Department of Planning and Development
CITY OF CHICAGO
September 26, 2016
The Honorable Susana Mendoza City Clerk City of Chicago Room 107, City Hall 121 North LaSalle Street Chicago, IL 60602
RE: Recommendation for the designation of the Lakeview Avenue Row House District as a Chicago Landmark, 2700-2710 North Lakeview Ave.
Dear Clerk Mendoza:
We are filing with your office for introduction at the October 5, 2016, City Council meeting as a transmittal to the Mayor and City Council of Chicago the recommendation of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks that the Lakeview Avenue Row House District be designated as a Chicago Landmark.
The material being submitted to you for this proposal includes the:
Recommendation ofthe Commission on Chicago Landmarks; and
Proposed Ordinance.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. 52^]- rn
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Sincerely,
Eleanor Esser Gorski, AIA Deputy Commissioner
Planning, Design and Historic Preservation Division Department of Planning and Development
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Alderman Michele Smith, 43r Ward (via email without enclosure)
121 NORTH LASALLE STREET, ROOM 1000, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS G0602
ORDINANCE
Lakeview Avenue Row House District 2700 - 2714 N. Lakeview Ave. (evens) 400 - 408 W. Wrightwood Ave. (evens)
WHEREAS, pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Municipal Code of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), Sections 2-120-630 through -690, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") has determined that the Lakeview Avenue Row House District (the "District"), defined by 2700, 2704, 2708, and 2710 N. Lakeview Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, legally described in Exhibit A attached hereto and incorporated herein, satisfies two (2) criteria for landmark designation as set forth in Section 2-120-620 (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, the District forms a visually distinctive group of row houses, a building type of importance to Chicago architectural history; and
WHEREAS, the District is one of Chicago's finest examples of late 18th-century Georgian-style London townhouses; and
WHEREAS, Dangler and Adler's careful interpretation of the historical form, design, and detailing of Georgian-style London townhouses is perfectly realized in the Lakeview Avenue row houses; and
WHEREAS, the District retains almost all of its finely crafted architectural details and finishes, including: carved limestone, wrought-iron fences and railings, cast-iron, and carved wood porches; and
WHEREAS, the Lakeview Avenue row houses were designed by the architectural firm of Henry Dangler and David Adler - both in which are significant for their interpretation of Classical Revival styles, which they applied to domestic architecture during the first half of the 20th century; and
WHEREAS, despite operating for less than five years, many examples of Dangler and Adler's work can be found in Chicago, in North Shore communities, and across the country; and
WHEREAS, Dangler and Adler were primarily commissioned by wealthy society members, for whom they mainly designed large country estates - very few of the firm's works were designed for an urban setting; and
WHEREAS, the District is a fine and rare example of the firm's design for an urban and intimate grouping of homes; and
l
WHEREAS, although the original row home concept was never completed, the significant involvement of six important artists and designers in Chicago's society greatly contributed to the development of the row; and
WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 ofthe Municipal Code, the District has a significant historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value, the integrity of which is preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express such historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value; and
WHEREAS, on September 1, 2016, the Commission adopted a resolution recommending to the City Council of the City of Chicago (the "City Council") that the District be designated a Chicago Landmark; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO: SECTION 1. The above recitals are hereby adopted as the findings of the City Council.
SECTION 2. The Building is hereby designated a Chicago Landmark in accordance with Section 2-120-700 ofthe Municipal Code.
SECTION 3. For purposes of Sections 2-120-740 and 2-120-770 of the Municipal Code governing permit review, the significant historical and architectural features of the Building are identified as:
a) All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the district buildings visible from the public rights of way.
The mansard roof structure at the fourth floor of 2708 N. Lakeview Ave. is a circa 1990 addition to the original fourth floor structure which is set back from the parapet approximately 10 feet. The mansard addition may be removed from the original structure subject to the review of the Commission. The foregoing is not intended to limit the Commission's discretion to approve other changes.
SECTION 4. The Commission is hereby directed to create a suitable plaque appropriately identifying the Building as a Chicago Landmark.
SECTION 5. If any provision of this ordinance shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the invalidity or unenforceability of such provision shall not affect any of the other provisions of this ordinance.
SECTION 6. All ordinances, resolutions, motions or orders in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict.
SECTION 7. This ordinance shall take effect upon its passage and approval.
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EXHIBIT A
Building Address
2700 N. Lakeview Ave.
Permanent Index Number
14-28-310-024-0000
Legal Description
THAT PART OF LOT 78 LYING SOUTH OF A LINE DRAWN25 FEET 4 3/8™ INCHES SOUTH OF THE NORTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO IN ANDREWS SPAFFORD AND COLEHOUR'S SUBDIVISION OF BLOCKS 1 AND 2 OF OUT LOT 'A' IN WRIGHTWOOD, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF THE SOUTH WEST 1/4 OF SECTION 28, TOWNSHIP 40 NORTH, RANGE 14, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Building Address
2704 N. Lakeview Ave.
Permanent Index Number
14-28-310-023-0000
Legal Description
THAT PART OF LOT 78 LYING NORTH OF A LINE DRAWN25 FEET 4 3/8TH INCHES SOUTH OF THE NORTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO AND THAT PART OF LOT 79 LYING SOUTH OF A LINE DRAWN 4 FEET 6 INCHES NORTH OF THE SOUTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO IN ANDREWS SPAFFORD AND COLEHOUR'S SUBDIVISION OF BLOCKS 1 AND 2 OF OUT LOT A IN WRIGHTWOOD, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF THE SOUTH WEST 1/4 OF SECTION 28, TOWNSHIP 40 NORTH, RANGE 14, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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Building Address
2708 N. Lakeview Ave.
Permanent Index Number
14-28-310-022-0000
Legal Description
THAT PART OF LOT 79 LYING NORTH OF A LINE DRAWN 4 FEET 6 INCHES NORTH OF THE SOUTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO AND LYING SOUTH OF A LINE DRAWN 29 FEET 6 INCHES NORTH OF SOUTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO IN ANDREWS SPAFFORD AND COLEHOUR'S SUBDIVISION OF BLOCKS 1 AND 2 OF OUT LOT A IN WRIGHTWOOD, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF THE SOUTH WEST % OF SECTION 28, TOWNSHIP 40 NORTH, RANGE 14, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Building Address
2710 N. Lakeview Avenue
Permanent Index Number
14-28-310-021-0000
Legal Description
THAT PART OF LOT 79 LYING NORTH OF A LINE DRAWN 29 FEET 6 INCHES NORTH OF THE SOUTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO AND THAT PART OF LOT 80 LYING SOUTH OF A LINE DRAWN 7 FEET NORTH OF THE SOUTH LINE OF SAID LOT AND PARALLEL THERETO IN ANDREWS SPAFFORD AND COLEHOUR'S SUBDIVISION OF BLOCKS 1 AND 2 OF OUT LOT A IN WRIGHTWOOD, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF THE SOUTH WEST 1/4 OF SECTION 28, TOWNSHIP 40 NORTH, RANGE 14, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
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CITY OF CHICAGO COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS
September 1,2016
RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF CHICAGO THAT CHICAGO LANDMARK DESIGNATION BE ADOPTED FOR THE
LAKEVIEW AVENUE ROW HOUSE DISTRICT
Including the Following Address Ranges (even/odd addresses):
2700 to 2710 N. Lakeview Ave. (evens) 400 to 408 W. Wrightwood Ave. (evens)
Docket No. 2016-05
To the Mayor and Members ofthe City Council of the City of Chicago:
Pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") has determined that the Lakeview Avenue Row House District (the "District") is worthy of Chicago Landmark designation. On the basis of careful consideration of the history and architecture of the District, the Commission has found that it satisfies the following two (2) criteria set forth in Section 2-120-620 ofthe Municipal Code:
Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship.
Its identification as the work of an architect, designer, engineer, or builder whose individual work is significant in the history or development of the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, or the United States
I. BACKGROUND
The formal landmark designation process for the District began on April 7, 2016, when the Commission approved a preliminary landmark recommendation (the "Preliminary' Recommendation") for the District as a Chicago Landmark. The Commission found that the District meets two (2) of the seven (7) criteria for designation, as well as the integrity criterion, identified in the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance (Municipal Code, Section 2-120-580 et seq.). The Preliminary Recommendation, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit A, initiated the process for further study and analysis of the proposed designation of the District as a Chicago Landmark. As part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission identified the "significant historical and architectural features" of the District as:
• All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the buildings visible from public rights of way.
The mansard roof structure at the fourth floor of 2708 N. Lakeview Ave. is a circa 1990 addition to the original fourth floor structure which is set back from the parapet approximately 10 feet. The mansard addition may be removed from the original structure subject to the review of the Commission. The foregoing is not intended to limit the Commission's discretion to approve other changes.
Also, as part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission adopted a Designation Report, dated April 7, 2016, incorporated herein and attached hereto.as Exhibit B.
At its regular meeting of May 5, 2016, the Commission received a statement from David Reifman, Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, supporting the proposed landmark designation of the District.
On May 16, 2016, the Commission officially requested consent to the proposed landmark designation from the owners of properties within the District. The District contains a total of four (4) properties held by fee simple Owners. The Commission sent a total of 4 consent forms.
As of June 29, 2016, the end of the request-for-consent period, two (2) of the four request-for-consent forms mailed to property,owners had been returned to the Commission. Of these, two (2) owners consented to the proposed landmark designation, while the remaining two (2) owners did not respond to the Commission's request. Therefore final consent tally is: two (2) responses, two (2) owners consenting, and two (2) owners not responding.
Upon the end of the consent period, as required by the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance, the Commission notified owners of properties within the District in a letter dated July 22, 2016, of a public hearing on the proposed designation scheduled for August 8, 2016. Notices of the time and date ofthe hearing were also (a) posted on signs in the proposed District, and (b) published as a legal notice in the Chicago Sun-Times, as required by the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance. A notice was also posted on the DPD web site;
II. PUBLIC HEARING
The hearing was convened, as scheduled and noticed, on Monday, August 8, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., Rm. 201-A. Commission member Juan Moreno served as Hearing Officer, assisted by Lisa Misher, Senior Counsel of die Real Estate and Land Use Division ofthe City's Law Department, as legal counsel to the Commission, and Eleanor Esser Gorski, Deputy Commissioner of the Planning, Design and Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Planning and Development. The hearing was conducted in accordance with the Commission's Rules and Regulations, specifically Article II regarding the conduct of public hearings for landmark designation.
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The Commission staffs presentation recommending the proposed landmark designation was given by David Trayte, City Planner III.
At the conclusion of the staff presentation, the Commission's Rules and Regulations allow property owners, regardless of whether they request party status, to question the staff and/or the staffs expert. No property owners or members ofthe public requested party status.
Property owners within the District not requesting party status and members ofthe general public were able to provide statements. 6 members of the general public, including representatives of Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago, spoke in favor ofthe proposed designation. 9 members of the general public declined to make a verbal statement but documented support ofthe proposed designation.
The transcript (the "Hearing Transcript") and related exhibits from the public hearing are attached hereto.
TALLY OF CONSENTS TO THE DESIGNATION AND CHANGES TO THE DISTRICT
As of the date hereof, two (2) of the 4 request-for-consent forms mailed to property owners have been returned to the Commission. Two (2) owners consented to the proposed landmark designation, and two (2) owners did not respond to the Commission's request.
FINDINGS OF THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS
WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code, the Commission shall determine whether to recommend the proposed landmark designation to City Council within 30 days after the conclusion of a public hearing; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code, the Commission has reviewed the entire record of proceedings on the proposed Chicago Landmark designation, including the Designation Report, the DPD Report, the Hearing Transcript and all of the information on the proposed landmark designation of the District; and
WHEREAS, the District meets the two (2) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, the District forms a visually distinctive group of row houses, a building type of importance to.Chicago architectural history; and
WHEREAS, the District is one of Chicago's finest examples of late 18th-century Georgian-style London townhouses; and
WHEREAS, Dangler and Adler's careful interpretation of the historical form, design, and detailing of Georgian-style London townhouses is perfectly realized in the Lakeview Avenue row houses; and
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WHEREAS, the District retains almost all of its finely crafted architectural details and finishes, including: carved limestone, wrought-iron fences and railings, cast-iron, and carved wood porches; and
WHEREAS, the Lakeview Avenue row houses were designed by the architectural firm of Henry Dangler and David Adler - both in which are significant for their interpretation of Classical Revival styles, which they applied to domestic architecture during the first half of the 20th century; and
WHEREAS, despite operating for less than five years, many examples of Dangler and Adler's work can be found in Chicago, in North Shore communities, and across the country; and
WHEREAS, Dangler and Adler were primarily commissioned by wealthy society members, for whom they mainly designed large country estates - very few of the firm's works were designed for an urban setting; and
WHEREAS, the District is a fine and rare example of the firm's design for an urban and intimate grouping of homes; and
WHEREAS, although the original row home concept was never completed, the significant involvement of six important artists and designers in Chicago's society greatly contributed to the development of the row; arid
WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 ofthe Municipal Code, the District has a significant historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value, the integrity of which is preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express such historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value; now, therefore,
THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS HEREBY:
Incorporates the preamble and Sections I, II, III, and IV into its findings; and
Adopts the Final Designation Report, as revised, and dated this 1st day of September 2016;and
Finds, based on the Designation Report, DPD Report, the Hearing Transcript and the entire record before the Commission, that the District meets the two (2) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Sections 2-120-620 (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and
Finds that the District satisfies the "integrity" requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code; and
|1010|5. Finds that the significant historical and architectural features of the District are identified as follows:
• All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the district buildings visible from the public rights of way
The mansard roof structure at the fourth floor of 2708 N. Lakeview Ave. is a circa 1990 addition to the original fourth floor structure which is set back from the parapet approximately 10 feet. The mansard addition may be removed from the original structure subject to the review of the Commission. The foregoing is not intended to limit the Commission's discretion to approve other changes.
6. Recommends that the District be designated a Chicago Landmark.
Dated: ,p(e ^Jj^Jj^ ^y ^ 0 /
EXHIBIT A
Resolution by the
Commission on Chicago Landmarks on the
Preliminary Landmark Recommendation For the
LAKEVIEW AVENUE ROW HOUSE DISTRICT
Including the Following Address Ranges:
2700 to 2710 N. Lakeview Ave. (evens), 400 to 408 W. Wrightwood Ave. (evens)
April 7, 2016
Whereas, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (hereinafter the "Commission") preliminarily finds that:
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District (the "District"), located at the addresses noted above, meets two (2) criteria for landmark designation as set forth in Section 2-120-620 (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), as specifically described in the Preliminary Summary of Information submitted to the Commission on this 7,h day of April, 2016, by the Department of Planning and Development (the "Preliminary Summary"); and
The District satisfies the historic integrity requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code as described in the Preliminary Summary; now, therefore
Be it resolved by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks:
Section 1. The above recitals are expressly incorporated in and made part of this resolution as though fully set forth herein.
Section 2. The Commission hereby adopts the Preliminary Summary and makes a preliminary landmark recommendation concerning the District in accordance with Section 2-120-630 ofthe Municipal Code.
Section 3. For purposes of Section 2-120-740 of the Municipal Code governing permit review, the significant historical and architectural features of the District are preliminarily identified as:
• All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the buildings visible from public rights of way.
The mansard roof structure at the fourth floor of 2708 N. Lakeview Ave. is a circa 1990 addition to the original fourth floor structure which is set back from the parapet approximately 10 feet. The mansard addition may be removed from the original structure subject to the review of the Commission. The foregoing is not intended to limit the Commission's discretion to approve other changes.
Section 4. The Commission hereby requests a report from the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development which evaluates the relationship ofthe proposed designation to the City's
governing plans and policies and the effect of the proposed designation on the surrounding neighborhood in accordance with Section 2-120-640 of the Municipal Code.
Rafael M. Leon^h'airman Commission on Chicago Landmarks
Dated:
EXHIBIT B
Preliminary Summary of Information
Submitted to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in April 2016
Lakeview Avenue Row House District
2700-2710 N. Lakeview Ave.
CITY OF CHICAGO Rahm Emanuel, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development David Reifman, Commissioner
Contents
Map of District|910|Site History and Development|910|Early Site History and Context|910|North Side Living|910|The Artists, Designers, and Architects of the Row Houses 9
Building the Lakeview Avenue Row Houses and Plan Changes 13
Later Histoty 17
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District 18
The Architects of Lakeview Avenue 25
Dangler & Adler 25
Work & Adler 26
Ambrose Coghill Cramer 26
The London Townhouse and the Georgian Style 29
Criteria for Designation 31
Significant Historical and Architectural Features 35
Notes 36
Bibliography 39
Address Ranges 41
Illustration Credits 42
Acknowledgments 43
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Lake view Avenue Row House District
2700-2710 N. Lakeview Avenue Built: 1915-1917
ARCHITECTS: Henry Corwith Dangler, David Adler,
Ambrose Coghill Cramer, Robert Work
ADDITIONS: Walter S. Frazier, 1923 David Adler, 1930
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District is a seamless set of four row homes built between 1915 and 1917 overlooking the northern end of Lincoln Park (Map 1). Architects Henry Corwith Dangler and David. Adler designed the timeless homes as a row of city residences for a group of their close friends who were significant artists, architects, and designers in Chicago society. Each home is unique in detail, but together they reflect the quiet formality of London townhouses built during the late Georgian period of the 18th century. A retrospective article published in 1922 on the work of Dangler and Adler noted of the row houses that their "... spirit is distinctly Adam but there are directness and simplicity in the handling of composition and detail that produce a spontaneity of conception far removed from careful reproduction."1 The houses on Lakeview Avenue are an excellent example of a unique variation in style and form of a row house in Chicago.
The architects are notable for the elegant country houses and city residences they designed for wealthy clients in Chicago, the North Shore, and across the country. Their designs deftly drew inspiration from historical architectural styles while refining their key elements for early 20th-century Chicago tastes.
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Map 1: The Lakeview Row House District is located at 2700-2710 North Lakeview Avenue on the northern end ofthe Lincoln Park community area, facing Lincoln Park.|1010|
Image 1: ,¦.¦¦.•*/¦.•¦¦.-- Image 2:
Henry Corwith Dangler (1882-1917) Vv David Adler (1882-1949)
Partners Henry Danglerand Avenue Row Houses in 1915.
Image 3: The Lakeview Avenue Row House District facing Lakeview Avenue and Lincoln Park.|1010|
Site History and Development
Architects Henry C. Dangler and David Adler designed the row of fine Georgian-style homes as a creative social community for friends who were both artists and notable figures in Chicago society. Each row home would be an independent residence but would also enjoy benefits common to the high-class apartment towers then being built along the lakefront. Together the homes would be heated by a central facility and a proposed garage would accommodate each owner's automobile.
Mrs. Emily Maria (nee Borie) Ryerson (1863-1939), noted as the leader of the "flock" of young bachelor artists and an artist herself, planned to have her home on the corner at North Lakeview and Wrightwood avenues. The painter and mutual friend to both Dangler and Adler, Abram Poole Jr. (1882-1962), would live at 2704 North Lakeview Avenue. Dangler (1882-1917), the young architect in partnership with Adler, would occupy the home at number 2708. Dangler's first cousin, and architect and draftsman at Adler and Dangler's firm, Ambrose Coghill Cramer (1892-1970), had the home at number 2710, and mural artist Frederick Clay Bartlett (1873-1957) chose the parcel at number 2712. Capitalist, patron of the arts, and close friend of Mrs. Ryerson, George French Porter (1881-1927), selected the largest parcel at the northern end of the proposed row at 2718 North Lakeview Avenue.
Together, the group of six friends elected to build on a site facing the northern end of Lincoln Park, an area that was distant from the established wealthy society enclaves ofthe Gold Coast and South Side. Initially, six homes were planned, but with Dangler's early death and the United States' involvement in World War I in 1917, only four homes were completed (Image 3). Today, the northernmost home (number 2710) illustrates this history with its blank north wall, which was planned to join two row houses that were never built
Early Site History and Context
The location that the group of friends chose on Lakeview Avenue, just south of Divcrsey Parkway, was originally part ofthe City of Lakeview (incorporated in 1887) that was annexed to the City of Chicago in 1889. Since the 1850s, Lakeview Township had attracted residents seeking land near Chicago but outside the congestion ofthe city. Its open farmland, largely devoted to growing celery and cabbage, was quickly subdivided after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 by city residents hoping to rebuild. Whereas frame houses and cottages filled blocks in the township away from the lakefront, Lakeview Avenue was soon lined by stately brick and frame mansions, from Fullerton Avenue on the southern border of the town north to Belmont Avenue and beyond. North of Diversey, the lakeshore cut a closer approach to Lakeview Avenue (later renamed Sheridan Road) until the lakefront was filled in to extend Lincoln Park northward in the 1910s.
The first home of an artist to be built on the current site of the Lakeview Avenue row houses was that of prominent photographer Joshua Smith. In 1883, Smith hired Norwegian architect Harold M. Hansen to design a large brick house overlooking Lincoln Park.2 Smith lived on Lakeview Avenue until 1887, when he sold his home to coal titan McMillan A. Johnson. To the north of Johnson's house, builder Thomas Mackin in 1889 purchased the vast lot that extended|1010|
2700 2704 2708 • ' 2710 2712 2718
(Never Built) (Never Built)
Lakeview Avenue
Map 2: Henry C. Dangler and David Adler designed a row of homes in 1915 for their friends who were artists and notable figures in Chicago society. Originally, six row houses were planned. The property was divided into six lots of varying widths, with each of the end lots 60 feet wide, for Mrs. Ryerson and Porter; Poole and Bartlett had 30-foot lots;'and at the heart ofthe row were 25-foot lots for Dangler and Cramer. Ultimately, Bartlett and Porter did not build on their lots and their lot were sold for the extant Elk's Memorial (1923).
to Diversey Parkway and hired architect W. L. Carroll to design a grand stone mansion that served as a visual landmark at the busy Lakeview Avenue and Diversey Parkway intersection.3
Mackin died in 1894, and in February 1915 the six artist friends; Mrs. Emily Ryerson, Abram Poole; Dangler, Ambrose C. Cramer, Frederick C. Bartlett, and George F. Porter acquired Johnson estate and the south half of Mackin's property for the proposed Lakeview Avenue row houses.4 Together, the properties acquired for the row houses occupied nearly 220 feet of frontage on Lakeview Avenue and Lincoln Park (Map 2).
North Side Living
Plans for six row houses were drawn in early 1915 by the firm of Henry C. Dangler and David Adler. The homes would be similar in size to existing homes in the area, which included both apartment flats and the residences of wealthy Chicagoans. The tall apartment towers that define the area today did not begin to appear until the 1920s. Early accounts described the development as a "social community" or a cooperative residential community because of both the close social connections among its future residents and for the novel features ofthe row,|1010|
such as a common heating plant and garage for all owners.5 These features were more common to the then-growing number of large luxury apartment developments than to the blocks of detached mansions on the South Side or the row houses ofthe Gold Coast.6 Yet Dangler and Adler designed each row home to be independently owned and customized.
The northern end of Lincoln Park attracted a new generation of wealthy Chicagoans in the 1910s. Many of these families were the younger generations of prominent families from Chicago's South Side—old Chicago families that had called Prairie Avenue, Calumet Avenue, and Grand Boulevard home during the 19th century. However, as industry and business shifted ever farther south from downtown along the lakefront rail lines, more families increasingly opted to move northward to build homes along Lincoln Park.7 These new residents included both the creative occupants of the Lakeview Avenue row houses and several Chicago industry leaders who moved to an area east of Sheridan Road and north of Diversey that was nicknamed "Meekerville."8
In 1912, Arthur Burr Meeker, capitalist and controller of Philip J. Armour's meatpacking company, purchased the undeveloped parcel of land between Diversey and Belmont with J. Ogden Armour. The Meeker and Armour families moved north from Prairie Avenue and built stately homes. Meeker hired New York architect Charles Piatt, who designed a large Georgian-style residence of red brick with limestone trim (3030 North Lake Shore Drive, extant).9 Armour hired architect Howard Van Doren Shaw to design his new Italian Renaissance-style home at 325 West Wellington Avenue (1915, extant). Other families soon followed, building in Meekerville and surrounding lakefront properties. In 1914, when Dangler and several society friends were looking for a place to build city homes where they could exercise their creative talents, they found a place on Lakeview Avenue.
The Artists, Designers, and Architects of the Row Houses
The future occupants of the row houses were almost all young; most were yet unmarried and living at home or were finishing studies in the arts. Mrs. Emily Maria (nee Borie) Ryerson was the exception (Image 4). She was born in Philadelphia and lived in Haverford, Pennsylvania with her husband Arthur Larned Ryerson (1858-1912) of the Chicago steel-making family.10 While travelling in France, the Ryersons learned that their eldest son had been killed in a car accident outside Philadelphia; returning quickly to attend the funeral, they steamed back on the RMS Titanic.11 In the aftermath ofthe disaster, Arthur Ryerson's body was never identified; however, Mrs. Ryerson and her children were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and subsequently moved to Chicago.12 Mrs. Ryerson was described as a resilient character, for even after the two significant losses in her life she maintained an indefatigable, positive humor.13 She would find company among the artists, designers, and architects of her children's generation and become the social leader of the Lakeview Row Houses from her corner home at 2700.
Abram Poole Jr., who would be Mrs. Ryerson's neighbor at 2704, was born in Chicago in 1882 (Image 5). He graduated in 1904 from Princeton University, where he met Adler, and the two began a life-long friendship. The two continued their studies in Munich, Germany, where Poole spent seven years studying painting at the Royal Academy while Adler studied architecture and design at the Munich Polytechnic. Poole then studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris,|10 10|
where Adler had continued his architectural training. It was there that Poole introduced Adler to his friend and fellow architect Dangler.14 Dangler returned home to Lake Forest in 1909 and began working with architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Adler also entered Shaw's firm as a draftsman in 1912, but after Dangler received his architect's license later that year, Dangler left to form his own architectural firm, which Adler soon joined. Poole was the connection for Dangler and Adler's first commission, a large country home in Glencoe for Poole's older brother Ralph. Poole finished his studies at the Ecole in 1915 and returned to Chicago in time to become part of the creative community being built on Lakeview Avenue.
Dangler would leave his parents' home in Lake Forest to live in the row house north of Poole at 2708. To Dangler's north, at number 2710, would be his cousin Ambrose Coghill Cramer (Image 6). Cramer, born in 1891, graduated from Yale University. He travelled throughout Great Britain and France before returning to Chicago in 1914 and becoming a draftsman in Dangler and Adler's firm. After Dangler's death in 1917, Cramer followed in his cousin's path by studying architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1921.
In addition to Mrs. Ryerson, Poole, Dangler, and Cramer, two other friends also planned to build their own homes as part of the Lakeview Avenue row. Mural artist Frederick Clay Bartlett and designer George French Porter. Bartlett was born in Chicago in 1873 and grew up in a grand home on Prairie Avenue. In 1900 he opened a studio in the Fine Arts Building (410 South Michigan Avenue) and had his home built near his boyhood home on Prairie Avenue.15 Bartlett likely met Dangler and Adler through his close friend Howard Van Doren Shaw. Several of Bartlett's commissions were in conjunction with Shaw, including creating new murals for the reconstruction and restoration of the Second Presbyterian Church (1936 South Michigan Avenue, 1874, a designated Chicago Landmark) after a devastating fire in 1901.16 Bartlett's primary reason for living on the South Side was his family, but when his father became ill and left Chicago for Lake Geneva Bartlett decided to move his family and join the group on Lakeview Avenue.17 He planned to build a new home at 2712 North Lakeview Avenue, north of Ambrose Cramer. Porter, a designer, artist, and painter, was born in Chicago in 1882. He likely met Dangler while af Yale University, where he graduated in 1903. Although", he controlled various railroad companies, he was also involved in the Field Museum and various arts clubs.18 In 1913, Porter hired Dangler and Adler to design a row of Georgian-style houses for an investment property at the northwestern corner of Walton Place and Lincoln Parkway (now Michigan Avenue). Although the project was never built, it likely strengthened Porter's relationship with Dangler.19 Porter acquired a 60-foot-wide parcel at the northern end of the proposed row, between addresses 2714 and 2728, but ultimately both he and Bartlett chose not to build on Lakeview Avenue.
The friends and future neighbors each had plans to personalize their Lakeview Avenue homes. The homes at 2704, 2708, and 2710 were designed with interior enclosed light courts to draw light into the otherwise dark center of the row houses. Inside, each artist would have their own room specialized to their work or hobby: Mrs. Ryerson, who crafted jewelry using precious stones, would create a workshop on her fourth floor; Poole, whose interest in Renaissance art had grown into a collection, planned to create a stately hall for his antiquities and also have a painting studio in his light court; and Dangler would create a "blossoming winter garden" in his light court.20 Each owner planned to have the interior of their home reflect their tastes and
10
Image 4:
t> Mrs. Ryerson bought the corner lot at 2700 N. Lakeview . v, Ave. She was frequently described as the leader of the "flock" of artists on Lakeview Avenue.
Mrs. Emily Maria (nee Borie) Ryerson (1863-1939)
Image 5:
Abram Poole Jr. (1882-1962)
Poole bought number 2704 N. Lakeview Ave. He was a portrait painter and an avid collector of artwork, which he displayed throughout his home.
Image 7: 2700 North Lakeview Avenue The main entryway for Mrs. Ryerson's house with Ionic cplumns-and an entablature with a frieze of carved'rosettes.
Image 8: 2704 North Lakeview Avenue The main entryway for Abram Poole's house is flanked by fluted columns and has an entablature with a frieze featuring carved rams' heads and garland swags.
Image 9: 2708 North Lakeview Avenue The main entryway for Henry Dangler's house with quartered columns and a detailed demi-lune transom above the door.
Image 10: 2710'North Lakeview Avenue The main entryway for Ambrose Cramer's house features a transom and a decorative arched panel above the door.
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personalities. The exterior was designed to be less individualistic though not to the point of typical repetitive row houses. Each house was detailed with unique doorways and window styles that were drawn from historical Georgian designs. These finer elements, while not at once noticeable from the street, would quietly identify the home of each artist (Images 7-10). But drawing the homes together as a unit was the greater Georgian theme, which was to be executed in bright white limestone, dark brick, and elegant wrought-iron fences and balconies.
Building the Lakeview Avenue Row Houses and Plan Changes
Dangler and Adler began preparing and refining plans for the series of six row houses early in 1915, completing exterior elevations by June. Permits to begin construction for the Ryerson, Poole, and Dangler houses (numbers 2700, 2704, and 2708) were issued in October 1915, with excavation for footings and basements begun at the end of that month. Dangler and Adler hired the Lake Forest-based contractors William Mavor & Company for the completion ofthe first three houses.21
Drawings for Cramer's house (number 2710) were nearly complete by December 1915, and a permit was issued the following February. By that time, the third floors on Ryerson and Poole's houses were complete, and the second-floor walls were up on Dangler's house.22 Cramer, a draftsman in Dangler and Adler's firm, likely played a significant role in the personal design of his own home. A different contractor, the Swedish builder Nils P. Severin, was hired for the construction of Cramer's house.23
Construction on the houses of Mrs. Ryerson, Poole, Dangler, and Cramer continued through the fall of 1916. By January 1917, the finishing touches on the interiors of four ofthe row houses were being completed (Images 11-13).24 Mrs. Ryerson and Abram Poole moved into their new homes by February (Images 15-17). Dangler's sudden death from tuberculosis in March 1917 was a setback for the project that ultimately led to the completion of only four of the row houses. Dangler and his family had been ready to move into the nearly completed home. Instead, only his widow Ruth and their newborn daughter moved into the row house. Their time in the home was brief, as later that year Ruth Dangler moved with her daughter to Colorado Springs.
Henry Dangler's death and the United States' entry into World War I resulted in the group of friends gradually dispersing. Almost immediately, both Poole and Cramer entered the service: Poole became an adjutant captain in the infantry and Cramer joined the U.S. Liaison Services to the French army to translate messages to the front.25 This left Mrs. Ryerson alone on the block, with only two of the homes rented by other families.
Ryerson had planned for her Lakeview Avenue home to be big enough for her children to stay. However, over time her family left for other pursuits. In the summer of 1917 she again hired Adler, who at the time was living in Poole's home at number 2704.26 Ryerson had Adler and his new partner,.architect Robert Work, design a rear addition to her home. The addition included a garage and chauffer's rooms on the first floor, and a library, breakfast room, and a bedroom on the second floor. She had the bedroom built for herself; it would be apart from the cavernous main house, which she allowed Children's Memorial Hospital to use as a much-needed
13
Image 11 (above): The completed row houses'as seen in 1922.
Images,12 and 13: . .,:
14
Detail of the (Ryerson house at number 2700 and the Poole House at.number 2704.
convalescent home. Neat rows of children's beds lined up in her formal drawing room, and the billiard room became a playroom (Image 14).27
Poole returned to his home after the war, but Cramer remained in France to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Mrs. Dangler, who had made a permanent home in Colorado Springs, sold her home at number 2708 in December 1920.
Later History
Eventually, all the original owners left the Lakeview Avenue homes. Poole's house at number 2704 was sold to Walter S. Brewster, an avid art collector who filled the home with his extensive collection of paintings. In 1926 he commissioned architect Walter S. Frazier, known for his sleek modern designs, to remodel his home and build the brick two-story addition that is at the rear of the property by the alley.28 Next door, Ryerson, who frequently travelled the world, met her second husband while touring China. She married Forsythe Sherfesse, a financial advisor to the government of China, in December 1927 and moved to New York (Image 18).29 In 1930, she sold number 2700 to Wolcott Blair, who hired Adler to renovate the house in 193 2.30 A year later, Cramer sold number 2710 and moved with his new wife Mary Meeker to Maine, where he founded his own architectural firm.
Over the years, the home at number 2700 received the most renovations. When Wolcott Blair sold the home in 1937 to Russell Pettingill, Adler's former partner Robert Work was hired to make additional renovations to the house, which included remodeling the rear addition and making it a separate home.31 However, nine years later, the home was bought by the private Harris Schools, which moved from their original Gold Coast location. New fire escapes were added and the home was remodeled to fit the needs of a school.32 In 1967, in a bid to expand their school and their student body, the school proposed demolishing the entire set of four row houses for a new modern school; however, the school ultimately chose to build on Hawthorn Place, and the home was sold to Thresholds recovery center in 1972.33
Image 18:
Mrs. Emily Ryerson and Forsythe Sherfesse on their wedding day in 1927 standing in the doorway of number 2700 North Lakeview Avenue.
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The Lakeview Avenue Row House District
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District is comprised of a set of four homes that share common "party" walls. All houses are of three stories, with a fourth floor that is set back from the roofline. The houses are positioned behind a wrought-iron fence, leaving room for a narrow landscaped strip. The exterior of the row is clad in ashlar of white Bedford limestone, which creates a first-floor base, above which the walls are of hard, dark Kittanning brick in a Flemish bond pattern with light joints.34 The complete row is capped by a delicate limestone cornice that features evenly spaced rosettes along the frieze. Windows along the second and third floors are evenly spaced, with taller floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor and smaller double-hung sash windows on the third floor. A balcony with a decorative wrought-iron railing runs above the first floor and visually ties the houses together (Images 19 & 20). Other features common to each home include a limestone stoop set above the sidewalk in front of each main doorway. Although each home appears similar in the overall appearance of the row house group, each home in fact has unique features and designs.
The three-story row houses were built with steel posts, reinforced concrete, and concrete and hollow clay-tile floors and walls, substantial and expensive materials that at the time were more common to larger commercial buildings and apartments than to private homes. Although the structure of the homes is of concrete and steel, the exterior exuded the refined elegance of a row of homes built of brick following traditional methods and using traditional materials. The only appearance of concrete seen from the street is the long balcony that joins the homes together— its white tone and fine grain almost perfectly match the limestone brackets that support it.
The corner house, at 2700, is set back from Wrightwood Avenue with a front garden. A rear
additip^and--garage,-;cpmpje Work and David Adler in 1918, gives the house an
L-shapedf^ The main doorway of the house features a decorative leaded
tratis6rn':and,is.sef witKirila small porch that is supported by a pair of columns with Ionic-style
capitals. Along Lakeyiew Aven[tie there is a balcony above the first floor that is supported by
four fluted pairs Of cast-iron columns with Corinthian-style capitals. The design for the second-
floior windows is unique amOng the homes, as they are set within shallow brick arches (Images 26
-29)1 " ;• ¦ ': ¦ •
The"home: afhumber;i704;Teaturesi;al-ceriteredmaih doorway with an elegant transom.' The doorway is flanked by. fluted white columns that support an entablature with a frieze decorated by rams' heads and garland ,swags. The original pair of black-painted mahogany doors retain prigjnal bronze hardware. Secorid.-flopr windows are tall double-hung sashes with six panes on top'and nine on the bottom: Original-shutters frame the three second-floor windows. This is the Only home that does hot have a fourth floor set-back. At the rear of the house is a two-story brick addition designed by architect Walter S. Frazier.
Number 2708 has a doorway set on its north side with an arched and leaded transom. The second-floor windows have pairs of three-pane casements topped by two-pane transoms. A slate -shingled fourth level had been part of Dangler and Adler's plan in concept for the home, but it was not immediately built. A fourth floor addition matching the fourth floor of number 2710, which is set back from the parapet, was completed in 1917. The fourth floor was later extended
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Image 21: The east elevation along Lakeview Avenue.
Image 22: Addition to number 2700 for Mrs. Ryerson in 1917
Designed by Henry Dangler and David Adler, but plans were completed by Robert Work.
20
22
Image 30: North elevation of number 2710 showing blank party wall for unbuilt row houses.
Image 31: Rear patio garden behind number 2708. The space was created above the underground heat plant instead ofa planned central garage.
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to the parapet with a slate-covered mansard roof in the early 1990s. A heating plant was built completely below-grade behind the house to heat all of the row homes—its ground-level roof was covered by a terrace garden in the 1930s.
At the northern end of the row, number 2710 has a central entrance door with a leaded transom and a pair of double-hung side windows. The doorway is topped by a decorative arched panel with an urn. The windows on either side ofthe main doorway are unique and are each composed of a set of three double-hung windows, the middle window being widest. Windows on the second floor are similar in design to those at 2704 and also feature original wood shutters. The fourth floor of this home is set back and visible from Lincoln Park and from the north. It originally featured three French doors, which opened out onto a tiled terrace. Although six row houses were.originally planned, various factors led to the completion of only four, which giyes this home its blank'north elevation. The open courtyard that is visible from the north'was planned to line up with a complementing light court in a row-house to the north. \ These courts were to be similar to those found^at 2704^08, which are enclosed above the first floor by a glass roof and separated by a common wall. Another feature that belies the incomplete row is the facade.brick andfits stone ornament, which terminate abruptly, where they would have.continued on to the next row house. The rear half of the house was originally built with only two stOries to house:laundry facilities,"a kitchen, and servants quarters on me*second floor. A third floor was added to the rear half in the 1950s (Image 30).
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The Architects of the Lakeview Avenue Row House District
Dangler & Adler
Henry Corwith Dangler (1882-1917)
Henry Dangler was born in Chicago in 1882 and attended school in Cleveland and college at Yale University, graduating in 1904. After studying architecture for a year at Columbia University, he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied architecture. There he met David Adler through his friend Abram Poole. In 1909, Dangler returned to Chicago, where he joined the office of Howard Van Doren Shaw.
David Adler (1882-1949)
David Adler was the son of second-generation merchant and men's clothing wholesaler Isaac David Adler. Adler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He left for the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and later enrolled at Princeton University, where he met Abram Poole; Adler and Poole graduated in 1904. Adler then traveled to Europe to study architecture in cities from Italy to France; he enrolled at the Munich Polytechnic and then completed his architecture and design training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Returning to the United States in 1912, Adler moved to Chicago and entered the office of architect Howard Van Doren Shaw as a draftsman.
Adler is perhaps best known as a master of eclectic architecture, combining historic architectural styles with modern grace. Throughout his life, his work was focused on domestic architecture—from city dwellings and apartments to country houses and grand estates. He also worked on several small clubs. Although his work is primarily concentrated in Chicago and its North Shore suburbs, many of his designs, completed by himself and in conjunction with Dangler or Robert Work, can be found across the country, from Hawaii to Massachusetts. Adler was not especially wealthy, compared to his clientele, but due to his success and personal connections in Chicago society, he was able to earn several significant commissions, which increased his popularity.
Dangler & Adler (Firm: 1912-1917)
The architectural firm of Dangler and Adler was started by Henry Corwith Dangler in late 1912 after he earned his architect's license. He opened his office in suite 430 in Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue; other architects in the building at the time included Frank Lloyd Wright. Although David Adler was educated as an architect, he did not have an architect's license during his early career because he did not pass the license exam until 1929. Until then, to have his designs realized, he partnered with licensed Dangler starting in 1913 after completing his first significant work at Shaw's office: a large country house for his uncle Charles A. Stonehill in
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Glencoe, Illinois (demolished). Dangler hired his younger cousin Ambrose Cramer (1891-1970) as a draftsman at his firm.
The firm of Dangler & Adler completed several significant commissions in their first three years, including a house in Lake Bluff, Illinois (1913, extant) for Ralph Poole, brother of Abram Poole; a brick Georgian-style home in North Chicago for Charles S. Dewey (1913, extant) (image 32); a Georgian townhouse for Charles G. King on Astor Street (1913, demolished) (Image 33); and several other homes and additions across Chicago's North Shore. In 1913, the firm drafted plans for a speculative row house development for George F. Porter lo be buiU on the northwestern corner of Lincoln Parkway (nOw Michigan Avenue) and Walton Street (Image 34). Although never built, the Georgian-style row was to be of a similar scale and . design to the row homes built on Lakeview Avenue. Dangler and Adler completed oyer 18 projects around Chicago and across the country before Dangler's sudden death in March 1917. Because Adler still had not passed the board exam to earn his architect's license, he soon partnered with Robert Gilbert Work (1874-1960), a former colleague from Howard Van Doren Shaw's office.
Work& Adler (Firm: 1917-1929)
Robert G., Work entered Adler's office in the midst of several projects, one-of which was an addition to Mrs. Emily Ryerson's recently completed home on Lakeview Avenue. WOrk 8i Adler completed dozens of country estates, apartments, and homes across the country. Some of their relevant and notable works include alterations to a house in New York City for Abram Poole in 1919; a four-story, limestone-fronted, Parisian townhouse.for Richard T. Ryerson on Astor Street in 1921 (extant) (Image 35); alterations to George F. Porter's home in Chicagoand plans for a houseboat for. him in Lake Forest (1922); the Carolyn Morse Ely house in Lake Forest (1923) (image 36); the grand estate of Rjchard T. Crane, Jr., in Ipswich,.Massachusetts (1924, extant as a house museum) (Image 37); and a home for Mrs, Ruth Dangler in Colorado Springs in 1927 (extant). David Adler remained in partnership with Work until 1929, when Adler finally earned his own license to practice as an architect.
Robert Gilbert Work (1874-1960) . ,
Robert G. Work was born in Chicago in 1874. His father was a roofer., Work studied architecture at the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology). In 1897, he became Howard Van Doren Shaw's first draftsman and remained with him until joining Adler in 1917. He partnered in 1929 with architect Russell Wolcott (1889-1959) and designed houses in the North Shore suburbs.35 In 1937, he returned to Lakeview Avenue to renovate Ryerson's former home at 2700 N. Lakeview Avenue for Russell Pettingill.
Ambrose Coghill Cramer (1891-1970)
Ambrose 0. Cramer was born in Chicago in 1891 and graduated from Yale University in 1913. He travelled extensively to Great Britain and France before returning to Chicago in 1914. He joined Dangler and Adler's firm as a draftsman and likely had significant influence over the design of his own home in the Lakeview Avenue row at number 2710. Following a tour with the U.S. Navy during World War I, he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris to formally
26
Image 32:
The Charles S. Dewey house (Dangler & Adler, 1913, extant) Located on the Veterans Administration Medical Center campus in North Chicago.
Image 33: Image 34:
The Charles G. King house (Dangler & Adler, 1913, razed) Proposed row house for George Porter
Southwest corner of Astor Street and Burton Place (Dangler & Adler, 1913, not built)
27
Image 37: The Richard T. Crane, Jr. house and estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts was designed by Work & Adler and built in 1924. Several murals inside the house were painted by Abram Poole.
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study architecture. After he returned to Chicago, he continued as a draftsman with Work and Adler's firm.
In 1933, Cramer and his wife Mary Meeker moved to Rockport, Maine, where he started his own architectural firm specializing in the restoration and remodeling of early colonial houses. He became an early preservation architect, listing his Rockport home on the National Register of Historic Places, and an advocate for historic preservation in Maine.
The London Townhouse and the Georgian Style
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District was designed in the Georgian style after late-18th century London townhouses. Although row houses form a significant part of Chicago's architectural history, the London townhouse-influenced design for the Lakeview Avenue row houses is unique in Chicago.
Chicago row houses and London townhouses share fire risk mitigation as a central factor in their design. In Chicago, row houses, or a series of houses with shared walls, are a common building type that can be traced to at least the 1860s. Examples exist across the city, but they are especially prevalent in older neighborhoods that were rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Following the Great Fire, strict building codes outlawed wood-framed buildings within city limits, requiring masonry construction instead. Chicago's narrow and deep lots were especially well suited for row houses, which could reduce the amount of expensive masonry required to build and could maximize land use.
In Great Britain, the term "townhouse" is used to describe houses with shared walls. London townhouses rose to popularity during the mid-18th century, and their distinctive form was shaped by building codes established after the Great Fire of London in 1666. These codes called for the near elimination of exposed wood from the exteriors of buildings. New houses were required to be built entirely of masonry; cornices formerly made of wood had to be of carved of stone, wood windows had to be deeply set into walls, with minimal wood frame exposed, and exterior decoration had to completely exclude wood as a material.36 These rules set a rigid design standard that came to visually define great portions of London during the 18th century (Image 38).
The term "Georgian" refers to an architectural style popular in Great Britain during the reigns of George I, II, III, and IV from 1714 to 1830. The Georgian style was drawn indirectly from Classical styles employed by ancient Greek and Roman architects in general, and more specifically by the work of 16th-century Venetian designer Andrea Palladio. His designs interpreted Classical forms and were popularized as the "Palladian style" in books, which influenced London builders after the 1666 fire.
The Georgian style evolved in the late 18th century under the leadership of architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) and his brothers James and William. Adam is credited with introducing a lighter and freer style to buildings and incorporated new decorative treatments, which were in
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Image 38: An example of a Georgian style townhouse in London on Gloucester. Place.
Image 39:
The Bryan Lathrop House at 120 East Bellevue Place is a fine example ofthe Georgian Revival style. It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White in 1898.
contrast to the staid brick Palladian homes ofthe first half of the century. Houses once built almost entirely of grey brick were lightened with expanses of stone and detailed with fine yet light decorative carved swags and slim pilasters.
In their design for the Lakeview Avenue Row House District, Adler and Dangler reveal the influence of Robert Adam. The Lakeview Avenue row houses display a clear understanding of the Georgian style. Closely studied details define the profile of the row houses, from their recessed windows and dark brick set in a Flemish bond pattern, to the fine stone cornice and unique treatment applied to each doorway. The degree of attention paid to details, accurately scaled according to historic precedents, makes this row incredibly rare, if not unique, in Chicago. The row houses exemplify the ability of architects Dangler and Adler to adapt historical architectural styles to contemporary purposes, creating a visually distinctive group of row houses for Chicago.
Adler designed other homes with Georgian influence for Chicago clients, such as the Charles G. King house on Astor Street in the Gold Coast. Although this home is no longer standing, other homes on Astor Street reflect the historic popularity of the Classical Revival styles, including Georgian, during the 191 Os (the Astor Street Historic District is a designated Chicago Landmark). Other fine examples of the Georgian Revival style include the Francis R. Dickinson/Bertrand Goldberg House at 1518 North Astor Street and the Cyrus Bentley House at 1505 North Astor Street, both designed by Mundie & Jensen in 1911. An earlier and grander Georgian Revival home is the Bryan Lathrop House at 120 East Bellevue Place, designed in 1898 by McKim, Mead, and White (a designated Chicago Landmark) (Image 39).
Criteria for Designation i
According to the Municipal Code of Chicago (Sections 2-120-620 and -630), the Commission on Chicago Landmarks has the authority to make a preliminary recommendation of landmark designation for an area, district, place, building, structure, work of art or other object with the City of Chicago if the Commission determines it meets two or more of the stated "criteria for designation," as well as possesses sufficient historic design integrity to convey its significance.
The following should be considered by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in determining whether to recommend that the Lakeview Avenue Row House District be designated as a Chicago Landmark.
Criterion 4: Important Architecture
Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship.
• The Lakeview Avenue Row House District forms a visually distinctive group of row houses, a building type of importance to Chicago architectural history. This group, completed in 1917, is a unique variation of the form.
• The Lakeview row houses are one of Chicago's finest examples of late 18th-century
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Georgian-style London townhouses.
Dangler and Adler's careful interpretation ofthe historical form, design, and detailing of Georgian-style London townhouses is perfectly realized in the Lakeview row houses.
The row retains almost all of its finely crafted architectural details and finishes, including: carved limestone, wrought-iron fences and railings, cast-iron, and carved wood porches.
Criterion 5: Work of Significant Architect or Designer
Its identification as the work of an architect, designer, engineer, or builder whose individual work is significant in the history or development of the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, or the United Stales.
The Lakeview Avenue row houses were designed by the architectural firm of Henry Dangler and David Adler. Both Dangler and Adler are significant for their interpretation of Classical Revival styles, which they applied to domestic architecture during the first half of the 20th century. Although the firm operated for less than five years, many examples of their work can be found in Chicago, in North Shore communities, and across the country.
Dangler and Adler were primarily commissioned by wealthy society members, for whom they mainly designed large country estates. Very few of the firm's works were designed for an urban setting. The Lakeview Row Houses is a fine and rare example of the firm's design for an urban and intimate grouping of homes.
Although the original row home concept was never completed, the significant involvement of six important artists and designers in Chicago's society greatly contributed to the development of the row.
Integrity Criterion
The integrity of the proposed landmark must be preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express its historic community, architectural or aesthetic interest or value.
The Lakeview Avenue Row House District exhibits a high degree of integrity with regard to design, materials, context, and form. The Dangler and Adler-designed row of late-Georgian London-style townhouses is unique in Chicago. Although two of the row houses were never completed as originally planned, this fact is part of the history of the site and is reflected in the houses' design. The physical character of these buildings in terms of scale, setback from the street, entries, architectural features and finishes, and door and window configuration have remained intact. These continue to provide the onlooker with a strong sense of the architects' intended vision for the visual character ofthe block and streetscape.
The four row houses in the group retain nearly all their physical characteristics and original
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architectural details that define their historic significance. These include the wrought-iron fence and second-floor balcony, which visually tie the group together; the original casement and sash windows and mahogany entry doors on houses 2704, 2708, and 2710; original shutters flanking the second-floor windows of 2704 and 2710; the decorative leaded transoms above the entry doorways; and the stone and brick that define the overall appearance ofthe homes. A rear addition behind 2700 completed in the 1970s, a rooftop addition and mansard at 2708 completed in the earlyl990s, and a rear third floor addition at 2710 are the only major changes in the group. The windows of the corner house at 2700 were replaced, and two stone sphere finials were removed from the roof of the projecting bay on the south elevation. Also at 2700, iron fire escapes were added to the south and east elevations in the 1940s when the house was converted for use as a school.
Except for minor alterations, the Lakeview Row Houses exhibit a high degree of integrity and easily express their historic community and architectural and aesthetic value through their individual characteristics and setback, as well as the cohesive visual form of their arrangement.
Image 41: Image 42:
f^qniieVeyation.^an for 2700 Noirth Front elevation iplan for 2710 North Lakeview
Lakeview Avenue for Mrs. Ryerson Avenue for Cramer V
Image 43: Front elevation plan for 2704 and 2708 North Lakeview Avenue for Poole and Dangler
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Significant Historical and Architectural Features
Whenever an area, district, place, building, structure, work of art or other object is under consideration for landmark designation, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is required to identify the "significant historical and architectural features" ofthe property. This is done to enable the owners and the public to understand which elements are considered most important to preserve the historical and architectural character of the proposed landmark.
Based on its evaluation of the Lakeview Avenue Row Houses, the Commission staff recommends that the significant features be identified as:
• All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the buildings visible from public rights of way.
The mansard roof structure at the fourth floor of 2708 N. Lakeview Ave. is a circa 1990 addition to the original fourth floor structure which is set back from the parapet approximately 10 feet. The mansard addition may be removed from the original structure subject to the review of the Commission. The foregoing is not intended to limit the Commission's discretion to approve other changes.
Image 44:
View south along Lakeview Avenue and Stockton Drive toward downtown. The Lakeview Avenue Row Houses are visible on the right. February 1938.
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Notes
The Georgian style in England was refined by architect Robert Adam in the late 18th-century.
"Domestic Architecture of Henry Corwith Dangler, Architect: Houses Designed by David Adler and Henry Dangler," Architectural Forum (April, 1922), 140.
Smith was best known for his portraits of young children and babies, his innovation in photographing fast-moving trains, and his grand panoramic photographs of the devastation following both the great fires of Chicago in 1871 and Boston in 1872. Harold M. Hansen's extant work includes a-row of elegant.red pressed-brick and . serpentine stone-trimmed row houses on the 100 block of West Eugenie Street in Lincoln Park. Hansen worked as a draftsman in the office of William Le Barron Jenney, and he opened his own firm in Chicago in 1871.
A. E. Strand, ed., A History of the Norwegians of Illinois (Chicago: John Anderson Publishing Co., 1905), 334. '
The Builder, 45 (September 29, 1883) 439; Lake View Directory, 1885, 239. Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Tract Book 500: Wrightwood Subdivision of SW 'A of Section 28.40.14, p229.
Architecture & Building, News Supplement, 10 (June 15, 1889) 2.
"New Elks Temple," The Economist, 67 (January 14, 1922) 106; Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Tract Book 500.|109|. "Select Social Community, Plan," The Chicago Daily Tribune (February 27, 1915), 1;
"A Bit of London of the Eighteenth Century to Find a Prototype in Chicago,"
. The Economist (March 6, 19.15), 416. . . . ,.
6' • v^.THe earliest tall apartment building in the area was the.eight-stpry Brewster (originally
the Lincoln Park Palace) on the northwest corner of Diversey Parkway and Pine Grove
' -Aycnue by Enoch Hill Turnpck^ : : :
-' The Shore Crest Apartment Hotel (originally the Wrightwood Hotel) stands directly
behind the row houses pn theinortheast^orner.of WrightWood arid Pine Grove Avenues.
. " It .was designed by the architectural firm of I Ial 1 • &:Ostergeon and;Completed in ,1917. .
-'. y Other apartment'towers such as Robert S. De Golyer's Marlborough Apartments at 2600
NorthLakeview Avenue; and Howard Van Doren Shaw's 2450 North Lakeview
Avenue were not built until" 1922. . .''¦.,. . .
Robert Carroll Cash; Modern Type Of Apartrheht Hotels Thruout Uhitcd'Stafes, ' (Chicago: Robert Carroll Cash, 1917), 17-18; Neil Harris, Chicago Apartments: A ¦ : • Century of Lakefront Luxury (New York: Acanthus Press, 2004), 318-22, 329. • 7 ' Chicago would not adopt its first Municipal Zoning Code, until 1'922, following New
York's Code of 1916. Zoning allowed for the local regulation of land use, which helped prevent theTbcation of incompatible uses within existing areas, such as industry in largely, residential areas. In the 1910s, large new factories were,increasingly being built in and around the old South Side boulevards as wealthy families moved away.|109|! For a personal history of Meekerville see: Arthur Meeker, Chicago, With Love: A Polite
and Personal History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 195^). Several-houses; in this area are part of the Meekerville National Register Historic District (2006).|10 9|"Armour and Meeker Move from South to North Side," The Chicago Daily Tribune (September 7, 1912), 1.
36
The Ryersons owned a home in Haverford but had a larger summer country home in Otsego, New York. Thirteenth United States Census, Township of Springfield, Otsego County, New York State, 1910. 14A.
Mine. X, '"Catastrophe to the Titanic Casts Gloom Over All Society," The Chicago Daily Tribune (April 21, 1912) 13.
"Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915," database, Fami-
lySearch (familysearch.org : accessed 13 March 2016), Arthur S. Ryerson, 08 Apr 1912; citing
cn 10661, Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila-
delphia; FHL microfilm 1,421,323.
Mrs. Ryerson and her family briefly returned to their summer home in Otsego, New York before moving to Chicago to a house at 19 East Pearson Street (demolished). "Signor Lodi Fe Guest of Chicagoans Again," The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Apri I 24, 1912) 12; Lakeside Classified Directory (1914) 1796.
Meeker, 159.
Ghenete Zelleke, "David Adler: Benefactor and Trustee," in David Adler, Architect: 77ie Elements of Style, ed. Martha Thome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 55; The Century Association Yearbook: 1962 (New York: The Century Association, 1962), 128.
Courtney Graham Donnell, "Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett: The Collectors," Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12(2), The Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection (1986), 85.
Isabell McDougall, "An Artist's House," The House Beautiful 12 (September, 1902), 199; "The Work of Frost & Granger," Architectural Record 18 (July, 1905), 115-29.
Virginia Robie, "Church Decorations by Frederic C. Bartlett," The House Beautiful 17 (December, 1904), 8-10.
Donnell, 84-101; Bartlett's father, Adolphus Clay Bartlett (1844-1922), was one ofthe founders of the hardware store Hibbard, Spencer, and Bartlett, which was later known as Tru-Value.
Mme X, "News of Society: Comment," The Chicago Daily Tribune (March 7, 1915), D2.
Marquis (1911), 546.
"Deal in Lincoln Parkway," The Chicago Daily Tribune (January 4, 1913), 11; see: George F. Porter, Townhouses, University of Illinois Project to Microfilm Architectural Documentation, 1950-1952, 1973.1; Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago.
Mme. X, Tribune (March 7, 1915).
Chicago Building Permit: N146, N151 (October, 1915), Microfilm Department, Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago.
William Mavor became Alderman of Chicago's 32nd Ward (east of State Street to the lake, between 39th and 55th streets). In the late 1800s, he was the contractor of choice for many of Chicago's wealthier residents. After he died in 1904, his younger brother John Mavor (1865-1955) took over the company.
Industrial Chicago: The Building Interests (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891), 718-9; Albert Nelson Marquis, ed., The Book of Chicagoans (Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1917).
37
Chicago Building Permit: N301 (January 28, 1916).
Nils P. Severin (1862-1945) was a well-regarded builder in Chicago. He lived in Ev-anston, Illinois, where he built and owned an apartment complex on the northeastern corner of Davis Street and Ridge Avenue (extant). Ernst W. Olsen and Martin J. Eng-berg, History of the Swedes of Illinois: Part II (Chicago: The Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company, 1906), 319.
Building Permits: N146, N151, N301.
Tribune (December 16, 1917); The Century Association, 1962, 218.
Tribune (December 16, 1917). David Adler and his wife stayed on Lakeview Avenue for a short time before moving to a home in Libertyville, Illinois.
"Fairyland," the Chicago Daily Tribune (June 19, 1917), 7.
It is not clear what changes were made by Frazier inside the home.
Building Permit: N38, Page 16; "Brewster Art Collection to be Open Today," The Chicago Daily Tribune (January 20, 1933), 15.
"Private Wedding Ceremony for Mrs. Ryerson," The Chicago Daily Tribune (December 11, 1927), 18.
Augusta Owen Patterson, "The Chicago Lakefront House of Mr. and Mrs. Wolcott Blair," Arts & Decoration 40 (December 1933), 7; Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Tract Book 500; "Wolcott Blair Buys Former Ryerson Home," The Chicago Daily Tribune (September 24, 1930), 24.
"Wolcott Blair House Is Sold for $ 100,000," The Chicago Daily Tribune (July 4, 1937), B8.
Building Permit: 2700 North Lakeview; sundry (January 15, 1943; July 22, 1946; August 23, 1946).
"Major Expansion Project Planned by Harris School," The Chicago Tribune (October 22, 1967), Ll.
COok County Recorder of Deeds, Tract Book 500.
Plans for the houses at the Ryerson Library in the Art Institute of Chicago note the use of special Kittanning Brick; which was a dense and expensive brick to use. The dense bricks absorbed little water, which made them hard to set in mortar, especially in winter when the Lakeview Avenue houses were being built.
Frank R. Walker, The Building Estimator's Reference Book (Chicago: Frank R. Walker, 1915), 94.
Susan L. Kelsey, Arthur H. Miller, Legendary Locals of Lake Forest (Charleston: Arcadia Press, 2015).
John Summerson, Georgian London, Howard Colvin, ed. (London: Yale University Press, 2003 [first published 1945]), 51-54.
38
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42
Acknowledgements
CITY OF CHICAGO
Rahm Emanuel, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development
David Reifman, Commissioner
Patricia A. Scudiero, Managing Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Zoning and Land Use Eleanor Esser Gorski, Deputy Commissioner; Planning, Design & Historic Preservation Division
Project Staff
Matthew Wicklund, Applied Real Estate Analysis (AREA), Inc. (consultant), research, writing,
photography, and layout Maxine Mitchell, Applied Real Estate Analysis (AREA), Inc. (consultant), editing, review Robert Miller, Applied Real Estate Analysis (AREA), Inc. (consultant), editing, review Matt Crawford (project manager), editing Eleanor Gorski, editing
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks, whose nine members are appointed by the Mayor and City Council, was established in 1968 by city ordinance. The Commission is responsible for recommending to the City Council that individual building, sites, objects, or entire districts be designated as Chicago Landmarks, which protects them by law. The Commission is staffed by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Planning, Design & Historic Preservation Division, City Hall, 121 North LaSalle Street, Room 1101, Chicago, IL 60602; (312-744-3200)phone; (312-744-9140)fax, website: www. city of Chicago, org/landmarks
This Preliminary Summary of Information is subject to possible revision and amendment during the designation process. Only language contained within the final landmark designation ordinance as approved by City Council should be regarded as final.