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 16th-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)
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