George McClellan, Chicago, IL, architect
Day Construction Company, Indianapolis, IN, contractor

This past weekend, the University of Illinois hosted Mom’s Weekend in Urbana-Champaign. My son and I snapped this picture in front of the Phi Kappa Tau house, whose exterior brick walls created an alluring backdrop for an obligatory Mom’s Weekend pic. With such texture and visual interest seen in its skintled brickwork exterior, I couldn’t help but dig for further info on the architectural history of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house.

The Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house, built between 1927 and 1928, is uniquely angled on a corner lot and known for its soaring two-story main hall and stunning skintled brickwork. Its design was reportedly principally Georgian Revival in style, but borrows from Italian Renaissance Revival style in its series of arched first floor paired doors that lead to its front terrace. A gambrel roof tops a projecting central front entry, ornamented with stone surrounds. Pedimented dormers punctuate a slate roof on both wings that reach out from the prominent central entry.

Of note is the fraternity house’s brick exterior. To add visual interest to a building, architects often introduced ornamental brickwork into a design. Skillful bricklayers could create unusual textures through ornamental brick patterns (herringbone or basketweave patterns are common) or rough, skintled brickwork. Skintled brickwork, found in the Phi Kappa Tau house, is an innovative wall technique originated by architects and bricklayers in Chicago that features brick walls that appear charmingly uneven. Both headers (the short end of the brick) and stretchers (long end) are laid randomly to project outward, adding an artistic character to the wall surface. This unevenness, with no hard and fast rules, brought a fresh and new approach that was contrary to traditional precise bricklaying. Buildings with skintled brickwork utilize common brick as their principal wall material. Prior to skintled brickwork’s invention, common brick was used only for utilitarian side walls and rear walls of building, not the fronts of residences.

Skintled brickwork emerged as a technique in 1919 when the Chicago Brick Exchange pushed for the use of common brick, a durable yet inexpensive material. The exchange began work with the Chicago Housing Association, which desired to meet Chicago’s increasing demand for moderately priced homes in a highly competitive and congested housing market. The association began experiments to incorporate inexpensive common brick, perceived to be a crude material, into residential designs. In order to make common brick appealing to home buyers, architects introduced irregular projections to cast shadows on the wall surface. The projections played with light and shade, adding a beautiful decorative effect.[i] This new way of bricklaying brought popularity to the use of common brick in the small-house market. In 1922, the Common Brick Manufacturers’ Association produced a book of plans in hopes of popularizing acceptance of common brick homes for “better building.”[ii] In 1928, Western Architect reported that there were over 900 skintled brick houses in the Chicago area alone. Most were in the suburbs within wooded settings, considered ideal for the rustic appearance of the brick.[iii]

In 1928, the Common Brick Manufacturer’s Association Monthly Digest reaffirmed that common brick was one of the lowest priced building materials in use and “capable of rendering satisfactory service for hundreds of years when properly used.”[iv] Architect George McClellan, a prolific designer of Chicago Bungalows in pressed and common brick, found an experimental outlet for skintled brickwork in his Phi Kappa Tau house design.

[i] “They Said It Couldn’t be Done.” Popular Mechanics. Vol. 52, October 1929, p. 704.

[ii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 23676 dated March 2, 1928. Ledger Book South 43, p. 595. Two-story brick residence, 35x30x28, Cost $10,000.

[iii] Stoddard, Ralph P. “Skintled Brickwork: A Chicago Development.” Western Architect. December 1928, p. 255.

[iv] Monthly Digest No. 86 of Conditions in the Common Brick Industry. Published by the Common Brick Manufacturers’ Association, January 1, 1928.

Prior to moving to their new home at 310 North Gregory Drive (formerly Stadiium Drive) in 1928, Phi Kappa Tau operated at 410 East Green Street (now Skylight Court).

The following articles appeared in The Daily Illini during the planning and construction of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity House in 1927 and 1928. The Daily Illini archive serves as a go-to source for discovering the history of the University. You can check out the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection through the link below, and please consider a donation to this archive:
https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=DIL&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN——–

For further info on Fraternity and Sorority House Architecture at the University of Illinois see
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/64500202_text

Excerpt from the upcoming book, Local Architecture Chicago, Vol. 1: Historic Beverly Hills-Morgan Park. Copyright Jennifer R. Kenny, 2019

Those building contractors who delivered ornamental concrete block houses in the early twentieth century went beyond most expectations for durable home design. Concrete block homes were modern innovations, using new construction processes and concrete materials. The blocks created solid, rough-faced exteriors, generating attention-grabbing design amid nearby frame homes. With concrete block construction, builders achieved lasting, rock-solid design for homeowners, giving new meaning to the phrase “a home is a one’s castle.”

Within a short time, between 1903 and 1910, contractors such as Palmer D. Diamond and the Morgan Park Concrete Company constructed concrete block homes in Beverly and in the Village of Morgan Park. Competitively priced from $2,500 to $3,000, a concrete block home offered low maintenance, masonry construction and two to three bedrooms that had once been cost-prohibitive to many new home buyers. The most common are two-story designs built by local contractors in popular house types such as the American Foursquare and Bungalow. The American Foursquare is the most prevalent design principally because it is believed that the boxlike form of the Foursquare lent itself well to the uniform, rectangular blocks.

Although concrete is a building material used throughout history, the use of concrete in home building gained tremendous popularity after 1900, when Portland cement became widely available in the United States and concrete methods were improved. Concrete was a good alternative to brick or stone, inexpensive, fireproof, and very durable. The concrete block industry has its origins in 1899, when Chicagoan Harmon S. Palmer first patented a cast-iron concrete block machine that allowed for the mass production of block for use in construction.[i] These early hand-operated machines made single, rectangular blocks. Often crushed aggregate was added to concrete to give it texture. Sometimes mineral pigments such as iron oxide or aggregate were added to achieve the coloration of stone. When molded, the block could be faced to have a rusticated appearance to imitate stone or could be pressed into a number of ornamental designs such as rope, wreath, or scroll using a face plate inserted into the machine.

Although builders could purchase concrete blocks from a local supplier, concrete blocks could also be made by an individual on site. Ready-mixed concrete was not available until 1913, so the concrete was mixed first on site and the poured into the block machine. Machine manufacturers and catalog retailers actively promoted the product to do-it-yourselfers and small-scale contractors and developers, and for this reason concrete block construction escalated in the 1900s. Many concrete block homes were built by local contractors, although a number of plan-book and catalog companies, such as Sears and Radford, offered their own designs in concrete block.

Local building contractor Palmer D. Diamond (b. 1871, Illinois—d. November 25, 1930, Orange County, California) is associated with many concrete block homes in Beverly–Morgan Park.[ii] Hoping to seize upon a new trend in modern concrete construction, Diamond constructed at least nine homes in the area, including his own home and castle-like garage at 2211 W. 110th Street, then known as 2249 Arlington Avenue. Near Diamond’s home are other concrete block designs just east of Western between 108th Street and 113th Street. Experimental types of residential construction for middle-income home buyers seemed to fascinate Diamond. When concrete block homes fell out of fashion in the neighborhood, he went on to be the exclusive franchiser of American System-Built Homes in 1917 on Chicago’s South Side and also in Riverside and Hollywood, California. Only lasting one year of production, these quality and affordable homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright could be purchased and erected anywhere in the country using machine-produced and standardized materials. When Diamond further expanded his real estate interests in California, he sold his house on 110th Street in 1924 and relocated to Orange County, where he passed away in 1930.

Today, twenty known concrete block residences and one garage are still standing in Beverly–Morgan Park, and many other homes in the neighborhood have concrete block foundations or concrete block elements. Although changing tastes and new technologies brought an end to the early-twentieth-century concrete block house, the homes below remain as a testament to the durability and longevity of this building material.

[i] United States Patent Office. Harmon S. Palmer of Chicago, Illinois. Machine for Molding Hollow Concrete Building Blocks. Patent No. 623,686. April 25, 1899.

[ii] Palmer Diamond established his “concrete-stone” works at 111^th Street and the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Tracks in 1906. “General News Items.” Morgan Park Post. June 9, 1906, p. 2.

The iconic Prairie School of architecture, frequently regarded as America’s first indigenous residential architectural style, has well-documented beginnings in Chicago. The Prairie style was originated by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose developments redefined residential architecture in the first decade of the twentieth century. Prairie architecture takes inspiration not from historical precedents but from the Midwest’s most characteristic natural feature, the prairie. The horizontality of the Midwest landscape is emphatically expressed in the style’s massive and horizontal quality, as if rooted to the earth. Through a holistic approach to architectural design, Prairie architects connected exterior expression, free-flowing floor plans, interior furnishings, and landscape with fresh and original residential designs.

Prairie style homes are found mainly in Chicago’s middle- and upper-class suburbs, but Prairie aficionados will not be disappointed by the Prairie architecture in Beverly–Morgan Park, where over 160 examples of Prairie homes are within the Ridge Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Often overlooked by city visitors are residential designs by master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers such as Prairie School architects Walter Burley Griffin, George Washington Maher, Tallmadge & Watson, and Spencer and Powers. Local architects in the early 1900s such as Robert Seyfarth, Oscar McMurry, and Robert Skilleter Smith, were also influenced by the Prairie School movement swirling in the city. These architects interpreted and created characteristic Prairie designs for clients within Beverly–Morgan Park. Other Prairie residences are the products of local contractors, such as Evert Rich and William R. Ashton, who captured the fundamentals of the Prairie style.

Beverly–Morgan Park offered residential sites set within a varied, naturalistic landscape, perfectly suitable for free-flowing Prairie designs. It appears that Prairie architecture appealed to Beverly–Morgan Park clients who were particularly connected with Chicago’s educational, art, and architecture communities, yet there are residential designs built for upwardly mobile clients who simply wanted a restful retreat away from the bustle of the city.

Reasons for clients’ preference for Prairie design can be gleaned from H. Allen Brooks, expert author of the groundbreaking book The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. Brooks believes there are two reasons. First, the Midwesterner felt less social pressure than his or her East Coast counterparts to conform to traditional architectural styles. For reinforcement of their stylistic choices, Prairie homeowners could turn to articles in national magazines published in Chicago such as House Beautiful or Western Architect. Second, Brooks believes Prairie architecture offered homebuilders “a new experience in the act of living.” Given that the Prairie style promoted relaxed living in its flexible interior spaces and simplicity of materials, it appealed to Midwestern sensibilities and the suburban Chicago lifestyles of clients.[i]

What does Prairie architecture look like?

Prairie architecture in Beverly–Morgan Park flourished from 1904 until the United States entered World War I in 1917, yet there are examples from the early 1920s. Identifying features of the Prairie style include an emphasis on horizontality in its low-pitched roofs with wide overhangs, a dominant, broad, and flat rectangular chimney, and casement windows clustered in horizontal bands (frequently leaded windows in geometric designs). Roof types are typically low-pitched hipped roofs, but sometimes front-facing or side-gable roofs appear with broad overhangs. Also present are sweptback gables, where peaks project beyond their lower edges, or hipped roofs that may have flattened roof edges for a pagoda-like effect. Prairie exterior materials are often stucco, wood (most often horizontal board-and-batten siding) or brick (sometimes Roman brick) walls with limestone or concrete elements. These materials can be combined with different materials on the lower and upper story. Contrasting wall materials, including horizontal bands or half timbering for additional geometric interest, are sometimes used for trim. Prairie homes can be symmetrical with rectangular or square plans, but high-quality designs are typically asymmetrical, with a two- or three-story main section with lower wings or porches that are just as dominant. Porches and terraces linking the outdoors with the indoors are essential elements of the design. The porches often have massive square or rectangular piers supporting their roofs and contrasting caps on porch and balcony railings.

Frank Lloyd Wright in Beverly

Prairie School founder Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) designed four homes in Beverly–Morgan Park between 1900 and 1917. The earliest is the Jessie Mae and William Adams House, 9326 South Pleasant, built in 1900–01[ii] for a contractor who constructed a number of homes for Wright. The home is a Chicago landmark, representing an important period of experimentation in Wright’s career with new forms and horizontality.

The area’s finest Frank Lloyd Wright commission is the Raymond W. Evans House at 9914 South Longwood. This Prairie School home was built in 1908[iii] atop the Blue Island Ridge, elevating many feet above the typical flat plain of the city. The Evans House plan is based on the influential Fireproof House, a concept to bring low-cost ($5,000) small residential designs to the masses. Yet the Evans House has also been compared to the masterful Ward Winfield Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois, with a two-story central pavilion where wings pinwheel around a central chimney. The design, which reaches horizontally across its hilltop site, was for client Evans, a sales manager and treasurer of the Picher Lead Company.[iv] In 1896 he married Alberta Wetzel Evans, an award-winning botanist who had collected every variety of wild flower native to the Illinois woods in one garden.[v] The couple’s links to Wright have not been recognized but may have been social in nature. Perhaps introductions were through the Illinois Athletic Club of which Evans was a member. The Evans’s were survived by one daughter, Eugenia Evans Garard, who sold the home in November 1928 to E. F. Wiegel, president of Ashland Sixty Third State Bank.[vi] This Prairie home’s original stucco facade is presently clad with mid-twentieth-century stonework, but the home is definitively Prairie.

The remaining two Wright designs in Beverly–Morgan Park are American System-Built Homes, another experiment in which Frank Lloyd Wright furthered his interest in affordable homes for all Americans. The Richards Company of Milwaukee oversaw the venture for which Wright created a series of prefabricated designs in various sizes for single-family and multifamily residency. Materials were ready-cut at the factory and then shipped to a site. Distribution was only through exclusive dealers of American System-Built Homes, such as the H. M Ellinwood Company of Berwyn, Illinois.

Marvin Ellinwood, Herbert M. Ellinwood’s brother, was a real estate developer and vice president of Burhans, Ellinwood & Company who believed in the concept. When he purchased the former twenty-five acre site of the Ridge Country Club, between 103rd Street, 105th Street, Hoyne, and Leavitt for a new subdivision in 1917,[vii] he built one of the homes. Within Ellinwood’s Ridgeholmes (also known as Ridge Homes) subdivision is a two-story, stucco American System Built Home at 10410 South Hoyne (1917),[viii] now known as the Burhans, Ellinwood & Company Model Home (Guy C. Smith House). P. D. Diamond & Company, a firm that experimented earlier in concrete block home design in Beverly–Morgan Park, was the general contractor. The American System-Built Homes (ASBH) venture was cut short following America’s entry into World War I but not before another ASBH home was constructed in Beverly. The H. Howard Hyde Home at 10541 South Hoyne was built for a cashier at International Harvester in 1917.[ix] Today, both the Hyde House and the Burhans, Ellinwood & Company Model Home are City of Chicago–designated landmarks.

Architect Walter Burley Griffin in Beverly-Morgan Park

Residential designs by Wright’s contemporaries are also in Beverly–Morgan Park. Of all of the Prairie School architects, Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937) left an extensive architectural legacy in Beverly–Morgan Park and is honored with a street with his name. Walter Burley Griffin’s architecture is celebrated on 104th Place, between Prospect and Wood Avenues. Seven of his designs are part of the Walter Burley Griffin Place District, so designated by the City of Chicago. This landmark district of Griffin-designed homes along with another Prairie home designed by the architectural firm of Spencer and Powers constitutes the largest concentration of small-scale Prairie homes in Chicago.

Prairie School architect Walter Burley Griffin was educated at the University of Illinois, joined Wright’s practice in 1901, and started his own practice in 1906.[x] Griffin was undoubtedly influenced by Wright but developed his own signature approach to Prairie design. His Prairie designs exhibit building forms that are contained rather than free-flowing, massive corner piers that contrast with horizontal elements, sleeping porches, and attention to wall surfaces.[xi]

After beginning his architectural practice, Griffin found his clientele among the developers and contractors for whom he designed speculative homes.[xii] When he connected with local real estate developer and contractor Russell Blount, Griffin designed a dozen Prairie School houses in Beverly–Morgan Park between 1909 and 1913, most of which are east of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad tracks.[xiii] Blount himself lived in a residential design by Griffin at the time he developed and sold other Griffin-designed homes in the rapidly growing Beverly community. The Prairie School residential designs in Beverly–Morgan Park attributed to Walter Burley Griffin include:

• Speculative House for R. L. Blount (Garrity, Edmund C. House), 1712 West 104th Place, 1910

• Frank N. Olmsted House, 1624 West 100th Place, 1910–11

• Helen Wells Blount House, 1724 West 104th Place, 1911

• Speculative House for Helen Blount (Van Nostrand, Harry G. House), 1666 West 104th Place, 1911

• Harry N. Tolles House, 10561 South Longwood, 1911

• Russell L. Blount House (II), 1950 West 102nd Street, 1912

• Speculative house for R. L. Blount (Salmon, Walter D. House), 1736 West 104th Place, 1912–13

• Speculative house for R. L. Blount (Jenkinson, Arthur G. House), 1727 West 104th Place, 1912–13

• Speculative house for R. L. Blount (Furneaux, Harry C. House), 1741 West 104th Place, 1913

• Speculative house for R. L. Blount (Clarke, William N. House), 1731 West 104th Place, 1913–14

• Speculative House for R. L. Blount (Williams, Ida E. House), 1632 West 104th Street, 1913–14

• William R. Hornbaker House, 1710 West 104th Street, 1914

Some of Walter Burley Griffin’s residential designs in Beverly–Morgan Park as well as the Von Holst & Fyfe–designed Maurice LeBosquet House at 10224 South Seeley (1911–12) were featured in the 1913 book Modern American Homes. At the time, Modern American Homes was one of America’s finest portfolios showcasing Prairie and Craftsman homes of the period. Chicago architect and former Wright employee Hermann Von Holst produced the portfolio. One featured home, a design by Walter Burley Griffin, is the Frank N. Olmsted House at 1624 West 100th Place. Constructed in 1910–11 by Russell L. Blount for electrician Frank Olmsted, this solid design was praised in Modern American Homes for its wide overhanging eaves, a terrace that serves as the home’s broad base, its natural materials, and grouped casement windows that all enhance its boxy form.[xiv] Both plans and elevations are included in this book.

Designs by Architect George Maher in Beverly-Morgan Park

Another Prairie architect, George Washington Maher, was a draftsman in the office of Joseph L. Silsbee, just like Frank Lloyd Wright. Maher entered his own practice in 1888 and left his mark in Beverly–Morgan Park.[xv] Maher’s Prairie designs are often solid, symmetrical, and monolithic, without free-flowing plans or unconventional entrances, but the horizontality of Prairie design prevails. Maher is noted particularly for his rhythm motif theory, where the architect selects a floral or plant design that is repeated in decorative elements and art glass windows for visual unity. The Arthur D. Heffron House, 10347 South Longwood, built in 1904[xvi] for a seed company buyer is characteristic of Maher’s Prairie designs. Dominating the front facade is a front corner porch with a flanged segmental arch opening. These segmental arches with short lateral flanges, a signature of Maher designs, are derived from English models, particularly the work of British Arts and Crafts architect and leader C. F. Voysey.[xvii]

Other Beverly clients of Maher’s were Heffron’s sister, Cora Heffron Murray, and her husband, George W. Murray. Instead of Prairie, they selected a more traditional Georgian Revival design. Maher also designed a handsome Prairie house for attorney Frank D. Thomason at 10432 South Longwood, built in 1907.[xviii] The Thomason House is decidedly symmetrical, with a central entry, and it is Prairie in its low, broad form and grouped second-floor windows. Again, Maher’s flanged segmental arch frames the central front entry.

Other Prairie School Architects Represented in Chicago’s Beverly-Morgan Park Neighborhood

Two other notable architecture firms of the Prairie School, Tallmadge & Watson and Spencer & Powers, designed Prairie homes in Beverly–Morgan Park. Tallmadge & Watson’s Louis A. Tanner House at 9640 South Longwood is a solid and handsomely detailed house designed to emphasize its quality of materials. The wood trim at the Tanner House is outstanding particularly in its use to emphasize the home’s horizontality at the cornice line and around the home’s grouped casement windows. Spencer & Powers, with whom Walter Burley Griffin shared loft space at Steinway Hall, maintained a partnership from 1905 until 1923. The firm’s two Prairie designs in Beverly are enduring with an emphasis on wall surfaces. The Harry F. Newland House, 1737 West 104th Place (1912–13) is a two-story example with horizontal board-and-batten siding on the lower level and stucco above; the Clyde I. Drake House, 10745 South Seeley, is a rare brick Prairie design built for an accountant in 1908–09. Robert C. Spencer, Jr., the firm’s designer, found inspiration for his Prairie designs more from English Arts and Crafts sources rather than Frank Lloyd Wright.[xix]

Aside from the high-style designs by colleagues and followers of Frank Lloyd Wright, some local architects constructed Prairie homes. A design of note is the John W. Ellis House, 9357 South Pleasant, built in 1908[xx] and designed by architect Robert E. Seyfarth of nearby Blue Island. Seyfarth, who worked for George W. Maher, designed a number of Prairie homes in Beverly–Morgan Park. Another handsome Prairie home is the Oscar L. McMurry House, 10429 South Seeley, built in 1909[xxi] and designed as the architect’s own home. McMurry was an instructor in the Normal Schools, notably as head of the industrial arts department from 1901 until 1929 at Chicago Teachers College/Normal School (now Chicago State University).

Local Designers and Contractors of Prairie Architecture

Some Prairie designs in Beverly–Morgan Park built by local contractors are frequently labeled “contractor Prairie.” They are always modest in scale with Prairie elements, characterized by simple rectangular massing, shallow-pitched roofs with broad overhang, broad front porches, and grouped windows. Fine examples of “contractor Prairie” homes include a speculative home for Evert Rich, 9606 South Vanderpoel (1913).[xxii] Contractor-builder Evert Rich constructed at least twenty-seven homes in Beverly—Morgan Park between 1905 and 1920, of which five are Prairie. Most are two-story stucco designs with side-gable roofs and horizontal banding. Another local builder, William R. Ashton, dabbled in Prairie design. One example is the Eugene W. Knight House at 9144 South Damen (1913–14)[xxiii] whose massive, full-height corner piers with geometric caps contrast with the home’s horizontal banding and wood siding. The home was built for Knight, a manager of an advertising company.

Prairie architecture lost popularity following World War I when historic revival architecture gained wide-ranging appeal influenced by conservative tastes. Nevertheless, Prairie architecture regained some regional influence after World War II with Frank Lloyd Wright’s reemergence and his influence on what became known as Late Prairie architecture.

[i] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 25.

[ii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. South 1. January 2, 1901.

[iii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 8390, dated October 27, 1908.

[iv] Obituary. “Raymond W. Evans, Lead Company Official, Dies.” Chicago Daily Tribune. January 18, 1919, p. 15.

[v] Obituary. “Mrs. Albert Wetzell.” Chicago Daily Tribune. April 6, 1924, p. 10.

[vi] “Buys Home in Longwood Drive.” The Economist (Chicago). November 24, 1928, p. 1237.

[vii] “Acre Trading Holds Interest; New Subdivision.” Chicago Daily Tribune. January 28, 1917, p. G18.

[viii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 47447, July 24, 1917, ledger book South 19, p. 268. Two-story FRAME residence, 34x38x20, Cost $8500.

[ix] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 46598, May 16, 1917, Book S19, p. 199. Two-story FRAME residence, 34x38x32, Cost $6000.

[x] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 117.

[xi] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 74.

[xii] Kruty, Paul. “Walter Burley Griffin: An Architect of America’s Middle West” in Walter Burley Griffin in America. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 22.

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Von Holst, Hermann. Modern American Homes. Plate 2. 1913.

[xv] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 34.

[xvi] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. S13183, July 18, 1904, 2.5-story brick residence, 37x67x32, Cost $4000.

[xvii] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 106.

[xviii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 6978, May 31, 1907, for a two story brick residence, 44x26x30, Cost $4500.

[xix] Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972, p. 91.

[xx] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 8096, November 9, 1908, Two-story brick residence, 42x34x32, Cost $5000.

[xxi] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 13367, July 9, 1909, Two-story FRAME residence, 27x41x32, Cost $6900.

[xxii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 13105, May 24, 1913, Ledger Book South 6, p. 257. Two-story stucco residence, 30×34, Cost $4000.

[xxiii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 18199, November 1, 1913, Book S 6, p. 592. Two-story frame residence, 28x32x26, Cost $5500.

The post Prairie Architecture in Chicago’s Beverly and Morgan Park Neighborhoods (1904-1925) appeared first on Local Architecture Chicago.

Oak Lawn, IL landmark farmhouse turned tavern embodies the history of early agricultural development in Worth Township

Copyright Jennifer Kenny and Local Architecture Chicago, 2021. All rights reserved. 

Many Oak Lawn residents have enjoyed a beer (or maybe even two) at the Homestead Barr, one of the most historic taverns in Chicago’s Southland. Patrons find it special to have a drink at a historic place, and thanks to longtime owners the Adomaitis family, this farmhouse at 9306 South Central Avenue is a designated Village of Oak Lawn historic landmark. One of the worst kept secrets in town is that the bar is currently for sale. This farmhouse and bar needs a new owner, a bit of love, and an good eye to improve its aesthetics after many alterations through the years. If you do visit, please don’t trouble the staff with questions about the sale. Call us at Longwood Real Estate Company at (708) 423-2900. We’d be happy to show you around, tell you about its history, and help you with your purchase.

History of the Charles Simpson Farmhouse (Homestead Barr)

Charles Simpson Farmhouse (Homestead Barr)

9306 South Central Avenue

Cross-Form Vernacular, with Queen Anne details, built ca. 1880s

Although in use as a tavern since 1951, the building is one of Oak Lawn’s few remaining residential structures that embodies the history of early agricultural settlement in Worth Township, Cook County, Illinois. It also has historic significance for its associations with the Simpson Family, who not only were mid 19th-century settlers in Oak Lawn but actively fostered village development as a suburb of Chicago.

Shortly after the forced governmental removal of Native American tribes, including the Potawatomi, Miami, and Illini, European farmers began to purchase and settle on lands in Northeastern Illinois in the 1830s. Worth Township, located in the southwest portion of Cook County, IL, was principally an agricultural region in the 19^th– and early 20^th-centuries. Many 19^th-century residents were wheat and corn crop farmers who also kept livestock, and their farms typically featured numerous agricultural outbuildings along with their principal residence. While many county townships around Chicago were experiencing community and suburban growth after the arrival of railroads in the 1850s, much of Worth Township retained an agrarian way of life and a small population up until World War II. One of Oak Lawn’s last remaining farmhouses representing this era is the highly visible landmark at today’s Southwest Highway and Central Avenue. This vernacular residential design is one of the few remaining farmhouses in Oak Lawn from the 19^th -century, built by the Charles Simpson family sometime between 1869 and 1886.

Simpson Family Settles in Worth Township

The Simpson family was one of the earliest to settle in Worth Township, whose patriarch John Simpson (1798-1880) was a Scottish immigrant who came to Illinois from Geneva, New York and began purchasing agricultural lands in Will County in 1835[i] and Cook County in 1843.[ii]  It is unclear exactly when the family arrived in Illinois, but John Simpson’s wife, Alice “Elcy” Palmer Simpson (1802-1891), gave birth to their fourth son, George, in Hadley, Illinois in 1836.[iii] The Simpson family farmed in Hadley,[iv] located in Will County’s Homer Township[v] until 1858[vi] when John and Elcy had moved their family to their farmland just south and east of today’s 95^th Street and Central Avenue in Worth Township.[vii] Worth Township was established on November 6, 1849 as an agricultural settlement in Cook County, just south and west of the City of Chicago. Settlers were attracted to the area’s Stony Creek and black oaks, from which a new name for the village was taken. John and Elcy built a farmhouse that does appear on the 1861 Map of Cook County, at the far northwest corner of the farm, just across from the area’s first schoolhouse. The first schoolhouse was once located on the north side of 95^th Street, between 54^th Court and 55^th Avenue. Ninety-fifth Street became a principal dirt road through 19^th century Worth Township shortly after surveyed by township officials in 1853.[viii]

While many of the Simpson’s eight children later moved out of Illinois, John and Elcy’s son Charles Simpson (b. 28 September 1842, Hadley, IL – d. 30 October 1918, Oak Lawn, IL) remained with his parents on the family farm in Worth Township, even after his marriage in 1868 to Emeline R. “Emma” Smith (b. 9 July 1843, Troy, Michigan – d. 9 September 1925, Oak Lawn, IL).[ix] In the 1870 United States Census, Charles and Emma are living and working on the family farm, with John Simpson now a retired farmer. The two families resided together, along with four farmhands and school teacher, Edwin Judd. Charles and Emma had four children, Burt J. Simpson (b. May 1870, Oak Lawn, IL – d. 14 April 1950, Missaukee County, MI), Ary Belle Simpson Johnson (b. 23 January 1873, Oak Lawn, IL – d. 7 April 1938, Oak Lawn, IL), Elmer William Simpson (b. 11 July 1875, Oak Lawn, IL – d. 21 November 1936, Norwich, Missaukee, Michigan), and Emeline “Emily” M. Simpson Beach (b. 1887, Cook County, IL – d. 27 December 1907, Oak Lawn, IL). Over the years, the children at times resided and helped out with the family farm.

Farming continued to dominate the Worth Township economy through the 1880s. By 1886, Charles and Emma were living and working on the 80-acre farm Charles purchased from F. F. Hundley on April 3, 1869. Charles and Emma Simpson’s farm was located very close to his father’s farm, both hugging the corner of today’s 95^th Street and Central Avenue. The 80-acre Charles Simpson Farm was once located between today’s 91^st Street on the north, 95^th Street on the South, Central Avenue to the East, and Menard Avenue on the West. The 1886 Map of Cook County shows the Charles Simpson farm and the farmhouse at this location in Section 5, Township 37 North, Range 13 East in Worth Township.[x] Charles and Emma built the farmhouse at 9306 South Central Avenue sometime between 1869, when the 80-acre farm was purchased, and 1886, when the house appears on a Cook County Map. Further research in 1882 Circuit Court of Cook County probate records mention that after John Simpson’s death, “That Charles H. Simpson is now, as tenant in possession of said premises, and that except said tenant and the above named heirs, no person has any interest in or title to said premises or any part thereof.” From this document, Charles was perhaps residing on and/or farming his father’s farm. Yet, this document does not assist in narrowing down a date of construction for the Farmhouse at 9306 South Central Avenue.

The Wabash Railroad and Suburban Development of Oak Lawn

The Simpson family played an important role in the historic settlement and development of Oak Lawn. Not only is the Simpson family notable for their associations with the early agriculture in Worth Township, but also with Oak Lawn’s development as a promising late 19- and early 20^th-century railroad suburb of Chicago. It is believed that In November of 1879, three members of the Simpson family, John, John, Jr., and Charles, entered into an agreement with an agent of the Wabash Railroad to build a line through Oak Lawn. The Wabash (Chicago & Strawn Rail Road) laid a new mainline track in 1880 that ran north from Strawn, IL to connect with the Chicago & Western Indiana tracks and terminating at Chicago’s downtown. The Wabash Railroad completed track through Oak Lawn (then known as Black Oak) in March 1881, setting the stage for new residential development for commuters into the city. Today, Metra’s South West Service still operates passenger service into Chicago’s Loop on this same line.

With expanded railroad service to Oak Lawn, the Simpson famlily continued their influence on Oak Lawn’s growth and development. In December 1880, patriarch John Simpson died, leaving quarrels between his heirs in Cook County Court. Charles received a portion of the family estate, and he other heirs proceeded to sell off portions of their Oak Lawn landholdings for future residential suburban development. In March 1882, the John Simpson heirs united with early settler James A. Chamberlain to plat lots and streets for the first Oak Lawn subdivision adjacent to the new Wabash Railroad depot. The plat ran from 95^th Street on the north, Cook Court on the west, 96^th Avenue (Simpson Street) on the south, and Tulley Avenue on the east. In that same year, a post office was established and the name “Oak Lawn” became widely used to describe the village.

Although tracks were laid for passenger and freight service in the early 1880s, it was not until November 1890 that the Wabash Railroad began true operation of suburban passenger service from Chicago to Worth. As was typical in railroad communities on the lines running outward from Chicago’s downtown, suburban land development almost always followed railroad expansion. With improved passenger service, the Wabash Railroad’s activity spurred further real estate speculation in Oak Lawn, led by real estate firms such as Monson and Smith and Erasmus G. Minnick who focused on south suburban development.

Railroad service expansion was just one force in developing Chicago’s railroad suburbs. Government activities also drove residential real estate speculation. The City of Chicago absorbed many former suburbs through annexation of lands adjacent to its borders. As the city expanded, so did interest in real estate speculation in and around the annexed lands. Residential development exploded in nearby Washington Heights (now Beverly) and Morgan Park, so real estate developers began looking to invest in nearby communities like Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Palos Park, and Orland. Desiring to attract families who wanted to live in idyllic settings outside of the city and commute to business in Chicago, developers improved subdivisions with desirable lots and recreational spaces. Real estate firms such as Monson & Smith and Erasmus Minnick purchased and laid out subdivisions in the heart of Oak Lawn, in hopes of attracting suburban dwellers who looked for an easy commute for business into the city on the Wabash Railroad. Upon the former Simpson family lands, a portion of the creek was dug and enlarged to form Oak Lawn Lake around the time of subdivision in 1898 to attract future homebuyers to the area. Lakeshore Park, with homes lining both East and West Shore Drives, remains one of the suburb’s most picturesque settings.

On February 4, 1909, Oak Lawn was incorporated as a municipal village in Cook County. Even with residential land speculation around the depot in the heart of the town, the village’s population still hovered around 300 and covered only 1.5 square miles. The Simpsons continued to work the family farm following Charles’ death in October 1918. Emma lived a few more years, and by the time of her death in September 1925 the farmland had been sold off for residential development. Elmore’s Parkside Terrace opened up over 400 lots for sale on what had been the 80-acre family farm. As common with other subdivisions, the developer laid out streets and installed services. However, most homes were not built in this subdivision until the Post World War II era when Oak Lawn’s population boomed.

The Automobile Age and Cook County Highway Improvements

The area surrounding the former Charles Simpson Farm experienced further change with the arrival of highways in the early 20^th-century. When the Cook County Forest Preserve District began acquiring forested lands for recreational and educational purposes in 1915, the county was simultaneously creating a system of concrete highways that would not only bring its motoring residents to the district’s public playgrounds, but meet demands of the new automobile age. Urban dwellers began to ride out to the country on newly paved roads for pleasure and recreation, many on day, weekend, or longer-term vacations. The joys of the open road and tremendous touring potential created by the automobile was captured and popularized in magazines in the 1920s. Others saw beyond the excursion possibilities of the automobile and used their cars to commute greater distances from home to their job. Cook County established its Highway Division in 1913, allowing for regional transportation planning once left to individual townships. Oak Lawn benefited from the acquisition of the nearby Palos Preserves and increased transportation routes, particularly with the widening of 95^th Street and the arrival of the Southwest Highway. Approved in 1927 and built in 1929, the Southwest Highway provided a direct route from Chicago’s boulevard system connecting Chicago with Joliet, IL via Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Worth, Palos Park, and Orland. In Chicago, Southwest Highway begins at 75^th Street and Western Avenue and runs southwest to the city limits at 87^th Street (along what is now known as Columbus Avenue). As a “gateway” highway, the road was built with 40 feet wide pavement for a total of 11 miles from 74^th Street to 123^rd Street and 20 feet wide southwestward from 123^rd Street. In places the road bed mainly follows the former Wabash Railroad right of way, abandoned following the straightening and relocation of the tracks a few years earlier. The Simpson family witnessed changes to Oak Lawn, as Southwest Highway came through right outside their front door.

Oak Lawn experienced explosive growth in the Post World War II era. With increased transportation on major highways such as 95^th Street and Southwest Highway, as well as the arrival of Interstate 294 on the community’s western edge, the community became highly desirable for suburban dwellers. In 1951, Edward A. and Dorothy Guthrie Adomaitis purchased the farmhouse from John Simpson for a tavern, likely seizing opportunities from increased traffic. Quite a few remaining farmhouses in Cook County are  19^th-century and 20^th century vernacular structures that were later converted to roadhouses or taverns, especially if they are located on a major highway. The Homestead Barr has been family owned and operated continuously since its purchase. The Adomaitis family, who appreciates the historic significance of the property, helped foster the farmhouse’s designation as a Village of Oak Lawn local landmark. Oak Lawn’s Historic Preservation Commission approved the Homestead Barr’s landmark designation in 1998. 

Architecture of 9306 South Central Avenue

9306 South Central Avenue is a two-and-a half story frame farmhouse built sometime between 1869 and 1886. The farmhouse is the only remaining building on what had been a larger 80-acre farm. Farmhouses of this era in Worth Township were typically of frame construction built in Midwestern vernacular types. 19^th-century vernacular house types are generally non-stylistic with designs dependent on a builder’s craftsmanship.  They were usually built by an owner or builder who relied on simple, practical techniques and locally available materials for overall design and floor layout, which resulted in a consistency in structural systems, materials, and millwork throughout a given community.  Vernacular buildings are most easily classified by their general shape, massing, roof style, or overall floor plan, such as Cross-Form, Gabled Ell, Gable Front, L-Form or Upright and Wing. Often these simple designs feature applied architectural detailing that was fashionable during this period such as Italianate or Queen Anne styles. Although these vernacular types were first built in the 19^th century, they continued to be built into the early 20^th century.

The Charles Simpson Farmhouse is of the Cross-Form vernacular type, characterized by intersecting gable roofs. While mostly vernacular, the home does feature some elements of Queen Anne style architecture. The home exhibits projecting triangular sections in its gables with pent roofs. These features are often seen to add wall surface interest to Queen Anne style homes. A wrap around porch, three part windows and transoms, and full height bay windows with cutaway corners on each side façade also point to the Queen Anne style. With a dominating steeply pitched front gable roof and a raised stone foundation, this substantially-built vernacular home truly has a dominating visual presence at the corner of Southwest Highway and Central Avenue.

Although the Charles Simpson house was built as a farmhouse, it is best known for housing a longtime Oak Lawn business, the Homestead Barr. Changes over the years tend to obscure a building’s original character, and as a result of the building’s tavern use, the Charles Simpson House has been altered. Artificial siding may be covering original shingles or Queen Anne style wall textures, or original window and door openings. Its replacement wrap around porch has an inappropriate modern rail, standard spindlework and plain frieze board. The front entry has replacement doors in its current opening, likely replacing a single door with sidelights and transom above. Further alterations include two large rear additions, and a sizable covered exterior wood staircase with a shed roof added to meet egress codes for the 1^st floor bar and 2^nd floor apartment.

Because 19^th-century vernacular types are generally simple in plan and perhaps originally built with little stylistic ornamentation, they are frequently underappreciated. With a little vision, this historically significant 19th-century farmhouse turned tavern could be an architectural gem once again.

For business information on the Homestead Barr visit https://www.facebook.com/HomesteadBarr/,

Author’s note: The Charles Simpson farm, later the Parkside Terrace Subdivision, holds a special place in our family’s history. The Parkside Terrace addition is where my husband grew up, it is where the 1967 tornado destroyed the family home and the family rebuilt, and it is where my husband proposed to me following Midnight Mass at St. Gerald Church in 1993.

Endnotes

[i] John Simpson purchased the West ½ of the Southwest ¼ of Section 24, Township 36 North, Range 11 East on October 27, 1835 and the Southeast ¼ of Section 24, Township 36 North, Range 11 East on May 29, 1840. Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database. Illinois State Archives. Accessed on September 18, 2021 at https://apps.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp.

[ii] John Simpson purchased the Northwest ¼ and the Northeast ¼ of Section 9 on October 20 and 26, 1843. Abstract of Title. Lot 2 in Block 2 in Minnick’s Oak Lawn Subdivision, Section 9, Township 37 North, Range 13 East of the Third Principal Meridian. In the Local History Collections, Oak Lawn Public Library.

[iii] Find a Grave database. Accessed on September 2, 2021 at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151689956/george-w-simpson

[iv] Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Homer, Will, Illinois; Archive Collection Number: T1133; Roll: 4; Page: 673; Line: 1; Schedule Type: Agriculture. Ancestry.com. U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

[v] Now Homer Glen near 167^th and Will-Cook Road.

[vi] Schapper, Ferdinand. Southern Cook County and History of Blue Island Before the Civil War. Volume III, p. 823.

[vii] John Simpson is a landowner in Worth Township, Section 05, Township 37 North, Range 13 East, by the publishing of the 1861 and 1862 Maps of Cook County, Illinois.  Flower, W. L. Map of Cook County, Illinois. Chicago, Ill.: S.H. Burhans & J. Van Vechten, . Chicago: engraved, printed, colored & mounted by Edw. Mendel, 1862. Map. Accessed on September 20, 2021 at https://www.loc.gov/item/2013593075/.

[viii] Worth Township Minutes, 1850-1868. Book 1, p. 51.

[ix] Charles and Emma Simpson are residing with his parents in the 1870 United States Census. Year: 1870; Census Place: Worth, Cook, Illinois; Roll: M593_213; Page: 644A. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

[x] L.M. Snyder & Co. Snyder’s real estate map of Cook County, Illinois: indexed. Chicago: L.M. Snyder & Co, 1886. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013593088/.

The post DRINK UP HISTORY AT THIS OAK LAWN BAR appeared first on Local Architecture Chicago.

(research in progress)

During the COVID-19 epidemic, so many of us felt disconnected. We hunted for fulfilling ways to counter our detachment. Turning to social media or zoom, we connected with our friends and families, houses of worship, schools, workplaces and other outlets to feel a sense of belonging.

Some, like myself, looked to colleges for connection. Without a doubt, our relationship with our alma mater is one of the strongest in our lives, no matter how many years pass. Time is limited while you are a student on campus. Yet the memories associated with campus buildings and streetscapes remain entrenched forever. Alumni associations recognize this spirited and traditional relationship, hoping that alumni will give back or return to campus. When alumni visit campus buildings, particularly those associated with our own college days, those buildings reflect much more than their function. When those buildings disappear, so does a tangible link to our past.

As an alumna of the University of Illinois, I couldn’t believe how much I missed visiting Illinois Memorial Stadium or State Farm Center during the pandemic. I was not a student-athlete at the University, just a spectator. Yet, something drove me to become a member of numerous Illinois sports websites and follow Illini sports writers and bloggers on social media. This connection brought joy and a sense of belonging, recalling memories and connections as a student spectator in those stadiums, even if I lack sport-specific game knowledge.

As an architectural historian, I began to research the history of the recreational facilities at University of Illinois. Much has been written about the games, student-athletes, coaches, donors, and athletic directors. My interest lies in recreational history, associated building design, and the architects. I began researching Memorial Stadium, and as a part of my research, returned to a few football games as a 2021 season ticket holder to understand form and function.

AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS MEMORIAL STADIUM: HOLABIRD AND ROCHE, ARCHITECTS

Constructed 1922-1923, horseshoe addition 1929

In the 1920s, the well-respected architectural firm of Holabird and Roche of Chicago designed several buildings on the University of Illinois campus, including the iconic Memorial Stadium. Holabird and Roche, later Holabird and Root, emerged in the 1880s as a pioneering architectural firm in Chicago, a city celebrated as America’s birthplace of Modern architecture. Known for their innovations in the Chicago School of Architecture, with early skyscrapers and steel-skeleton frames, Holabird and Roche embody the history of late 19th-century architectural innovation and the evolution of the large-scale firm in America. Martin Roche, FAIA (b. August 1, 1853, Cleveland, OH – d. June 6, 1927, Chicago, IL) and William Holabird, FAIA (b. September 1, 1854, New York – d. July 18, 1923, Chicago, IL) took advantage of architectural opportunities afforded by rebuilding a fire-ravaged city and Chicago’s subsequent booming economy. The firm was commissioned to design numerous public and commercial buildings in Chicago, as well as hotels and educational buildings, securing its standing as a leader in a dominant architectural city. The firm’s success continued through the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, maturing under the firm’s founding partners. When Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition of 1893 nationally influenced an era of classical design and plan traditions, Holabird and Roche helped usher in classical influences, using historic motifs and forms for design inspiration. Larger and more successful architecture firms of this era, like Holabird, often had their own in-house libraries from which firm designers could research and find design inspiration based on historic models and precedents. As historic revival style architecture rose in popularity in early 20th-century American design, military tours and training in Europe combined with access to books and periodicals proved to be a valuable advantage for certain firms.

The booming 1920s, when Illinois Memorial Stadium was commissioned, brought a generational change to Holabird and Roche. Following William Holabird’s death in 1923, his son John, took on a solid role with the firm. Trained at West Point and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, John A. Holabird, Sr., FAIA (b. May 4, 1886, Evanston, IL – d. May 1, 1945) actively led the firm through significant projects beginning with his partnership in 1919 through the mid-1940s. When founder Martin Roche died in 1927, the old partnership was terminated and the firm became known as Holabird and Root. John W. Root, Jr. (b. July 14, 1887, Chicago, IL – d. October 24, 1963, Falmouth, MA), was a draftsman friend of John Holabird who joined the firm in 1914, became a partner in 1919, and then co-piloted the new partnership in 1928. Root was trained in architecture at Cornell University and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and the son of a famous Chicago architect. Both John Holabird and John Root served overseas in World War I.[2]

The firm, in order to remain competitive, had to grow, adapt, and diversify to gain new business. During the first decades of the 20th century, Holabird and Roche/Holabird and Root developed new specialties in university, hotel, telecommunications, retail, and health care design.[3] The firm continued to take commissions outside of Chicago, including a number of projects in downstate Illinois. In Urbana, Holabird and Roche designed the Tudor Revival-style Wesley Foundation Social Center Building at 1203 W. Green Street (1917-21), University of Illinois – Educational Building/University High School (1916-20), the Horticulture Field Laboratory, and Memorial Stadium.[4] The firm continued its tradition of architectural innovations into the early 20th-century, and thoughtfully separated its architecture and engineering departments for an added advantage. The firm even made a surprising departure into recreational design, including clubhouse and stadium projects.

Recreational projects became a small specialty of Holabird and Roche. After successful commissions for the Glen View Club, In 1921, Holabird and Roche entered a design competition for a new municipal stadium in Chicago, forging a new firm specialty. Although stadiums have been around since the ancient times, the growing popularity of spectator sports in the United States in the 20th-century brought demand for stadiums. To fit specifications for sports such as football and baseball, architects explored the use of concrete and steel.

As the winners of the design competition for Chicago’s Grant Park Stadium, now Soldier Field (1922-1926), Holabird and Roche created a U-shaped, cast stone colonnaded multipurpose structure along Lake Michigan. Budgetary cutbacks limited the grand ornamental features of the initial design proposed for Chicago’s South Park Commission. Yet Soldier Field, like other monuments of its era, successfully honors those in the armed forces lost in World War I. The stadium’s design complements the Classical Revival architecture of the nearby Field Museum of Natural History. Major alterations to Soldier Field have diminished the original design intent. First, when the stadium’s northward axis to the Field Museum was broken with the construction of the Chicago Park District Administration Building in 1939, followed by the 2003 introduction of a massive interior structural steel and precast concrete stadium bowl. The bowl containing tiered seating, club levels, and luxury suites towers above the historic colonnades. The $606 million dollar project designed by architects Ben Wood and Carlos Zapata, was controversial but did include a restoration of the stadiums 64 historic Doric columns.

STADIUM DESIGN

Illinois Memorial Stadium is one of a number of massive college football stadiums of its era. Twenty five years earlier, the University of Pennyslvania built Franklin Field in Philadelphia, the first college football stadium in the United States. Franklin Field, a one-tiered stadium, was small compared with those stadiums that followed. In the 1920s, college athletic departments built stadiums to serve as large spaces of consumer spectacle, while also creating a visible shrine to those lost in World War I. Under George Huff, University of Illinois athletic director from 1901-1936,[5] the University of Illinois built a new football stadium rivaling any of its time. Illinois Memorial Stadium is only one of two major double-decked football stadiums constructed in the 1920s.

A stadium is a form following function, whose architects purposefully arranged elements to accommodate the sport and its spectators. Holabird and Roche designed a horseshoe stadium for the University of Illinois in 1921, similar to their design for Soldier Field in Chicago. Traditional stadium design consists of a tiered seating bowl, a floor or playing field, portals, and passages. Sports management and athletic departments drive the design of today’s stadiums whose income generating and recruitment needs are reflected in newer modern spaces.

Memorial Stadium’s exterior architectural expression reflects its purposeful respect for those who died in World War I. The façade is ordered, with austere restraint fitting for a memorial. Brick walls punctuated with stone panels and multiple entrances below, and a monumentally strong, stone colonnade above. By raising the memorial to the top of the structure, it heightens the honor bestowed to the university’s lost alumni soldiers. Its paired classical (Doric) columns refine and give order the austere exterior of the stadium.

Holabird and Roche’s design for Memorial Stadium followed precedent set by other University of Illinois campus buildings. The design called for a red brick exterior accented by limestone banding and panels as seen in the University’s Georgian Revival style. Additionally, pedimented, ornamental stone surrounds at the ends of the colonnade also reflect the Georgian Revival style.

The architects placed emphasis on spectator circulation when designing Memorial Stadium. Four, anchoring corner towers, two on each of the east and west sides of the stadium delineate the ramps that orchestrate movement through the stadium seating. According John Holabird, Jr., his father modeled the ramps after the original Bramante Staircase at the Vatican in Rome, built in 1505. The Bramante staircase has a square tower with a spiral paved ramp in a double helix shape. The shape allowed traffic to travel up one ramp and down the other.

Like Soldier Field in Chicago, budgetary cutbacks limited the grand ornamental features of the initial design proposed for University of Illinois Memorial Stadium. Nevertheless, what remains is a stately, proportional, and rhythmic design. Architect Jack Hartray, in a 1992 retrospective book on the dynasty firm, mentions that Holabird and Roche/Holabird and Root designs in the early decades of the 20th century offered a “perfect balance of structural audacity, elegant proportion, and sophisticated ornament.”[6] Exterior walls of the stadium graciously articulate spaces behind. Reaching above the original exterior walls is the well done modern addition to a historic stadium. Its glass walls articulate the newer spaces above, holding today’s necessary income generating spaces such as club levels and event rooms, and a communication center for media who broadcast and publish digitally on gameday.

Former Illini football great Harold “Red” Grange, on his return to Memorial Stadium on October 18, 1974, shared his deep connection with Illinois Memorial Stadium. “I’ve always said that this is the most beautiful stadium in the world and the Illinois fans are the most beautiful people in the world.” If anyone had a connection to Memorial Stadium it was Red Grange. Grange’s coach with the Chicago Bears, George Halas, said “Red Grange had more impact on the game of football than any single individual in this century.”

In 2006, University of Illinois Memorial Stadium was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

[1] Weller, Allen Stuart, 1907-, and University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus). Committee on the Centennial. 100 Years of Campus Architecture At the University of Illinois. [Urbana]: Published for the Committee on the Centennial of the University of Illinois by the University of Illinois Press, 1968, p. before page 1.

[2] Marquis, Albert Nelson, editor. Who’s Who in Chicago: The Book of Chicagoans, 1926. ChIcago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1926, pp. 424, 747.

[3] Blazer, Werner. Chicago Architecture: Holabird & Root, 1880-1992. 1992: Birkhauser Verlag Basel. Berlin, p. 49.

[4] Holabird and Root also designed the Foreign Languages Building (1968-1971) on the University of Illinois –Urbana Champaign campus.

[5] Pearson, Mike. Illini Legends, Lists & Lore. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2002, p.3.

[6] Blazer, Werner. Chicago Architecture: Holabird & Root, 1880-1992. 1992: Birkhauser Verlag Basel. Berlin, p. 12-13.

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Copyright Jennifer Kenny and Local Architecture Chicago, 2021. All rights reserved.

This week I discovered that the Keyhole House at 5400 West 96^th Street, a Village of Oak Lawn landmark, is an 1891 Queen Anne-style design by noted pattern book architect George Franklin Barber (1854-1915). George F. Barber’s firm is arguably America’s most successful architectural pattern book company in the late 19^th– and early 20^th-centuries, with hundreds of existing examples across the country. Domestic pattern book companies, like Barber’s, produced illustrated books and periodicals for homebuilders who would select a design and then hire a local builder to construct it.  The concept of selling an architect’s plan by mail revolutionized home building for everyday people.  A potential home builder in any town across America, who could not afford or did not have access to a trained architect, could purchase a reasonably priced and highly fashionable mail house design through mail order.

It is believed Barber’s mail order pattern book designs were built in every state in the nation, but particularly in Illinois where over 100 designs are found in the state Barber once called home.[i] George Franklin Barber was born in DeKalb, Illinois on July 30, 1854, although he was raised on his older sister’s farm near Marmaton, Kansas.[ii] His older brother, Manley DeWitt Barber, was a carpenter residing in DeKalb. It is believed that after working as a carpenter in Fort Scott, Kansas, George returned to DeKalb in 1884 to assist his brother in his local business.[iii]  Although not formally trained, George Barber was a student of popular journals and carpenter trade books.  His career in architecture began while serving as a designer with his contracting firm, Barber and Boardman. Barber’s best known early design is the Gothic Revival-style Congregational Church in DeKalb, built between 1885 and 1888. 

While in DeKalb, Barber produced his first portfolio of designs around 1887 entitled The Cottage Souvenir, Eighteen Engravings of Houses Ranging in Price from $900.00 to $8,000 in Wood, Brick and Stone, Artistically Combined. He followed up in 1888 with Modern Artistic Cottages, or the Cottage Souvenir, Designed to Meet the Wants of Mechanics and Home Builders in 1888. According to Tomlan’s biography, the latter publication marked Barber’s entry into an architectural practice that would rely upon correspondence rather than direct contact between the prospective homeowner and the architect.[iv] 

Poor health forced George Barber and his family to move to the mountains in east Tennessee in 1888.  It was in Knoxville that his large scale company grew, selling hundreds of home designs through at least nine (known) house plan catalogs and his monthly magazine, American Homes.  American Homes had a Chicago branch office, and it is known that the magazine was received at 117 post offices across the state of Illinois.[v] His homes were designed in fashionable styles, first from elaborate Queen Anne designs to Colonial and Classical Revival in later years. George Barber’s large scale architectural practice set his company apart from many other pattern book companies of the era. His advertising campaigns in leading periodicals allowed him to hire numerous draftsman and clerks to produce over 1,000 orders a year during the company’s heyday. Additionally, his publications allowed him to influence architectural taste across a wide audience. George Franklin Barber died on February 17, 1915 in Park City, TN, leaving an architectural legacy in many towns across America. This legacy has been honored with the listing of many Barber designed homes on the National Register of Historic Places.

Many fanciful, exuberantly designed Queen Anne-style homes throughout the country have been attributed to Barber. Experts in George Barber designs, such as the late Michael Alcorn and associate Christopher R. DiMattei (who operates the website cottagesouvenirs.com), spent many years documenting extant designs.[vi] Not all designs and plans followed the illustrations in Barber catalogs, as Barber offered the client customizing options for a fee. Yet, according to experts the facades were typically not altered, just the floor plan.[vii]  For this reason, any design suspected to be a “Barber House” must be compared first with the original design that appeared in any of Barber’s house plan catalogs or publications.  In the case of Oak Lawn’s Keyhole House in the Queen Anne style and, although altered over the years, shares much of the character of Design No. 36 in Cottage Souvenir Number Two published by George F. Barber in 1891 but especially Design No. 36 in Artistic Homes: How to Plan and How to Build Them published in 1893.

The Keyhole House was constructed in Oak Lawn, IL in 1891 and named for the 7’ high and 4” wide keyhole shaped window on the home’s east façade. The keyhole window is made up of 350 pieces of stained glass, and marks the grand interior staircase. The keyhole window appears in the side facade illustration for Design No. 36 in Barber’s 1893 Artistic Homes, but features an arched window opening rather than a keyhole shaped opening in Barber’s Cottage Souvenir Number Two from 1891. It is unclear whether Barber customized the 1891 design to add a keyhole opening for the staircase window, or it was offered as a standard design by 1893. Could it be possible that the illustration for Design No. 36 in Artistic Homes, referencing a house in Chicago, could be the house in Oak Lawn built around 1891 for a Chicago real estate developer?

Many of the home’s original features remain. This Queen Anne-style home by Barber features an expansive front porch, a complicated roofline with multiple gables and main hipped roof, lavish ornamental brackets, ornamental brick chimney, and decorative shingles. The house appears much like the illustrations in the catalog, and hopefully I will be able to confirm its floor plans.

It surprised me that one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Oak Lawn was not listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Homeowners have tried. In June 1980, homeowners Michael and Brenda Rzechula enthusiastically went before the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council asking for National Register of Historic Places designation for the Keyhole House at 5400 West 96^th Street in Oak Lawn. A motion to nominate failed by a vote of 4 to 5, with 6 yes votes necessary for passage. Disappointing since public servants failed to help these willing homeowners with their research and documentation.

Historic context research must have been quite difficult for these homeowners without support, particularly without help from historic preservation division staff at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and members of the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council. When the nomination was first reviewed at the June 1980 Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council meeting, discussion centered upon the home’s role in the development of Oak Lawn, and whether it represented a significant contribution to community planning. The Council questioned whether this home represented a unique speculative venture or if it was a common practice in the development of suburban Chicago.

The Keyhole House and a few remaining Queen Anne-style homes in Oak Lawn, tell the tale of a small railroad suburb on the Wabash line in the late 19^th– and early 20^th-centuries. The Wabash Railroad completed track through Oak Lawn (then known as Black Oak) in March 1881, setting the stage for new residential development for commuters into the city. Yet it was not until November 1890 that the Wabash Railroad began true operation of suburban passenger service from Chicago to Worth. Today, Metra’s South West Service still operates passenger service into Chicago’s Loop on this same line.

As was typical in railroad communities on the lines running outward from Chicago’s downtown, suburban land development almost always followed railroad expansion. With improved passenger service, the Wabash Railroad’s activity spurred further real estate speculation in Oak Lawn, led by real estate firms such as Monson and Smith and Erasmus G. Minnick who focused on south suburban development.

Real estate developer Erasmus G. Minnick purchased property adjacent to the railroad line and laid out a new subdivision called Minnick’s Oak Lawn around 1890-91.[viii] Local lore recalls that Minnick built the richly adorned Queen Anne-style house at the northwest corner of 96^th Street and 54^th Avenue to attract buyers to the new railroad suburb on the Wabash line. Perhaps Minnick himself selected architect George F. Barber’s Design No. 36, since mortgage and mechanics liens were placed on the property (that once extended further to the west) in late 1891. (The liens indicate William J. Huff Lumber Company provided the construction materials, and James. T. McCowan and Sons were the carpenter contractors.) The Keyhole House location was ideal for promoting Minnick’s development. The property could be seen from the tracks and was just to the east of his newly dug Oak Lawn Lake, creating a picturesque setting in his speculative suburban residential real estate development. According to Cook County property records, James H. Smith, a real estate broker whose firm Monson and Smith was active in Oak Lawn deals, purchased the larger property on December 20, 1894 for $2500. Perhaps Smith is the first resident of 5400 West 96^th Street. He is living in Oak Lawn in 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895 according to Chicago City Directories.

Oak Lawn, although mostly known as a booming post-World War II suburb, was one of many of Chicago’s suburbs (and even those absorbed into City of Chicago neighborhoods) that grew as developments along the numerous railroad lines that radiated out of Chicago’s Loop. As minor as Oak Lawn’s late 19th- and early 20th-century railroad suburban development may have been to its growth, remnants of this period do remain. These historic homes, like the Keyhole House, are important as links to the history of the community. Although denied listing in the National Register of Historic Places by elitists at the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council years ago, the Keyhole House was designated as a local landmark by the Oak Lawn Historic Preservation Commission on August 29, 1998.

For further information on George F. Barber designs

For further information on George F. Barber and his pattern book architecture, see Alcorn and DiMattei’s 2017 book Architectural Ragtime: The Houses of Geo. F. Barber & Co. available on Amazon; Chris DiMattei’s website cottagesouvenirs.com; and the George F. Barber Collection, part of the Knox County Public Library Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville, TN.

A Selected list of Barber Pattern Book Catalogs

Barber, George F. Modern Artistic Cottages, or the Cottage Souvenir, Designed to Meet the Wants of Mechanics and Home Builders. Dekalb, Ill., 1887.

Barber, George F. The Cottage Souvenir No. 2, Containing 120 Original Designs in Cottage and Detail Architecture. Knoxville, TN: S.B. Newman & Co., 1891.

Barber, George F. The Cottage Souvenir Revised and Enlarged: Containing Over Two Hundred Original Designs and Plans of Artistic Dwellings. Knoxville, Tenn: S.B. Newman & Co, 1892.

Barber, George F. Artistic Homes: How to Plan and How to Build Them. Knoxville, TN: S.B. Newman & Co., 1893, 1894, 1895.

Barber, George F. New Model Dwellings and How Best to Build Them: Containing a Great Variety of Designs, Plans and Interior Views of Modern Dwellings, Together with a Large Amount of Valuable Information Indispensable to Those Who Contemplate Building. Knoxville, Tenn: G. Barber, 1894, 1896.

Barber, George F. Modern Dwellings: A Book of Practical Designs and Plans for Those Who Wish to Build or Beautify Their Homes. Knoxville, TN: S.B. Newman & Co, 1901, 1903.

Barber, George F, and Thomas A. Kluttz. Art in Architecture: With the Modern Architectural Designer for Those Who Wish to Build or Beautify Their Homes. Knoxville, TN: S.B. Newman & Co, 1902.

Barber, George F. Modern Dwellings. Knoxville, TN: Barber & Kluttz, 1905.

[i] Alcorn, Michael.” Putting up a Good Façade: Illinois Houses from George F. Barber and Company.” Historic Illinois. Volume 20, Number 5. (February 1998), p. 3.

[ii] Tomlan, Michael. “Toward the Growth of an Artistic Taste” in a reprint of George F. Barber’s Cottage Souvenir Number Two. Watkins Glen, NY: American Life Foundation and Study Institute, 1982, p. 5.

[iii] Ibid, 6.

[iv] Ibid, 7.

[v] Alcorn, p. 4.

[vi] Alcorn, Michael D., and Christopher R. DiMattei. Architectural Ragtime: the Houses of Geo. F. Barber & Co., 2017.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Erasmus Minnick purchased property on October 1, 1890 from Margaret Hammond, an heir of John Simpson who owned farmland in this quarter section of Worth Township.

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