Copyright Jennifer Kenny and Local Architecture Chicago, 2021. All rights reserved.
This week I discovered that the Keyhole House at 5400 West 96th 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 19th– and early 20th-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.
From the Knox County Public Library, George F. Barber Collection.
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 96th 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 19th– and early 20th-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 96th Street and 54th 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 96th 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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