New Brochure Available on Prairie Avenue

The museum has just released a revised version of its popular self-guided walking tour brochure of the Prairie Avenue neighborhood.  The brochure begins with a brief history of the area divided into four distinct time frames.  The first, Beginnings, starts with the Battle of Fort Dearborn in 1812 and continues through to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.  The second section, Glory Days, chronicles the period beginning immediately after the fire when Prairie Avenue gained distinction as the most prestigious street in the city, and one of the most fashionable in the country.  That section ends in 1904, the year the last new residence was constructed.  Section three, Decline, chronicles the period 1905 to 1965 when the neighborhood saw a rapid transformation from residential to light industry, and highlights the major causes of that decline.  The final section, Rebirth, begins with the rescue of Glessner House in 1966 and continues through to the present day, highlighting the revitalization of the area in the last twenty years.

Twenty-seven sites of architectural and historical interest are featured in the brochure as well, ranging from the surviving mansions to buildings constructed for the printing and automobile industries in the early 20^th century.  (For a PDF of the brochure, visit the Glessner House Museum website and scroll down the left-hand column to the section “Download the Walking Tour of Historic Prairie Avenue.”)  Three Sunday afternoon guided tours of the neighborhood, conducted by museum director Bill Tyre, will take place on July 21, August 18, and September 15, 2013.  Tickets are $15.00 per person for the two-hour tour.  For more information or to make reservations, call 312-326-1480. 

Following are a few of the architectural and historical treasures to be found in the neighborhood and featured in the brochure.

The oldest site in the area, located at Calumet Avenue and 18^th Street, is now known as Battle of Fort Dearborn Park.  On August 15, 1812 during the War of 1812 with Great Britain, the fort was evacuated and the soldiers and civilians began their long trek along the shore of Lake Michigan, heading toward the safety of Fort Wayne in Indiana.  The current park marks the site of a pivotal battle that occurred that day during which more than 75 soldiers, civilians, and Native Americans were killed.  The park, with its interpretive plaque, was formally dedicated on August 15, 2009, the 197^th anniversary of the battle.

The Harriet F. Rees house at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue is one of just seven mansions remaining on Prairie Avenue.  In its heyday, the six-block stretch of Prairie between 16^th Street and Cermak Road (originally 22^nd Street) contained 84 mansions.  Although designated a Chicago landmark in 2012, the future of the Rees house, constructed in 1888 and designed by Cobb & Frost, is uncertain in light of recently announced plans to construct a new stadium for DePaul on the block in which the house stands.

The William W. Kimball house at 1801 S. Prairie Avenue is a strikingly beautiful limestone clad residence built in the Chateauesque style in 1892.  Modeled after a chateau in Brittany, the house was designed by architect Solon S. Beman, best known as the architect for the Town of Pullman (constructed for the Kimball’s neighbor, George M. Pullman a decade before the Kimball house).  Kimball, the founder and president of the Kimball piano and organ company, filled his house with valuable paintings including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Turner that were donated to the Art Institute in 1922.   Film buffs will note that the house served as the setting for the 1996 film “Primal Fear” featuring Richard Gere, Edward Norton, and Laura Linney.

Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue was originally built in 1874 from designs by architect James Renwick Jr. (who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City).  Following a devastating fire in 1900, the interior was completely redesigned and rebuilt by Howard Van Doren Shaw, and today survives as an amazingly intact example of the Arts and Crafts movement.  The church was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2013, the only church in Chicago to earn that designation.  A celebration of the Landmark status will take place on Thursday June 20, 2013 at 5:30pm, and is open to the public.  Visit www.2ndpresbyterianfriends.org for more information.

The high rise at the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road marks the former site of the Lexington Hotel, designed in 1892 by Clinton J. Warren.   Built to house visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition (including President Grover Cleveland, who officially opened the fair), the elegant structure later fell on hard days.  By the 1920s, Al Capone ran his crime operations from a suite of rooms in the hotel.  Many will recall when Geraldo Rivera unsealed Capone’s vault in the basement during a live two-hour TV broadcast on April 21, 1986.  Although the building was designated a Chicago landmark, it was demolished in 1995.

The large loft building at 1727 S. Indiana Avenue was original built in 1905 for the Eastman Kodak Company.  During the 1920s when Indiana Avenue was widened by 35 feet, the west façade of the building was sliced off and a new façade constructed.  The original design of the building survives along 18^th Street, and features a doorway with a bellows camera carved in stone above.  In 1993, the building became the first loft structure in the area to convert to residential use.

Historians might have a hard time finding the former Ginn & Company building (later the Platt Luggage Company), now located at 2203 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.  Originally built in 1907 at 2301 S. Prairie Avenue from plans by Howard Van Doren Shaw, the building was the center of two major preservation battles as nearby McCormick Place continued expanding west.  Eventually, the building was dismantled and the façade was reconstructed on the current site to conceal a power-plant behind.

The elegant Second Empire style building at 1925 S. Michigan Avenue features a beautiful façade executed in white glazed terra cotta.  Designed in 1911 by Christian Eckstorm, it was one of over 100 buildings constructed along Michigan Avenue in the early 1900s to accommodate the growing automobile industry.  In time, this stretch of Michigan became known as Motor Row.  The large plate-glass display windows were originally used for displays of rubber products manufactured by the B. F. Goodrich Company.  Recently restored to its former glory, the building awaits a new occupant.

The newest “historic” site in the area is the former location of the Chess Records Office and Studio, located at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue.  Originally built in 1911 during the growth of Motor Row, it was remodeled in 1957 to house Chess Records, which remained here for a decade, recording some of the era’s most important blues music.  The Rolling Stones paid homage to the building with their “2120 South Michigan Avenue,” recorded here in June 1964.  The site is now open to the public and is operated by the Blues Heaven Foundation. 

NOTE:  The brochure was printed for the museum by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

The Kimball House on Chicago's Prairie Avenue

On Sunday June 9, 2013, Glessner House Museum will hold its 16^th annual fundraiser, A Walk Through Time.  This walking tour explores the interiors of the privately owned historic mansions in the Prairie Avenue Historic District.  Featured are seven residences built between 1870 and 1894, in addition to the Glessner and Clarke house museums, and Second Presbyterian Church with its significant collection of Tiffany windows.  The tour runs from 1:00 to 4:00pm and costs $50 per person.  For more information or to make reservations, call 312.326.1480.  Limited tickets will also be available at the door.

One of the featured properties on the tour is the William W. Kimball house at 1801 S. Prairie Avenue.  When the Glessners moved into their new home across the street in December 1887, the Kimball lot was empty.  This view, taken by George Glessner from his bedroom window, shows the lot with a path cutting across it diagonally toward 18^th Street, an Illinois Central train behind, and the coach house of the George M. Pullman mansion at the far left. 

The proximity of the Pullman house is an important part of how Kimball came to live on Prairie Avenue.  It is well known that Pullman did not like the appearance of the Glessner house.  He was once quoted as saying “I don’t know what I have ever done to have that thing staring me in the face every time I go out of my door.”  Another time he said “I don’t like it and wish it was not there.”  As the story goes, Pullman wanted to ensure that whatever was built on the empty lot would be something he would enjoy looking at when he walked out his door.  He convinced his friend William W. Kimball to purchase the lot and build a residence.  Pullman even went one step further; he suggested what architect Kimball should use.  The architect was none other than Solon S. Beman, the architect of Pullman’s world famous town south of Chicago.  However, the appearance of the Kimball house bears no resemblance to the brick Queen Anne style homes of Pullman’s employees.  For the Kimball house, Beman turned to the French Chateauesque style, using the 12^th century Chateau Du Josselin in Brittany as inspiration for the gray Bedford stone mansion.  The exterior features an abundance of carved stone decoration, in addition to turrets, elaborate chimneys, a slate roof, and detailed copper cresting. 

The Kimball house was completed in 1892 after two years of construction and was reported to cost $1,000,000 to build, which possibly also included furnishings.  William W. Kimball, founder of the piano and organ company that bore his name, moved into the house with his wife Evaline (Cone) Kimball and a staff of approximately twelve servants.  The Kimballs had no children. 

The interior of the house is quite as elaborate as the exterior.  Although many of the original 29 rooms have been subdivided, most of the major rooms remain intact, and the flavor of the original house has been preserved.  Rooms on the first floor have ceilings 13’4” high, those on the second floor are one foot lower.

Upon entering the house, visitors pass through the great double entrance doors into a small entrance foyer, the walls of which are sheathed in Mexican onyx.  An inner set of double doors leads into the Great Hall which is two stories high and features an elaborate staircase illuminated by three huge leaded glass windows.

The fireplace in the Hall is made of Caen stone, a stone derived from Normandy that was used in the building of many cathedrals.  Four rooms enter off of the hall – the library which faces Prairie Avenue; the drawing room; a huge dining room featuring carved oak, a massive fireplace, and a built-in sideboard which originally housed Mrs. Kimball’s extensive collection of antique silver; and Mr. Kimball’s home office to the east of the main staircase. 

Mrs. Kimball also enjoyed collecting paintings by the Old Masters and others, and the paneled walls of the Great Hall would have featured many of these works including:

“The Bather” by Millet

“A Field of Flowers” by Monet

“Portrait of His Father” by Rembrandt

“Bathing Nymph and Child” by Corot

“Beata Beatrix” by Rosetti

“Dutch Fishing Boats” by Turner

“Stoke by Nayland” by Constable

“The Countess of Bristol” by Gainsborough

“Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Gods” by Reynolds

The Kimball collection of 24 paintings was bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago where they can be seen today.

William Wallace Kimball, a native of Maine, was born in 1828 and had come to Chicago shortly before the Panic of 1857.  He purchased four pianos from a bankrupt dealer and although he knew nothing about pianos, managed to sell them for a nice profit.  By 1864 he had established an elegant shop and warehouse in the newly built Crosby’s opera house.  His pianos were especially popular with the huge numbers of German and Scandinavian immigrants flooding into the city.  When his store and warehouse were destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871, he was back in business just two days later, operating out of the billiard room of his house at 1641 S. Michigan Avenue.  In 1886, the Kimball piano and organ factory was built, and the next year, the first Kimball piano was built.  By the turn of the century, the Kimball Piano and Organ Co. was world famous and the largest organization of its kind in the world.  Kimball died in 1904 at the age of 76.

After Mrs. Kimball died in 1921, the house was converted to a boarding house.  In 1924, the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects approached John J. Glessner about acquiring his house at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue for use as their headquarters.  He agreed but stipulated that until the house became available following his death, the AIA must acquire and use the Kimball house for a club.  This was done and the Architects Club of Chicago was operating in the house by 1925, through the generosity of 100 Chicago architects who each gave $1,000 for the purpose.  Unfortunately, the club failed during the Depression and closed its doors in 1937.  For several years following, they leased the building to Miss Daisy Hull who ran a school for “backward” children.  In 1943 she purchased the house for just $8,000, less than 1% of what the Kimballs paid to build the house 50 years earlier.  Four years later the publishing firm, Domestic Engineering Company, acquired the house and the adjacent Coleman house at 1811 S. Prairie Avenue.  The two houses were acquired by R. R. Donnelley in 1973 who in turn donated them to the Chicago Architecture Foundation in 1991.  They leased and then sold the properties to the U. S. Soccer Federation for use as their national headquarters, which is how the buildings are used today.

NOTE:  Film buffs will note that the house was used as the setting for the 1996 movie “Primal Fear,” starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, and Edward Norton.

North side of the entrance porch.  Note how the wrought iron fence is constructed to curve underneath the projecting extension.

Elaborate stone carving over the porch.

Cast plaster ceiling.

Dining room fireplace.

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.