Rees coach house relocated

The long-awaited relocation of the Rees coach house took place on Wednesday October 1, 2014.  In just under an hour, beginning at 8:00am, the brick masonry structure was moved about 400 feet from the southwest corner of Prairie Avenue and 21^st Street to its new home at the rear of 2017 S. Prairie Avenue.   The coach house measures 25 feet wide by 35 feet deep, stands 23 feet high, and weighs 187 tons (374,000 pounds).

The Harriet F. Rees house was built in 1888-1889 at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue at a cost of $20,000.  It was designed by Henry Ives Cobb of the firm of Cobb & Frost, architects of the Potter Palmer castle (demolished), the Newberry Library, 18 buildings on the University of Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Club, the house at 1811 S. Prairie Avenue, and many other structures.  Rees, a 71 year old widow at the time construction began, died in 1892 and the house was sold to the Edson Keith Jr. family.  By 1920, during the decline of Prairie Avenue, the house was converted to a rooming house.  In 1970, it was briefly home to the Prairie House Café, and then reverted to use as apartments.  The current owners purchased the house in 2001 and have undertaken extensive restoration of the interior.  It was designated a Chicago landmark in March 2012.

The coach house has an interesting history of its own.    When Rees purchased her property in 1888 for $15,000 from Mark Kimball, who lived next door at 2108 S. Prairie Avenue, Kimball’s coach house extended across the back of both lots.  It is believed that the Kimball house was built in the late 1860s, meaning that the coach house may actually pre-date the Great Chicago Fire (which bypassed the neighborhood).  Rees acquired ownership of the south half of the coach house, and a party wall was constructed in the middle to divide it into two separate sections.  The Kimball house and its half of the coach house were demolished in the 1930s, leaving the two-story Rees coach house intact.  Interesting also is the fact that the coach house had a full basement.  Story has it that the carriages utilized the ground floor, and a ramp was used to take the horses down to the stables in the basement level.  The coachman would have occupied the rooms on the second story.

Media, including Frank Mathie from Channel 7, mixed with a crowd of curious neighbors and onlookers, as the coach house moved north on Prairie Avenue, at a rate of one to three miles per hour.  

The street had been leveled with gravel and steel plates, providing a smooth and level surface.   

After being moved back onto its new lot, the coach house was rolled onto wood cribbings that had been constructed on the base of what will form the new foundation.  

Over the next several days, more cribbing will be added, the dollies will be removed, and the foundation walls will be constructed.  Once that is complete, all of the cribbing, consisting of 6 and 8 foot hardwood beams, will be removed, and the coach house will then rest solely upon its new foundation.

In preparation for the move, the coach house was separated from its foundation using diamond-bladed masonry saws.  

Steel corner braces were installed at all four corners and chains were wrapped around the building, to keep it square and plumb.  

Jacks were then used to raise the building seven feet into the air, at which point it was placed onto six massive automated dollies and turned 90 degrees.   

While this work was ongoing, excavation at the new site was undertaken, and the floor of the new basement was poured. 

On September 25^th, the structure was turned another 45 degrees and rolled to the corner where it sat on its dollies until today’s move.  

In the past two days, all of the trees along the route on the 2000 block of Prairie Avenue were cut down, and the stone base and steel plates were put into place along the planned route.

At the same time, the wood cribbing was built at the new site to support the structure once it was moved.

The main house is scheduled to be moved in early November 2014.  That move will take much longer and will be far more complicated.  For one thing, the 3-1/2 story brick and limestone house weighs in at 763 tons, more than four times the weight of the coach house.  That will make it one of the heaviest residential buildings ever moved in the United States.  Additionally, the house will need to be turned around, as the front façade will face west at its new location, rather than east as it does presently.  That will involve moving the house considerably north of its new site, almost to Cullerton, and then backing the house onto the lot. 

The move and restoration of the Rees house and coach house are being coordinated by Chicago contractor Bulley & Andrews, with Thornton Tomasetti serving as the project’s engineering firm, and Iron Workers, Machinery Movers, Riggers & Machinery Erectors Local #136 providing the necessary labor.  Wolfe House and Building Movers is performing the move of both structures, and McGuire Igleski & Associates, Inc. is serving as historic preservation consultant.    The relocation will make room for the McCormick Place Entertainment District, which will include a 10,000-seat event center on the block bounded by Prairie Avenue, 21^st Street, Indiana Avenue, and Cermak Road.

This final series of photos shows the coach house turning off of Prairie Avenue and being moved back on its new site.

The Rees House and the Changing Face of Prairie Avenue

Rees house, 2110 S. Prairie Avenue

Hundreds of community residents packed into Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue on Monday April 14, 2014 for a meeting sponsored by the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance.  The major topic of the evening was the new DePaul Arena to be built on the north side of Cermak Road between Prairie and Indiana avenues, along with a convention hotel and data center on the block to the east between Prairie and Calumet avenues.

The project has raised the concern of preservationists since discussions first began well over a year ago.  At the center of the concern are two landmarked structures – the Harriet Rees house at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue, and the American Book Company building at 320 E. Cermak Road.  The good news reported at the meeting was that both structures will be preserved, although the Rees house will need to be moved.

At right - new site for the Rees house;

At left - William Reid house

On April 3, the Landmarks Commission approved a plan to relocate the Rees house approximately 400 feet to the north and across Prairie Avenue to a new site at 2017 S. Prairie Avenue.  That site is immediately south of the William Reid house (2013 S. Prairie Avenue), a similarly scaled rowhouse built in 1894, and, like the Rees house, the only surviving house on its block.  The move is scheduled to take place in July.  

The William Armour house, built in 1881, originally stood at 2017 S. Prairie Avenue, and was razed about 1956 to create a parking lot.

The 2100 block of Prairie Avenue looking northwest, 1890s;

the Rees house is second from the left

The same view, April 2014

The Rees house was built in 1888 for Harriet Rees, the widow of James H. Rees, a prominent real estate man whose abstract business was one of the companies that eventually merged to form Chicago Title and Trust Company.  

The architectural firm of Cobb & Frost, which designed several homes in the neighborhood, combined smooth limestone and Sullivanesque style ornamentation with Romanesque massing and form.  The result is a stately and elegant façade, tall and narrow, that would have fit in perfectly with its stylish neighbors occupied by the Sherman, Kimball, and Rothschild families.  An interesting feature of the house was a manually operated elevator used by the aging widow to access the upper floors of the house; it remains in place to this day.

After the death of Harriet Rees, the house was purchased by Edson Keith, Jr., who had grown up in his father’s house at 1906 S. Prairie Avenue.  The Keith family resided here until 1916, when daughter Katherine married architect David Adler.  By 1920, the home had been converted to a boarding house and was later used as offices.

In the 1970s, the Prairie House Café operated out of the old mansion.  It reverted back to apartments until 2001, when it was purchased by the Martorina family and extensively restored, earning landmark designation in 2012.

The American Book Company building (frequently referred to as the ABC building) was built in 1912 at 320 E. 22nd Street (now Cermak Road), and was designated a Chicago landmark in 2008.  

Architect N. Max Dunning designed an elegant but functional building of five stories with classical terra cotta and stone trim, and an imposing tower directly over the main entrance.  The building was acquired by R. R. Donnelley and Sons in 1938, which desperately needed to expand their operations to accommodate the printing of Time and Life magazines, along with catalogs for Sears and Montgomery Ward.  A new 1,200 room Marriott Marquis is planned for the site to the west of the ABC building, and the ABC will be converted into hotel ballrooms, meeting spaces, and offices, with the first floor housing retail establishments.  

DePaul Arena, Pelli Clarke Pelli, architects

The Potter Palmers and their famous castle

The Potter Palmer “castle” which stood at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive for more than half a century remains one of the most legendary houses ever built in Chicago, despite the fact it was razed in 1950.  Likewise, the builders, Potter and Bertha Honoré Palmer, are names that remain well-known to anyone with even a passing interest in Chicago history.  This Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 5:30pm, WTTW Channel 11 presents a 30-minute documentary entitled Love Under Fire: The Story of Bertha and Potter Palmer. 

The Palmers, in completing their mansion on Lake Shore Drive in 1884, established the North Side Gold Coast which eventually drew many of the families away from Prairie Avenue and the South Side.    Their decision to build where they did was bold – when Potter Palmer purchased a half mile of undeveloped lakefront property north of downtown, many considered it of little value and not worthy of development.  But Palmer saw the potential and soon acquired additional property, eventually amassing an impressive portfolio of real estate upon which he built dozens of homes that he resold to members of Chicago’s social elite, establishing the character of the neighborhood. 

The Palmers’ own house, the largest ever built in Chicago, was designed by Cobb & Frost, and although originally budgeted at “just” $90,000, cost more than a million dollars by the time it was finished three years after construction began.  The opulent interiors were designed by Herter & Company of New York in a variety of styles from Renaissance to Gothic and Moorish to Eastlake, and served as a showcase for the Palmer’s collection of paintings and other art objects.  In preparation for the 1893 World’s Fair, the Palmers hired Henry Hardenberg (architect of New York’s Plaza Hotel) to build a huge art gallery addition to the house.  Famously, the house had no exterior doorknobs or locks, so that entry was possible only when admitted by a servant.

The Glessners, although preferring a far less ostentatious way of living, were guests at the Palmer mansion on a number of occasions and Frances Glessner and Bertha Palmer collaborated on various projects, and were members of various clubs together including the Fortnightly.  The letter below, sent to Frances Glessner in May 1888, is typical of the letters from Bertha Palmer now preserved in the Glessner House Museum archives:

100 Lake Shore Drive

My dear Mrs. Glessner:

I regret very much that I was not at home to accept your kind invitation to meet Mrs. Ashton Dilke.  I am sure it was a charming occasion and that I missed a great treat.

May I ask if you would like to make one of five ladies to open your house for readings by Mrs. Sherwood of New York?  She would be here the latter part of May I think, that has not been definitely determined.

You of course know of the great success she has had in New York, especially this season.  She wishes to have at least one hundred ladies at ten dollars each for the five readings and I think your rooms open so charmingly that they could be accommodated.  Please do not think of saying “Yes” if you are tired out with all you have been doing to give pleasure to your friends.  I would understand fully that there is a limit to human endurance and that you have possibly reached it.

Thanking you again for your kind invitation and begging an early reply to my importunate request – by telephone if possible –

I remain

As always

Your sincere friend

Bertha M. H. Palmer

(Notes:  The letter bears the original address of the Palmer house, 100 Lake Shore Drive.  Mrs. Glessner did consent to host one of Mrs. Sherwood’s readings at her home, which took place on May 22, 1888 with 150 ladies present).

Potter Palmer died in 1902 and Bertha Palmer in 1918.  The castle remained vacant until 1921 when Potter Palmer Jr. moved in, hiring architect David Adler to make significant alterations.  It was sold to Vincent Bendix in 1928 but reacquired by Palmer Jr. in 1933, standing largely unused, and finally succumbing to the wrecking ball in 1950.

Note regarding photographs:  The photo of the castle shown at the top of the article was taken about 1888 by the Glessners’ son George, a talented amateur photograph.  The portrait of Bertha Palmer is a cabinet card given by her to Frances Glessner.  It was taken at M. J. Steffens Atelier, located at the time at the southeast corner of Prairie Avenue and 22^nd Street (now Cermak Road).

Prairie Avenue mansion designated landmark

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.