied from player pianos to buttons, and from an Egyptian mummy to brilliant cut glass. Devotees of Chicago history owe a debt of gratitude to Otto Lightner for his efforts to preserve Chicago as it grew and thrived from the late 1800s past the turn of the 20^th century.

Lightner Museum Preserves Prairie Avenue's Past

2011-08-15T17:40:00.001-05:00

In 1934, Otto C. Lightner, publisher of Hobbies magazine, opened a unique museum in a former mansion at 2816 S. Michigan Avenue. The museum was a treasure trove of objects collected over the course of years, many from the leading homes in Chicago, on Prairie Avenue, Lake Shore Drive, and elsewhere. Lightner acquired the decorative objects, light fixtures, stained glass, and architectural fragments, from the grand old houses as they were being demolished.

The house had originally been built for Charles W. Brega in the late 1880s. The architect was Solon S. Beman, architect of the Town of Pullman and the Kimball mansion at 1801 S. Prairie Avenue to name but a few. Brega was a prominent member of the Chicago Board of Trade and his elegant home on this fashionable section of Michigan Avenue reflected his business and social successes. He lived there with his wife Fanny and their only child Louise, who later married a British army officer, Colonel Ralph H. James, and moved to

England

. (Their son Charles James, became a well-known clothing designer in the

U.S.

). After Brega died in 1906, his wife also moved to

England

, and the house was acquired by Franklin P. Smith, a prominent wire and iron manufacturer and one of the early settlers of Lake Forest.

Lightner acquired the house from the Smith family in 1933 and immediately began converting the building into his museum. The rooms were filled with fine objects from leading families – Potter Palmer, Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Victor Lawson, John Farwell, and many more. Stained glass (including panels from the Chicago Board of Trade) filled the windows, furniture was crammed into every space, and countless curio cabinets were filled to overflowing with art glass and more. The rooms were given themes and names – the Music Room, the Gold Room, the Textile Room, the Curio Room, the Egyptian Room, the Crystal Room, and the Oriental Room. The museum also featured an especially fine collection of objects from the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Several objects from Prairie Avenue homes made their way into the museum including paneled doors from the Pullman house, a gold-plated chandelier from the Buckingham house, brass andirons from the Armour house, and a dining room – complete with glassware, china, paneling, furniture, and all – from the residence of Isabella Blackstone.

As the collection grew, Lightner acquired the adjacent properties. To the north he constructed a building to house his publishing business. To the south, he planned a huge modern addition to the museum that would connect to the nearby Kohl mansion. At the close of World War II however, due to ill health, Lightner made the decision to move to St. Augustine Florida and take his collections with him. The publishing business was moved to 1006 S. Michigan Avenue, which still features a faded sign publicizing Hobbies Magazine on its side.

Next week: The Lightner Museum opens in St. Augustine

Encaustic tiles and President McKinley

2011-08-01T16:49:00.005-05:00

Earlier this year, several hundred tiles on the kitchen, pantry, and servants’ hallway floors were reset, having broken loose from years of heavy traffic. It had long been assumed that the tiles were English Minton, but an examination of the backside of one of the tiles revealed that they were American made encaustic tiles.

Encaustic tiles are tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colors but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern is inlaid into the body of the tile, so that the design remains as the tile is worn down. Encaustic tiles may be glazed or unglazed and the inlay may be as shallow as an eighth of an inch, as is often the case with "printed" encaustic tile from the later medieval period, or as deep as a quarter inch.

The tiles in the Glessner kitchen are unglazed and in solid colors – terra cotta, tan, and gray. The only pattern present results from the arrangement of the tiles, producing a checkboard pattern in the middle of the floor and a simple but pleasing border around the sides of the rooms.

The tiles were manufactured by the American Encaustic Tiling Company, at one time reported to be the largest tile manufactory in the world. The company was founded in Zanesville Ohio (the town where John Glessner was born and raised) in 1874, initially operating under the name Fischer and Lansing Tile Company. The American name was adopted in 1876, and in 1881 they opened a showroom in New York. In addition to dust-pressed encaustic floor tiles and standard utilitarian wall tiles, the company produced a wide variety of decorative art tiles as it rapidly grew and expanded its facilities.

By 1890 an enlarged factory was required, and the founders, based in New York, wanted to build it in New Jersey. The people of Zanesville, anxious to keep the company (and jobs) in their town, responded by passing a $40,000 bond to purchase land for the company adjacent to the Muskingum River and close to the local railroad.

The new plant was completed in two years and dedicated on April 19, 1892 with a celebration the likes of which was rarely seen at that time. 20,000 people attended the festivities arriving by foot, train, boat and horse-drawn carriage. Governor William McKinley (later President of the

United States

) was on hand to congratulate the citizenry for their foresight in maintaining this great company, which remained a boon to their community for the next forty years. The firm produced the famous nursery tiles designed by Walter Crane, and later hired Frederick H. Rhead (a major figure in American ceramics history) to head its research. The Zanesville plant closed in 1935, a victim of the Great Depression, and the assets were acquired by the Shawnee Pottery Company. Although American Encaustic no longer exists as such, it can be traced through a series of mergers and takeovers to the present firm of Daltile.

An interesting side note – John Glessner’s sister Mary, married Thomas Kimball and they built their home (shown above) in Canton Ohio which they subsequently sold to William McKinley. It was from this home that he accepted the nomination for President of the

United States

. The home no longer stands.

A Window into the Past

2011-07-25T11:44:00.001-05:00

On Thursday July 14, the museum held its fourth annual “Treasures from the Collection” event for members and volunteers. At the event, items from the collections not normally on display to the public are brought out for viewing, and curator Bill Tyre explains the stories behind them. This year, items included clothing, signed photographs of musical friends of the Glessners, a brass fireplace fender from the Alexander Hamilton house, a collection of sterling silver serving pieces from a Prairie Avenue family, correspondence, photographs, and original drawings by Isaac Scott. One textile in particular drew quite a bit of attention.

The woven silk lambrequin shown above displays a piece of fabric with an interesting history. The cream colored damask fabric, believed to date to the period 1810-1820, features stylized wood-working tools in red including hand planes, saws, scribes, and pliers. Prominently featured is the name “S*IOSEPH” or St. Joseph, set within a foliated frame. St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus Christ was a carpenter, thus the connection to the various tools displayed.

According to tradition, this is a surviving piece of the original draperies installed in the courtyard bedroom. Although no historic photographs exist to verify this, a couple of other pieces of information support the story. For one, the red and white colors of the fabric coordinate perfectly with the red and white De Morgan tiles on the fireplace. For another, a letter recently discovered in the archives from the summer of 1887 (while the house was being finished) makes mention of a fabric selected by Frances Glessner and sent to the architects in Boston for draperies in this particular room. This would support the fact that the Glessners did not choose Morris & Co. fabric for the draperies in the courtyard room, as they did for all the other bedrooms, but instead sent along a fabric of their own choosing.

How Frances Glessner came into possession of the fabric, which would have been between 60 and 80 years old at the time, is not known, although she did collect vintage textiles. After the death of the Glessners in the 1930s, their daughter Frances Glessner Lee closed up the house and moved its contents up to the Glessner summer estate, The Rocks, in New Hampshire. She took the St. Joseph drapes and had them reworked into lambrequins and shorter panels for her home there. That is the form in which they exist today.

The textile provides yet another clue as to the sophisticated tastes of the Glessners as they built and furnished their Prairie Avenue home. Choices were often different from those being made by their neighbors, creating a truly distinctive and unique interior. We are fortunate that so much documentation survives, so that we can interpret the home with such a high level of accuracy.

The Hegeler Carus Mansion in LaSalle Illinois

2011-07-18T18:05:00.002-05:00

On Sunday July 10, Executive Director and Curator Bill Tyre gave a presentation on the history of Prairie Avenue as part of the Second Sunday lecture series at the Hegeler Carus Mansion in LaSalle Illinois. The mansion is a fascinating house museum, recently designated as a National Historic Landmark. And there are a few interesting connections between the house and Prairie Avenue.

The house was designed in 1874 by William W. Boyington, a prominent architect best known in Chicago for his design of the Water Tower. Boyington was an early resident of the Prairie Avenue area, designing and constructing a home at 2107 S. Calumet Avenue, where and his family resided until 1871. (Ironically he moved from the house just a few months before the Great Chicago Fire. His home on Calumet escaped the fire; the new home into which he had just moved was completely destroyed). While living on Calumet, he designed a spacious home for Levi Z. Leiter, original business partner of Marshall Field, across the street at 2114 S. Calumet Avenue.

The elaborate interior decoration of the Hegeler Carus mansion is the work of August Fiedler, a talented German-American who excelled in interior design and furniture making. Although he designed many interiors in Chicago and elsewhere, most have been lost, leaving the Hegeler Carus as the largest and most intact surviving example of his work. A few pieces of furniture in the house appear to be the work of Isaac Scott, the talented designer who created many of the pieces of furniture and most of the picture frames in the Glessner house. Fiedler and Scott were known to work together. In a journal entry from May 1876, Frances Glessner notes the arrival of the “small bookcase” (now in the master bedroom) that was designed by Scott but made by August Fiedler.

The Hegeler Carus mansion was completed in 1876, at which time Edward and Camilla Hegeler moved in with their large family. Hegeler had made his fortune in the zinc smelting business, and by 1880 it was largest such business in the

U.S.

In 1887, Hegeler launched The Open Court Publishing Company to provide a forum for the discussion of philosophy, science and religion, and hired the German scholar Dr. Paul Carus to serve as managing editor. Carus wrote 75 books and nearly 1,500 articles in his lifetime and is credited with introducing Buddhism to the western world through his text The Gospel of Buddha According to Old Records. He married the Hegelers’ daughter Mary in 1888.

The Glessners owned at least one book by Carus, entitled Nirvana, A Story of Buddhist Philosophy, published in 1896 by The Open Court Publishing Co. (and shown above). The beautiful book is printed on crepe paper with silk thread tied binding and double leaves folded Japanese style. Takejiro Hasegawa of Tokyo illustrated and printed the book which featured stunning color woodblock prints produced by Suzuki Kason. The book is part of the museum collection today.

Today a trip to the Hegeler Carus literally transports the visitor back more than century. Although faded from more than a century of use by three generations of one family, the house and its contents are incredibly intact, from the original Fiedler painted decorations on the walls and ceilings to the wonderful custom made furniture. It is well worth the 95 mile drive from Chicago to see this architectural and historical treasure. For more information, visit http://www.hegelercarus.org/.

The Story of International Harvester

2011-07-11T18:35:00.002-05:00

This is the second of two postings giving a brief overview of John Glessner’s business.

The last half of the 19^th century saw fierce competition in the reaper industry. John Glessner’s company, Warder Bushnell and Glessner, was large and successful but was dwarfed by the two giants in the industry – McCormick and Deering. In August 1902, the competition came to an end with the formation of International Harvester, a merger of five companies: McCormick Reaper Company, Deering Harvester Company, Warder Bushnell and Glessner, Plano Manufacturing Company, and Milwaukee Harvester Company. Not surprisingly, negotiations were long and difficult. Representatives from the five companies were placed in separate rooms and messengers carried offers and counter-offers back and forth. Records indicate that John Glessner played a leading role as a mediator, helping to strike an agreement that all could live with. When the new company was formed, Glessner was appointed a Vice President and served as Chairman of the Executive Committee. The company was capitalized at $120,000,000, making it one of the very largest corporations in the

U.S.

and the world at that time.

In 1907, the company completed a new headquarters at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, designed by architect Christian A. Eckstorm, well known for his industrial and warehouse buildings. He designed a state-of-the-art modern building featuring a steel skeleton, high-speed elevators, electric lights, the most advanced mechanical systems of the day, and a floor plan designed to maximize natural light for all of its interior office spaces (not unlike the design of the Glessner House). The 15-story Neoclassical brick-clad building featured beautiful stone detailing including a massive bracketed stone cornice, one of the largest ever designed in Chicago. Prominently situated directly across the street from Grant Park, the building exemplified the City Beautiful movement and contributed to the civic consciousness that anticipated Daniel Burnham’s famous Plan of Chicago of 1909. (The building was sold in 1937 to the Fairbanks-Morse Company, and has been owned and occupied by Columbia College since 1975. It is now known as the Alexandroff Campus Center).

John Glessner retired as Vice President and Chairman in 1919 but remained active in the company for the remainder of his life. He retained office space at Harvester and came to the office daily until just a few weeks before his passing in January 1936, one week before his 93^rd birthday.

In 1985, International Harvester sold its farm equipment business to the Case division of Tenneco, and focused exclusively on the manufacture of trucks. The name of the company was changed to Navistar in 1986. Today, it is North America’s leading producer of medium and heavy duty trucks, school buses, and mid-range diesel engines.

Warder, Bushnell & Glessner

2011-07-05T13:28:00.001-05:00

This is the first of two postings giving a brief overview of John Glessner’s company.

In 1850, Benjamin Warder of Springfield Ohio paid $30,000 for the patent rights to a reaper and formed the firm of Warder, Brokaw & Child, which became Warder & Child by 1860. John Glessner was hired as a bookkeeper by the firm in 1863. Three years later, the firm was reorganized as Warder, Mitchell & Company and John Glessner, then just 23 years of age, was taken in as a junior partner along with Asa Bushnell.

John Glessner was made vice president in 1870, and immediately after his marriage to Frances Macbeth on December 7 of that year, moved to Chicago where he established the main sales office for the firm on Clinton Street. The building survived the Great Chicago Fire the following year. The final reorganization of the firm took place in 1879, when it became known as Warder, Bushnell & Glessner.

Isaac Scott was hired to design a new headquarters for the firm in 1883. Unfortunately a portion of the building collapsed during construction, the result of a contractor’s negligence, not Scott’s design, but Scott was replaced by architect William W. Boyington, who completed the building later that year. The building (shown above) still stands at 130 S. Jefferson Street and is now known as the Glessner Center.

Benjamin Warder retired from the firm by 1886 at which point he moved into his newly built house in Washington D.C. designed by H. H. Richardson. Asa Bushnell was made vice president and John Glessner the sole vice president. Asa Bushnell later served as the governor of Ohio from 1896 to 1900.

Next week: International Harvester is formed

Asparagus Tongs, Saratoga Chip Scoops, Bon Bon Servers! Why all the utensils?

2011-06-27T13:58:00.000-05:00

In the early 1830s the popular dining style was service à la russe which originated with the Russian Prince Kourakin. This dining style called for multiple courses, which were presented to each guest by a servant. There could be six or more courses served in an evening and the flatware was changed with each course. It was highly unusual to touch food with your hands; instead there were cucumber servers, strawberry forks, olive spoons, and lemonade spoons, among many other utensils. Service à la russe encouraged new flatware designs and created a demand for a variety of utensils to assist with the plethora of dishes.

To the modern eye, it is rather difficult to identify the use of each silver scoop, server, ladle and spoon. Is this a bon bon scoop or is it used for tomatoes? And it seems decadent to have a serving tool for potato chips! A recent acquisition to Glessner House Museum includes just that - two Saratoga Chip scoops. The first scoop is gold wash sterling silver in the Dauphin pattern, with flowers and vines and the initials BFB (for its owner Bertha Fisk Botsford of 2100 S. Calumet) engraved on the back. This scoop was made about 1899 (the year of Miss Botsford’s marriage to Dr. Robert H. Harvey) by William B. Durgin Co., of Concord, New Hampshire. The second silver server features a pierced scoop in the shape of a shell with sea inspired ornamentation. This Saratoga Chip scoop is from the Whiting Manufacturing Company, based out of the home of potato chips, New York!

During the early 1850s potato chips were quite the delicacy. They were only served in restaurants or made at home. As the story goes, in 1853 in Saratoga Springs, NY, a customer at Moon’s Lake House restaurant preferred his potatoes to be sliced thin and sent his thickly cut potatoes back to the kitchen. Out of spite, the chef, George Crum, sent out paper thin potatoes which it turns out the customer enjoyed. Within a few years Crum opened his own restaurant where he was known for his famous potato chips. The next time you pop open a bag of Lay’s or Kettle Chips, just think how amazing it would be to pour them in a bowl and serve them to your guests with a sterling silver, sea inspired, Saratoga Chip scoop. Those Victorians really knew how to live!

Decorative tiles depict Arthurian legend

2011-06-20T16:08:00.001-05:00

Perched high atop the rail in the main hall, a set of five decorative tiles tells the story of Lancelot and Elaine, as told in Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem Idylls of the King. The tiles were favorites of the Glessners who originally acquired them to adorn the library fireplace in their home on Washington Street (shown above). When they moved to Prairie Avenue in 1887, they had the tiles carefully removed and put on display in the main hall, where they may be found today.

The tiles were produced by Minton, Hollins, & Co., located in Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire,

England

. Herbert Minton established Minton and Company in 1830. Later the company split into two firms – Minton & Co. which produced china and floor tiles, and Minton, Hollins, & Co. which produced wall and floor tiles. By the 1850s, the latter firm was the largest tile manufacturer in

England

, and installations included the Royal Palaces of Windsor, the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, and the U.S. Capitol. The company survives today as a prestigious line of Johnson Tiles.

The artist for this series of tiles was John Moyr Smith (1839-1912), who served as the head designer of picture tiles for Minton from 1872 to 1879. Smith produced over twenty series of transfer-printed tiles which drew their inspiration from Greek mythology, English history, the works of Shakespeare and other authors, and fables. His execution of simple classical figures and background imagery in sharp outline show the influence of a group of artists calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Minton’s block transfer technique was used to create these tiles. A copper plate etched with the design was inked with a solution containing pigments, linseed oil and resin. This image was transferred by rolling and pressing paper onto the copper plate and allowing it to dry. The paper was then removed from the plate and applied to a tile to transfer the image to the surface of the tile. It was then permanently affixed to the tile through firing.

The tragic love poem by Tennyson depicting the Arthurian legend of Lancelot and Elaine is told in five parts:

The first tile shows Lancelot meeting Elaine and her brother after being lost in the woods. Elaine instantly falls in love with Lancelot, who informs Elaine’s father, Lord of Astolat, that he will participate in a tournament. To return the Lord’s kindness to him, Lancelot agrees to wear Elaine’s favor in the diamond jousting competition.

In the second tile, a victorious Lancelot returns from the tournament, suffering from a lance wound in his side. Sir Gawaine gives Elaine the victor’s diamond, informing her that it was the legendary Lancelot who had fought for her. Elaine goes to find Lancelot.

The third tile shows Elaine following her confession of love to Lancelot, who has been restored to health by Elaine’s care. Although Lancelot cares for Elaine, he cannot put aside his deep love for Guinivere, and refuses Elaine’s proposal of marriage. Elaine mutters, “Him or death, death or him,” sings The Song of Love and Death, and collapses. Lancelot departs with no goodbye, hoping this will end her love for him.

In the fourth tile, Elaine will not be dissuaded of her love for Lancelot. Her father and brothers tell her that Lancelot is Queen Guinivere’s lover, unbeknownst to her husband, King Arthur. Elaine refuses to believe them. Unable to attain Lancelot’s love, despairing Elaine wills herself to die.

The last tile follows Elaine’s death. Her body is being prepared for burial in the sacred graveyard by King Arthur; Guinivere stands by his side. Lancelot confesses to her in death that all of his accomplishments mean nothing.

Honoring Four Decades of Service

2011-06-13T16:31:00.002-05:00

On Sunday June 12, 2011 during the reception following our popular annual “A Walk Through Time” tour of the mansions of Prairie Avenue, the museum took the opportunity to mark an important milestone in our history. The formal tour program at the museum, with trained docents at its core, turned forty years old and it was an opportunity to celebrate.

On June 12, 1971, the first docent class graduation was held, on the steps of what is now the Chicago Cultural Center. At that time, Glessner House Museum was owned and operated by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), so the curriculum for the class was much different from today. In addition to Glessner, docents received an in-depth training about Chicago architecture, with a focus on downtown, as CAF also offered a walking tour of the central Loop. The docent class was the brain-child of Marion Despres (shown above in the foreground), one of the small group of individuals who saved Glessner from demolition in 1966, and Jeanette Fields, the first executive director of the museum. It was a revolutionary idea that ushered in the concept of architectural tourism in Chicago and elsewhere.

One member of the original 1971 class continues as a docent today. Robert F. Irving has provided thousands of hours of service to countless numbers of visitors to Chicago who have come to see not only Glessner House Museum, but Clarke House Museum, Second Presbyterian Church, Charnley-Persky House, and the city as a whole. Irving, who spent the first part of the afternoon regaling visitors with stories as he led them through the Wheeler Mansion at 2020 S. Calumet was on hand for a special tribute.

After opening remarks by museum director William Tyre, the floor was given over to Jason Neises, who spoke about Irving’s enormous contributions to the CAF tour program, helping to make Chicago a destination for visitors from around the globe, who come to learn more about the amazing architecture of this city. As Neises noted, Irving’s greatest single contribution to CAF was his development of the now immensely popular river cruise, which had its genesis in a private tour given by Irving nearly 30 years ago during the annual NEOCON conference. Today, the river cruise is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city.

Jackie Walker-Dunscomb, chair of the Glessner House Museum Docent Council, spoke next. In her brief and inspiring remarks she summed up the high level of esteem in which Bob Irving is held by the docents, citing him as an inspiration to all who have followed, and declaring him a true legend.

Ann Belletire, speaking as chair of the tour program for Friends of Historic Second Church, regaled the audience with amusing emails sent to her by Bob Irving, reporting on his experiences during weekly tours of the church. As Ann noted, Irving’s mastery of the English language and use of words and phrases usually found only in the great English classics, often sent her to the dictionary to fully understand what Bob was trying to say.

Bill Tyre returned to the floor to share a story from Kevin Harrington, long-time professor of architectural history at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Harrington recalled being interviewed by Irving in 1978 and soon after being treated to his first tour of Glessner house by Bob, an event which left a deep and lasting impression.

Finally Tyre read an excerpt from “My Life,” the autobiography of Bill Clinton, who was privileged to have Irving as a professor during his years at Georgetown University. Of Dr. Irving, Clinton writes:

“My other two teachers were real characters. Robert Irving taught English to freshmen who were unprepared for his rapid-fire, acid commentary on the propensity of freshmen to be verbose and imprecise. He wrote withering comments in the margins of essays, calling one of his students “a capricious little bilge pump,” responding to another’s expression of chagrin with “turned into a cabbage, did you?” My papers received more pedestrian rebukes: in the margins or at the end, Dr. Irving wrote “awk” for awkward, “ugh,” “rather dull, pathetic.” On one paper I saved, he finally wrote “clever and thoughtful,” only to follow it by asking me to “next time be a sport” and write my essay on “better paper”! One day Dr. Irving read aloud an essay one of his former students had written on Marvell to illustrate the importance of using language with care. The student noted that Marvell loved his wife even after she died, then added the unfortunate sentence, “Of course physical love, for the most part, ends after death.” Irving roared, “For the most part! For the most part! I suppose to some people, there’s nothing better on a warm day than a nice cold corpse!” That was a little rich for a bunch of eighteen-year-old Catholic school kids and one Southern Baptist. Wherever he is today, I dread the thought of Dr. Irving reading this book, and can only imagine the scorching comments he’s scribbling in the margins.”

After a few remarks by Bob Irving where he commented on the joys of service and the many life-long friendships that have been formed, guests were treated to cake, and Irving was presented with gifts in grateful appreciation for his 40 years of service. A fitting tribute to an extraordinary individual who is an inspiration to us all.

Museum recreates groundbreaking of 125 years ago

2011-06-03T12:24:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday June 1, 2011, over ninety members, friends, and volunteers of Glessner House Museum gathered in the coach house to launch the 18-month celebration to commemorate the 125^th anniversary of the building of Glessner House. A highlight of the evening was the recreation of the groundbreaking ceremony which the Glessner family held on June 1, 1886.

From John Glessner’s The Story of a House, written for his children George and Frances (Fanny), we know the following regarding the events of that day:

“The house was built in 1886. On the morning of June 1st of that year, I sent word from my office to your mother that wheelbarrows, spades and picks had just then been sent to the site of our proposed new home, that digging would begin at one o’clock, and if she would take Frances and nurse, etc. in the carriage, and let George drive my horse and buggy and stop at the office for me, and all of us reach the site soon after twelve o’clock, you two children — George then fourteen and a half years and Frances a little more than eight years old — might throw the first soil from the foundation trenches. And that we did.”

A highlight of the recreation of this ceremony was to have the Glessners’ eldest great-grandchild, John Maxim Lee (pictured above), now 84, participate by turning the soil, just as his grandmother and great-uncle did 125 years ago. John Maxim Lee and his wife Rosalie traveled from their home in Connecticut for the event.

Two Madame Alfred Carriere white climbing roses will be planted in the two holes dug by John Lee during the ceremony to represent John and Frances Glessner and to commemorate the 125^th anniversary. This particular rose was chosen because it was developed in 1879, and would have been available at the time the house was built.

The event also marked the official launch of the museum’s 125^th anniversary fundraising campaign, the goal of which is to raise $125,000 for restoration projects by December 2012. By the end of the evening, $21,000 in pledges had been received, a glorious and encouraging beginning to the campaign.

The unveiling of the reprint of Glessner’s The Story of a House and two exhibits – one on H. H. Richardson, and one showcasing architecture and design books from the Glessners’ library - provided an exciting sequence of events. The evening closed with a presentation from museum director and curator Bill Tyre, who provided a fascinating look at events in the world, the nation, Chicago, and Prairie Avenue in 1886, placing the building of the Glessner House into its proper context.

Museum Launches 125th Anniversary June 1

2011-05-29T11:08:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday June 1, 2011, the museum will launch an 18-month celebration commemorating the building of Glessner House. A full evening of events is scheduled beginning at 6:00pm. A summary of the festivities is found below.

6:00pm – Reception in the coach house

6:30pm – Welcome and recreation of the Glessners’ groundbreaking ceremony (which took place June 1, 1886). Official launch of the 125^th Anniversary Fund, the goal of which is to raise $125,000 during the anniversary period to complete numerous restoration projects around the museum.

6:45pm – Presentation of the new reprint of John Glessner’s 1923 The Story of a House, funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. This reprint includes the full text and contains over 60 historic images. Copies will be available for purchase at the event and the original leather-bound copy presented to the Glessners’ daughter Frances Glessner Lee in 1923 will be on display.

7:00pm – Unveiling of the new permanent exhibit on Henry Hobson Richardson, written by Richardson scholar James F. O’Gorman. This exhibit, on display in the tour center, explores Richardson’s life, major works, impact on Chicago architecture, and his design for the Glessner house. A companion booklet with expanded text by the author will be available for sale.

7:00pm – Viewing of the temporary exhibit “The Story of a House” showcasing selected books on architecture and design from the library of John and Frances Glessner. This exhibit is part of the city-wide celebration “Festival of the Architecture Book, 1511-2011.” Visit http://www.1511-2011.org/ for further information on events throughout the city.

7:30pm – Presentation by Bill Tyre, Executive Director and Curator of Glessner House Museum, “1886: A Year to Remember.” A look at events in the lives of the Glessner family as well as events in Chicago, the nation, and the world – as the Glessners started construction on their controversial

Prairie Avenue

home.

For more information on the June 1 anniversary celebration, visit http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Events.htm or call 312-326-1480. The cost of the event is $15 per person, $10 for museum members. Advanced reservations are suggested.

The Story of a House

2011-05-23T09:53:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday June 1, 2011, as part of the event launching the 125^th anniversary celebration of the building of Glessner house, the museum will unveil the first full reprint of John Glessner’s The Story of a House. The reprint, which will cost $14.95, was funded by a generous grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

In 1923, John J. Glessner, then 80 years of age, wrote The Story of a House, a loving and personal reminiscence of the house at 1800 South Prairie Avenue in Chicago that he and his wife Frances had called home since 1887. The title comes from a book written in 1874 by the French architect and theorist Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, a copy of which the Glessners owned.

John Glessner was fully aware of the significance of his home and the architect who designed it. But The Story of a House was not written as a scholarly monograph about H. H. Richardson or his impact on American architecture. The Story of a House was written by a father for his two children – John George Macbeth Glessner and Frances Glessner Lee. It was intended as an intimate story of the house as a family home, and as a record of its furnishings, its occupants and visitors, and some of the important events that shaped the lives of the family members.

This is the first reprint of The Story of a House to include the complete text and all photographs (taken by the prominent architectural photography firm of Kaufman and Fabry). A few small errors have been fixed – these have been indicated by placing the corrected word in [brackets]. Otherwise, the manuscript reads exactly as John Glessner wrote it, his personal style clearly reflected in the elegant prose that transports us back to the era that he knew and was attempting to preserve.

The timing of The Story of a House coincided with enormous change that was taking place on and around Prairie Avenue. Just a few months after presenting the story to his children, John Glessner wrote to them stating, in part, “Your Mother and I may have to leave our house 1800 Prairie Ave. after a while – how soon can’t be told. The Pullman and McBirney houses on the corners of 18^th Street have been torn down and the Henderson house, the Kimball house and the Otis-Jenkins house are high class rooming houses, and nearly all the others are business, though of very satisfactory and unobjectionable kind. In this state of transition of course we cannot tell how soon something may happen to make our place unsatisfactory. We have hoped we could live here as long as we needed a house at all, and perhaps we can, who knows. At any rate we shall not move until we have to.” John Glessner wrote The Story of a House because he realized that the house itself might soon disappear, and his story would be the only tangible reminder of all it meant to his family.

The Glessners were able to remain in their beloved home until their deaths – Frances Glessner in October 1932 and John Glessner in January 1936. For the next thirty years, the house was occupied first by the Armour Institute and then by the Lithographic Technical Foundation, which set up printing presses in the once elegant rooms. When that company moved to Pittsburgh in the 1960s, demolition seemed imminent. A small group of preservationists, determined to rescue Richardson’s masterpiece of urban residential design, banded together and saved the house in 1966. Since that time it has been extensively restored, and descendants have returned most of the original furnishings. Today visitors to Glessner House Museum, now a National Historic Landmark, can experience the home just as John Glessner preserved it in The Story of a House.

For more information on the June 1 anniversary celebration, visit http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Events.htm

The cost of the event is $15 per person, $10 for museum members. Advanced reservations are suggested.

Blue Star Museum program

2011-05-23T09:50:00.000-05:00

The Glessner and Clarke House Museums are proud to once again be participating in the Blue Star Museum program. This program, a partnership established in 2010 with Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more than 1,000 museums, enables active military personnel and their families to visit participating museums across the country at no charge, from May 23 through September 5 (Labor Day).

For further information on the program, visit http://www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums

Museum to launch exhibit of architecture books

2011-05-17T09:17:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday June 1, 2011, as part of the event launching the 125^th anniversary celebration of the building of Glessner house, the museum will unveil a temporary exhibit entitled “The Story of a House.” This small exhibit of books from the Glessners’ library will focus on their interest in architecture and design. During the 1870s and 1880s, John and Frances Glessner purchased numerous books that helped shape their desire for the unconventional home that would stand in stark contrast to the other mansions along Chicago's Prairie Avenue. This resulted in the hiring of

America

's great architect, H. H. Richardson, to design a home that was immediately praised by architects, but scorned by neighbors. The exhibition of books will help to explore the complex relationship between a progressive architect and his well-informed clients.

The title comes from a book written in 1874 by the French architect and theorist Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, a copy of which the Glessners owned. That book, shown above, is one of many that clearly illustrates the Glessners’ sophisticated level of knowledge regarding architecture and design. In 1923, John Glessner used the title for his own manuscript about 1800 S. Prairie Avenue. A full reprint of that manuscript, featuring more than 60 period illustrations, will be unveiled on June 1, and copies will be available for sale.

The exhibit, part of the city-wide “Festival of the Architecture Book 1511-2011,” will run from June 1 through October 2, 2011. Located in the tour center, it is open for viewing during normal public tour hours, Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30am to 4:00pm.

For more information on the June 1 anniversary celebration, visit http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Events.htm

For more information on the Festival of the Architecture Book 1511-2011, visit

http://www.1511-2011.org/

Lecture on Richardson and the Landscape on May 17

2011-05-09T12:33:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday May 17 at 7:00pm, the museum will host the next installment in its ongoing H. H. Richardson lecture series. That evening, architectural historian Timothy N. Wittman will speak on “Henry Hobson Richardson in the Landscape.” This presentation will investigate Richardson’s interest in nature and the relationships between architecture and landscape. Seen in the context of his time, Richardson’s interest in nature is exemplary of the attention nineteenth century Americans paid to the wilderness, and the nostalgia they felt for the lost innocence of simpler, pre-industrial times. Of particular interest is the professional relationship between Richardson and Frederick Law Olmsted, the great landscape architect that gave us Central Park and the grounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Richardson and Olmsted were neighbors and collaborated on several projects, built and unbuilt.

In the new permanent exhibit on Richardson to be unveiled June 1 at the museum, author and scholar James F. O’Gorman says of the influence of landscape on Richardson’s work:

“For suburban or country houses he looked to geology for inspiration, piling glacial boulders into organic forms, or wrapping the structures in wooden shingles. His addition to the Robert Treat Paine house in Waltham, Massachusetts, looks as if it were emerging from the ground like an outcropping. His gate lodge (shown above) for the Ames estate in North Easton, Massachusetts, seems a man-made glacial moraine. For small towns around Boston he designed granite faced public libraries and railroad depots, the latter capped with sheltering hip roofs that spread out to create ground-hugging shapes.”

Timothy N. Wittman teaches on the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and works as a independent historic preservation consultant. He is currently writing the new audio tour narrative for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park.

The lecture will be held in the Beidler Room at Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Avenue in Chicago. The cost of the lecture is $10 per person, and $8 for museum members. Reservations may be made by calling 312-326-1480.

Three Generations of Family Gowns

2011-05-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

At the Mother-Daughter Tea held on April 30 at the museum, dresses representing three generations of the family were on display to the delight of visitors.

The oldest piece was worn by Nancy (Bayard) Macbeth, Frances Glessner’s mother, and dates to the period 1865-1870. The one-piece black silk gown features the typical silhouette of the 1860s which emphasized width rather than height. The shoulders and hips are broadened to give the illusion of a small waist. The shoulder seams are dropped about an inch below where they are placed today and yards of fabric were tightly gathered to the waistband, allowing the skirt to spread away from the body. The voluminous skirt would have been supported by a hoop, or steel cage crinoline, that allowed Mrs. Macbeth to have the look of fullness without several layers of heavy cumbersome petticoats. The dress is trimmed in silk velvet down the front of the bodice and features a decorative velvet bow at the waist. Fine lace cuffs accent the piece, which is fully lined with linen and polished cotton. Accenting the dress is a lace fishu or wrap that was a common accessory of the day. Ladies often accessorized dark clothing with light lace items that would provide a little something extra to an otherwise simple dress. Completing the ensemble is Mrs. Macbeth’s lace day cap, dating to the same period. Such caps were favored by mature, married women and were worn low on the head and provided a finishing touch to the hairstyle of the period which was parted down the middle and swept back to a bun at the nape of the neck. The cap has buckram or starched cloth and a wire foundation to which the lace and silk ribbon are sewn.

Representing Frances (Macbeth) Glessner was a striped silk day dress dating to the early 1890s. The one-piece dress is lightweight and would have been worn in late spring or early summer. The high neckline represents the changing fashion of the 1880s. The skirt, post-bustle era, is much narrower than that of her mother’s dress, as the emphasis by this time was on height rather than width. Undergarments would have included a corset and just a few petticoats. The vertically striped gown features a lovely lace collar, known as a bib, and long lace cuffs that button closed. As assistant curator Becky Young noted, the gown perfectly reflects Frances Glessner herself “fashionable, yet unpretentious.”

The most elaborate dress on display was worn by the Glessners’ daughter Fanny and dates to the mid-1890s when she would have been in her late teens. The silhouette of the cream-colored silk dress is typical of the period with exaggerated puffed sleeves. It is beautifully trimmed with silk ribbon, lace and beading. The bodice is transitional with slight blousing at the front anticipating the pigeon-breast look of the early 1900s. The sleeves have a rouched overlay of gauzy silk and feature fine lace cuffs. The bodice and skirt are separate and require assistance to put on, as the fasteners are at the back of the neck and waist.

Frances Glessner’s grandmother and great-grandmother were also represented with a lovely 1885 handkerchief safe crafted of fragments of their silk dresses. That piece was featured in the blog posting of March 21, 2011.

Hamilton Statue in Lincoln Park has Prairie Avenue Roots

2011-04-25T19:53:00.002-05:00

On Thursday April 21, Glessner House Museum hosted author Krista August, who presented a fascinating look at the portrait statues in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The park features 16 statues out of the 23 originally installed there. Well-known pieces including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Shakespeare were discussed along with their lesser-known counterparts including the charming Eugene Field Memorial. Of particular interest were the lost statues – Ludwig von Beethoven, Emanuel Swedenborg, and The Spirit of the American Doughboy to name a few, along with the bust of Sir Georg Solti (which isn’t really lost, but instead was relocated to Grant Park in 2006).

One of the most interesting stories surrounded the creation and installation of the statue of Alexander Hamilton, the great patriot who served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. Located east of the intersection of Wrightwood Avenue and Lincoln Park West, the 13 foot high bronze statue is layered in gold leaf and stands proudly atop a red granite base. The benefactress was Kate Sturges Buckingham, who lived most of her adult life at 2036 S. Prairie Avenue, just a few blocks south of the Glessner house. Buckingham is well-known for the magnificent gift she gave to the city in memory of her brother Clarence – Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park – but few are aware of the gift of the Hamilton statue or her other gifts to the city.

When Kate Buckingham died in December 1937, she left the enormous sum of $1 million for the Hamilton statue, which she envisioned for Grant Park, near the fountain memorializing her brother. The piece was completed in 1941 by English-born sculptor John Angel but was placed in storage due to World War II. Further complications in identifying an appropriate site resulted in the statue not being unveiled until July 1952, and not in Grant Park at all, but Lincoln Park. The cost of the statue was a mere $12,000, just over 1% of the amount she gave. However the original Lincoln Park setting cost over $500,000 to construct. The dramatic memorial designed by Marx, Flint & Schonne consisted of a three-level plaza composed of Indiana limestone and black granite, with a red granite base supporting the statue. Behind Hamilton, a black granite pylon soared nearly 78 feet into the air. In 1993, the memorial was disassembled and today only the red granite base remains beneath the statue.

Buckingham never married, and as the last surviving child of Ebenezer Buckingham, a highly successful grain elevator owner and operator, her fortune was considerable. In addition to the fountain and statue, she provided generously to many charities, but her great love was the Art Institute, which received numerous gifts of art and money throughout her life. At her death, the majority of her $4 million estate, including her Prairie Avenue home, was bequeathed to the Art Institute.

To learn more about the Hamilton statue or any of the other portrait statues in Lincoln Park, visit www.lincolnparkstatues.com, where you can also order copies of Krista August’s book “Giants in the Park: A Guide to Portrait Statues in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.”

Business Encroachment on Prairie Avenue

2011-04-18T17:48:00.001-05:00

A newspaper clipping from the Chicago Daily News dated July 8, 1914 was recently “rediscovered” in the Glessner archives. The article reflects the changing character of the street from residential to business and cites the blocks immediately around the Glessner house as holding out against the encroachment of business. That would not last long however. Less than a year after the article was written, the palatial home of the late banker and meatpacker Samuel W. Allerton at 1936 S. Prairie Avenue would be sold, razed, and replaced with a factory for the Hump Hairpin Manufacturing Company. The drawing above shows the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Prairie Avenue as they appeared at the time, Allerton’s home is at far left in the bottom row.

Here, in part, is the Daily news article:

BUSINESS CROWDS OUT PRAIRIE AVENUE HOMES

Personal Property Tax Lists Show Encroachment in Residence District.

SMALL SECTION RESISTS

Portion of Street Between East 16^th and East 22d Still Has Many Palatial Homes.

Encroachment of business on the Prairie avenue district has resulted in enormous increases in the personal property valuations in that section, though there are many names missing from the list of home owners. It is said, however, that that part of Prairie avenue between East 16^th and East 22d streets has offered more resistance to breaking up as a center for palatial residences than probably any other section of Chicago.

This assertion is substantiated by the following list of personal property assessments placed against individuals along the part of Prairie avenue referred to.

Prairie Avenue Assessments. (only those with an assessment of $90,000 or more are shown in this blog posting)

Mrs. Philip D. Armour, $150,000

Estate of Samuel W. Allerton, $882,736

Mrs. Henry Corwith $112,000

Mrs. Edna N. Fish, $140,000

John J. Glessner, $90,000

Mrs. Charles M. Henderson, $90,000

Mrs. Elbridge Keith, $180,000

Mrs. William W. Kimball, $250,000

Mrs. George M. Pullman, $250,000

Byron L. Smith, $150,000

James Ward Thorne, $94,995

Henry H. Walker, $100,000

Levy Taxes on One-Third.

Taxes will be levied on one-third of the above assessments.

The board of review will meet Monday at 10 a.m. according to law, to arrange for the hearing of persons who believe they have been unjustly assessed. This is the Supreme court in tax matters and the only relief for those who wish to have their assessments reduced. Occasionally some one appears and complains of too low an assessment and there have been instances in the past where men made indignant protest because the assessors had ignored them. The notices of assessments have been in the mails only a short time and comparatively few complaints have been received. The rush is expected to begin to-morrow.

The Glessners and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

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The history and success of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is closely intertwined with the lives of John and Frances Glessner. The founding conductor, Theodore Thomas (shown above) was an intimate friend of the couple for many years, and he consulted with them frequently on all matters relating to the orchestra.

Thomas first came to Chicago as a conductor in 1869 with his orchestra, having initially visited the city fifteen years earlier as a violinist in a small orchestra. The November 1869 appearance marked the beginning of a long relationship that culminated in Chicago’s reputation as having one of the very finest orchestras in the country. Thomas and his orchestra returned in 1870 for a series of seven concerts. In 1871, his orchestra was scheduled to perform on October 9. They arrived in Chicago that morning to find the city in ruins from the Great Fire, but in subsequent years they visited on an annual basis, earning a respect from increasingly large audiences.

It is not known exactly how and when the Glessners and Thomas became acquainted, but by the time of formation of the orchestra in 1891, John Glessner was one of 50 guarantors who each provided $1,000 annually against losses (which were considerable in the early years).

Thomas was appointed Music Director in the Bureau of Music at the World’s Columbian Exposition, and Music Hall (shown above) was constructed for his use. The Fair proved a trying time for Thomas, who was inadvertently drawn into the politics of the fair, in regards to policies implemented to forbid the use of any instruments made by manufacturers who did not exhibit at the fair (including Steinway). Thomas felt strongly that his guest artists, including Ignace Paderewski and Camille Saint-Saens, should be allowed to play the instruments of their choosing. The Glessners were staunch supporters of Thomas throughout the ordeal, which resulted in his resignation in August 1893. In time the whole episode was forgotten, and by May 1895, Frances Glessner headed up a group of thirty-six ladies in Chicago who presented Theodore Thomas with a beautiful silver punch bowl in thanks for his services in enriching the cultural lives of the residents of the city.

By 1898, when John Glessner was elected a trustee of the Orchestral Association, he had contributed over $7,200 to the orchestra, making him one of the four largest donors to date. He remained a trustee until his death in 1936 and for the last twenty years of his life served on the Executive Committee. Frances Glessner was one of the founders of the Chicago Chamber Music Society, an arm of the orchestra, and served on its executive committee for many years.

Away from Chicago, the connection between the Glessners and the Thomases continued. After John and Frances Glessner completed their summer home, The Rocks, in New Hampshire, the Thomases purchased land nearby and constructed their own summer home, which they named Felsengarten. It was here that Theodore Thomas could truly relax, far removed from the heavy demands of the orchestra.

Members of the orchestra frequently entertained at the Glessner home, providing music for dinner parties and meetings of the Monday Morning Reading Class. On more than one occasion, Thomas brought musicians by surprise to the Glessner house for a birthday or anniversary. The Glessners reciprocated by providing wonderful receptions and dinners for the musicians, and on more than one occasion hosted the entire orchestra for a sit down dinner. One of these times was in January 1913, when the members of the orchestra were able to view the meticulously executed miniature orchestra that Frances Glessner Lee had made herself, a birthday gift to her mother.

In 1902, when the time came to realize the long-held dream of Theodore Thomas to construct a permanent hall for the orchestra, John Glessner, along with Daniel Burnham and Bryan Lathrop, held the title for the newly purchased property on Michigan Avenue. These three men, along with seven other trustees, carried the entire purchase price, by cash and their personal notes, until 1905, when the Association secured a loan for the completion of orchestra hall. The Glessners were instrumental in raising a significant portion of the funds needed to construct the hall, which opened in December 1904. They were assigned Box M in the new hall (shown above), directly behind the conductor’s podium, and it was reserved for their exclusive use until their deaths in the 1930s.

Less than one month after the opening of the new hall, Theodore Thomas died. His wife and the Glessners were the only ones at the bedside. After his passing, George Glessner was summoned and took post-mortem photographs, presumably given to the widow. Soon after the funeral, Thomas’ widow Rose presented the Glessners with his baton and a preserved palm frond from his casket, mementoes of their long friendship. (The pieces remain on view today in the museum, in the hallway outside the master bedroom).

The relationship with the orchestra remained close under Thomas’ successor, Frederick Stock. On December 31, 1909, Stock premiered his Symphony in c minor, which was dedicated to the Glessners. Much of the piece in fact had been written while Stock was a guest of the Glessners at The Rocks. Their support for Stock was equally as strong as it was for Thomas, especially during the period of the first World War when Stock’s allegiance to

America

was (falsely) questioned.

John Glessner died on January 20, 1936. In the program for the concert three days later, a full page tribute to Glessner included the following statement, “To no one man has The Orchestral Association been more beholden. He was one of the small group of men who in the Association’s first years of struggle were loyal in their support and generous in their gifts. Since 1898 he has served as a Trustee and by his constant attendance on meetings and his sound judgment has brought much needed help to his associates. He and his devoted wife while she lived were always in their box to delight in the music their generosity made possible, and in their hospitable home men of the Orchestra and their musical friends found frequent entertainment.” On February 11, the CSO concert included Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Death and Transfiguration” as a fitting tribute to this ardent supporter of the orchestra.

Music in the Mansion, Part 1: The Glessners' Piano

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On Sunday April 17, the museum will present “Music in the Mansion,” the first in an occasional series of concerts in the Glessner parlor. The setting is most appropriate, for John and Frances Glessner were both deeply involved with classical music in Chicago, most specifically as major supporters of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In this article, we look first at the Glessners’ piano. Next week, we examine their role in the development and support of the orchestra.

The magnificent grand piano in the parlor is the result of a collaboration between renowned piano maker Steinway & Sons and furniture designer Francis H. Bacon. The piano was ordered in May 1887 while the Glessners were visiting New York. Nahum Stetson, Chief of Sales for Steinway, personally supervised the production of the piano, and the mechanics were “the best they could produce” according to John Glessner.

The piano is an early example of Steinway’s Model C Parlor Concert Grand Piano, the second largest of Steinway’s seven grand piano models. At 7 feet 5 inches, it is only a few inches shorter than a concert grand piano. When the instrument was finished, Theodore Thomas, founding conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and an intimate friend of the Glessners, traveled to the Steinway factory and tested the instrument, giving it his approval before delivery to A. H. Davenport and Company in August. At Davenport, designer Francis H. Bacon created elaborate floral and scrolled carved detailing in mahogany complete with satyr masks and a keyboard cover inlaid with floral and diamond patterns in walnut, birch and mother-of-pearl. The completed instrument weighed 900 pounds and cost $1,500. It was delivered to 1800 S. Prairie Avenue in late December 1887. Ignace Paderewski and Percy Grainger were among the many world-famous musicians to entertain the Glessners and their friends on the instrument through the years.

After the death of John Glessner in 1936, his daughter Frances moved the piano to her home in New Hampshire. As no one was able to play it, she began to look for a good home for it and could think of no place as suitable as the President’s house at Harvard University. John and Frances Glessner had been close friends with Charles Eliot, president of the university from 1869 to 1909. After the piano was moved to its new location, Frances Lee stated that its placement there was “a unique opportunity to express that friendship, and over the years I was very well content to think of my mother’s beloved piano in such congenial surroundings.”

In the fall of 1978, Martha Stephens, an executive secretary with the Cowles Foundation took a tour of Glessner house as part of the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Chicago. She was most impressed and requested a special tour for her employer, Gardner Cowles, founder and publisher of Look magazine. During his tour, Cowles learned that the original Glessner piano was located in the President’s house at Harvard University. Cowles, who served as a trustee for the university, donated a new piano to the university so the Glessners’ original piano could be returned to the museum. Since 1979, it has been a centerpiece in interpreting the lives of the Glessners and their home. Among those to play the instrument since its return was the late conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti.

On April 17, a program of German piano works will be performed on the instrument by Sebastian Huydts, Director of Piano and Keyboard Studies at the Music Center of Columbia College, and Elizabeth Newkirk, a 2010 graduate of Columbia College and an associated member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. No doubt, the Glessners would be most pleased to see their beloved piano continuing to entertain audiences in the home they occupied for nearly half a century.