Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

The Irish Castle (Robert C. Givens House)

Now Beverly Unitarian Church

10244 South Longwood Drive, Chicago, IL

Built 1886-87

The Irish Castle, a Romanesque Revival- style residence, was built by real estate developer Robert C. Givins atop of the Blue Island Ridge at 103rd Street.  Costing $80,000 due to the cost of hauling limestone by oxcart from Joliet,  this is one of the most substantially constructed homes in Beverly’s historic district. Local lore pinpoints its inspiration to a castle Givens visited on a trip to Ireland that was along the River Dee between Belfast and Ireland. Some believe it is modeled after Bellingham Castle in County Louth. He brought the sketches back, and had a replica built on the Ridge in 1886-87 .

Mount Olivet Cemetery

2901 W. 111th Street, Chicago, IL

Opened in 1885

Mount Olivet Cemetery was the first Catholic diocesan cemetery to serve Chicago’s southland. Established in 1885, the burial ground is one of the city’s most picturesque and was once located outside of the city limits. Catholics in Chicago were immigrants, and not surprisingly, city cemeteries reflect ethnicity. While there were German and Polish National cemeteries, the Irish tend to be buried in diocesan cemeteries. Mount Olivet Cemetery buried mainly Irish, reflected in its family plots and monuments of Celtic crosses and Irish names. A statue of St. Patrick is also found amongst the graves.

Irish Nationalists of Chicago Obelisk

Mount Olivet Cemetery

2901 W. 111th Street, Chicago, IL

Dedicated September 30, 1888

Rising 81 feet above Mount Olivet Cemetery is the first monument in America erected by the Irish Nationalists Society.   In 1888, this Egyptian obelisk of Barry gray granite features a seven foot pedestal and a four foot die. At each angle of the die are four Corinthian columns The obelisk was erected in honor of those Irish patriot heroes who died in Chicago, yet had no family in their new country. The face of the monument reads:

“Erected August 20, 1888 to the memory of departed brethren.  God Save Ireland.”

Ancient Order of Hibernians Monument

Mount Olivet Cemetery

2901 W. 111th Street

Dedicated September 5, 1897

John moore, sculptor

Sculpted by John Moore, this late 19th-century monument was erected at the highest point in Mount Olivet Cemetery. The Ancient Order of Hibernians (A. O. H.), our nation’s oldest Irish Catholic fraternal organization, commissioned a tower of rough hewn Vermont granite on a marble base that rises 40 feet. Irish symbolism such as the harp, Celtic Cross, and a wolfhound adorn the monument created to memorialize brethren who died destitute or without family. The monument cost $1850 to construct, and its dedication was attended by over 15,000 people in 1897.

10900 blocks of Washtenaw and Talman.

The parade was the vision of two south siders George Hendry and Pat Coakley. Remembering their experiences with the Southtown Parade that ceased in 1960, on a rainy Saturday, March 17, 1979, George and Pat and their wives Mary and Marianne (Mernie), gathered 17 children from the West Morgan Park community to march in the first South Side Irish St. Pat’s Parade. The parade’s original float, a baby buggy covered with a box decorated with shamrocks and the 26 county flags of Ireland, was pushed around the 10900 blocks of Washtenaw and Talman. The children were given the moniker “The Wee Folks of Washtenaw and Talman.” They brought back the South Side parade they had cherished as children. On Sunday, March 15, 1981 the parade would march down Western Ave. from 103^rd to 115^th Streets where it continues to march today. Each year a Grand Marshall is chosen and the parade designates a charitable organization as a Special Honoree, The parade has grown from 17 children marching around the block many years ago to an event that hosts over 15,000 marchers and 250,000+ spectators each year. Today, the South Side Irish Parade is considered one of the largest community celebrations outside of Ireland. The original baby buggy is no longer in the parade and has been replaced.

From its beginnings in 1908, the founders of Grand Beach, Michigan (intiially known as Grand Beach Springs), aspired to create a summer playground for Chicagoans. With a picturesque wooded setting, beach access, and easy arrival via a short trip down the Michigan Central Railroad line, Grand Beach developed as a leisure destination in the first decades of the 20th-century. Golf became a principal form of recreation for the community in 1911, when developers Floyd R. Perkins and George H. Ely subdivided a second parcel called the Golf Addition to Grand Beach Springs. Perkins and Ely envisioned a nine-hole course at Grand Beach to provide a challenge to all levels of golfers. Their Grand Beach Company hired Scottish-born golf architect Thomas M. Bendelow to design the course during America’s pioneering era of golf design. Many of America’s early golf architects were of Scottish origin, coming to the U.S. to become course designers, greenskeepers and teachers.

Thomas M. Bendelow (1872-1936) is the most prolific of America’s pioneering golf architects, designing over 400 courses in the U.S. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he learned the game as a youth. After moving to the U. S. in 1885, Bendelow first went to work as a typesetter for the New York Herald. While working at the newspaper, he noticed an ad placed by the Pratt family of Long Island, New York. The family’s patriarch, Charles Pratt, was a pioneer in America’s petroleum industry and a part of theStandard Oil Company. In 1895, the Pratts were looking for a young golfer to teach them the game. Soon after responding to the ad, Bendelow began to lay out a short golf course on the grounds of the family estate on Long Island. Following his initial golf layout for the Pratts, Bendelow designed many rudimentary courses in New York State. Bendelow then served as manager and greenskeeper for Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, America’s first municipal golf course. A new opportunity came in the early 1900s when A. G. Spaulding & Brothers, a Chicago-based sporting goods company, hired Tom Bendelow to stake out golf courses across the U.S. Spaulding opened its first store in Chicago in 1876 and began producing golf equipment in 1884. Motivated by golf’s growing popularity in the early 1900s, Spaulding hired Bendelow to create new golf playgrounds to sell more golf clubs and balls to America’s new players. By 1920, Tom Bendelow left the company to become chief golf architect for the American Park Builders, a Chicago-based company that designed a number of courses in the metropolitan area. Later in his life, Bendelow lectured about golf architecture at the University of Illinois and wrote articles about the subject for a number of publications. Tom Bendelow died in 1936 at the age of 64 in River Forest, Illinois. According to Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten in The Architects of Golf, Tom Bendelow was involved in the design of at least 30 private and public golf courses in Michigan and over 60 courses in Illinois.

Tom Bendelow used a primitive staking method employed during the pioneering years of American golf, known facetiously as “Eighteen Stakes on a Sunday afternoon.” Early golf architects followed the existing contours of the land to stake out hold placement, usually in one day and given a fee. Usually, designers left the details of the design (such as size and placement of side traps and elevations of tees) to local people such as the golf course superintendent or even members of a country club. Often, because of the approach of this type of golf layout, courses laid out in the early years have been altered and remodeled. In the 20th-century, American golf architecture evolved from functional and amateur designs to aes

thetically laid out courses. Bendelow also evolved as a designer, as time and experience would dictate. In his later years, Bendelow became a more proficient golf architect. In his designs, Bendelow is known for parallel fairways and implementing a pattern of one long and two short holes for each set of nine holes. In his penal approach to design, water hazards do not come into play, and a poor shot off the fairway will cost the golfer.

Through Chicago connections, Thomas Bendelow became the designer of the Grand Beach Golf Course in 1911. In February of that year, Perkins, Ely and the Grand Beach Company began development of the community’s second subdivision, the Golf Addition to Grand Beach Springs. New streets introduced to Grand Beach included Golf Road, Crescent Road, Royal Road, and Station Road. Abutting the Golf Addition subdivision was a new golf course, built at a cost of $10,000. To create the course, over 400 trees were removed in the timbered Grand Beach landscape. On July 18, 1911, the nine-hole Grand Beach Golf Course opened for play. Over 100 invitations were sent for its first event, attended by members of the Western Advertiser’s Golf Association and their wives. The course’s first guests arrived via a special train over the Michigan Central Railroad. Their scratch event, with 34 players, marked the opening of the golf course.

In October 1912, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported Grand Beach as “The Mecca of Golf:”

A superb golf course is already in use representing an actual money expenditure of many thousand dollars. This is one of the most picturesque and beautiful courses in the United States, and has few close seconds in England or on the continent. It was laid out by Tom Bendelow, the famous golf course expert, and closely approximates the links on the estate of the Duke of Devonshire, in the opinion of well-known Englishmen. The present course is being doubled in order to accommodate the greatly increased patronage.

Although real estate developers Ely and Perkins later expanded the Grand Beach Golf Course, today the course only retains its original nine-hole course. One hundred years later, the Grand Beach Golf Course continues to host events for all levels of golfers.

Deep on the south side of Chicago, in the heart of the Beverly-Morgan Park neighborhood is the “Irish Castle.” Although called a castle, the Robert C. Givins House is technically Romanesque Revival in style. Romanesque Revival is a rare architectural style found in this south side neighborhood.  but can be found in other parts of the city. The style was popular for only a very short period of time, between 1885 and 1890.

In the 1880s, a small number of Beverly-Morgan Park’s most successful entrepreneurs built large-scale residences to express their wealth and accomplishments. A select few chose the fashionable Romanesque Revival style, appropriate for its massiveness and monumentality. Site selection also was a factor for these important business leaders, who symbolically chose lots to construct their grand Romanesque Revival-style residences high upon the Blue Island Ridge. Those atop the ridge would later assume addresses along Beverly-Morgan Park’s premier residential street, Longwood Drive.[i]

Buildings in the Romanesque Revival style are always masonry, usually with some rough-faced stonework, marking their majestic presence in area streetscapes. Wide, rounded arches of Roman or Romanesque architecture are identifiable features of the style. Often, the arches rest on squat columns. Commonly exhibited is decorative floral detail in the stonework or sometimes on column capitals and deeply recessed windows. Stone as a building material was expensive, and as a result, the style was not a very common choice for residences during the period. Yet, the richness of high-quality stone appealed to owners who built homes to reflect their affluence.

Chicago’s Romanesque Revival architecture reflects the availability of stone products, which could be cut to specific sizes and dressed in polished or rough finish. Area buildings feature quarried stone from the nearby Des Plaines River Valley, southern Indiana, or regional brownstone deposits. All were transported into the city via its extensive railroad network. Des Plaines River Valley stone was marketed as “Athens Marble” and “Joliet Marble,” referring to the Illinois quarries in the towns of Joliet and Lemont. Bedford limestone was harvested oolitic limestone principally from the quarries near Bedford, Indiana. Brownstone, typically from Midwestern sandstone quarries like those near Marquette, Michigan, was less common.

Lemont limestone was particularly sought after for dimension stone since it was free from visible fossil bodies, had a fine grain and standard color without streaks, and was found in layers thick enough to be cut into blocks. Stone from Illlinois’ Des Plaines River Valley was principally used in buildings in the Chicago area before 1890, when Bedford limestone became more favorable and competitively priced.

In the late 19th-century, the style was popularized by nationally-recognized architect Henry Hobson Richardson of Boston and is frequently called Richardsonian Romanesque. The first of his buildings in the style was the 1880 rectory for Trinity Church in Richardson’s hometown. Richardson himself introduced the style to Chicago in 1885 in the Marshall Field Warehouse (demolished) and the John Jacob Glessner House. Considered his finest urban residence, Richardson’s powerful Glessner House design was finished on Prairie Avenue in 1887 for a farm implement company’s executive.

While the world-famous Glessner House was under construction on Chicago’s Prairie Avenue, another Romanesque Revival design was simultaneously being built in Beverly-Morgan Park at Tracy Avenue (103rd Street). Perched high upon the Ridge at 10244 South Longwood Drive is the Robert C. Givins House, built in 1887.[ii] Known locally as the “Irish Castle,” neighborhood lore pin points its inspiration to a castle Givins visited on a trip to Ireland that was along the River Dee between Dublin and Belfast. He sketched the castle and upon his return had a regal replica built on the Ridge.[iii][iii] Romanesque arches, rusticated stone elements, sizable corner towers, and a crenellated roofline mark the castle’s romantic design. For his new castle home, Givins spent the exorbitant sum of $80,000 for his distinguished home of Joliet limestone. Robert C. Givins (b. 1845, Yorkville, Canada – d. April 14, 1915, San Francisco, CA), was a prosperous real estate developer with Chicago-based E.A. Cummings & Company. The castle’s construction, believed to be a gift for his bride, was Givins’ key contribution to area real estate promotion and development. For real estate promoters like Givins, whose firm held real estate interests in Washington Heights, a quintessential palace of the rich would draw Chicago’s elite to the area. Precedent was already set by real estate tycoon Potter Palmer, whose own castle was constructed only a few years earlier on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. Givins sold the home at the northwest corner of 103rd Street and Longwood Drive in 1909 after more than two decades of ownership. Since 1942, it has housed a Unitarian congregation. Today, the Castle is one of the area’s signature and most loved buildings.

Romantically-inspired castles of the 1880s still remain in other parts of the Chicago area. Be sure not to miss the Mark Dunham House, a French Norman-influenced castle in the western Chicago suburb of Wayne. Dunham built his home of Batavia stone with help from Elgin architect Smith Hoag in 1880-83. Dunham generated his wealth at Oaklawn Farm by breeding Percherons, popular French work horses in the late 19th-century. The Dunham Castle is part of an 11-building historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Beverly resident Robert Wagner authored the nomination.

[i] In the 1880s, Longwood Drive was known as Washington Avenue from 103rd Street (Tracy Avenue) to 111th Street (Morgan Avenue).

[ii]The Givins House was under construction in the building season of 1887 as reported in the Chicago Interocean, January 1, 1887, part 2, p. 22: “On the Dummy branch of the Rock Island Road is Tracey Heights, the home of R. C. Givins, of the firm of E. A. Cummings, who is building a beautiful, picturesque residence on the hill near Tracey Station.” Also, Chicago Daily Tribune, October 15, 1887, p. 8: “Washington Heights. More buildings have been erected in this suburb during the last season than for many years. Among the more noticeable are the massive stone castle of Robert Givins on Tracey avenue…”

[iii]Bellingham Castle in County Louth, Ireland has been suggested as the inspiration.

(originally posted 3/18/2012)

The fate of the former Anshe Kenesseth Israel Temple, at 3411-19 W. Douglas Blvd in Chicago, will be settled soon – perhaps even this week. Jews who came from the west side of Chicago would particularly lose a tangible historic reminder if the temple is removed from the North Lawndale streetscape. WBEZ blogger Lee Bey has been documenting its final days, and information about its status can be found at http://www.wbez.org/blogs/lee-bey.

In 1913, a Chicago congregation of West Side Jews exercised great care when designing and building Anshe Kenesseth Israel Temple. The temple affirmed its congregation’s commitment to creating a sacred, symbolic, and inspirational home for its members. The congregation chose to construct their building along an important thoroughfare in North Lawndale, Douglas Boulevard, to visibly mark its significance. The building’s important location and monumental design later drew others to the building. Even when the original congregation moved out, other congregations stepped into this special place of devotion and spirituality.

Although in a deteriorated state, the Anshe Kenesseth Israel Temple in North Lawndale embodies the history of Jewish immigrant settlement in Chicago, particularly West Side Jews. Perhaps we can make a case for why Anshe Kenesseth Israel should remain in our urban landscape. This special and sacred place was built to serve the religious needs of a community’s residents. It remains as a critical link to family and personal histories, telling important stories of the past. It is a tangible piece in interpreting the history of Chicago’s West Side Jews. For many residents and former residents, this religious building is a memorable and valued place where significant life events occurred.

I have heard stories of the West Side Jews for years, particularly from my late uncle and other family friends. Their stories were put into context for me in 2008, when I researched and co-authored “Ethnic (European) Historic Settlement in the City of Chicago (1860-1930),” a Multiple Property Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the information below is from this document produced for the City of Chicago’s Landmarks Division in 2008. I hope officials don’t mind me presenting excerpts here, so that others may learn more about the temple’s historic context.

West Side Jews in North Lawndale

From the time of arrival in the 19th-century and continuing through most of the 20th century, early arriving German Jews and later Eastern European Jews established separate enclaves, temples for worship (typically Reformed vs. Orthodox), commercial districts, institutions and means of socialization. This schism has left a physical presence in the urban landscape and in histories conveyed by Chicago’s “South Side Jews” and the “West Side Jews.”

West Side Jews arrived from Eastern Europe, principally Russia, from the late 1870s through 1920. As religious persecution intensified in the Russian Empire by 1880, many Russian Jews looked for new freedoms in America. With dissimilar languages, more stringent religious beliefs, generally less education, and differing economic situation, the Eastern European Jews in Chicago created their own communities, synagogues, business districts, institutions and organizations, particularly on the West side. They did not settle in the established German Jewish areas, rather settling on Chicago’s Near West Side, concentrating in the Maxwell Street area. Maxwell Street became the major late 19th- and early 20th- century Russian Jewish enclave in the city. However, by 1915, Eastern European Jews were moving westward into North Lawndale which became the next center for West side Jewish life in the 1920s and 1930s.

Overcrowded conditions, industrial development, and upward mobility drove many Eastern European Jews from the Near West Side. Although some relocated to other Chicago neighborhoods, many Eastern European Jews arrived in North Lawndale beginning in the 1910s. North Lawndale, located five miles west of Chicago’s Loop, was strategically located near major industries that established themselves nearby in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century. One such industry was Sears, Roebuck & Company, whose mercantile complex employed many North Lawndale residents. The availability of jobs and recreational opportunities (particularly in Douglas Park), the stunning boulevards, and a building boom that generated numerous apartment buildings attracted Eastern European Jews to the area. In the 1920s, Russian Jews outnumbered all other ethnic groups in North Lawndale, and the neighborhood was labeled the “Chicago Jerusalem.” Today, their mark has been left in the community by the many synagogues, schools, commercial buildings, residential apartments, and institutional buildings that still remain.

The establishment of synagogues significantly marked the arrival of Jews into Chicago’s neighborhoods. The temple expressed a monumental physical presence in the urban landscape and served as a center for Jewish life. Upon founding, congregations typically met in existing buildings until a permanent home could be completed. Once completed, the construction of synagogues in the City of Chicago was frequently followed by the building of an adjacent school to further religious studies or Talmud Torah. Others built a combination classroom building/meeting hall for groups and events. As an upwardly mobile group, it was common for Jewish congregations to relocate as immigrant populations shifted from one neighborhood to another. The synagogue and accessory buildings would be sold or rented as they left the old neighborhood behind, and a new temple would be built in the new neighborhood. For this reason, it is not surprising that there may be more than one historic synagogue and/or accessory building in Chicago built by the same congregation at different points in their history.

Along the panoramic boulevards of North Lawndale, many Jewish congregations built elegant and well-appointed synagogues. Congregation Anshe Kenesseth Israel built one of the first synagogues in North Lawndale at 3411-19 West Douglas Boulevard. The architectural firm of Aroner & Somers designed a building for the congregation, seating 3,500, that was constructed in 1913. Congregation Beth Jacob built a synagogue designed by architect Abraham L. Himelblau in 1919-20 at 1446-48 South Drake Avenue. Also remaining is the First Romanian Congregation Synagogue, built at 3620-24 West Douglas Boulevard. This 1925-26 synagogue building was designed by architect J. W. Cohen & Company.

This phenomenon of Jewish migration within Chicago is reflected in the numerous buildings left behind as they moved in and out of neighborhoods. Today, Anshe Kenesseth Israel Temple, at 3411-19 W. Douglas Blvd in Chicago reflects this history in North Lawndale. Kudos to the hardworking historic preservationists, historians, and dedicated volunteers who want to save an important piece of Jewish history in Chicago.

Nationally-acclaimed Chicago sculptor and writer Lorado Taft (1860-1936) not only left his own legacy but successfully educated and mentored students at his famous Midway Studios. Born in Elmwood, Illinois, Lorado Taft was a graduate of the University of Illinois and studied at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He settled in Chicago in 1886, becoming an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago, and later at the University of Chicago and at his Alma Mater. Taft’s celebrated works include the towering Chief Black Hawk, who overlooks the Rock River near Oregon, IL (1909-10); the Gold Medal winning The Solitude of the Soul at the Art Institute of Chicago (1904), the Fountain of the Great Lakes just outside the Art Institute (1914); and the Fountain of Time at the west end of Chicago’s Midway Plaisance (1922). As a writer, Taft published the groundbreaking The History of American Sculpture in 1903, considered the first analysis of the subject.

Education was extremely important to Taft, who assisted young artists through his Midway Studios in Chicago. He particularly offered opportunities for women students. For over 40 years, he and his studio of apprentices and assistants produced award winning sculpture.

A piece executed at the Midway Studios is the Heffron Memorial Fountain, located in Chicago’s south side Beverly-Morgan Park neighborhood. The Heffron Memorial Fountain was designed by one of Lorado Taft’s promising pupils, Canadian-born Kathleen Beverley Robinson Ingles (1882-1958). Robinson Ingles’ design, executed in Bedford limestone, features a kneeling child with a squirrel on her lap set upon a base. Rising behind the figures are stylized decorative leaves above a frame of stepped arches. A drinking fountain spout and a basin are below. Initially the fountain was set in the courtyard of Bethany Union Church, but was later relocated to its current and publicly viewable site along Wood Street just north of 103rd Street.

The Floriculture Department of the Ridge Woman’s Club commissioned the fountain in memory of local resident Helen Griswold Heffron in 1914. Nellie Heffron (1862-1913) was the well-respected founder and chairman of the club’s Floriculture Department. The department is considered the first of its kind in the U.S., whose purpose was to stimulate and direct interest in local flora and landscape gardening. The Ridge Woman’s Club dedicated the fountain on August 6, 1915 during the club’s Annual Flower Show, whose proceeds were used to fund the fountain’s creation.

While in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, Lorado Taft’s Lincoln, can be viewed by appointment at the John H. Vanderpoel Art Association Gallery at Ridge Park, (773) 779-0007. The maquette, created for a larger and rather famous cast bronze sculpture in Carle Park in downstate Urbana, is approximately eight-feet tall. It is a full standing body length of Abraham Lincoln. Upon the Urbana sculpture’s dedication on July 3, 1927, Lorado Taft revealed that he sought a model of Lincoln “not as Lincoln president and man of sorrow, but Lincoln the young lawyer.” The Vanderpoel Art Association received Lincoln in 1927.

Some of the most notable historic architectural specimens in Chicago’s south side Beverly neighborhood are those associated with the Horton Family. Patriarch Horace E. Horton founded the world-renowned Chicago Bridge and Iron Company in Washington Heights (Beverly) in 1889. Family members clustered in an area around 102nd and Longwood Drive, building homes along the elevated Blue Island Ridge.

Horace E. Horton House, 10200 South Longwood Drive, 1890, Colonial Revival, John T. Long, architect. House built for the founder of Chicago Bridge and Iron, Horace E. Horton (b. December 20, 1843, Herkimer Co, NY – d. ). Long’s design is based on the H.A.C. Taylor House at Newport, RI (1885-1886; McKim, Mead, and White, architects).  According to architectural historian Leland Roth, The Taylor House was the first historically based Colonial Revival house in the U.S. Horton’s home was built shortly after Chicago Bridge and Iron was founded at 105th Street and Throop Avenue in 1889  Horton had just relocated to Chicago from Rochester, MN.

George T. Horton House, 10226 South Longwood Drive, 1908, Colonial Revival, Alfred F. Pashley, architect. George T. Horton (b. 1873, Waupun, WI – d. March 19, 1945, Chicago, IL), was president of Chicago Bridge & Iron following his father Horace’s death in 1912 until 1945. In 1908, he built the house for himself and his new bride, Hazel Heath Horton whom he married on November 27, 1907. Later moved to Kenwood – 4940 Woodlawn Avenue

Hiram T. Horton House, 10235 South Seeley Avenue, 1909-10, Prairie, Harry Hale Waterman, architect; J. D. Heck & Son, Builder.Constructed for Hiram Terry Horton and his wife, Violetta L. (from Linda – Violetta was the daughter of Richard Henry Lee, associated with the Chicago Union Stockyards and one time owner of the Hopkinson-Platt House.) Rear addition dates to 1916 and was built for then owner Charles Baker, a grain broker.  The addition was designed by local architect John Todd Hetherington.

Also…Hiram T. Horton House II, 9840 South Longwood Drive, 1922, Tudor Revival, Sidney Lovell, architect; William W. McCumber, builder.

Many local residents oppose Sterling Bay’s new big box commercial development at the serene and wooded site of the Evergreen Golf and Country Club at 91st Street and Western Avenue. Unfortunately, groups preserving open space are always in an uphill battle once the development process is in motion. In this case, the biggest foe is the Village of Evergreen Park, who strongly supports this development. Village studies would reveal many other available commercial sites for this development. Leaders at the Village of Evergreen Park could easily turn to the redevelopment of Evergreen Plaza, the area’s earliest regional shopping mall. Dating to 1952, Evergreen Plaza has been extensively altered through the years, leaving a visually unappealing mall that is plagued with high retail vacancies. Yet, the Village of Evergreen Park chooses to ignore the obvious redevelopment project instead of preserving open space for the greater public good.

The Evergreen Golf and Country Club is significant in the history of recreation in Chicago’s south land. As the last remaining daily fee golf course of the early-twentieth century, Evergreen Golf embodies a historic movement to level the recreational playing field. Before daily fee and municipal golf courses, golfers only hailed from the upper classes. Both daily fee and municipal courses allowed all citizens an opportunity to be introduced and enjoy a sport in scenic outdoor spaces.

Golf provided a respite from city life. One of the Chicago area’s principal havens for country and golf club development is nestled within the natural contours in and around the Beverly-Morgan Park neighborhood. In the early twentieth-century, the south side community’s appealing natural surroundings and a variable terrain was ideal for a pleasurable and challenging golf course. It was here, just outside the city limits, that Evergreen Golf and Country Club had its start.

In the early 20th-century, a great number of country clubs with golf courses began to spring up around the Chicago area at a rapid pace. Founded by a small group of like-minded colleagues, the country club offered restricted membership for a fee. The club would then cover all of the expenses of land acquisition, facilities construction, operation and maintenance. Local clubs organized where elite members settled in country homes, away from the city, and in close proximity to transportation routes. In Chicago, the earliest country clubs were formed along the area’s highly developed railroad system. Railroad transportation was vital in bringing members from the city to the outlying private clubs. Later, motoring members formed clubs along Chicago’s network of paved roads.

Newly organized country clubs found large parcels of wooded and prairie land for lease or purchase in the lands near Beverly,  meeting their requirements for golf course development. Additionally, as one of Chicago’s higher-class residential districts in the early twentieth-century, Beverly-Morgan Park provided a local membership base essential for club success.

Located just west of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad and hugging Western Avenue, golf enthusiasts easily reached the area’s top-notch cluster of courses for their enjoyment.Here, the Ellerslie (Cross) Country Club opened in 1899, Ridge Country Club incorporated in 1902, and Beverly Country Club was founded in 1908. The Rock Island Country Club, organized in 1926 for employees of the railroad, was a latecomer to the area. All four clubs were private clubs, offering golf as its main activity.

The area’s earliest club was Ellerslie (Cross) Country Club, founded in 1899 between 91st Street, 93rd Street, Western Avenue, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks.[i]  Ellerslie’s 65-acre site was both wooded and prairie, perfect for experiencing a round of golf. Most of its members were not from Beverly-Morgan Park,[ii] rather they arrived at the club via the railroad.  In close proximity to the club was a Rock Island station at Beverly Hills (91st Street).

The designer of Ellerslie’s original golf course, whose fairways crossed the B & O tracks, is unknown. Architect Zachary Taylor Davis, best known for his designs for Wrigley Field and the old Comiskey Park, designed a Dutch Colonial Revival style club house for Ellerslie’s members.[iii] (It burned to the ground in 1906.) With a limited membership of 50, the club was short-lived. Ellerslie Country Club members golfed on their nine-hole course until 1908, when they dissolved the club to join with the newly formed Beverly Country Club.

Ellerslie Country Club’s site became the home of the Evergreen Golf and Country Club in 1924, established by the Ahern family a daily fee course.[iv] Evergreen, as one of Chicago’s earliest daily fee courses, delivered a new golfing alternative to private country club membership. Before daily fee courses, only the Chicago Park Distirct offered golf to the general public. According to Tom Govedarica in Chicago Golf: The First 100 Years, Evergreen Golf and Country Club was the sole survivor of the six daily-fee courses built in Chicago during the 1920s.

Brothers Arthur and Walter Ahern recognized the opportunities their land introduced in the early automobile era. When they opened their semi-private course in the summer of 1924 along Western Avenue, Chicagoans were traveling on newly paved roads to find new leisure opportunities. Nearby was Dan Ryan Woods, a recreational playground operated since 1916 by the Cook County Forest Preserve District. The Aherns opened Beverly Gardens, a wayside restaurant/roadhouse catering to travelers along area roads. The roadhouse, notorious as the site of a 1933 New Year’s Eve robbery and shootout by John Dillinger,  burned down more than 10 years ago.

With the death of 103 year old Anna May “Babe” Ahern in December 2010, the longtime family operators sold Evergreen Golf Club for commercial and residential development in 2011. A Mejier and Menards are planned for the site.

[i]“Ellerslie Country Club Links.”  Chicago Daily Tribune.  July 23, 1899, p. 6.

[ii]A check of members with the 1900 Chicago City Directory shows that many Ellerslie club members resided in the Grand Boulevard community area of Chicago.

[iii]Cronin, Timothy W. Beverly’s First Century: The Country Club in the City. Chicago: The Beverly Country Club, 2008, p. 17

[iv]Krum, Morrow.  “New Evergreen Golf Course Semi-Public.”  Chicago Daily Tribune.  May 20, 1925, p. 30.

Jennifer Kenny, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog, author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jennifer Kenny and/or Local Architecture Chicago Blog with direction to the original content.

One of my important roles as a real estate broker and architectural historian is to guide and educate my clients before purchasing any property. I encourage my clients to exercise due diligence before their purchase.

To assist my Beverly-Morgan Park neighbors, I am posting a map of the Longwood Drive Historic District. This map was produced and published by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in 1981, upon the district’s designation. I am also posting a handy reference, gleamed from the CCL, of address ranges within the Longwood Drive District. This should aid, as a first step, in determining whether a property falls within this particular City of Chicago-designated district. Please consult the City’s Landmark Division for verification, and any other changes or corrections to this map and address list.

Other City of Chicago-designated historic districts fall within Beverly-Morgan Park, as well as the Ridge Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The neighborhood also holds individual local landmarks. In the coming days, I will publish more information on our area’s historic districts. If you have questions, please seek out credible sources of information or contact me through my web site. – JK

Addresses within the Longwood Drive Historic District:
W. 98th St. 1901 thru 1919 (odds)
W. 99th St. 1900 thru 1918 (evens)
W. 99th St. 1901 thru 1919 (odds)
W. 100th St. 1900 thru 1918 (evens)
W. 100th St. 1901 thru 1935 (odds)
W. 101st Pl. 1903 thru 1915 (odds)
W. 101st St. 1900 thru 1914 (evens)
W. 101st St. 1907 thru 1933 (odds)
W. 102nd St. 1900 thru 2006 (evens)
W. 102nd St. 1903 thru 2031 (odds)
W. 103rd St. 1942 thru 1972 (evens)
W. 103rd St. 1945 thru 2043 (odds)
W. 105th Pl. 2000 thru 2026 (evens)
W. 105th Pl. 2001 thru 2041 (odds)
W. 107th St. 2000 thru 2034 (evens)
W. 107th St. 2001 thru 2025 (odds)
W. 108th Pl. 2001 thru 2035 (odds)
W. 108th Pl. 2002 thru 2034 (evens)
S. Longwood Dr. 9800 thru 10122 (evens)
S. Longwood Dr. 10148 thru 10902 (evens)
S. Longwood Dr. 10559 thru 10563 (odds)
S. Seeley Ave. 10201 thru 10657 (odds)
S. Seeley Ave. 10208 thru 10238 (evens)
S. Seeley Ave. 10300 thru 10306 (evens)
S. Seeley Ave. 10330 thru 10338 (evens)
S. Seeley Ave. 10765 thru 10773 (odds)
S. Winchester Ave. 10001 thru 10015 (odds)

One of the first modern Catholic church buildings in Chicago to be constructed to the new liturgical specifications of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s is St. Barnabas.[i] Built in 1968–69 in the Beverly neighborhood, the church holds a commanding presence on the northeast corner of 101st Place and Longwood. It was the second church constructed for the parish, which replaced its original 1923–24 combination church and school building on the same site.[ii] The church, costing approximately $600,000 to build, was designed by the architectural firm of McCarthy, Hundrieser and Associates, Inc. of Arlington Heights, known as Chicago-area church specialists.

For St. Barnabas Parish, architect Carl E. Hundrieser designed a highly structured New Formalist building. New Formalist architecture of the 1960s offered a creative interpretation of Classical styles using innovative technologies of the mid-twentieth century. Using concrete innovations, architects reinvented classical forms, proportions, and elements that were identifiably modern. At St. Barnabas, an amphitheater plan is within a monumental single square building volume topped with a projecting flat roof. The steel-framed building is one story tall and of cement plaster. Each facade exhibits a series of bays divided with stuccoed vertical piers topped with brackets, characteristic of New Formalist architecture. Metal window walls are found at the entries to the church, while elsewhere are tall and narrow arched stained glass windows surrounded by white Portland cement plaster panels. Atop all windows are fascia panels with vertical fluting of the same white cement plaster. The creative use of Trinity White Portland Cement in St. Barnabas Church landed the design in a national advertisement in the November 1970 issue of Architectural Record. The ad celebrated the building’s contrasting white Portland cement plaster which dramatized the effect of the colorful stained glass windows.[iii] Connected to the main sanctuary through a breezeway is a cylindrical wing, which holds a small chapel. This series of organized spaces is also typical of New Formalist architecture. The church at was dedicated on January 19, 1969.

St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church at 10134–40 South Longwood was the last building completed for the evolving parish complex; it consists of a church, convent, school, and rectory. Although it is common for Roman Catholic parish complexes in Chicago to occupy a contiguous site, St. Barnabas Parish is along both sides of prestigious Longwood Drive from 101st Street to 102nd Street. The proximity of its buildings was a result of purchases and construction over a forty-year period, determined by the needs of the growing parish.

In 1946–47 at 10161 South Longwood, the parish constructed a convent for the staff of its school. Prior to the new convent, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, had been residing in a home at 9901 South Longwood purchased in 1924. The stately and symmetrical Georgian Revival convent was designed by the architectural firm of Barry & Kay, prolific designers of Catholic buildings in Chicago.[iv] Ground was broken for the elegantly detailed convent on July 6, 1946.[v] Although initial costs for construction were estimated at $150,000, the convent reached $325,000 when completed in December 1947.[vi] Eighteen nuns were scheduled to live in the building appointed with a chapel, community room, recreation room, laundry, two hospital rooms, two music rooms, and the parish kindergarten.[vii]

Even though they were strapped with the convent’s inflating expenses, the parish had to consider building a new school to meet its burgeoning enrollment. In December 1953, a building permit was issued to construct a new school at the southeast corner of 101st Street and Longwood.[viii] The architectural firm of McCarthy & Smith was chosen to plan the Late Classical Revival school. Today, St. Barnabas School is a two-story brick and stone building with a commodious U-shape plan, modern flat roof, and a Classic-inspired central entry. Of interest is a stepped stainless steel spire on top of a modern corner square tower adorned with honeycomb brick openings. When first opened in 1954 at 10119 South Longwood, the school had twelve classrooms and cost $450,000.[ix] By 1958, the design by Joseph W. McCarthy and Associates was expanded to accommodate 1,000 students in its twenty-four classrooms and had a combination auditorium and gymnasium.[x] It was dedicated on April 5, 1959.[xi]

The final building in the St. Barnabas Parish complex is the rectory. Two existing residences have served as rectories for St. Barnabas. The first, The Frances A. Marsh House from 1889 at 10154 South Longwood was purchased in 1924 and sold in 1947. In the latter year, another home was designated for use as a rectory and remodeled by the architectural firm of McCarthy and Smith.[xii] The Edward L. Roberts House, a Shingle style home built in 1892–93 as a showcase for a lumber mill proprietor, remains today as the St. Barnabas Rectory. In 1949, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the parish, it was said that “the present Rectory was acquired, refitted and occupied, all for a sum considerably less than the cost of a new building of equal capacity and location.”[xiii] The St. Barnabas Rectory is at 10134 South Longwood.

St. Barnabas Parish is the first Irish-Catholic parish in Beverly–Morgan Park. In the spring of 1924, Irish-Catholic families in Beverly organized a new parish led by its pastor, Rev. Timothy J. Hurley. Catholics were a minority religious group among large numbers of Protestants in the 1920s. When an initial site was chosen for a new church at the southwest corner of 100th Street and Longwood, community residents had the property condemned for a park in hopes of dissuading the congregation from building in Beverly. Hurley’s efforts were not thwarted; a new site was chosen, and construction began on a combination church and school building. Although the first church building is gone, Hurley Park commemorates the efforts of this pastor and its founders. Today, St. Barnabas remains one of Chicago’s largest Irish-Catholic parishes.

[i] Kantowicz, Edward R. The Archdiocese of Chicago: A Journey of Faith. Chicago: The Archdiocese of Chicago, 2007, p. 109.

[ii] The original church was an Italian (Lombard) Renaissance Revival style building designed by architects Arthur Foster, Ellert & Sandel.

[iii] Advertisement, “Creative architecture often finds expression in white cement plaster.” Architectural Record. November 1970, p. 19.

[iv] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 72148. Ledger Book 56, p. 260. July 11, 1946.

[v] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 100. A jubilee booklet from 1949 has a conflicting date of June 21, 1946.

[vi] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 100.

[vii] “St. Barnabas Catholic Church, Beverly Hills, 1924–1949.” Silver Jubilee Souvenir Booklet. September 25, 1949. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[viii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. B104521. December 23, 1953.

[ix] “Plan to Build 12 Room School at St. Barnabas.” Chicago Daily Tribune. February 22, 1953, p. SW7.

[x] “New Parochial School to Hold Open House.” Chicago Daily Tribune. November 23, 1958, p. SW4.

[xi] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 101.

[xii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 47439. December 12, 1947. Cost $4000.

[xiii] “St. Barnabas Catholic Church, Beverly Hills, 1924–1949.” Silver Jubilee Souvenir Booklet. September 25, 1949. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

At the western edge of Beverly is the Roman Catholic Parish of St. John Fisher. Its campus, between 102nd Street, 103rd Street, Fairfield, and Washtenaw, tells a story of neighborhood growth through its mid-twentieth-century buildings. After residential real estate development escalated in the prairies of West Beverly following World War II, St. John Fisher was founded for the neighborhood’s newly arriving Roman Catholics in 1948. Its first pastor, Rev. Joseph B. Heldmann, served a parish community whose boundaries stemmed from three surrounding Catholic parishes: St. Barnabas, St. Cajetan, and St. Christina. In the parish’s infancy, Fr. Heldmann temporarily held masses in the basement of the J. Wayne Huddleston residence at 10324 South Talman.[i] When nearby St. Cajetan constructed a new church building, St. John Fisher Parish saw an opportunity to re-use its modest, one-story, 35′ x 110′ frame church.[ii] In June 1949, the parish moved the old building down Western and re-assembled it from three sections at a new site at 10230 South Washtenaw. A congregation of 371 families worshipped for the first time in the relocated church. In 1956, the parish realized its dream of a new church to meet the needs of its growing congregation. By then, parish families numbered 1,097.[iii]

St. John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, at 10231–33 South Fairfield, is a one-story brick church building whose design evolved through the years. Designed in 1955–56 by local architect John L. Bartolomeo & Associates,[iv] the original building was decidedly Contemporary in style with low-pitched roof lines, unadorned facades, severe angles, geometric elements, and large expanses of glass. For the most part, Bartolomeo’s original design, which seated approximately 850, is no longer apparent after a critical 1964 alteration. The church was initially entered near its east end, and its altar was at the west end. Bartolomeo’s design emphasized angular elements, including sweeping rooflines, a prow window, and a hexagonal, stained glass window above the altar. Excited parishioners dedicated their own first church on September 16, 1956, and the simple frame church building was razed.

In the early 1960s, a swelling population created a need for a larger, more-accommodating church. Soon, the parish’s spiritual center was decisively modified. In 1963, the parish retained original church architects John L. Bartolomeo & Associates to design an east cruciform addition to the 1955–56 church. The one-story, brick and concrete addition featured a main section with an elongated, low-pitched gable roof with clerestory windows, mostly unadorned brick facades, and small honeycomb rectangular windows in the transept. With the addition, the parish remodeled the existing rectangular sanctuary, enlarging it to a cruciform plan with an increased seating capacity of 1,400. For visual impact, the altar was relocated to the slightly taller east-end addition of the church. The architects also expanded the church slightly outward to the south, removing the original multilight windows and installing brick piers that frame each recessed window bay featuring stained glass windows. Also at the south facade, the design offered a flat-roofed canopy over the southwest corner entry and an unusual, open brick and concrete bell tower with three symbolic soaring brick piers and three bells celebrating the Holy Trinity.

Also symbolic are the modern-styled stained glass windows, designed by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France. Each window is a reverent expression: the feeling of Mass, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Crown of Thorns, St. John the Baptist announcing the coming Messiah, Elias’ altar, Melchisedech first offering bread and wine, Abraham’s sacrifice, the story of Noah, and the Mass as it is offered to the people. The clerestory windows are devoted to the Holy Trinity and Jesus’ disciples spreading the gospel. Finally, the small, honeycomb windows in the transepts pay tribute to the life of St. John Fisher.[v]

Surprisingly, all construction took place while the church building remained in use. Parishioners celebrated the dedication of the remodeled church at a Mass on April 12, 1964, presided by Albert Cardinal Meyer and Rev. John J. Kane.[vi] Finally, in 1970, the parish installed the altar of repose and remodeled the school basement in honor of Rev. John J. Kane, St. John Fisher’s second pastor. Later, the church’s main entry was inserted into a remodeled west facade.

St. John Fisher Parish continued Chicago’s Roman Catholic tradition of creating community centers that met the religious, educational, and social needs of its members. In the 1950s and 1960s, the parish undertook a building program that created a campus of buildings. They constructed an elementary school and a gymnasium while also meeting the clergy’s needs with a rectory and a convent.

The St. John Fisher School, at 10204 South Washtenaw, was the first building specifically constructed for the parish. Built in 1949–51 at a cost of $275,000, the school was designed in the International style by architects G. A. Barry and F. D. Eddy, with Henry Brothers as contractor.[vii] The austere, two-story stone-veneered building featured a flat roof, block forms, unadorned surfaces, and ribbons of windows. Two main block forms defined the design, with entries to the building under cantilevered roofs, into a one-story block at the north end and then into the main two-story classroom block. Until the convent was constructed, the school’s sisters resided on the second floor of the building.[viii] In 1955–56, the parish expanded the elementary school with a classroom addition to the west that was designed by John L. Bartolomeo & Associates. In an Articulated Frame style, the midcentury modern school addition features a flat roof, regularly spaced window openings, geometric massing, rectilinear forms, and simple exterior grid that emphasize the structural elements or “bones” of the building. The two-story brick, concrete, and steel addition also included a library, a kindergarten, a hall, and rare bridge connectors to adjacent campus buildings. This improvement came at the time of the new church building’s construction. By the time of completion, the school had thirty-two classrooms.[ix]

When the parish desired a gymnasium in 1962–63, Heldmann Hall addition was constructed to the north of the original 1949–51 school building. Like other buildings in the parish complex, Heldmann Hall was designed by architects John L. Bartolomeo & Associates. Heldmann Hall, in the Late International style, is one of St. John Fisher Parish’s notable buildings. The severely designed, three-story building marks its functions on its exterior (hall below, two-story gymnasium above) through the use of contrasting materials. The building appears to be raised on stone clad piers at the first floor. Window walls that rest on a brick bulkhead are recessed behind these piers. The upper two stories are clad with a smooth surfaced brick exterior broken only by vertical channels of windows. To connect Heldmann Hall to the rest of the school, the north wing and entry of the original 1949–51 school building was removed and a new entry inserted.

From the early years, St. John Fisher Church provided housing for its parish clergy. The first St. John Fisher Rectory, a Colonial Revival residence at 10201 South Washtenaw, was built in 1949–50. Architect F. F. Cunningham designed the two-story brick residence while Lidberg Stone built it a cost of $22,000. [x] In 1962, a two-story brick rectory was constructed at 10234 South Washtenaw. John L. Bartolomeo & Associates designed this International style building with a flat roof and grouped windows. The new rectory, while providing a home to parish priests, was also conceived as a parish administration center. Plans called for a parish business office, three private offices, and several small meeting rooms.

Permanent residency for the Sisters of St. Joseph came when ground was broken in the summer of 1953 for the St. John Fisher Convent at 10201 South Fairfield.[xi] After temporarily residing in the school and then the first rectory, the sisters were welcomed into their new, two-story brick residence. Like the original school building, the convent was designed in the International style. Architects Barry and Kay created a simple brick design devoid of all ornament with a flat roof, grouped hopper and fixed windows, and a projecting main entry on 102nd Street with a cantilevered roof.

[i] St. John Fisher Parish. Silver Jubilee, 1948–1973, p. 14. Booklet in the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[ii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 21300, November 29, 1948. One-story frame church, 35x110x18, Cost $35,000. The architect of record is Barry and Kay, and the contractor is F. Wolsheid.

[iii] “St. John Fisher Parish Solemn Dedication Program.” April 12, 1964. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[iv] St. John Fisher Parish. Silver Jubilee, 1948–1973, p. 10. Booklet in the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[v] For detailed descriptions of the stained glass windows, see “St. John Fisher Parish Solemn Dedication Program.” April 12, 1964. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[vi] “St. John Fisher Parish Solemn Dedication Program.” April 12, 1964. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[vii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 36664. December 12, 1949. Ledger Book 60, p. 568. One, two-story brick school building, 63’x184’x36′, Cost $275,000. Final report dated 3/16/1951.

[viii] St. John Fisher Parish. Silver Jubilee, 1948–1973, p. 17. Booklet in the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[ix] Ibid., p. 20.

[x] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 27665, June 7, 1949. Ledger Book 60, p. 61. One, two-story brick rectory and attached garage, 33’6″x35’x25′ and 22’x22’x12′, Cost $22,000. Final report, January 30, 1950.

[xi] Ibid., p. 18.

Morgan Park received its second Roman Catholic parish in 1927 with the establishment of St. Cajetan Church. While Sacred Heart Parish was created as a national or ethnic-based parish serving French-Americans, the Archdiocese of Chicago founded St. Cajetan for Morgan Park’s growing Irish-Catholic population. Members of this territorial parish, whose boundaries were established by the Archdiocese, lived between 107th Street, 119th Street, Vincennes and California.

Over a forty-year period, St. Cajetan Parish constructed a complex of buildings to meet its growing needs. Soon after the Archdiocese purchased property at 112th Street between Artesian and Campbell in 1927, the congregation utilized a small, temporary frame church building. In the 1930s, the parish built a rectory at 11207 South Artesian (1934) and its first school, a two-story, brick building designed by architect Gerald A. Barry with English Gothic Revival elements (1936-37).[i] With only eight classrooms, the school at 11201-23 South Campbell was destined for expansion. Following World War II, when the population of West Morgan Park rose exponentially, the parish built a six-classroom addition to the south end of the school which also included a church. A relationship with architect Gerald Barry continued when the parish hired the architectural firm of Barry and Kay to design the addition in 1946-47.[ii] Four years later, the parish expanded the school once again with a second story classroom addition and a two-story stairwell completed in 1952 and designed by the same architects.[iii]

St. Cajetan Parish furthered its building program in the 1950s with the construction of a two-story brick convent at 2445 W. 112th Street.[iv] While architects Barry and Kay revived the use of English Gothic Revival ornament in another building at St. Cajetan, the convent built in 1950 is starkly modern, particularly in its plain wall surfaces. Today, the building is the St. Cajetan Parish Center. In 1954, rising enrollment and educational needs forced the construction of a second school building. The parish built a one-story brick primary school at 11214-20 South Artesian featuring six classrooms and Memorial Hall.[v] A second floor was added later.[vi]

The architectural gem of the parish complex is the current St. Cajetan Church at 2435-41 West 112th Street. This unusual mid-twentieth-century church was built in 1961–62[vii] from designs by the architectural firm of Barry & Kay, prolific Chicago church architects of the midcentury period. The Lannon stone building at the southwest corner of 112th Street and Artesian is a Late Gothic Revival style church set within an A-frame form. It is graced with a sweeping, low-lying broad front gable roof facing 112th Street that projects at the ridgeline. The welcoming front facade features a three-bay central entry with three segmental arch openings over recessed front doors. Above is a stunning three-part stained glass window depicting Christ flanked by graceful sinuous modern fish sculptures in stone. Its facade is nontraditional and inviting in its scale with a roofline that almost meets the sidewalk. Yet it is still outwardly vertical in its soaring smooth stone piers dividing the window and door bays and niches. On the interior is a sanctuary seating 1,100. Albert Cardinal Meyer dedicated the new church on April 19, 1964.[viii]

[i] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit no. 41325, May 11, 1936. Ledger Book South 49, p. 176. Two-story brick school, 100’10”x80’x33.’ Cost $50,000. Architect: G. Barry. Contractor: Carney Construction Co.

[ii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit no. 00511, October 24, 1946. One- and two-story church and school, 60’x121’x40, Cost $138,651. Architects Barry & Kay. Contractor Henry Brothers.

[iii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit no. 63191, August 21, 1951. Second story classroom addition, 60’x48’x14’, and two-story addition for stairwell. Cost $66,603. Architects Barry & Kay. Contractor T. J. Durkin.

[iv] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit no. 38244, February 7, 1950. Two-story brick convent, 44’106’x32.5’, Cost $155,000. Architects Barry & Kay. Contractor Gordon Hamilton.

[v] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit no. 108512, April 9, 1954. One-story brick school building, 62’121’x26’, Cost $200,000. Architects Barry & Kay. Contractor J. J. Kinnare.

[vi] “St. Cajetan Church” in A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume One. Chicago: The Archdiocese of Chicago, 1980, p. 158.

[vii] “Cardinal to Dedicate St. Cajetan Church.” Chicago Tribune. April 5, 1964, p. SW10.

[viii] Ibid.

At the southern tip of Western Avenue, Chicago’s longest thoroughfare, is a fine example of midcentury church architecture in the Morgan Park community area. St. Walter Roman Catholic Parish constructed a combination church and school building in 1955–56 at the northeast corner of 118th Street and Western. St. Walter’s, founded in 1953, served residents in the southernmost section of the Morgan Park neighborhood. Following the construction of numerous single-family residences in the post–World War II era, the southern portion of Morgan Park attracted Catholics, who desired a parish of their own. The congregation first met in temporary facilities at 121st Street and Western in the nearby Village of Blue Island and established a rectory at 11713 South Maplewood.[i] After a sprawling vacant site was secured, plans were drawn up by the architectural firm of Gaul and Voosen for a new church, school, and convent.[ii] Although a few neighbors objected to the siting of the new parish, zoning was later approved and ground was broken for the new complex.[iii]

The brick, limestone, and Lannon stone building, constructed in 1955–56 at 11715–59 South Western, is a fine example of the International style of architecture, a modern style distinguished by its minimalism. In lieu of any applied surface ornament, interest is created through manipulation of the building’s form, its structural system, and its fenestration. Architects Gaul and Voosen created a low-profile building with an L-shaped plan on an expansive site. Functions are separated in this sprawling design, with the school in one section of the L and the church and convent in the other. Characteristic of International architecture, all roofs are flat, and the design is geometric and block-like in form.

The church sanctuary is entered through a shared, window-walled main entry with the school. It exhibits a facade of square and smooth ashlar stone blocks and a projecting central block bay that extends above the flat roofline. This bay features full-height stained glass windows and an affixed metal cross. Unadorned brick side walls are visually broken by a narrow cornice with a stone course, tall and narrow rectangular stained glass windows, and a ribbon of ground-level windows. Corner wings, which are block-like and one story tall, are clad in Lannon stone and contrast with the brick walls. The sanctuary allows for approximately 700 worshipers. St. Walter Church was dedicated on October 7, 1956.[iv]

The school wing to the north, which was later extended, is rectangular in plan with a flat roof. To decrease noise from busy Western Avenue, horizontal ribbons of glass block windows were installed.[v] Also adding to the building’s horizontality are stacked awning windows and continuous panels of Lannon stone below. The school was opened in the fall of 1955 and initially operated by the Sisters of St. Dominic.

At the rear is the convent is a two-story wing with similar materials, block forms, picture windows, and flat roofs. The convent originally housed the school staff. Completing the complex is the final building constructed for St. Walter Parish. The rectory, at the rear of the church at 11722 South Oakley, is also International style. The same architectural firm, Gaul and Voosen, designed the building, which was dedicated in 1963.[vi]

[i] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume II, p. 980. The address was 12034 South Western.

[ii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. B125349. February 11, 1955.

[iii] Murphy, Ray. “Defer Zone Approval for New Church.” Chicago Daily Tribune. July 18, 1954, p. SWA1.

[iv] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume II, p. 980.

[v] “Work to Start on St. Walter Project Soon.” Chicago Daily Tribune. November 4, 1954, p. S1.

[vi] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume II, p. 980.

(All photos courtesy of the Antiquities of the Prize Ring Photo Archive, Hilliard, Ohio)

Although Grand Beach is a golf community that concludes each summer with the crowning of its golf champions, in 1937, a different type of champion took centerstage. In that year, the boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World, James J. Braddock, and his manager, Joe Gould, chose Grand Beach as the setting for his boxing training camp leading up to a fight billed as “A Night to Remember.” On the night of June 22, 1937, the 31-year old Irish-American boxer known as the “Cinderella Man,” was to defend his championship crown by fighting a youthful Joe Louis at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

Preparations began in Grand Beach on April 30th when the entourage set up its headquarters at the Pinewood Inn (Tall Oaks Inn). For nearly two months, Braddock and his sparring partners, Charlie Massera and Joe McCarthy, spent their days training for the big fight. Daily conditioning, led by Braddock’s trainer Doc Robb Lippman, included running on the beach, through the woods, and on the streets of the village to strengthen his legs, chopping trees to build shoulder muscles, and a regimen of golf and tennis.

While Braddock’s training camp was welcomed in Grand Beach, his opponent Joe Louis was not as fortunate. Even though the fighter chose summer resort Lake Geneva, WI for his headquarters, homeowners there voted against hosting Joe Louis and his associates. The “Brown Bomber” then moved his training to Kenosha, WI.

At Grand Beach’s Golfmore Hotel, labeled by the press as one of the most pretentious sites for boxing training quarters, a ring was constructed with surrounding seating for over 1,000 onlookers. The public was invited to witness shadow boxing, ring drills, and workout bouts at the “Golfmore Training Camp” which officially opened to over 100 members of the press on May 20.. The Golfmore Training Camp became the “Camp of Champions” when boxing’s Welterweight Champion, Barney Ross, arrived in Grand Beach to train for his own title bout. The camp continued in Grand Beach up until a few days before the fight.

While confident and in excellent shape from his training at Grand Beach, on June 22, 1937, the “Brown Bomber” Joe Louis defeated the “Cinderella Man” Jimmy Braddock with a knockout in the eighth round. Before a crowd of 55,000 at Comiskey Park, Joe Lewis became the youngest ever to ascend into the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World. Nonetheless, Jimmy Braddock, a poor, depression era boxer that rose to become champion of the world, has been recently immortalized in a motion picture now on video entitled the “Cinderella Man.”

Although many of us have heard of the traditions of naming boats, planes, or hurricanes, did you know that Grand Beachers began a tradition of naming their summer cottages back in the early decades of the 20th century? Perhaps cottage names began as a marketing strategy to attract buyers and renters of “country houses” or maybe it was just practical for residents to identify their homes without addresses. Cottage names in Grand Beach were often inspirational, literary or romantic, or named for beloved people or places. Some homes still have signs with their names, such as Mt. Airy, Oak Lawn, Beverly, Hazeldean, and House by the Side of the Road. How many of these historic Grand Beach cottage names do you recognize?

Amity Lodge
Arcadia
Arendale
Beacon Light
Beverly
Bittersweet
Brucewood
Cedar
Craigie Lea
Dun Wandrin
Edenbank
Elbon
Fernbrook
Greenview
Hazeldean
House of the Four Winds
Hunt
Igloo Cottage
Inglewood
Inwood Knoll
Linger Longer
Lupine
Millerette
Miramar
Morning Star
Morningside
Mt. Airy
Pine Ridge
Pine Top
Repossee
Shadyside
Sheila
Sleepy Hollow
Snug Haven
Summer Laine
Summerhame
Suncrest
Tanglewood
Tarry-a-while
The Oaks
The Timbers
Villa Rosa
Villa Van
Virginia
Wedgewood
Wenonah Lodge
White House
Willella

With the recent demolition of the 115th Street Railroad Station, it is time once again to revisit the historic and architectural importance of Beverly-Morgan Park’s railroad stations. Commuters who pass by daily do not realize that almost all of the Beverly–Morgan Park’s earliest historic commercial buildings surround the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad tracks.[i] Seven anchoring railroad stations in picturesque styles once served as loci for “Main Streets” in the principally residential community. In many residential railroad suburbs of Chicago, commercial districts developed adjacent to commuter stations and tracks. Built over time, these traditional commercial districts usually represent buildings from the earliest period of community development through the current era. While most historic suburban communities in Chicago have one central business district around their railroad station, the multiple commercial areas found a half mile apart at 91st, 95th, 99th, 103rd, 107th, 111th, and 115th Streets are unique. At the rails in Beverly–Morgan Park are walkable, compact cores of historic storefronts, each developed to serve commuters who traveled to and from Chicago’s Loop. Every depot was individually named, evoking romantic charm or connecting with historic figures and places. However, in 1926 the railroad unified the stations under each neighborhood name (Beverly or Morgan Park), distinguished only by mundane numeric street names where depots were located.

Today, five of the seven historic railroad depots remain as neighborhood icons. While other stations in former railroad suburbs in Chicago were demolished and rebuilt on embankments for traffic relief, this at-grade grouping is unique. Commuter railroad stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are distinctive examples of nineteenth- and twentieth-century depots in Chicago’s suburbs. Built between 1889 and 1945, the historic stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are fashionable and reflect the materials, scale, and architectural trends of the era. They too are functional, typically housing a ticket office, a waiting room, and exterior canopies to shelter passengers. Large expanses of windows are standard, including projecting bay windows to view incoming trains. Fueled by a desirable image, community leaders wanted improved and architecturally impressive train stations. New C.R.I. & P. R. R. commuter train stations, with the latest conveniences complete with waiting room and baggage room, were designed. They are rare, visual reminders of the community’s suburban and railroad history. Beverly–Morgan Park’s railroad stations, now a local historic district, are a fabulous collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century transportation landmarks of great interest to rail fans and historians across the country.

Surrounding the depots are inviting natural and designed landscapes that greet commuters and visitors who pass by the community daily. Beginning in the early twentieth century in Beverly–Morgan Park, community groups recognized the importance of the railroad station districts as community centers and places of civic pride. By then, the City Beautiful movement in urban planning had gained significant momentum in Chicago and had led to planned efforts at the community level to improve aesthetics. Groups such as the Beverly Improvement Association and the Civic Improvement Committee of the Beverly Hills Woman’s Club studied, envisioned, and then implemented programs to beautify neighborhood landscapes, especially those around each depot. Enhancements such as public parks, tree and shrub planting programs, and the introduction of landscape elements created a stunning natural backdrop at the depots that still remains today. The Civic Association of the Beverly Hills Woman’s Club executed one of the community’s most ambitious beautification projects between 1924 and 1934. According to a report submitted by the chairman of this committee, Blanche M. Buttles, the committee believed “our five Rock Island Suburban station grounds presented the greatest need for civic pride.”[ii] Using funds raised through the Woman’s Club’s annual flower show, they beautified the grounds around five railroad stations in Beverly–Morgan Park. Blanche Buttles’s successes in landscape beautification led to a position as horticulturalist of the Rock Island Railroad Suburban Line.[iii]

Around each railroad station in Beverly–Morgan Park are traditional, small-town business districts with pedestrian-oriented commercial buildings densely clustered on small blocks. Although they vary in size and density, the railroad commercial districts are compact and wholly commercial in character. Historically serving the residents of the immediate community, businesses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often included retailers and service-oriented businesses such as bakeries, beauty shops, butcher shops, cleaners, drug stores, dry goods stores, funeral homes, groceries and markets, jewelers, plumbing shops, variety stores, and professionals such as doctors and dentists. Most of these businesses were individual or family-run operations in single-storefront buildings, sometimes with second-floor living quarters or storage. The businesses were pedestrian-oriented, attracting customers walking often to and from the train station. Additionally, these businesses were place where shopkeepers typically knew their customers’ names.

Typical patterns of development in late-nineteenth-century Chicago railroad suburbs follow either a linear commercial configuration, where commercial buildings are on a street or streets that parallel the tracks, or in a T-shaped or perpendicular configuration, where buildings are on a street that intersects the tracks. Both types, which expand outward from the commuter rail stations, are found in Beverly–Morgan Park in varying sizes. Ninety-First Street’s commercial core developed in a linear fashion, 95th Street in a traditional T or perpendicular configuration, 99th Street in both a linear and perpendicular development, 103rd Street as a perpendicular business district, 107th Street and 111th Street as both; and 115th Street a perpendicular or T-shaped commercial core.

The commercial architecture along the rails is generally situated in an orthogonal street grid pattern on a north-south—east-west axis. These commercial areas were originally platted on the grid in very narrow, long, rectangular lots suitable for lot-line to lot-line commercial structures. General characteristics of these commercial cores include a street wall of structures built up to the front and side property lines with party walls; sidewalks with street trees; curbs and gutters; and on-street parallel parking. Today, asphalt-paved, pay-as-you-go parking lots also hug the railroad tracks at many of the Metra–Rock Island stations. A very small number of historic homes near the railroad stations are part of the commercial district, having been converted to commercial office space but retaining the home’s residential appearance.

The stylistic features and integrity of many of the older structures in Beverly–Morgan Park’s commercial districts are generally good. Alterations to storefronts sometimes involve overall material replacement. The upper stories on some of the more notable buildings have window replacement and infill. Nevertheless, distinctive cornices and handsome window surrounds on many of the buildings give the areas a sweeping and visually appealing historic character.

[i] Today, the commuter line is known as the Metra–Rock Island.

[ii] Buttles, Mrs. Ben E., Beverly Hills Woman’s Club of Chicago. “Song of Songs.” An unpublished manuscript dated January 23, 1939, in the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society.

[iii] Ibid.

115TH Street—Raymond Station

The last railroad stop in Morgan Park before reaching the city’s southern limits is at 115th Street, where the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (C.R.I. & P.R.R.) built a 22′ x 50′ frame passenger station at 11449 South Hale in 1891.[i] Known historically as the Raymond Station, this two-story depot with a simple rectangular plan is one of the area’s most unassuming designs. Although spare in detailing, it is not without visual interest. Its steeply pitched hipped roof, punctuated by dormers of varying roof lines on all four sides, gracefully curves outward with its flared, deep eaves, which shelter passengers. Curving lines also smooth the depot’s four corners, where exterior frame materials fluidly wrap each corner. The fluidity of the design and its steep roof are reminiscent of the Shingle style from the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Although the station’s architect is unknown, it was built by contractor Porter J. Walker[ii] for $3,600, financed by Village of Morgan Park residents ($2,700) and the C.R.I. & P.R.R. ($900).[iii]

Sadly, the station burned in June 2017 and demolished by Metra shortly after.

Although many of the train stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are surrounded by small-scale commercial districts, very few commercial buildings are at 115th Street. Just across the tracks from the station, at the northeast corner of 115th Street and Hale, is a Two Part Commercial Block at 1952–54 West 115th Street. Built in 1928–29 for owners Viking and Lindholm, it was designed by architect Roy Walter Stott.[iv] This yellow brick corner building built with storefronts and apartments above hints at Italian Renaissance Revival in its ornamental detailing. Like other railroad station storefront buildings, the Viking and Lindholm Stores once housed locally owned businesses that served commuters who used the station at 115th Street. At one time, businesses here included a delicatessen and a Service Drug Store. Two other brick commercial buildings representing early- to mid-twentieth-century businesses at the tracks include a One Part Commercial Block at 2010–12 West 115th Street and a Two Part Commercial Block at 1920 West 115th Street, neither of which is now used for retailing.

The tradition of landscaped open space around passenger stations continued at 115th Street, but many decades after the Village of Morgan Park was annexed to Chicago. The Chicago Park District established Blackwelder Park in 1974, creating another town common across from the depot.

[i] Twelfth Annual Report of the Directors to the Stockholders of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. April 1, 1892, p. 10. Also “Substantial Improvements at Morgan Park.” The Economist. November 7, 1891, p. 780.

[ii] Herriott, David. “Reminiscences of Early Days in Morgan Park and The Ridge: Paper No. 27.” The Beverly Review. December 7, 1939. Bob White Files AB-16, Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 28836, October 8, 1928, Ledger Book South 45, p. 380. Two-story brick store, apartments and garage, 35x62x30 and 20x20x12, Cost $20,000.

Are you looking to buy a single-family home in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood? The buildings and streetscapes within the Ridge Historic District, listed through community efforts in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, are worth a look. The Ridge Historic District, named for the area’s most prominent topographical feature, is bounded roughly by 87th Street, the Penn Central & Rock Island railroads, Prospect Avenue, 115th Street, Longwood Drive, Lothair Avenue, Bell Avenue, Hoyne Avenue, Damen Avenue, Hamilton Avenue, and Leavitt Street. The district is considered America’s third-largest urban National Register district, with over 3,000 buildings that contribute to its historic character. Within this large scale district, architectural gems and unique attractions are honored. Five rare examples of historic railroad passenger stations along the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (today’s Metra–Rock Island) line are reminders of the community’s suburban history and are also of great interest to railroad fans across the country.

When the Ridge Historic District was established in 1976, residents were looking to preserve an entire historic community, not just a single building. They chose formal recognition of the district’s beauty and history and successfully designated the area in the National Register of Historic Places. Since National Register certification in 1976, the City of Chicago has designated three local historic districts: Longwood Drive, Walter Burley Griffin Place, and the Beverly–Morgan Park Railroad Stations. Additionally, five individual buildings are City of Chicago local landmarks: the Iglehart House at 11118 South Artesian, Palliser’s Cottage Home Number 35 at 2314 West 111th Place, and three homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: the William and Jessie Adams House at 9326 South Pleasant and the American System-Built houses at 10410 and 10541 South Hoyne.

I will help you find an architecturally distinctive home with a history. I can help you understand property tax incentives available to homeowners who rehab according to certain standards and spend a threshold dollar amount. Be sure to contact me, Beverly’s only real estate broker who is an architectural historian, if you are interested in purchasing a home in Beverly.

Historic landscapes for warmer weather

With Spring’s arrival this week, many Chicagoans bolt outdoors to finally enjoy the rising temperatures after a long winter. If you seeking an unusual outdoor space to enjoy nature and the blessings of Spring, look to the garden grotto, found on the grounds of a number of Catholic parishes and institutions. The grotto, a symbolic religious structure within a landscape, is an American 20th-century vernacular form built into a garden landscape with rocks and concrete. Typically found in gardens adjacent to churches or other religious buildings, grottoes are often used as outdoor chapels or as a place of perpetual adoration. Grottoes are derivative of the natural cave, often associated with the dwelling place of divinities, and crafted into a cave-like form. Twentieth-century American grottoes can be large or small, but usually fall into three categories: a folk art grotto, with an assemblage of glass, ceramic pieces, gem stones, and concrete; a garden grotto with naturalistic materials, setting, and design; or a statuary grotto with focus on a single statue or sacred object placed within an architecturally-designed surround or a background structure.

Garden grottoes are the most common in the Chicago area, with at least 25 known to exist. Members of the Catholic clergy commissioned or even built their own grottoes on their properties in honor of an important event, anniversary, or person. In one of the best known studies of grottoes, Sacred Spaces and Other Places, Lisa Stone and Jim Zanzi identify the 20th-century Midwestern grotto as based in European garden shrine and grotto tradition, and noted they were constructed especially by immigrant Catholic clergy. Catholics often erected grottoes as an outdoor shrine to favorite saints, or in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Builders placed stone statues within carved out niches or on top of the grotto, reflecting the religious figure honored in the garden shrine. Marian grottoes are the most common, with a great number inspired by the well-known grotto at Lourdes, France where St. Bernadette Soubirous experienced apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Within a planned sacred landscape, the grotto often serves the principal focal point or destination. Planned circulation paths often are axial and approach from the front, or are curvilinear paths that wind around from the side. Since grottoes are typically found on the grounds owned by a religious institution, it is not surprising that the grotto can be part of group of sacred shrines for worship, such as the Stations of the Cross, linked by paths for its pilgrimaging visitors. The grotto inspires reverence and peacefulness to its visitors, offering a quiet, sacred space for reflection and meditation.

Over 10 years ago, I researched and wrote about a grotto landscape (now demolished). The New World (now Chicago Catholic) offered a publication piece to help locate grottoes in Chicago and its suburbs. The following is an evolving list of known grottoes, extant or not extant, in the Chicago area. Please note that these grottoes, if extant, are located on private property and permission may be necessary to visit. If you know the status of any of these grottoes, please contact me via this site.

• Academy of Our Lady, School Sisters of Notre Dame/Chicago Public Schools Charter School, Chicago, Lourdes garden, 1908
• St. Isadore the Farmer Parish, Blue Island, Lourdes garden, 1946
• St. John the Baptist Church, Harvey, Lourdes garden, 1927
• Our Mother of Sorrows Provincial House, Sisters, Servants of Mary (Mantellate Sisters), Blue Island, 1926
• St. Joseph Parish, Summit, Lourdes garden, 1934
• St. Mary Catholic Cemetery, Evergreen Park, Lourdes garden
• Bethlehem Woods Retirement Community, Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange, LaGrange Park, Lourdes garden, 1926
• Dominican University, Dominican Sisters, Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary (Sinsinawa Dominicans), River Forest, Lourdes garden, c. 1923
• Felician Sisters Provincial House, Congregation of the Sisters of St.Felix of Cantalice (Felician Sisters), Chicago, Lourdes garden, 1921-1927
• Felician Sisters Provincial House, Congregation of the Sisters of St.Felix of Cantalice (Felician Sisters), Chicago, Stations/Cross, garden, 1921-1927
• Felician Sisters Provincial House, Congregation of the Sisters of St.Felix of Cantalice (Felician Sisters), Chicago, Fatima, 1921-1927
• Maria Immaculata Convent (Mallinckrodt), Sisters of Christian Charity/Wilmette Park District, Wilmette, Lourdes garden, 1916
• St. Scholastica Priory, Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, Chicago, Chapel, 1906
• Mount Assisi Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, Stations/Cross, 1926
• Mount Assisi Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, Stations/Cross
• Mount Assisi Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, St. Francis
• Holy Ghost Academy, Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit, Techny, Lourdes garden, 1914
• Provincial House, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Des Plaines
• Our Lady of Victory Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, 1963
• Resurrection Retirement Home, Sisters of the Resurrection, Chicago, Lourdes garden,
• Lourdes High School, Sisters of St. Joseph of the 3rd Order of St. Francis, Chicago
• St. Casimir Convent, Sisters of St. Casimir, Chicago, 1909
• Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, Chicago, Lourdes garden.
• Seven Dolors Shrine, Franciscan Fathers of the Most Holy Saviour Commissariat, Valparaiso, IN, Lourdes garden.
• Seven Dolors Shrine, Franciscan Fathers of the Most Holy Saviour Commissariat, Valparaiso, IN, Stations/Cross, garden.
• Seven Dolors Shrine, Franciscan Fathers of the Most Holy Saviour Commissariat, Valparaiso, IN, St. Francis
• Seven Dolors Shrine, Franciscan Fathers of the Most Holy Saviour Commissariat, Valparaiso, IN, Sorrowful Mother
• Villa St. Benedict, Benedictan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Lisle, Lourdes garden,
• Sacred Heart Seminary, Kane County Government Center, Geneva, Altar
• St. Raphael Parish, Sisters of Christian Charity (closed), Chicago, Lourdes garden,
• Guardian Angel Home, Joliet
• University of St. Francis, Franciscans of Joliet (to be senior housing), Joliet.
• St. Cecelia Convent, Chicago, Lourdes garden
• St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Lourdes garden
• St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Stations/Cross garden
• Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Chicago, Lourdes garden, 1940s
• Holy Angels Church, Aurora
• Annunciation Church, Aurora, Lourdes garden
• Carmelite Motherhouse, Darien
• National Shrine of St. Jude, Claretian Missionaries, Chicago, 1929
• Maximillian Kolbe Shrine, Libertyville
• Holy Cross Hospital, Chicago
• Mount Assisi Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, Stations/Cross
• Mount Assisi Convent, Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, Lemont, St. Francis
• Provincial House, Society of the Divine Word, Techny
• Slovenian Catholic Mission, Lemont, Franciscan Rosary, 1950s
• Slovenian Catholic Mission, Lemont, Lourdes garden, 1930s
• Slovenian Catholic Mission, Lemont, Stations/Cross garden, 1950s
• St. James of the Sag Cemetery, Lemont
• Notre Dame de Chicago Church, Chicago (lower church?)

Running principally north and south through the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods is arguably one of Chicago’s most picturesque streets, Longwood Drive. Dominated by a glacial ridge that rises 50-80 feet above Lake Michigan, Longwood Drive became the choice location for some of Chicago’s wealthiest socialites, who built residences on top of the Blue Island Ridge beginning in the 1870s. Longwood Drive boasts numerous residences in American high style architecture, allowing visitors and residents to study specimens of architect designed masterpieces. Longwood Drive also became home to the area’s most important religious congregations, who selected sites on the area’s premier street for high visibility.

You, too, can live on Beverly’s Longwood Drive. Two homes are currently for sale and presented by Longwood Real Estate Company:

9927 South Longwood Drive – $449,900 4 bed 2 bath (broker-owned)
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9927-S-Longwood-Dr_Chicago_IL_60643_M71037-03511

or https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9927-S-Longwood-Dr-Chicago-IL-60643/4126859_zpid/

9953 South Longwood Drive – $429,000 4 bed 2.5 bath
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9953-S-Longwood-Dr_Chicago_IL_60643_M71050-07819?view=qv

orhttps://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9953-S-Longwood-Dr-Chicago-IL-60643/4126865_zpid/

Harmonizing within Beverly’s Wooded Landscape

Because Beverly–Morgan Park was an attractive, wooded respite miles away from Chicago’s Loop, it proved to be an ideal setting in the early twentieth century for Craftsman style architecture. Many residents chose Craftsman for its materials that harmonized with natural surroundings, informal plans, and broad porches. The Craftsman style grew out of the nineteenth century English Arts and Crafts movement that emphasized natural materials and a high level of craftsmanship, a philosophy encouraged by renowned English designers John Ruskin and William Morris. On this side of the Atlantic, acclaimed architect and furniture maker Gustav Stickley offered leadership in the Arts and Crafts movement. When Stickley published The Craftsman, an important trendsetting American magazine between 1901 and 1916, Craftsman homes were particularly fashionable. Inspiration also came from the work of California architects Greene and Greene. Plan books, architectural periodicals, and popular home magazines of the day, many of which were published in Chicago, including House Beautiful, Inland Architect and News Record, and Western Architect, also increased Craftsman’s popularity. Ultimately, Craftsman influences were regional. Chicago was one of the most important American centers of the Arts and Crafts movement. Interest in Craftsman style and ideology flourished in the hands of numerous local artists, architects, and craftspeople who came together at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Craftsman buildings are characterized by roofs with deep overhanging eaves, front or side dormers, and a deep front porch. Often, visible exposed rafter ends (or tails), decorative brackets or triangular knee braces under gable roofs, battered columns, foundations, or parapet walls (where the bottom is thicker than the top and slopes outward), and half-timbering details are present. Roofs can be gabled (most often side gabled), jerkinhead (also known as a truncated or clipped gable roof), or hipped with shallow pitches reminiscent of Prairie architecture. Dormer roofs also vary and can be gabled, hipped, jerkinhead, or even shed. Materials are typically wood, wood shingle, or stucco, but some brick examples are found after 1915 with cut stone trim. Even stone is introduced in some designs for rich, earthy texture. To bring the outdoors indoors, windows are grouped and typically double-hung sash with three or four vertical panes in the upper sash and one in the lower. Casement windows with geometric glazing are also common. Porches, important elements that link the home with nature, are supported by thick square or round porch columns that lend to the sturdiness of each Craftsman design. On the interior, homes exhibit built-in Arts and Crafts features such as fireplaces, hutches, and bookcases.

Craftsman residential architecture thrived in Chicago’s Beverly–Morgan Park neighborhood between 1894 and 1929. Chiefly architect-designed examples for their residential clients, neighborhood Craftsman homes display the style’s signature clean lines, solidity, and genuineness. While there are large-scale, high-style examples in the neighborhood, more common are unassuming designs in which Craftsman detailing is combined with the one- to one-and-a-half story bungalow form, called Craftsman Bungalows.

The earliest Craftsman homes in Beverly–Morgan Park are expressions of the Arts and Crafts movement in Chicago. Inspired by the medieval period, these Craftsman homes feature tall gables and half timbering. Advocates of the late-nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement considered medieval society the “ideal,”[i] so medieval elements are appropriately symbolic. The carefully crafted Charles P. Campbell House at 9324 South Damen is a fine residential example with tall gables and half timbering. Campbell, who hailed from a family of Beverly real estate brokers, built his home in a growing residential development in 1894 near the Longwood or 95th Street Railroad Station. The architect was believed to be Daniel Everett Waid, who trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia University. He opened his practice in the same year as the Campbell House design after working as a draftsman for the noted Chicago firm of Jenney & Mundie.[ii] This romantic and lofty two-and-a-half story frame home has picturesque half timbering in its gable peaks.

Just down the street is another English Arts and Crafts–inspired Craftsman home of the late nineteenth century, the Henry D. Shontz House, built for a physician in 1894 at 9210 South Damen. English Arts and Crafts–inspired homes continued to be built into the first decades of the twentieth century. Two similar but fine examples are the Victor H. Munnecke House at 9241 South Pleasant (1913), designed by architect John Todd Hetherington, and the William H. Roberts House at 10520 South Longwood (1914), designed by architect Robert S. Smith. Both are substantial designs for businessmen with brick at the first floor and half timbering at the second. Terracing and porches link the homes with nature outdoors.

In the heyday of the Craftsman style, homes such as the C. D. Nill House at 1722 West 101st Street (1906) and the F. K. Stevens House, 10754 South Hoyne (ca. 1905) are wide and sturdy examples. With heights of two to two-and-a-half stories, steeply pitched side-gable roofs, and front dormers with gable roofs, these homes appear more vertical then contemporaneous Prairie designs.

More typical are Craftsman homes sporting front-gable roofs. Gable front residences include a speculative home for O. J. Buck at 9840 South Walden (1912) whose small-scale, two-story stucco design by architect John Todd Hetherington is large in Craftsman detail; the W. H. Corey House at 9926 South Winchester (1914), with half-timbering detail in the gable peak and battered (sloping) piers; and the Donald H. McGilvray House at 9647 South Vanderpoel (c. 1915) with a flared roofline, prominent knee braces in the front gable, front terrace, trellised porte cochere, and a hint of Asian inspiration for its first owner, an attorney.

Craftsman homes with cross-gable roofs are also apparent in the neighborhood. An important example is the two-and-a-half story C. Lauron Hooper House at 9022 South Damen (1911), designed by builder W. R. Ashton for a school principal. Design interest is added to its simple stucco exterior through its wood double-hung windows with three-over-one and four-over-one configurations. Another notable Craftsman home with a cross-gable roof is the Timotheus H. Ingwersen House at 9812 South Longwood Drive (1908–09). Stained wood shingle siding above the brick first floor adds a natural quality to the home, integrating the house with its wooded surroundings on the Ridge. Its plan allows nature within the house through porches at the both front and rear and a porte cochere that reaches outward from the main body of the home. Ingwersen served as a buyer for Swift & Company at the Chicago Union Stock Yards.[iii]

Since Chicago was a core city in America’s Arts and Crafts movement, inspired local architects and their culturally sophisticated clientele experimented in Craftsman design. Beverly–Morgan Park’s unusual high-style Craftsman designs include the Axel L. Todd House at 9236 South Winchester, built in 1906 and designed by architect John Todd Hetherington. Emphasis is firmly placed on its romantic roof, with rolled false thatching influenced by English Arts and Crafts models, prominent front chimney with multiple chimney pots, and rafter tails.

Rafter tails are also important in the stucco-clad and two-story Robert C. McManus House, 9005 South Hoyne (1911). The McManus House, designed by local architect and Chicago Normal School instructor Oscar McMurry, is a ground-hugging Craftsman design emphasized in the low-pitched rooflines of its main side-gable roof, hipped porch roof, and dual shed roof dormers. Triangular knee braces, signatures of the Craftsman style, also embellish the McManus House.

Another distinctive Craftsman is the two-story James R. McKee House at 10415 South Seeley. Built in 1908 and designed by architect John M. Schroeder, the McKee House design exaggerates a common Craftsman design element called battering, in which elements flare out at the bottom. Battered parapets of brick are at both ends of the main body of the house and the central front porch. The porch also sports a flanged segmental arch, which gracefully frames the home’s grouped leaded glass casements and transoms. First owner James R. McKee was a proprietor of a hay and grain company in nearby Englewood.

The Luther S. Dickey, Jr. House at 10900 South Prospect (1911–12) is arguably one of Beverly–Morgan Park’s finest Craftsman residences. Designed by the architectural firm of Chatten & Hammond, this house exhibits many elements of the Craftsman style. Expressive half timbering at the second floor coupled with a brick exterior below is well-suited for this home on an expansive wooded lot. Also enhancing the design is a flanged segmental arch over the front entry, repeated paired brackets, and multiple-gable roofs.

Architect-designed Craftsman homes are not limited to multiple-story dwellings. An enchanting one-story example is the Olin M. Pague House, 10036 South Longwood (1908), whose design is attributed to architect Harry Hale Waterman. Texture is critical to this Craftsman design, whose ceramic tile roof and water table of rough-faced rubble brownstone contrast with the home’s smooth and stark stucco exterior. The home’s original sprawling U-shaped plan also linked the interior with the outdoors. This courtyard was later enclosed.

[i] Wilson, 1987, p. 210.

[ii] Withey, Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970, p. 622.

[iii] Chicago City Directory, 1911, p. 664.