The Glessners' final home - Graceland Cemetery

On Thursday February 23, 2012 at 7:00pm, the museum will present a lecture on Chicago's historic Graceland Cemetery by Barbara Lanctot, author of the recently revised A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery.   The following is brief history of the Glessners' plot.

Graceland Cemetery was not the first cemetery that the Glessners selected as their final resting place.  When their infant son John Francis Glessner died on June 30, 1875 at the age of eight months, the Glessners purchased a plot at Rosehill Cemetery.  By the early 1900s however, correspondence from Frances Glessner indicates that they were unhappy with the plot and the condition in which it was kept.  As such, they sought a new location for their burial plot.  Graceland Cemetery was a natural choice.  This was the cemetery of choice for many of their friends and Prairie Avenue neighbors, and they were close friends with several of the officers and board members, including president Bryan Lathrop. 

On December 9, 1909, the Glessners purchased Lot 2 in the Willowmere Section, along the western shore of Lake Willowmere.  The lot contained 2,758 square feet and cost $8,274.00. 

Frances Glessner died on October 20, 1932.  At that time, the remains of her infant son John were exhumed from his grave at Rosehill and placed in her casket.  By early December, John Glessner had selected the Harrison Granite Company to make the memorial stone.  The company, founded in 1845, was based in New York, but maintained a local office in Room 739 of the Fine Arts Building.  A letter to John Glessner from Harry L. Davis, the company’s resident associate, sheds light on the design of the stone:

“I feel that elements of refinement should enter into the Ledger stone and still retain a quiet dignity, thus to typify the interests of Mrs. Glessner, in life.  A perfectly plain slab would seem to me to depart from the interests in art and architecture which were her’s.”

Another letter, dated December 28, reveals the one and only change made to the original design:

“I appreciate the call of your daughter, Mrs. Lee, upon me today and in accordance with her request I have sent a requisition by Air Mail tonight to our studio to have them prepare symbols of a Celtic character in place of the cross as shown on our presentation sketch.”

The stone was completed by the beginning of March 1933 and installed later that month.  Made of Westerly granite, the total cost, including foundation, was $587.50.  John Glessner was very pleased with the stone, as indicated in a letter from him to Harry Davis dated April 3:

“I went to Graceland Cemetery on Wednesday of last week, to see the memorial stone for Mrs. Glessner set up for me by the Harrison Granite Company.  I was much pleased with the stone and the way it is set.  Its appearance will be still further improved when the grass has been made to grow about it.  The stone seems all right.  (Please do not publish this as a testimonial.)” 

By the spring of 1934, John Glessner was pursuing the establishment of a perpetual care fund.  Correspondence from the cemetery indicated that the annual cost of maintenance was $30.00 for a lot of that size which included $10 for mowing, $15 for watering, and $5 for washing the stone.  The fund had not been established by the time John Glessner died on January 20, 1936.  (A second matching memorial stone was installed for him later that year).

In May 1937, R. M. Johnson, the executor of the estate of John Glessner, paid the amount of $1,000 to the Trustees of the Graceland Cemetery Improvement Fund for the establishment of a perpetual care fund.  The document further stipulated that no other persons were to be buried in the lot. 

Visitors to the Glessner plot today cannot help but be impressed with the beautiful and serene setting of the Glessner plot along Lake Willowmere, and the simple but elegant design of their stones.

NOTE:  The Glessners’ two other children, John George Macbeth Glessner and Frances Glessner Lee were both interred at the Maple Street Cemetery in Bethlehem, New Hampshire near the family’s summer estate.  The virtually identical design of their memorial stones would strongly indicate that they were also executed by the Harrison Granite Company, although the symbols used are different - a cross for George and his wife and a honeybee for Frances.

John and Frances Glessner: A Love Story

John and Frances Glessner were married for nearly 62 years and shared an extraordinarly close and loving relationship.  A few months after Frances Glessner died in October 1932, John wrote a loving tribute to his wife and helpmate.  Several copies were printed and bound in elegant blue leather, complete with slipcase, which were presented to family and intimate friends.   In honor of Valentine’s Day, we present a few excerpts from that tribute.

She was a home-maker, a home-preserver – that was her first ambition, that was her most desired and profound success.  But the home was not to be confined within its own four walls.  It was to bring other friends within its sweet influence.  She was a home-making woman who sought not public applause.  Wherever she went she took her workbag and work-basket and hung them in the room where she was, even in the sleeping cars, and they made the room a home.  These are not idle words: they are true in every sense.

She was attentive to her obligations in every Society or Association of which she was a member: she was never known to neglect any duty, however disagreeable it might be.

She was a broad-minded, generous, charitable woman – admirable in every way, with all feminine graces and attributes.  She was not a worldly woman, never vaunted herself, always ready with some helpful suggestions; ready to share her good fortune with those less fortunate – a woman of strong individuality, a rare character.  Everybody who came in contact with her admired her.

A day or two before the funeral came this verse by mail, with nothing to identify the author except that it was in Mrs. Paul Shorey’s envelope:

“The crowding memories of the past,

The bonds of love that cannot end,

The ties that life and death outlast,

To such as these, no words can lend.

The essence still eludes the will,

Finite and infinite cannot blend,

Our grateful hearts can but distil

The simple words, ---

She was Our Friend.

10/20/32”

At the regular concerts of Thursday evening and Friday afternoon, October 20 and 21, Mr. Stock added to the program, out of respect for her, Bach’s wonderful Chorale Prelude, very impressive, after which the Orchestra and audience stood for a few minutes in silence.

And now her busy hands are still; her active brain is quiet; her heart and soul have passed beyond this earthly sphere.  None knew her but to love her, none named her but to praise.

What would she have thought could she have stood beside me and looked down at that placid countenance in its last sleep.  It was dignified.  It was impressive.  It was lovely.  It was not the same.  Its spirit had fled.

After sixty-two years of happy married life, no tribute that I can offer seems adequate to her merit.  Rarely shall we look upon her like again.

Iznik Tiles at Glessner House

During 1886 and 1887 when the house was under construction, John and Frances Glessner spent considerable time shopping for countless items for their new home, from fireplace fittings to rugs, and textiles to tiles.  One of the most interesting items they acquired was a set of Iznik tiles for the dining room fireplace.   (The name Iznik derives from the city in Turkey where the tiles were made).

In 1886, during a trip to New York, Frances Glessner records in her journal:  “We went Thursday morning to hunt up tiles.  We found some beauties at Lockwood de Forest’s.”  Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932) was an important figure in the American Aesthetic Movement, largely remembered today for introducting East Indian crafts to America.  He was born into a wealthy family that encouraged the study and pursuit of the arts; his older brother Robert Weeks de Forest served as president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for seventeen years.  Lockwood de Forest studied painting with his great uncle Frederic Edwin Church and enjoyed moderate success.  By the late 1870s however, he turned his attention to decoration and architecture, becoming a partner in the design firm of Associated Artists, along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler.  His travels took him to the Middle East, North Africa, and most importantly British India, where he developed a passion for local craftsmanship.  He opened a workshop in India, which produced architectural elements and furniture.  After Associated Artists closed in 1882, de Forest opened his own company, which was hugely successful, supplying decorative items and architectural elements to such clients as Andrew Carnegie, Charles Tyson Yerkes, Mark Twain, and Potter Palmer.   In later years he built a home at Santa Barbara, California where he resumed painting actively.  He died there in 1932. 

The tiles that the Glessners purchased from de Forest for their dining room fireplace were among the many objects that he acquired and shipped to the U.S. for his American clients.  He apparently owned quite a few tiles in the design that the Glessner selected, for they appear in at least two other houses with which he was connected, including his own home in Santa Barbara (where they are used on a fountain in an outdoor courtyard).  Correspondence between de Forest and the Glessners indicates that they bought the remaining tiles of this particular design that he had in his shop.

The tiles, which measure roughly eight inches square were made in Iznik region of Turkey in the middle part of the 16^th century.  They were installed in various locations throughout the Middle East including the tomb of Muhi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi in Damascus (see above).  Polychromatic schemes were developed during this middle period of Iznik pottery making using seven colors in various combinations – blue, purple, red, green, turquoise, grey, and black.  The body of the tiles is fritware, a composite paste material made from quartz sand mixed with small amounts of finely ground glass (frit) and clay.  When fired, the frit melts and binds the other components together.  The tile was then coated with a thin layer of white slip, a liquid clay mixture, similar to the fritware paste, but more finely ground and purer in composition.  The tile was lightly fired to dry it out, and then painted with pigments mixed with frit.  The wares were then glazed with a lead-alkaline-tin glaze and fired to a transparent sheen. 

After the Glessners died in the 1930s, their daughter, Frances Glessner Lee, had the tiles removed and reinstalled on a fireplace at the “cottage,” her home at The Rocks estate in New Hampshire.  They remain at the cottage today, but are promised to the museum and will be returned once sufficient funding is in hand to remove them and reinstall in the dining room.  At present, only two original tiles are on the fireplace, distinguishable by their slightly darker color.  They were a gift of Frances Lee’s daughter, Martha Lee Batchelder.  All the other are reproductions created in the 1970s by artist Paula Garrett Ellis.  A third original tile is displayed on the plate rail in the main hall, a gift from Dr. Edward Gamson of Washington D.C., who acquired it from an employee of Armour Institute, which occupied the Glessner house at the time the tiles were removed in the 1930s.

Glessner House Museum - The Newport Connection

PART I – THE DINING ROOM

The dining room of Glessner house is a warm and inviting space that witnessed numerous dinners and entertainments during the years that the Glessners were in residence.  The walls are covered in beautiful quarter-sawn oak paneling.  Above the paneling and plate rail is a frieze, approximately 14 inches in height that was orignally covered in what was known as “Japanese leather paper.”  These papers were introduced in England and the United States in the 1860s to simulate the look of highly embossed leather.  Produced in Japan and offered for sale through various English and American dealers, the thick paper was pressed while wet into designs carved on wood rollers.  After the paper dried, it was sized, covered with silver or gold leaf, stenciled, painted, and lacquered to produce a rich appearance.   The original paper, although well documented in historic photographs, had been removed by the time the house was purchased for use as a museum in 1966.

PART II – CHATEAU-SUR-MER

Newport Rhode Island is known for its extraordinary collection of summer “cottages” – huge mansions constructed by some of the wealthiest citizens of the United States.  Among these cottages is a home known as Chateau-Sur-Mer, located at 474 Bellevue Avenue.  Built as a year-round residence, this National Historic Landmark is known for its extraordinary collection of furniture, wallpapers, ceramics, and decorative finishes.  It was the grandest house in Newport until the appearance of the Vanderbilt houses in the 1890s.  The house was completed in 1852 in the Italianate style for William Shepard Wetmore who made his fortune as a China trade merchant.  One of Newport’s great social events, the “Fete Champetre” (an elaborate country picnic for over 2,000 guests) took place at the house in 1857.  Wetmore died in 1862 and left the bulk of his sizeable estate to his son George who hired Richard Morris Hunt in the 1870s to remodel and redecorate the house in the popular Second Empire style.  George Wetmore later served as governor of Rhode Island and as a U.S. Senator.  The house was purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1969 and operates as a house museum today.  (Visit www.newportmansions.org for further information).

PART III – RESTORATION OF THE GLESSNER DINING ROOM

The dining room of Glessner house was restored in 1974.  Research on the room documented the original frieze as a Japanese leather paper.  Through a fortunate chain of events, it was learned that original unused rolls of Japanese leather from the late 19^th century had been found in the attic of Chateau-sur-Mer.  Glessner house was able to acquire a sufficient quantity to restore the frieze.  Although the pattern is not identical to the original, it is very close, and the decorative surface closely replicates what the Glessners selected. 

THE NEWPORT-GLESSNER CONNECTION CONTINUES

On Saturday February 4, 2012 at 4:30pm, the Victorian Society in America will hold an event at Glessner House Museum to promote their annual summer schools in Newport, Rhode Island and London, England.  (Chateau-sur-Mer is included in the program).  At the event, attendees will listen to short illustrated programs on both schools, scheduled for June and July 2012, respectively, and will have the opportunity to ask questions, and learn about scholarship opportunities.  The event is free of charge but reservations are requested to 773-267-9336.

The Glessners escape the Chicago winter in Santa Barbara

Frances Glessner experienced serious health issues during the year 1910.  At the recommendation of her doctors, the Glessners left Chicago on December 16 for Santa Barbara, along with her sister Anna Robertson, John’s brother George Glessner, and a nurse.  They arrived on December 19, 1910 and moved into their leased house at 131 E. Pedregosa Street.  They returned to Chicago on April 5, 1911.  The climate proved so favorable for Frances Glessner’s health that the Glessners made another trip to Santa Barbara during the winter of 1912.

The following journal entries were written by John Glessner during December 1910.

December 11:  Frances lost eight ounces in weight this week and has found Chicago is not an inspiring place for a convalescent.  About all she can do is to motor an hour or two in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, but always to the same places, and it is all too monotonous.  After consultation with Dr. Favill I closed by telegraph lease of the Reddington house in Santa Barbara, and have engaged transportation for Simon and Mattie and Annie (three of the servants) on Tuesday night, and for ourselves and Miss Duncan, Anna Robertson and my brother George on Friday night next.  I am hoping that Frances will not find the three days journey is too hard, though she dreads it.  Dr. Favill thinks it can be done without injury and that the Santa Barbara climate may be good for her. 

December 20:  We left Chicago on Friday night, December 16^th, at 9 o’clock via CRd and PRR and Southern Pacific and reached Santa Barbara at 10:15 Monday night, without accident or delay, and with much more comfort for Frances than we had thought possible.  Frances and I had the drawing room, and the rest of our party had the two compartments adjoining.  Frances used my berth during the day and did not leave the part of the car belonging to us during the whole trip.  She had coffee brought from the dining car each morning and for all the rest depended on her lunch basket and the French rolls sent by Mrs. Drake to the train.  On Sunday Anna went to the dining car kitchen and told the cook how to prepare corn meal gruel for Frances’ lunch and watched him make it.  This was after I had arranged with the conductor that she might do it.  Later, the dining car conductor brought Frances a fine bunch of carnations in a glass vase.  Our porter also was sympathetic and attentive. 

December 25:  Christmas Day, in Santa Barbara in the Redington house, 131 Pedregosa street on what we would call the northwest corner of that and Santa Barbara street, though the streets of the town do not run with the points of the compass.  It seems strange to have Christmas with thermometer above 70 degrees in the shade.  The house faces to the north of east, looking out upon the waters of Santa Barbara channel of the Pacific ocean about 1-1/2 miles away, with the water in plain sight from our porch, for the ground rises to our house and then very gradually falls away behind it, though it rises straight up the mountains to the north of us.  The yard is large, with flowers – poinsettias, geraniums, heliotrope, begonias, daisies, roses, etc. and trumpet vines and other vines in bloom; and shrubs and trees – the largest rubber tree in town on the north of the house that continually drops its pods of seeds in the floor of the unroofed north porch, and a great hedge of arbor vitae making the south boundary a good yard – perhaps the tallest of these hedges in the town: trimmed square and angular and to Frances mind and mine very unhandsome.  For the rental and as an appanage of the place is furnished a gardener to care for the grounds and him we pay a little extra compensation for caring also for the boots, carrying in the wood and out the ashes, etc. etc.

The house is quite roomy.  The front porch is only half roofed over but all screened with vines, and from this porch the front door opens into the entrance hall, sitting room and library, all combined, with the parlor to the west shut off by folding doors, always wide open.  Back of the sitting room is bedroom and bath (not occupied) having north and west exposure, much shaded, and denominated “the tomb” by Mrs. Ripley when she occupied the house.  Back of the parlor are dining room and butler’s pantry and kitchen, all with south and west exposures.  The second story has four master bedrooms and three bathrooms, and two smaller bedrooms, and the third floor has three servants’ bedrooms and bathroom.  George G. and Anna Robertson have two of the large bedrooms and Miss Duncan and Annie the two small ones, and Frances and I the other two on the second floor.  The library is well stocked with good books: there are some good pieces of Japanese furniture and some good Japanese bronzes, but the rest of the furniture and ornaments and linen and silver are very ordinary. 

Prairie Avenue mansion designated landmark

On January 5, 2012, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks gave its final approval for the designation of the Harriet F. Rees house at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue as a Chicago landmark.  The house was designated for its exemplary architecture, as the work of a significant architect, and as an outstanding example of our city’s heritage.   The designation is good news for preservationists who were concerned about the future of the house.  Although it is in the hand of dedicated owners, who have spent several years restoring the structure, the building was threatened in recent years by plans to build a large hotel on the block to accommodate visitors to McCormick Place Convention Center, located one block to the south.   Landmark status adds an important level of protection to the structure, the last surviving mansion on the 2100 block of Prairie Avenue.

The elegant row house was built in 1888 for Harriet F. Rees, the 70-year-old widow of James H. Rees, a prominent early real estate dealer and land surveyor, primarily remembered today for the set of maps he created of the Chicago area in 1851.  The architects, Cobb & Frost, designed a significant number of homes in the Prairie Avenue neighborhood, most of which have been lost, except for the Joseph G. Coleman house at 1811 S. Prairie Avenue.   The Rees house was designed in the Romanesque style and features a smooth limestone façade highlighted with rich ornamentation at the front entryway, on the oriel window, around the third-story arcade, and most prominently in the steeply pitched gable.

After Rees died in the 1890s, the house was purchased by Edson Keith Jr. who had grown up in a house at 1906 S. Prairie Avenue (demolished).  His daughter Katherine was raised in the house and in 1916, became the wife of architect David Adler.  She also published two novels, The Girl and The Crystal Icicle, before her untimely death in 1930, the result of an auto accident while traveling with her husband in France.  In later years, the building housed furnished rooms, and during the 1970s was converted to the Prairie Avenue Café. 

The interior is richly appointed and has survived largely intact, a pleasant surprise given its varied uses during the years.  Cobb & Frost designed an interesting moulding pattern that is used on the main staircase and around the doorways of many of the principal rooms.  The most prominent features however are the beautiful fireplaces which possess exceptionally fine tilework, each room being different.  The dining room fireplace is surrounded by a full wall of built in cabinets.

Near the rear of the first floor is the original hand-crank elevator, one of the first to be used in a private residence, no doubt installed for the widow for whom the house was built.

The interior of the house will be open for tours on Sunday June 10, 2012 as part of the annual Glessner House Museum fundraising tour, A Walk Through Time.  For further information, visit www.glessnerhouse.org.

Docent Diaries: Bonnet House and the Prairie Avenue Connection

The entrance to Bonnet House

For many years, before I became a volunteer docent at the Clarke House and Glessner House museums, I vacationed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I would pass by Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, wondering who Mr. Birch was and why he had a park named for him. It wasn’t until I started my docent training that I learned about Birch. Birch was not only significant to Chicago history, but Florida history as well. On my most recent trip to Fort Lauderdale, I took a tour of Bonnet House and learned a little bit more about Birch and his extended family.

South Florida Paradise
Birch was a prominent corporate attorney who lived at 1912 S. Michigan Avenue and was part of Prairie Avenue society. A bit of an eccentric, Birch shunned crowds and preferred a more casual lifestyle. In the late 1890s, Birch traveled by train to Titusville, Florida, the end of the line for the railroad in those days. He then sailed further south by boat, encountering a storm that forced his ship ashore. When Birch saw the tropical beauty of the South Florida coast, he decided he needed to live there. He bought three miles of oceanfront property, that is now part of present-day Fort Lauderdale, for less than $1.00 per acre. According to the Genealogical Society of Broward County (GSBC), silent film director D.W. Griffith offered Birch $250,000 in 1920 for 2/3 of the land, but Birch refused the offer.

A Generous Wedding Present

View of the bird house in courtyard

In 1919, Birch’s daughter, Helen married artist and Prairie Avenue resident, Frederic Clay Bartlett (2901 S. Prairie Avenue). As a wedding gift, Birch gave the newlyweds 30 acres—a piece of his Florida estate. In 1920, construction, of what would eventually be known as Bonnet House (named for the bonnet lilies found on the estate), began and would continue for more than 20 years.

“Eclectic” Design
Bartlett was an artist and designer.  Among his works are the thirteen pre-Raphaelite murals that adorn Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue.  He had a practical interest in architecture and designed every aspect of Bonnet House. The home was modeled after a Caribbean-style plantation as interpreted by Bartlett. It includes a large courtyard with fountains and gardens. Almost every wall of the courtyard is decorated with paintings, pieces or art, and cultural artifacts from Europe and Asia. The docent that led my tour said there is no discernible decorating style. He described it as “eclectic,” which fits just fine. Bartlett painted almost every inch of the house, including intricate designs on the courtyard ceilings, walls, and floors. While the estate is large, it is not luxurious. Both Birch and Bartlett had luxurious homes in Chicago and elsewhere, but craved a more casual lifestyle. Fort Lauderdale, in the early 20th century was a sparsely populated tropical paradise that suited both men perfectly.

Carousel giraffes are typical of the whimsical artwork throughout the house

Art and Music Lovers
Frederic and Helen loved to travel around the world. During their travels, they purchased many Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings, including A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat. Helen was a talented pianist and composer, having several of her compositions copyrighted and published. Bartlett had his artist studio on one end of Bonnet House and Helen had her music studio on the other.

A swan swims in a pond on the estate

Helen died of cancer in 1925 and Frederic lost interest in their tropical retreat. He donated their important collection of paintings, including works by Picasso, Degas, and Matisse to the Art Institute of Chicago.  It was the first major collection of post-Impressionist paintings to be acquired and exhibited by an American museum. 

Six years after Helen’s death, Frederic married Evelyn Fortune Lilly, who was divorced from Eli Lilly. After their marriage, Evelyn convinced Frederic to return to the estate and the two turned Bonnet House into a one-of-a-kind retreat. The house looks pretty much the way it did during the 1930s and 1940s.

Frederic died in 1953. Evelyn continued to live and entertain at Bonnet House after Frederic’s death. She eventually gifted the estate to the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983, but continued to winter there until 1997 as part of the trust agreement. Evelyn died on July 1, 1997 at the age of 109.

Wrought iron railings were crafted in New Orleans

Bonnet House Survives
Bonnet House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Fort Lauderdale Historic Landmark. If you have the opportunity to visit Fort Lauderdale, a tour of Bonnet House is a must.  For further information, visit their website, http://www.bonnethouse.org/

Submitted by Stephen Reginald, Clarke House and Glessner House volunteer docent. Reginald is also a writer, editor, neighborhood blogger, and amateur classic film historian.