Christmas Dinner at the Glessner house - 1895

Glessner House Museum is once again decked out for the Christmas holidays.  Among the rooms to be interpreted in a special way at this time of year is the dining room, where visitors can learn about the elaborate Christmas feast of 1895.  The table, sideboard, and side table are set with some of the offerings of this eight course meal, which was served at 7:00pm on Christmas night to the Glessner family and five guests.  The dining room table is set with pieces from four different china services used by the family, and the silver flatware, a wedding gift to Frances Glessner and Blewett Lee in 1898, is identical to the flatware used by the Glessners.

Special Christmas Candlelight Tours of both the Clarke and Glessner house museums focusing on Christmas traditions will be offered the weekend of December 8^th and 9^th, with tours at 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30pm each evening.   For more information, click here.  Pre-paid reservations are required and may be made by calling 312-326-1480.

In her journal, Frances Glessner records the following information about Christmas Day 1895:

“Wednesday morning we had our Christmas pie – exchanging small gifts – and having a very merry time together.  The Ream girls were over after breakfast.  John gave me money – George gave me a stylographic pen – Frances a silver tape needle – John a silver tape needle – Mr. and Mrs. Moore a book. 

“Miss Allport, Miss Cooley, Mrs. Herrick, Mr. Armour, Mrs. Moore sent me flowers.

“In the evening, Mr. Hendricks, Mr. Badger, Mr. Marsick came to dinner (joining the four Glessners and Mr. and Mrs. Moore, who had been staying at the house since Tuesday).  Prof. Hendrickson of the University at Madison was here most of the day.  He is a very attractive man.  He lost his wife in the spring – and is coming next year to be in the Latin Department in our University (the University of Chicago).  Mr. Marsick heard Frances play and said her teacher was not a good one – he advised her to change.  He seemed to enjoy his dinner extremely – praised every thing.  The salad he pronounced a poem – superb.  He sang and played for us.  He told Frances about Saint-Saens animal symphony and sang The Swan.  He asked if he might come back and bring his violins to show Frances.  Mr. Badger, Mr. and Mrs. Moore staid over night.”

Frances Glessner recorded the menu in her dinner book.  The meal consisted of eight courses as follows:

1^st course – oysters on the half shell, brown bread, and butter

2^nd course – clear soup, sherry

3^rd course – mold of fish, potatoes, cucumbers, champagne, and cider

4^th course – chicken timbale (a custard like dish of cheese and chicken baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold)

5^th course – turkey, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, celery, jelly, cranberries, and pickles

6^th course – salad

7^th course – plum pudding and mince pie

8^th course – fruits, nuts, raisins, figs, cake and coffee

Of particular interest is one of the guests at the Christmas dinner, Martin Pierre Marsick.  The Glessners first met Marsick on Sunday December 21, when their friend Miss Millar telephoned to know if she might bring Mr. Marsick up to call.  The Glessners immediately said yes.  At that initial meeting, Frances Glessner wrote that “Mr. Marsick was extremely pleasant, played and sang, and talked.”

Martin Pierre Marsick (1847-1924) was a Belgian violin player, composer, and teacher.  His violin, made by Antonio Stradivari in 1705, has since become known as the Ex Marsick Stradivarius.  (It was later used by violinist David Oistrakh in the 1960s and 1970s). 

Marsick graduated with a gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liège in 1865.  In 1871, he joined the newly established Société Nationale de Musique in Paris and founded a string quartet.  He concertized extensively throughout Europe and the United States and played with Joseph Joachim.  By the time of his visit to the Glessner house, he had been appointed a professor at the Paris Conservatory. 

The Life of Clara Schumann

On Sunday November 18, 2012 at 4:30pm, Glessner House Museum will host a performance of Virtuoso: The Life of Clara Schumann in the recently restored parlor of the museum.  Schumann was regarded as one of the greatest concert pianists of the 19^th century, and a champion of the work of her husband Robert Schumann, and their lifelong friend Johannes Brahms.  This performance of Virtuoso is adapted and performed by Betsey Means of WomanLore with a musical performance on the Glessners’ 1887 Steinway piano by Karen Berk Barak.  Prepaid reservations are required as seating is strictly limited, for tickets call 312.326.1480.

Clara Josephine Wieck was born in Leipzig on September 13, 1819 to Friedrich Wieck, a well-respected music teacher, and Marianne (Tromlitz) Wieck, a famous singer in Leipzig.  Her parents divorced when she was four years old and Clara remained with her father who trained her extensively, with the belief that she would become a child prodigy.  She began performing at an early age and in 1830, at the age of eleven, went on a concert tour of several European cities including Paris.  She impressed the leading musicians of the day including Niccolo Paganini, Franz Liszt, Frederic Chopin, and many others.  After several months of concertizing in Vienna in 1837 and 1838, she was named a Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso, the highest honor awarded to a musician in Austria.  She was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, making that the standard for concertizing. 

In 1840 she married the composer Robert Schumann, whom she had first met at the age of eight.  Schumann had lived in the Wieck household while taking lessons from her father.  Their marriage was one of the great love stories of all time and she devoted herself to her husband and eight children, largely abandoning concertizing, although she continued to compose.  Robert Schumann had severe mental difficulties and following a suicide attempt in 1854, was committed to an asylum where he died in 1856. 

After his death, Clara Schumann moved to Berlin where she performed extensively, taught, and edited her late husband’s music and writings.  In 1878 she was appointed a teacher of piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, a post she held until 1892.  She made a total of 38 concert tours outside of Germany, last performing in 1891 at the age of 72.  She died on May 20, 1896 in Frankfurt following a stroke and was interred beside her husband at the Old Cemetery in Bonn. 

Music of Robert Schumann owned by Frances Glessner, now in the collection of Glessner House Museum.

100 Years Ago, George Glessner Elected to the New Hampshire State Legislature

Excerpt from The Littleton Courier

November 7, 1912

BETHLEHEM GOES DEMOCRATIC

John G. M. Glessner Gets Unanimous Vote for Representative

The Democrats made a clean sweep in Bethlehem, a normally Republican town.  The Bull Moose vote was not large, but the defection from the Republicans was sufficient to destroy their supremacy.  The voters evidently started at the top to vote Democratic and got the habit so strong that they continued on down through the ticket. 

A feature of the Bethlehem election that should not be overlooked was the unanimous election of John G. M. Glessner, who, though a Republican, had no Democratic opponent.  Mr. Glessner has done a great deal for Bethlehem and will continue to do so in the legislature.

Bethlehem knows how to recognize and reward her benefactors.  In the election of John G. M. Glessner by a unanimous vote they did the handsome and the proper thing by one who has already done the handsome thing for Bethlehem. 

John G. M. Glessner (known as George by his family) began his term in the New Hampshire state legislature on January 1, 1913.  He was reelected for three additional terms in 1915, 1925, and 1927.  During his time in the legislature he served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Revision of Statutes Committee.  He also held the position of Secretary of the Board of State Institutions. 

George Glessner died on January 10, 1929 in Concord, New Hampshire at the age of 57, less than two weeks after completing his fourth term in the legislature. 

Glessner House Museum Symposium November 10

On Saturday November 10, 2012 Glessner House Museum, in partnership with the Victorian Society in America, will hold a one-day symposium entitled “Glessner House at 125: Richardson’s Urban Residential Masterpiece Reconsidered.”  The event brings together seven scholars who will explore the architect H. H. Richardson, the interior decoration of the home, and its preservation in the mid-1960s.   The symposium will be preceded by an opening reception on Friday November 9 at which Richardson scholar Ken Breisch will present a lecture entitled “Situating the Glessner House: Late Richardson and the Romanesque Revival in the American West.”  An optional walking tour of the Prairie Avenue Historic District will be given by Executive Director Bill Tyre on Sunday November 11.  The symposium brochure and registration form may be downloaded at http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Events.htm.

For further information and to make reservations, call 312.326.1480.

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE:

9:30am - Welcome

WILLIAM TYRE

Executive Director and Curator, Glessner House Museum

9:45am - Keynote Speaker

JAMES F. O’GORMAN

Professor Emeritus, Wellesley College

“Herkomer’s Portrait of Richardson in Iconographical Context”

A look at the place of the likeness in the history of portraying nineteenth-century American architects.  A large heliotype copy of the Herkomer portrait displayed in the main hall is one of the few items to remain in the Glessner House continuously since the late 1880s.

10:30am

MARY ALICE MOLLOY

Architectural Historian

“Richardson’s Web: A Client’s Assessment of the Architect’s Home and Studio”

An analysis of how Richardson used his home and office to encourage his clients to accept his ideas for their projects, based on a first hand account of John and Frances Glessners’ visits with the architect during the planning phase for their home on Prairie Avenue.

11:15am

KEVIN HARRINGTON

Professor Emeritus of Architectural History, Illinois Institute of Technology

“Mies Visits Glessner House: What Was He Thinking?”

When Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, an influential architect, first arrived in American in 1938, he considered conducting his new architecture curriculum in Chicago at the influential Glessner House.  This examination provides valuable insight into the relationship between two seemingly different architects.

12:00pm - Lunch

12:45pm

ELAINE HARRINGTON

Former Curator, Glessner House Museum

“Colors, Patterns, and Seasons in the Glessner House”

The Glessners and Richardson used many themes in this significant work of architecture and decorative art, blending them into a cohesive fabric responding to the life within.  The colors and patterns of design and life that resulted from the weaving together of these themes created this outstanding seasonal urban home.

1:30pm

ROLF ACHILLES

Curator, Smith Museum of Stained Glass and Adjunct Professor, School of the Art Institute

“Neugotik (New Gothic): A Springboard to Modern in American Furniture and Interior Design”

An examination of the Glessners’ evolving tastes during the 1870s and 1880s, from the new Gothic masterpieces designed for them by Isaac Scott, to later furniture by Charles Coolidge and Francis Bacon specifically commissioned for their new home on Prairie Avenue.

2:15pm

MONICA OBNISKI

Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts, Art Institute of Chicago

“The Impact of William Morris on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Chicago”

This talk will locate several examples of William Morris’s influence - through his ideals and his designs - in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, including Glessner House, one of the earliest.

3:00pm

TED HILD

Illinois State Historic Preservation Official, 1972-2007

“Historic Preservation in Chicago at Mid-Century”

A description of the principles and practices of historic preservation in Chicago in the mid-20th century and an overview of early preservation battles, in order to place the preservation of the Glessner House in the context of the 1960s.

3:45pm

Concluding Remarks

4:00pm

Optional tours of Glessner House Museum

Shadows on the Street: Haunted Tours of Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue

Over the weekend of October 27 and 28, 2012, Glessner House Museum will offer one of its most popular annual events – Shadows on the Street – haunted tours of Chicago’s historic Prairie Avenue.  This tour explores the street known in the late 19^th century as “Millionaire’s Row” or more popularly “the sunny street that held the sifted few.”  Prairie Avenue, between 16^th and 22^nd streets, was the most exclusive residential street in Chicago, if not the country, during the last decades of the 1800s.  Chicago’s wealthiest citizens, including Marshall Field, meatpacker Philip Armour, and the “palace car prince” George Pullman lived there, along with more than 70 other millionaires – the business and social leaders of the city.

In spite of the wealth and prosperity of the street, the neighborhood fell into serious decline in the first decades of the 20^th century.  Industry encroached on the west, increased train traffic on the Illinois Central tracks created a nuisance on the east, a growing African-American community developed to the south, and then there was the Levee, or Red Light, district which formed around Dearborn and 22^nd Street.  Families moved to other parts of the city, and their elegant homes were either torn down or converted into offices or boarding houses.  Eventually all but seven of the 90 mansions that lined the street were razed.

There are numerous stories of untimely endings, and even today, stories of unexplained sightings and sounds lead many to believe that the spirits of some of the residents of the street still remain.  Herewith are a couple of the stories which participants in the Shadows tour will hear this coming weekend.

The William W. Kimball House

This house, located at 1801 S. Prairie Avenue, is an elegant Chateauesque style home, designed by Solon S. Beman and built for the piano and organ manufacturer between 1890 and 1892.  It was one of the most beautiful houses ever built in Chicago, and even today, is noted for its beautiful carved stonework and stately turrets and dormers.  But ever since 1921, when the widowed Evaline Kimball passed away, there have been persistent rumors that the large windows on the north side of the house shake and rattle violently, even when there is no storm or other disturbance outside.  No satisfactory cause has ever been found to explain the odd occurrence, but some have suggested that it may be the ghost of Mrs. Kimball.  She was known for her extraordinary collection of Old Master paintings that lined the walls of the impressive two-storey entry hall.   The paintings are now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.  In her last years, Mrs. Kimball was known to suffer from dementia, and could be seen standing in her hall, elegantly dressed and welcoming her guests.  But there was no one around her.  Could it be that the spirit of Evaline Kimball has returned to the house looking for her Old Master paintings and is upset that they are no where to be found?  (The house also served as the setting for the 1996 film Primal Fear starring Richard Gere, Edward Norton, and Laura Linney).

The Marshall Field Jr. House

Perhaps no house on the street has attracted more attention than this home, which stands at 1919 S. Prairie Avenue.  Now comfortably renovated into six luxury condominium units, this house endured decades of use as a hospital and nursing home, and more than a quarter of a century of sitting largely empty and deteriorating.  But the story of the untimely death of Marshall Field Jr. in 1905 is what has kept the house in the public eye.  The official story is that Field was in the library of the house cleaning a rifle for a hunting trip when he accidentally shot himself.  He was rushed to Mercy Hospital where he died five days later, just 38 years old, leaving a widow and three young children.  The family never lived in the house again.  However, stories have persisted to this day that the story of Field’s last days was not so simple.  The most popular story is that he was in fact shot at the Everleigh Club, the most exclusive brothel in the city (conveniently located just a few blocks to the west on Dearborn Street).  After being shot, he was brought back to the house and then taken to the hospital to make it appear the shooting had taken place at home.  Ironically, the Everleigh sisters who operated the Club said the story was circulated by their competitors to discredit THEM and get them shut down by the city.  There were also stories that Field was despondent and attempted suicide.  Regardless, Field’s father, owner of the famous department store, was the wealthiest man in town, and the largest advertiser, so all the newspapers printed the “official” story.  The real story may never be known, and the rumors persist more than a century after Field died. 

Shadows on the Street tours will be offered on Saturday October 27 and Sunday October 28 at 7:00pm and 8:00pm each evening.  Tours are $10 per person and reservations may be made by calling 312.326.1480. 

The Glessners and their servants

Over the weekend of October 13-14, 2012, Glessner House Museum participated in Open House Chicago, a city-wide event sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation during which more than 150 sites around Chicago opened their doors for free to visitors.  The museum had nearly 1,700 visitors who were treated to a special behind-the-scenes tour of the servants’ wing of the house. 

When H. H. Richardson designed the house in 1885-1886, he was designing for a family of four and a live-in staff of eight.  He carefully segregated the servants’ areas and those used by the family and their guests.  Rooms for male servants were placed above the coach house; those for female servants were located above the kitchen wing.  The butler’s apartment was separated from the rest and was located at the northeast corner of the third floor.  The male and female servants had separate entrances facing 18^th Street and there was no connection whatsoever between the male and female servants’ wings inside the house.  The servants had a separate address from the family which was 35 Eighteenth Street. 

Long corridors along the north side of the house provided passages for the servants so they could travel through much of the house without disrupting the family.  The small windows along the 18^th Street side of the house illuminate these hallways, a most unusual but effective floor plan for the time.

The Open House Chicago tour included the following stops within the house:

-COACH HOUSE

The coach house originally consisted of two rooms – the stable and the carriage house.  The stable had six stalls for horses, and the carriage house could accommodate an equal number of carriages, used by both family and guests.  Both sections of the coach house had built in systems allowing for the efficient washing of horses and carriages.  The spaces were quite modern, with poured concrete floors and glazed brick on the walls.  In 1906, the Glessners converted to automobiles and the wall between the stables and carriage house was removed, providing the configuration found today.  The room is now used for programs and events and as a rental venue.

-MALE SERVANTS’ STAIRCASE

This staircase features a door facing 18^th Street with six distinctive panes of blown glass that retain the stub that forms when the glass is made.  At the first floor landing, a modern door marks the location of the original half-door through which the iceman could place blocks of ice into the cold closet, a.k.a. the icebox.

-HAYLOFT

The hayloft is accessed from the male servants’ stairway and has two second-storey hayloft doors facing 18^th Street and the alley through which hay and feed could be brought into the space.  Large bins (no longer extant) held feed, and two doors in the floor could be opened to drop feed and hay down to the horses below.  These doors are still visible in the ceiling of the coach house. 

-DOVECOTES

Two dovecotes located at the north end of the hayloft could accommodate nearly 60 doves, and the eggs would be harvested and used by the family.  The smaller dovecote, built into the gable facing 18^th Street, has a staircase for access and individual sliding doors for each nesting niche.

-MALE SERVANTS’ ROOMS

There are three male servant rooms and a shared bathroom to the east of the hayloft, originally separated by a long hallway.  Each room had a window facing east into the courtyard for light and fresh air.  An additional room, known as the “living room” was a gathering space for the male staff, and included a large closet where all three male staff would keep their uniforms and other clothes. 

-FEMALE SERVANTS’ ROOMS

Four individual bedrooms for female servants are located along a long hallway running east-west above the kitchen wing.  The female servants shared a bathroom and a small porch facing onto 18^th Street.  Female staff would include the cook, waitress, parlor maid (for cleaning), and the ladies maid (who took care of the clothes of the female members of the family).  Additional staff, such as the laundress and seamstress would come and go on a daily basis and not live on-site.  The easternmost bedroom has been fully restored and contains furniture typical of what would have been found in the rooms.  It is interesting to note that the rooms are trimmed in quarter sawn oak, the same wood used in the formal rooms of the house.

-FEMALE SERVANTS’ STAIRCASES

A staircase leads from the second floor bedrooms to the hallway off of the kitchen.  In that same hallway, a door leads to the outside – this would have been the female servants’ entrance.  It is set within the imposing granite arch on 18^th Street – quite a beautiful entrance for the staff!

-KITCHEN

The kitchen wing consists of five rooms – the main kitchen work area, the butler’s pantry, the servants’ dining room, the dry pantry, and the cold closet (or icebox) referenced earlier.  The kitchen was a modern space in that it featured encaustic tiles floors and glazed brick walls, all easy to keep clean. 

The butler’s pantry was used for the storage of china and crystal and is immediately adjacent to the dining room.  A swinging door separates this pantry from the dining room and would have always been kept closed except when setting the table or cleaning up after a meal.  The butler’s pantry features a copper sink – the soft metal was appropriate in that it helped to prevent breakage or damage to the china and crystal if it was dropped during washing.  The main work area of the kitchen features a sink made of Vermont soapstone, much more durable for the heavy washing that would occur here.  To the right of the sink is a doorway leading to the courtyard, allowing for the delivery of food directly into the kitchen space. 

The servants’ dining room would have contained a large table where the staff would gather for daily meals.  Staff would typically have their dinner around 3:00pm each day, so that all efforts could be focused on the final preparations of the dinner for the family and their guests.  The dry pantry would be used for food storage, including huge quantities of foods grown and preserved at the Glessners’ summer estate The Rocks in New Hampshire.  Frances Glessner’s famous honey would be kept here as well.  The cold closet featured marble shelves, which would retain the cold, and a narrow window which could be opened during the winter to keep foods and ice cold. 

An annunciator in the kitchen allowed for staff to be called from anywhere in the house by family or guests.  When a button in one of the main rooms was pressed, the annunciator box would ring, and an arrow would point to the location where the call came from.  A servant would be dispatched and the box would be reset. 

The operation of such a large household would have been impossible without a large live-in staff.  Interpreting these spaces for visitors provides a greater understanding of the family, the house, and the time period in which they lived.  Fortunately for the museum, Frances Glessner meticulously maintained a journal in which she recorded the name of each servant as they were hired, along with their pay and position, and the reason why they left service or were dismissed.  This is a rare and valuable record of the “forgotten” residents of Prairie Avenue. 

1887: A Year to Remember

On Thursday October 4, 2012, museum director Bill Tyre gave a lecture entitled 1887: A Year to Remember – the year in which the Glessners completed and moved into their new home at 1800 South Prairie Avenue in Chicago.  The illustrated talk was divided into five sections focusing on events in the world, the nation, the city, the neighborhood, and lastly the lives of the Glessner family.  We present a few interesting tidbits uncovered during research for the talk:

Queen Victoria celebrated her Jubilee (50^th anniversary on the throne) during the year.  For those who were especially devoted to their Queen, a special wallpaper was produced featuring a portrait of the Queen surrounded by images of the colonies she controlled around the world (Australia was depicted by a kangaroo).

On September 28, 1887, a horrific flood started on the Yellow River in China which ultimately led to the deaths of 900,000 and 2 million left homeless.  At its peak, the flood covered 50,000 square miles in Henan Province.  It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, however another flood of the Yellow River in 1931 claimed the lives of nearly 4 million people.

Dr. Lezyer Leyvi Zamenhof published his book International Language under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto.  His hopes were that the new language could be used as a tool for promoting world peace.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first Sherlock Holmes mystery - A Study in Scarlet - in Beeton’s Magazine.

Jenny Lind, the great soprano known as the “Swedish nightingale” died at the age of 67.

President Grover Cleveland embarked on a Goodwill Tour during the months of September and October, traveling as far west as Omaha, Nebraska.  Cleveland and his wife traveled in the private railroad car owned by George Pullman, known as the P.P.C. which was lavishly appointed.  Cleveland insisted on paying for the use of the car, to eliminate any appearance of impropriety.

Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopal priest, invented the flexible roll of nitrocellulose film for a roller camera.  The patent was infringed upon by Eastman Kodak, which in 1914 paid a $5 million settlement to Goodwin’s estate.

Eadweard James Muybridge published Animal Locomotion: An Electrophotographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements with over 700 plates in eleven volumes.  This work is widely considered to be the precursor to motion pictures.

Anne Sullivan became the teacher of six-year-old Helen Keller.

The four Haymarket “anarchists” were executed on Friday November 11.  A fifth anarchist had committed suicide the previous day.

The Commercial Club of Chicago purchased 700 acres of lakefront property north of the city and donated it to the Federal government.  The next year, the military began construction of Fort Sheridan on the land.  The fort was closed in 1993.

The Newberry Library was established using a bequest from Walter Loomis Newberry (1804-1868), the present of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, the first railroad built from Chicago.  The first librarian William Frederick Poole, worked with architect Henry Ives Cobb to design the building, which opened in 1893.

The Chicago Kindergarten College was begun by Elizabeth Harrison and Rumah Arvilla Crouse.  It survives today as National-Lewis University.

Sixteen-inch softball was invented in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day at the Farragut Boat Club.

Prominent buildings under construction in Chicago during the year included the Auditorium Building, the Rookery (shown above), the Tacoma Building, and two churches by Burnham and Root – St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church and Lake View Presbyterian Church.