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

Simmerling Gallery Opens

On Monday December 1, 2014, more than 100 people gathered in the coach house of Glessner House Museum to celebrate the opening of the John J. ‘Jack’ Simmerling Gallery of Prairie Avenue History.  Three generations of the Simmerling family were on hand to welcome guests, some of whom came from as far as New York to be present. 

Simmerling family members in the new gallery

The event opened with a festive reception where guests from all facets of Jack’s life gathered to share memories of Jack, on what would have been his 79^th birthday.  Guests travelled from Blue Island where he was born and raised, Beverly/Morgan Park where he lived and owned The Heritage Gallery for more than 50 years, and Ogden Dunes where he maintained a summer resident.  Representatives from the Ridge Historical Society, Beverly Art Center, Smith Village, Smith Senior Living, Historic Pullman Foundation, and the Beverly Art Walk were all on hand, showing the breadth of Jack’s community involvement and the high regard in which he was held by all who knew him.

Bill Tyre, Executive Director and Curator of Glessner House Museum, opened the program, quoting Theodore Roosevelt, who once said “What a man does for himself dies with him.  What he does for his community lives long after he is gone,” noting how the quote could well have been written with Jack in mind.  He recounted how Jack became fascinated with Prairie Avenue when just a young teenager and how he could see beyond the dingy facades of the surviving houses and clearly picture what the street had been in its prime in the late 19^th century.  Bill shared stories of R. W. Eyster, a dear friend and mentor to Jack, and Herma Clark, long time columnist for the Chicago Tribune, both of whom were major influences on Jack in his formative years. 

A very special guest for the evening was Tim Samuelson, Cultural Historian for the City of Chicago.  Jack and Tim shared a close bond, and often said that they were twins separated at birth, given their similar passion for Chicago history and trying to preserve it however they could.  He recounted their many visits together and how they were truly kindred spirits.

After Tim spoke, two of Jack’s daughters, Mary and Meg, shared stories of their introduction to Prairie Avenue, with endless Sunday drives up and down Prairie and Calumet, their father retelling all of his favorite stories about the houses and the residents who had lived there.  They pointed out how the event was not really an opening, but a homecoming, as the treasured pieces of these homes that their father had carefully salvaged were finally back home on Prairie Avenue for all to see, along with his incredible collection of paintings and pen and ink sketches depicting all of his favorite houses.

The current gallery is a temporary space measuring just under 300 feet, and containing highlights from Jack’s vast collection.  The long-term vision of the museum is to convert a 1,250 foot space over the coach house into a much large permanent gallery where the full collection can be put on display.  Architects Krueck + Sexton have drawn up plans for the new gallery, projected to cost $422,000, with another $50,000 needed for artifact and art conservation and the construction of custom display cases and mounts.

Architects renderings of the proposed permanent
gallery, courtesy Krueck + Sexton Architects

The fundraising campaign received a welcome boost with the announcement of the inaugural gift to the new permanent gallery.  Jim Blauw and Krista Grimm, long-time friends of Jack, presented the museum with a check for $5,000 in memory of their dear friend, and to help ensure that his collection and memory would always be preserved at Glessner House Museum.

After the presentation was complete, Simmerling family members and selected guests travelled up to the second floor where Jack’s wife of 55 years, Margie, assisted by her granddaughter Eliza, cut the red ribbon officially opening the gallery.  Guests then spent the remainder of the evening marveling at the collection of objects – from tiles and carved wood mouldings to oil paintings and buildings models created by Jack.  One of the items that received the most attention was a hand painted poster announcing talks of Old Chicago to be given by 16-year-old Jack Simmerling in 1952.

The evening came to a close with attendees sharing more stories of Jack as artist, story teller, historian, and friend.  Although Jack is longer with us, the event showed that many continue to carry Jack in their hearts, and the new gallery at Glessner House Museum will ensure that his irreplaceable contributions in preserving Prairie Avenue will always be available for present and future generations to enjoy.

TOURS

Special one-hour tours of the gallery led by Bill Tyre will be offered at 10:00am on Saturdays December 13, 20, and 27.  Cost is $10 per person, $8 for museum members, with all proceeds going toward the new permanent gallery.  Prepaid reservations are required, call 312-326-1480.  Additional gallery tours will be scheduled on a regular basis beginning in early 2015.

DONATIONS

For those interested in making a gift to the John J. ‘Jack’ Simmerling Gallery of Prairie Avenue History, please click here to download a donation form.  

Wright's Root Exhibit Explores His Formative Years

On Tuesday September 18, 2012 at 5:30pm, Tim Samuelson, Cultural Historian for the City of Chicago, will lead a private tour of his newest exhibit “Wright’s Roots” at Expo 72 as a special fundraiser for Glessner House Museum.  Following his extraordinary exhibit on Louis Sullivan in 2010 at the Chicago Cultural Center, “Wright’s Roots” explores the early and often overlooked period at the start of Wright’s career, much of it spent working for Sullivan, whom he referred to as Lieber Meister. 

Since his death in 1959, the story of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life and career has become legendary – and has sometimes drifted into myth.  Many of today’s perspectives came from Wright’s own accounts of a professional career that spanned three quarters of a century.  His path to becoming a colorful public figure synonymous with modern architecture was filled with many little-known detours and diversions, but all contributed to his lasting fame and reputation. 

Using seldom-seen illustrations (including Wright’s unbuilt design for the Milwaukee Public Library and Museum, 1893, shown at top) and original artifacts to tell the story of his complex personal journey during the often-overlooked early period of his life and career, “Wright’s Roots” explores Wright’s formative years, ending with Wright building his studio in Oak Park.  As Samuelson stated in an interview on WTTW recently, “Wright has become legend – known as someone who pursued purely new, modern architecture.  But in trying to find himself in the late 19^th century, he experimented with different historical styles.  It was both his knowledge of the past and his idealism for modernism that made him the great architect he was.  We tried to juxtapose his early and late buildings.  In telling his own story, Frank Lloyd Wright doesn’t talk about these early experimentations with style.  He claimed he was just trying to get work to feed his family during this period.  But when you look at his work, he had certain consistent habits.  He was truly searching.”

What did Wright know about Glessner house?  Although he doesn’t mention the house specifically in his writings, he no doubt knew the building.  The house was being finished just as Wright arrived in Chicago.  And given Sullivan’s interest in the work of Richardson (the evolution of his design for the Auditorium Building after seeing Richardson’s Wholesale Store for Marshall Field being a prime example), Wright would have been exposed to the house, both in person and through architectural journals of the day.

In his book Three American Architects (The University of Chicago Press, 1991), James F. O’Gorman examines the impact of Richardson on both Sullivan and Wright.  As an example, he points to the design of the Victor Falkenau houses in Chicago, for which Wright was the delineator of the sketch that appeared in the Inland Architect in June 1888.  O’Gorman points out that Wright may have well been the designer of the houses as well and mentions several features, “his rock-faced, horizontal ashlar wall, his semicircular arches, his mullioned and transomed basement windows, and his trabeated upper openings divided by chubby columns” as all being inspired by the Glessner house.  O’Gorman goes on to mention the plan of the dining room and the “Richardsonian breadth” of the staircase at the Blossom house at being further indications of the impact of Glessner house on a young Wright.  For his design of the Winslow House the counterplay between symmetry and asymmetry once again harkens back to Richardson’s Glessner house – a formal symmetrical façade with a central entrance surrounded by axially balanced regular window openings, with the asymmetry created with the addition of a porte cochere to the left side.  Likewise, the asymmetrical and relaxed arrangement of the backsides of the houses echoes a similar attempt to create less formal family spaces. 

O’Gorman concludes by stating that “it should be clear that Wright’s appropriation of Richardsonian forms, at least soon after his initial experiments at the Falkenau houses and elsewhere, cannot be construed as copying.  With Sullivan’s tutelage, Wright quickly developed these characteristic features to his own ends, evoking their spirit while transforming their details as he sought his own vocabulary.  By the mid-nineties Wright had adopted Richardson’s emphasis on a disciplined architecture whose impact depended upon the integrated combination of elemental tectonic forms.  And by the end of the decade he was ready to generate out of this and other sources an architecture all his own.”

No architect works in a vacuum.  Both consciously and unconsciously they are impacted by the work of their fellow architects.  How they take that information and interpret it in their own works separates the “boys from the men.”  In “Wright’s Roots,” Tim Samuelson explores those early influences and shows how Wright’s genius took root in the architecture of his day, but soon led down a path that forever changed the face of American architecture. 

For tickets to this very special tour of “Wright’s Roots,” call Glessner House Museum at 312-326-1480.  Prepaid tickets are required and cost $25 each, with proceeds benefiting the museum’s House & Collections Committee Fund.