Richard Nickel and Glessner House

Nickel captured his reflection in this image of a second floor bathroom mirror

April 13, 2022, marks the 50^th anniversary of the tragic death of Richard Nickel in the partially demolished Chicago Stock Exchange building at 30 North LaSalle Street, where he was attempting to salvage ornament from the Adler & Sullivan masterpiece. Nickel’s impact on the emerging preservation movement in Chicago was enormous, including his efforts to save Glessner House in the 1960s. A talented photographer, he documented the work of Louis Sullivan and other architects, his outstanding photographs serving as an irreplaceable record of Chicago’s architectural heritage that was disappearing at an alarming rate during 1950s and 1960s urban renewal.

This article will focus on Nickel’s close connection with Glessner House from the time it was threatened with demolition in 1965 until his death in 1972. Selected photographs of the house, from a rich archive of images by Nickel documenting the earliest years of the preservation and restoration of the house, are scattered throughout the article. We will conclude with a look at Nickel’s death, and the tribute service held in the courtyard of Glessner House two months after his passing.

Wheeler house (1812), Keith house (1808), and Glessner house (1800 S. Prairie Avenue), 1967

EARLY YEARS

Nickel was born in Chicago on May 31, 1928, to first-generation Polish Americans. After serving in the U.S. Army, 11^th Airborne Division, during its occupation of Japan following World War II, he returned to Chicago to study photography at the Institute of Design, which soon became part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He was recalled to the Army at the start of the Korean War, serving an additional year before resuming his studies at the Institute.

It was during this time that he enrolled in an architectural history course taught by the eminent landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, who instilled in him an abiding interest in architecture. Nickel began photographing the buildings of Louis Sullivan as part of a school project assigned by photographer Aaron Siskind, and it turned into an obsession.

Quickly discovering that many of the buildings were threatened by demolition, Nickel devoted himself to photographing and documenting them. He received his bachelor’s degree from I.I.T. in 1954 and, three years later, his Master of Science in photography with his thesis topic being “A Photographic Documentation of the Architecture of Adler & Sullivan.”

West roof and hayloft dormer

In 1960, Nickel learned that one of Adler & Sullivan’s most important buildings was to be razed – the Schiller Theater Building (later the Garrick) at 64 W. Randolph Street. He joined the picket line in front of the building alongside architects Wilbert Hasbrouck, John Vinci, and Ben Weese, and Alderman Leon Despres, an early champion of preservation and landmarking in Chicago. When it became clear that the building could not be saved, Nickel engaged Vinci and David Norris to assist him with a massive effort to salvage ornament, literally rescuing the plaster and terra cotta fragments as the building was being demolished around them.

GLESSNER HOUSE

The bonds formed during that effort proved valuable a few years later, when the Glessner house was put up for sale in early 1965. This time, the undertaking proved successful, and a resolution creating the Chicago School of Architecture Foundation was signed on April 16, 1966, by Nickel and 18 others. He was appointed a trustee and a member of the executive committee. By December, the new organization had acquired Glessner house for $35,000.

Glessner house for sale

Nickel co-curated the Foundation’s first exhibition, “The Chicago School of Architecture,” which opened in the fall of 1967 at the Chicago Public Library (now the Cultural Center). The next year, he curated the exhibit “The What and Why of Louis Sullivan’s Architecture,” held at Glessner House. In 1970, Nickel co-curated another exhibition at the Chicago Public Library – a photographic exhibit of great Chicago School buildings.

Throughout this period, Nickel used his skills as a photographer to create a valuable record of the Glessner house and Foundation happenings, starting with the condition of the building at the time of its acquisition and continuing through early restoration projects. He also photographed an original copy of John J. Glessner’s 1923 “The Story of a House,” which he then reproduced for the Foundation. (An updated version, incorporating many of Nickel’s copied photographs, remains for sale in the store).

Coach house

In late 1967, Nickel advocated for the recognition of Beatrice Spachner and her heroic efforts in leading the restoration of Adler & Sullivan’s magnificent Auditorium Theater, led by architect Harry Weese, another Glessner house founder. The Foundation sponsored a reception for Spachner, following the reopening of the theater in October, and presented her with a suitable award.

Nickel, along with Jim Schultz and Charles Simmons, came to the house every week to supervise the cleanup effort. A dumpster was placed in the blacktopped courtyard, and equipment left behind by the printing foundation was hauled out until the dumpster was filled, at which point it was removed and another set in its place. The process of emptying the house of objects and equipment unrelated to its original residential use took almost two years to complete.

Sign removal, December 1966

The Foundation was interested in collecting fragments of significant Chicago School buildings, and Nickel shared pieces from the salvage operations he had undertaken for more than a decade. He also helped coordinate the donation of items from existing Sullivan buildings including elevator grills from the Stock Exchange building removed during modernization, and iron balusters from the Carson Pirie Scott store. (A few terra cotta and cast iron fragments, from Sullivan’s Rosenfeld building (demolished 1958), and the Martin Barbe house (demolished 1963), remain at Glessner House, and are on permanent display in the Visitors Center).

STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING AND DEATH

In 1970, Nickel learned that another of Adler & Sullivan’s most important buildings – the Chicago Stock Exchange – was threatened with demolition. Although he had grown weary of these battles, he couldn’t remove himself from the issue, and actively campaigned for the building’s survival in what became a major preservation fight in Chicago. The effort led to the formation of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (now Landmarks Illinois), originally headquartered at Glessner House.

Granite arch over female servants' entrance

By October 1971, scaffolding started going up around the building and Nickel found himself immersed in the salvage effort, this time led by architect John Vinci. The work included the complete removal of the original trading room at the behest of the Art Institute, which planned to restore and reconstruct it. That work concluded on January 31, 1972, but Nickel kept going back to the building to photograph the demolition and to remove additional ornament.

In early March, Nickel became engaged to Carol Sutter, with a promise that the Stock Exchange would be the last building for which he would undertake a salvage operation. On Thursday, April 13, he headed to the building to meet up with Tim Samuelson, who was to assist him in removing a piece of the building. Samuelson showed up but couldn’t locate Nickel. He alerted John Vinci and others, and they searched the building with flashlights until midnight. When they found a huge new hole in the middle of the trading room floor, they feared the worst.

Balusters, main staircase

Nickel’s parents reported him missing on Saturday, the same day Nickel’s car was found several blocks away, and a hard hat, tools, and a rope of his were found at the demolition site by Vinci. Police dogs found his briefcase that Monday. The search for his body was called off on Tuesday, and demolition work was allowed to resume. It was not until Tuesday, May 9, almost four weeks after he had disappeared, that his body was found by a Three Oaks Wrecking Co. worker; it took two hours to retrieve the body from the rubble.

On May 12, a funeral mass was held at Mary Seat of Wisdom Roman Catholic Church in Park Ridge, and he was laid to rest in Graceland Cemetery in a plot not far from that of Louis Sullivan. John Vinci and his architectural partner Lawrence Kenny designed the headstone.

On the first day of summer, Wednesday, June 21, 1972, at 8:00pm, “A Tribute to Richard Nickel” was held in the courtyard of Glessner House, attended by nearly 200 people. Speakers included Frederick Sommer, a former teacher of photography at the Institute of Design and a long-time friend of Nickel, and mentor Alfred Caldwell, by this time a professor of architecture at UCLA. Easley Blackwood, composer and Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, was introduced by John Vinci and performed one of Nickel’s favorite Beethoven sonatas, on a piano brought into the courtyard for the occasion. Nickel greatly admired Blackwood, although they had never met. Architect Ben Weese, a co-founder of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Glessner House with Nickel, served as master of ceremonies.

A favorite quote of Nickel's from the Tribute program

The Richard Nickel Committee was formed to preserve Nickel’s photographic archive, it now resides at the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archive at the Art Institute of Chicago. Nickel’s dream to produce the definitive book on the architecture of Louis Sullivan and Adler & Sullivan was realized in 2010 with the publication of The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan.

Glessner House will host “A Tribute to Richard Nickel” on June 21, 2022 – the 50^th anniversary of the original event. Look for details on the website in early May.

Female servants' entrance

Preservation Month Part I - The Dining Room

Dining room, 2010 (Photo by James Caulfield)

During Preservation Month 2020, we will explore four rooms within Glessner House, examining the history of the spaces, their reuse after the Glessner occupancy ended in 1936, and most importantly, an overview of the restoration work undertaken to return them to their original appearance. The focus will be on the architecture and decoration of the rooms, with less emphasis on the furnishings and decorative arts.

Dining room, circa 1888 (Photo by George Glessner)

We begin with the dining room, the largest room in the house, and one of the very first to be restored. The room measures 18 by 29 feet, encompassing nearly 500 square feet of space, with an eleven-foot ceiling. Richardson’s original plan for the house called for a much taller room extending into the second story. When the ceiling height was lowered, presumably so the Glessners could have a more intimate environment for entertaining, a conservatory was created out of the space above.

Three boxed beams form the primary structure of the ceiling, these hollow beams each containing a rolled iron I-beam. Rows of smaller solid wood beams divide the ceiling into 36 sections. Each of these plaster sections was covered with gold leaf, a detail the Glessners saw in Richardson’s office. With no central chandelier planned for the room, the gold helped to reflect the light from the five wall sconces on to the dining table.

Fireplace, 1936 (Photo by Kaufmann & Fabry)

The north wall of the room is centered by a large wood-burning fireplace, set between fluted pilasters, and covered by stunning 16^th-century Iznik tiles acquired from the interior designer Lockwood de Forest. There is no distinct mantel or mantel shelf, the fireplace is simply surrounded by the large panels of quarter-sawn red oak that cover all the walls of the room up to the height of the plate rail. The frieze above the plate rail was filled with a gilt and painted Japanese leather paper.

Wall sconce, 1948 (Photo by Robert Florian)

Five five-arm wall sconces illuminated the space. Originally gas, they were converted to electricity in 1892, at which time the glass shades were added. The next year, the Glessners’ good friend, Isaac Scott, proposed removing the sconces and installing a series of hanging pendant lights around the perimeter of the room. The unrealized plan also called for replacing the Japanese leather frieze with elaborately carved wood panels.

Isaac Scott's unrealized lighting plan, 1893

Architect Charles Coolidge designed most of the furniture in the room, all of which was made by A. H. Davenport & Co. The table, which measured six feet in diameter, could be extended to seat eighteen people; the five-windowed bay at the south end of the room added sufficient length to the room to accommodate the table when fully extended.

Dining room, 1923 (Photo by Kaufmann & Fabry)

The dining room table, eighteen chairs, and elaborately carved sideboard were left in the room when the house was donated to the Armour Institute on March 31, 1938. The Institute was anxious to remove the house from the tax rolls, as the property taxes at that point were nearly $1,000 per year. The day the deed was filed for record, Prof. Joseph B. Finnegan, director of the department of fire protection at the Institute, was sent to the house along with several students so that photos could be taken showing that the house was being used for educational purposes.

Armour "class," March 31, 1938 (Photo by Foto-Ad Studio)

In reality, classes were never held in the dining room or anywhere else in the house. In May 1938, the Human Engineering Laboratory, a division of the Armour Research Foundation, opened in the house to conduct vocational testing. In 1945, the Lithographic Technical Foundation took over occupancy, making necessary renovations to accommodate its use as research laboratories. Changes to the dining room included the addition of fluorescent lighting fixtures, laying down a linoleum floor, painting over the gold leaf ceiling, and removing the Japanese leather to create a gallery space for showcasing printed materials.

Lithographic Technical Foundation laboratory in dining room, 1946

(Photo by Hedrich Blessing)

By 1965, the Lithographic Technical Foundation had moved to Pittsburgh, and the house was put up for sale. The original dining room table, fourteen of the eighteen chairs, and the sideboard, were sold off at this time; their present whereabouts are unknown. Among those involved in saving the house was Richard Nickel, who documented the condition of the interior, including two views showing the dining room (shown below), and the equipment left behind. During early meetings of the Chicago School of Architecture Foundation, which was formed in 1966 to purchase the house, the equipment and furniture were broken up and burned in the fireplaces, as the central heating system in the building no longer functioned.

Dining room looking southwest, 1965 (Photo by Richard Nickel)

Dining room looking east, 1965 (Photo by Richard Nickel)

Several architecture and preservation organizations moved their offices into the house, and for a time, the dining room was occupied by the Midwest office of the Historic American Building Survey (HABS). By 1969, however, the dining room and parlor were converted into galleries for a regular series of exhibitions, curated by Robert Peters, a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

McCormick Place exhibition in the dining room bay, 1971

Among the exhibitions held in the rooms was “McCormick Place on the Lake: Innovations in Architecture” which opened on January 12, 1971, just nine days after McCormick Place itself opened. In March 1973, “The Arts & Crafts Movement in Chicago” exhibition premiered, to coincide with a similar exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Arts & Crafts exhibition, 1973

The focus of activity up to this point had been on a successful reuse of the house, rather than restoration of its interiors. The exhibition program was so popular that plans were drawn up for tearing down the west wall of the dining room and combining it with the kitchen and pantries to create a much larger space. Lack of funds, Peters departure and a scaling back of exhibitions, plus the return of original furnishings by Glessner descendants, shifted the focus toward the restoration of selected rooms.

Doorway leading into the butler's pantry, with a grill from the

Chicago Stock Exchange installed for the 1973 Arts & Crafts exhibition.

The first aspect of the dining room to be restored was the swinging door leading into the butler’s pantry. The Lithographic Technical Foundation had removed the door, cut it down, and reused it in a new entrance cut through the wall from the cold closet to the coach house stairwell. In 1973, John Thorpe, an early docent, made the discovery. Master carpenter John Valenta restored the door, including rebuilding the right-hand stile, and reinstalled it in its original location.

The next year, architect John Vinci designed the reproduction wall sconces, the originals having been stolen in the 1960s when the house stood vacant. They were made by New Metal Crafts. 

That same year, research revealed that the frieze had been covered with Japanese leather, long since removed. Through a fortunate chain of events, original unused rolls of Japanese leather were located in the attic of Chateau-sur-Mer, a “cottage” in Newport, Rhode Island. The material was purchased and installed in the dining room, no small task as it had been tightly rolled for nearly a century, requiring steaming and meticulous care to successfully flatten it for installation.

Fireplace, 2018 (Photo by John Rouse)

A major restoration project involved the recreation of the Iznik fireplace tiles, which Frances Glessner Lee had removed in April 1938 for use in her cottage in New Hampshire, just after donating the house to the Armour Institute.  Utilizing two original tiles which had been returned by Lee’s children, Leonard Currie, head of the Art and Architecture Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago, volunteered to obtain new tiles. He engaged the services of a student, Paula Garrett Ellis, who hand painted the twenty-eight reproductions. In 1977, Currie installed the reproductions and the two original tiles on the fireplace.

Dining room, 1977 (Photo by Steve Grubman)

In the early 1980s, the twelve-light double casement windows, which had been installed about 1945 on the inside of the bay windows, were removed, and reproductions of the red velvet drapes installed. The red color was documented in the inventory of the house taken after John Glessner died in 1936. Additionally, his granddaughter Martha Lee Batchelder, confirmed the color and even accompanied the curator to the Merchandise Mart, where she pointed out fabrics that were similar to those she recalled being used in various rooms in the house.

Silver closet prior to restoration

The butler’s silver closet was fully restored in 2013. The project involved refinishing the wood, repainting the walls in the historic color, and adding LED lighting and a glass enclosure to showcase and protect the Glessners’ large collection of silver. A highlight of the display is six pieces of silver handcrafted by Frances Glessner.

Restored silver closet

In 2015, Glessner House was presented with a wonderful opportunity to recreate the gold leaf ceiling. (An earlier attempt had been made in 1989, when aluminum leaf was installed, over which a gold-pigmented varnish was applied.) The Society of Gilders was planning to hold its annual conference in Chicago in June 2015 and was looking for the opportunity to donate the services of its members to a non-profit. The ceiling project was a perfect fit, as it could be completed during the period members would be in the city. The gold leaf, enough to cover 240 square feet of plaster ceiling, was funded by a generous gift from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Over five days, a crew of 8-10 gilders from several countries completed the project.

Gold leaf installation, 2015

Today, the fully restored dining room presents an accurate window into the past, allowing visitors to experience the space, during tours and selected dining events, as it was envisioned for use by the Glessner family and their guests more than a century ago. To take a virtual tour of the room, click here.

Dining room, 2010 (Photo by James Caulfield)