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Type:
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Ordinance
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Status:
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Passed
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Title:
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Historical landmark designation for Daniel O. Hill House/Serbian American Museum St. Sava at 448 W Barry Ave
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Topic:
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HISTORICAL LANDMARKS - Designation
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Attachments:
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1. O2018-862.pdf
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Department of Planning and Development city of chicago February 21,2018 The Honorable Anna Valencia City Clerk City of Chicago Room 107, City Hall 121 North LaSalle Street Chicago, IL 60602 RE: Recommendation for the designation of the Daniel O. Hill House / Serbian American Museum St. Sava be designated as a Chicago Landmark, 448 W. Barry Avenue Dear Clerk Valencia: We are filing with your office for introduction at the February 28, 2018, City Council meeting as a transmittal to the Mayor and City Council of Chicago the recommendation of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks that the Daniel O. Hill House / Serbian American Museum St. Sava be designated as a Chicago Landmark. The material being submitted to you for this proposal includes the: O r... 2o CD ro X/5 cj---. Recommendation of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks; and Proposed Ordinance. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Sincerely, -d o CD Eleanor Esser Gorski, AIA Deputy Commissioner Planning, Design and Historic Preservation Division Department of Planning and Development ends. cc: Alderman Thomas Tunney, 44th Ward (via email without enclosure) 121 NORTH LASALLE STREET, ROOM 1000, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60602 ORDINANCE Daniel O. Hill House / Serbian American Museum St. Sava 448 W. Barry Avenue 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 Daniel O. Hill House / Serbian American Museum St. Sava (the "Building"), located at 448 W. Barry Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, legally described in Exhibit A attached hereto and incorporated herein, satisfies three (3) criteria for landmark designation as set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1),(4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, built in 1902, the Building exemplifies the significant early residential history and development of the East Lake View neighborhood as an area of high-quality single-family houses and mansions built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and WHEREAS, the Building remains among the best-surviving of these "first-generation" mansions that drew Chicagoans of wealth to the East Lake View neighborhood in the years both before and after its annexation to Chicago in 1889; and WHEREAS, since 1952, the Building has been the home for the Serbian Cultural Club, now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava. As a cultural and social center for the ethnic Serbian community of Chicago, the building exemplifies the historic importance of such ethnic cultural and social institutions to the City; and WHEREAS, the Building is an excellent American Four Square mansion, combining Prairie proportions and use of materials with Classical ornament; and WHEREAS, the Building is finely crafted in terms of brick and stone, and it possesses beautifully-detailed Classical-style ornament, including cartouches, swags, and moldings; and WHEREAS, the Building was designed by Frederick W. Perkins, a significant residential architect in the context of Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and WHEREAS, Perkins is significant for his designs of finely-designed and -crafted single-family houses built in fashionable late-nineteenth century and early twentieth-century Chicago neighborhoods. Built largely for upper- and upper-middle-income clients, Perkins' houses were mainly built in handsome period styles of the era, including Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Georgian Revival, and finely detailed in traditional building materials, including brick, stone, and decorative metal; and WHEREAS, as a "society" architect working fluently in a plethora of popular architectural styles, Perkins designed houses for Chicago business leaders and entrepreneurs in Chicago and North Shore suburbs such as Lake Forest, including department store magnate John G. Shedd, meat packer Philip D. Armour, Jr., department store owner Leon Klein, and brewer William Rehm; and |1010| WHEREAS, Perkins is especially noteworthy for his designs for houses in the Gold Coast and Kenwood neighborhoods, historically two of Chicago's premiere residential neighborhoods developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of Perkins' houses remain as contributing buildings to the Astor Street and Kenwood Chicago Landmark Districts. Others are contributing buildings to National Register of Historic Places historic districts, including the Building; and WHEREAS, Perkins also designed significant buildings in cities and towns throughout the Midwest, including high-style houses for business leaders in communities as far-flung as Decatur, Illinois; Michigan City, Indiana; Mackinac Island, Michigan; and Duluth, Minnesota; and WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code, the Building 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 February 1, 2018, the Commission adopted a resolution recommending to the City Council of the City of Chicago (the "City Council") that the Building 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 of the 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: All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building. The free-standing one-story garage located on the same parcel as the Building is excluded from the significant historical and architectural features. 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. |1010| EXHIBIT A Building Address 448 W. Barry Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Permanent Index Number 14-28-105-036-0000 Legal Description LOT 14 (EXCEPT THE WEST 28 FEET THEREOF) AND ALL OF LOT 15 IN CULVER'S ADDITION TO CHICAGO, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF PART OF THE SOUTH 20 RODS OF THE NORTH 60 RODS ALSO THE SOUTH 1/4 OF THE NORTHEAST % OF SECTION 28, TOWNSHIP 40 NORTH, RANGE 14, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY ILLINOIS. |1010| CITY OF CHICAGO COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS February 1,2018 RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF CHICAGO THAT CHICAGO LANDMARK DESIGNATION BE ADOPTED FOR THE DANIEL O. HILL HOUSE (SERBIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ST. SAVA) 448 W. Barry Avenue Docket No. 2018-02 To the Mayor and Members of the 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 Daniel O. Hill House / Serbian American Museum St. Sava (the "Building") is worthy of Chicago Landmark designation. On the basis of careful consideration of the history and architecture of the Building, the Commission has found that it satisfies the following three (3) criteria set forth in Section 2-120-620 of the Municipal Code: /. Its value as an example of the architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other aspect of the heritage of the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, or the United States. 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 On September 28, 2016, the Historic Preservation Division received an application to demolish the Building The Building was ranked "orange" in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey and was therefore subject to the 90-day Demolition-Delay Ordinance. As is standard practice, staff evaluated the House for possible designation and determined that it met criteria for landmark designation. During the evaluation, the owner voided this application and submitted a new application on October 18, 2016. This application was withdrawn on November 28, 2016. On January 23, 2017, the owner of the Building applied again for a new demolition permit, which started a new 90-day demolition hold. This application was withdrawn on April 5, 2017. Formal initiation of the landmark designation was deferred at the request of Alderman Tunney who sought time to work with the owners to find a way to preserve the building. The formal landmark designation process for the Building began on August 3, 2017, when the Commission approved a preliminary landmark recommendation (the "Preliminary Recommendation") for the Building as a Chicago Landmark. The Commission found that the Building meets three (3) 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 Building as a Chicago Landmark. As part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission identified the "significant historical and architectural features" of the Building as: All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building. The free-standing one-story garage located on the same parcel as the Building is excluded from the significant historical and architectural features. Also, as part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission adopted a Designation Report, dated August 3, 2017, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit B. At its regular meeting of September 7, 2017, the Commission received a report from David Reifman, Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, supporting the proposed landmark designation of the Building. This report is incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit C. On September 8, 2017, the Commission officially requested consent to the proposed landmark designation from the owners of the Building. As of October 23, 2017, the end of the request-for-consent period, the owner did not respond to the Commission's request. Upon the end of the consent period, as required by the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance, the Commission notified the owners of the Building in a letter dated December 14, 2017, of a public hearing on the proposed designation scheduled for January 22, 2018. Notices of the time and date of the hearing were also (a) posted on a signs in the right-of-way in front of the Building, 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, January 22, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., Rm. 201-A. Commission member Richard Tolliver served as Hearing Officer, assisted by Lisa Misher, Senior Corporation Counsel of the Real Estate and Land Use Division of the City's Law Department, as legal counsel to the Commission, and Dijana Cuvalo, head of the Permit Review staff of the Planning, Design |1010| 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. The Commission staffs presentation recommending the proposed landmark designation was given by Matt Crawford, Coordinating Planner. 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 presented questions to staff, nor did they request party status, nor did they make any statement. No members of the public requested party status. , 15 members of the general public made statements in support of the landmark designation, including representatives of Landmarks Illinois, Preservation Chicago, South East Lake View Neighbors and the Council of Serbian American Organizations. One member of the general public submitted a form to make a statement in opposition to the designation, however he declined to speak when called. The transcript (the "Hearing Transcript") and related exhibits from the public hearing are attached hereto. III. 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 Building; and WHEREAS, the Building meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, built in 1902, the Building exemplifies the significant early residential history and development of the East Lake View neighborhood as an area of high-quality single-family houses and mansions built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and WHEREAS, the Building remains among the best-surviving of these "first-generation" mansions that drew Chicagoans of wealth to the East Lake View neighborhood in the years both before and after its annexation to Chicago in 1889; and WHEREAS, since 1952, the Building has been the home for the Serbian Cultural Club, now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava.s As a cultural and social center for the |1010| ethnic Serbian community of Chicago, the building exemplifies the historic importance of such ethnic cultural and social institutions to the City; and WHEREAS, the Building is an excellent American Four Square mansion, combining Prairie proportions and use of materials with Classical ornament; and WHEREAS, the Building is finely crafted in terms of brick and'stone, and it possesses beautifully-detailed Classical-style ornament, including cartouches, swags, and moldings; and WHEREAS, the Building was designed by Frederick W. Perkins, a significant residential architect in the context of Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and WHEREAS, Perkins is significant for his designs of finely-designed and -crafted single-family houses built in fashionable late-nineteenth century and early twentieth-century Chicago neighborhoods. Built largely for upper- and upper-middle-income clients, Perkins' houses were mainly built in handsome period styles of the era, including Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Georgian Revival, and finely detailed in traditional building materials, including brick, stone, and decorative metal; and WHEREAS, as a "society" architect working fluently in a plethora of popular architectural styles, Perkins designed houses for Chicago business leaders and entrepreneurs in Chicago and North Shore suburbs such as Lake Forest, including department store magnate John G. Shedd, meat packer Philip D. Armour, Jr., department store owner Leon Klein, and brewer William Rehm; and WHEREAS, Perkins is especially noteworthy for his designs for houses in the Gold Coast and Kenwood neighborhoods, historically two of Chicago's premiere residential neighborhoods developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of Perkins' houses remain as contributing buildings to the Astor Street and Kenwood Chicago Landmark Districts. Others are contributing buildings to National Register of Historic Places historic districts, including the Building; and WHEREAS, Perkins also designed significant buildings in cities and towns throughout the Midwest, including high-style houses for business leaders in communities as far-flung as Decatur, Illinois; Michigan City, Indiana; Mackinac Island, Michigan; and Duluth, Minnesota; and WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code, the Building 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, |1010| THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS HEREBY: Incorporates the preamble and Sections I, II and III into its findings; and Adopts the Final Designation Report, as revised, and dated this 1st day of February 2018;and Finds, based on the Designation Report, DPD Report, the Hearing Transcript and the entire record before the Commission, that the Building meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Sections 2-120-620 (1), (4) and (5) of the Municipal Code; and Finds that the Building satisfies the "integrity" requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the.Municipal Code; and Finds that the significant historical and architectural features of the Building are identified as follows: All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building. The free-standing one-story garage located on the same parcel as the Building is excluded from the significant historical and architectural features. Rafael M. Leon, Chairman Commission on Chicago Landmarks 6. Recommends that the Building be designated a Chicago Landmark. This recommendation was adopted JLA>^
|1010|
Exhibit A
Resolution by the
Commission on Chicago Landmarks on the
Preliminary Landmark Recommendation for the
DANIEL O. HILL HOUSE (NOW THE SERBIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ST. SAVA) 448 West Barry Avenue
August 3, 2017
Whereas, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") preliminarily finds that:
the Daniel O. Hill House (now the Serbian American Museum St Sava) (the "Building"), located at the address noted above, meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (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 3rd day of August, 2017, by the Department of Planning and Development (the "Preliminary Summary"); and
the Building 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 Building in accordance with Section 2-120-630 of the — -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 Building are preliminarily identified as:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building.
The free-standing one-story garage located on the same parcel as the Daniel O. Hill House is excluded from the significant historical and architectural features.
Section 4. The Commission hereby requests a report or statement from the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development which evaluates the relationship of the 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.
This recommendation was adopted AA^4t^ru^^UrRaraei rvi. LeonyChairman ( Commission o/rgnicago Landmarks
Dated: Ouu^juu^ 3?Oll
Exhibit B
Preliminary Summary of Information
Submitted to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in August 2017
Daniel O. Hill House
(now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava) 448 West Barry Avenue
CITY OF CHICAGO Rahm Emanuel, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development David Reifman, Commissioner
Exhibit B
Preliminary Summary of Information
Submitted to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in August 2017
Daniel O. Hill House
(now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava) 448 West Barry Avenue
CITY OF CHICAGO Rahm Emanuel, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development David Reifman, Commissioner
Table of Contents
Introduction|910|Map|910|Building Construction and Description|910|Building Description|910|Silk Merchant Daniel O. Hill|910|The Hill House and the American Four Square House 10
The East Lake View Neighborhood 12
Architect Frederick W. Perkins 25
Later History of the Hill House as the Serbian Cultural Club
And the Serbian American Museum St. Sava 35
Criteria for Designation 40
Significant Historical and Architectural Features 43
Selected Bibliography 45
|1010|
Daniel O. Hill House
(now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava) 448 West Barry Avenue
Built: 1902
Architect: Frederick W. Perkins
The Daniel O. Hill House is a handsomely-designed American Four Square mansion with Prairie-style proportions and Classical-style ornament. Located in East Lake View, it exemplifies the large, well-crafted single-family houses that dominated this lakefront neighborhood's streetscapes during the years immediately after its annexation to Chicago in 1889. The building is a rare surviving house by significant Chicago architect Frederick W. Perkins, known for his high-style mansions for wealthy businessmen and entrepreneurs built throughout the Midwest.
The Hill House is 2 1/2-stories in height with a full front porch and hipped roof pierced with a prominent dormer. This post-Victorian house type became popular in the United States in general and the Chicago area in particular in the early twentieth century in reaction to the highly-picturesque and decorative Victorian building styles, including the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival, that dominated the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In comparison, American Four Square houses such as the Hill House appealed to contemporary Chicagoans as clean-lined and modern in appearance and up-to-date in plan and function. The Hill House is a very large, highly-decorative example of this house type. Its broad, horizontal proportions show the influence of the innovative houses of George Maher and other Prairie Style architects working in Chicago during this turn-of-the-century period. Its Classical-style ornament reflects the continuing attraction of this historic architectural influence on early twentieth-century Chicago architecture.
Located on Chicago's north lakefront, overlooking Lake Michigan, East Lake View historically has been a desirable residential neighborhood. Early in its history as part of the suburban Lake View Township, wealthy Chicagoans owned country houses on multi-acre estates next to Lake Michigan's shoreline. Then, after the township's annexation to Chicago, the area began to build up with|1010|
The Daniel O. Hill House is located at 448 W. Barry Ave. in the East Lake View neighborhood on Chicago's north lakefront. It is a large-scale American Four Square house built of orange Roman brick and designed with Prairie-style proportions and Classical-style stone ornament.
|1010|
expansive single-family houses on streets that dead ended against Lake Michigan beaches. The early twentieth century saw a transition to multi-residential buildings, both low-scale flats and early high-rise apartment buildings and hotels. This larger building scale intensified through the rest of the century as East Lake View, embellished by an extension of Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive, became one of Chicago's most-densely-populated neighborhoods. The Hill House is one of the area's few remaining, "first-generation" mansions, and as such exemplifies this significant historic period in the neighborhood's history.
Frederick W. Perkins, the architect of the Hill House, was a significant architect in late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century Chicago. Born in Wisconsin, Perkins began his Chicago practice in 1888. During the next three decades, before moving to Boston in 1920, Perkins made his reputation as a "high-society" architect serving wealthy Chicagoans and their ilk in Midwestern cities as far flung as Michigan City, Indiana; Decatur, Illinois; and Duluth, Minnesota. Perkins' clients include some of Chicago's most prominent families, and the architect designed a wide variety of high -style houses for them. A fluent designer, Perkins designed in a wide range of styles, including Chateauesque, Romanesque Revival, Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Italian Renaissance Revival. A common thread through all of his works was handsome design and beautiful craftsmanship, both seen in the Hill House. A majority of Perkins' known commissions in Chicago have been demolished over time. The Hill House stands as one of his few remaining large-scale mansions in the city.
Building Construction and Description
The Daniel O. Hill House is located on the north side of the 400-block of W. Barry Ave. in the East Lake View neighborhood, which is within the larger Lake View community area on Chicago's North Side. Located between N. Sheridan Rd. on the east and N. Broadway on the west, the Hill House is part of a diverse streetscape of "first-generation" single-family houses built largely in the 1890s and early 1900s; small flat buildings built just before and after World War I; later high-rise apartment buildings built in the expansive 1920s; small-scale courtyard townhouses built before and after the end of World War II; sprawling "four-plus-one" apartment buildings built mainly in the 1960s; and more recent residential buildings, both low and tall in scale. All reflect the longstanding popularity of East Lake View as a prime Chicago residential neighborhood. As one of the few single-family houses surviving from East Lake View's early days of residential development, the Hill House exemplifies this increasingly rare aspect of the neighborhood's significant history.
The Hill House was built by silk merchant Daniel O. Hill in 1902. Hill had acquired the land for the house, part of the Culver's Addition to Chicago subdivision, in 1885 from seller Belden F. Culver, but had chosen not to build a house at that time. A City of Chicago building permit (# 2312) was issued on June 16, 1902 for a "2 1/2-sty. res." The building's original address, 1912 Barry Avenue, was based on the former numbering system used by Lake View Township, with street addresses starting at the North Branch of the Chicago River and increasing as one went east towards Lake Michigan. The Economist, a Chicago-based real estate weekly, noted that the new house was the work of "F.W. Perkins" and built by contractor "Siebold & Co."
Building description
The Daniel O. Hill House is a 2 1/2-story brick single-family house. As is typical of American Four Square houses, the building's plan is rectangular and its form is strongly rectilinear and cubic. Walls are orange-colored Roman brick, a type of brick favored by Prairie architects such as Frank
e
Lloyd Wright for its narrow shape and strongly-horizontal proportions. The foundation is clad with a gray limestone water table with bold moldings. Windows are large and mostly filled with one-over-one, double hung sash.
A full-width porch with large brick piers fronts the house, while a high-pitched hipped roof with broad eaves caps the building. A large front dormer and a pair of matching side chimneys and side dormers punctuate the roof. Both the porch piers and the front roof dormer are strongly decorated with Classical-style cartouches, swags and foliate ornament carved from gray limestone. Similar limestone is used for porch ledges, window sills and other ornamental details.
The Hill House's front facade is balanced without being absolutely symmetrical. Center steps flanked by brick-and-limestone retaining walls lead to the front porch. The front door is set slightly off-center to the left, and is embellished with a broad limestone surround with strongly-defined moldings and a Classical-style foliate cartouche. To the left of the entrance is a projecting three-sided bay, while two large windows are located to the right. The porch ceiling is wood and has shallow coffers and a decorative Classical-style molding.
Above, on the second floor, two large, broad windows flank a small window ornamented with a Classical-style surround strongly detailed with swags and cartouches. The hipped roofs eaves extend broadly into space, and the highly-decorative front dormer, strongly ornamented with foliate decoration and swags, provides a final ornamental flourish against the sky. The overall visual effect of the building is one of stability, order, permanence, modernity and restrained luxury.
Side elevations, facing west and east, flank driveways leading to the rear of the lot and a one-story garage. The west elevation of the house is visually dominated by a large Palladian window with a carved-limestone surround that lights the interior main stair hall, while the east facade has a rounded bay projecting from the first floor.
The interior of the Daniel O. Hill House has not been inspected for this report. Historic photographs of the building's interior, published soon after construction in the Inland Architect and News Record, a Chicago-based architectural periodical, show an elaborate main staircase crafted from wood, a library with built-in wood-and-glass bookcases, and a tiled fireplace in the dining room. Photographs on the Serbian American Museum St. Sava's website indicate the interior retains much of its historic character, including the main staircase and wood trim.
The Daniel O. Hill House is color-coded "orange" on the Chicago Historic Resources Survey (CHRS) as a building preliminarily identified by the CHRS as significant to its surrounding neighborhood. It is a contributing building to the Lake View Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and it is one of only 22 buildings in the district called out in the nomination for their "special significance."
Silk merchant Daniel O. Hill
Daniel O. Hill was a self-made man, much like many Chicagoans of means at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bom in 1853 in St. John, Newfoundland, Hill came to Chicago with his parents in 1863 during the Civil War era. Five years later, at the age of 15, Hill began work at the dry-goods firm of Field, Leiter & Co. Hill's obituary in the Inter-Ocean on April 1, 1907, noted, "His [Hill] tact and capacity for work soon attracted the attention of Marshall Field, and the great merchant took a keen, personal interest in the development and success of his young employee." By age 21, Hill was promoted to assistant manager of the store's wholesale silk department, as this|1010|
Top: The Hill House has a full-width front porch and prominent front dormer atop a hipped roof. Bottom: The house has a variety of boldly-carved stone ornament in the Classical style, including porch cartouches and pendants, a cartouche above the front door, and a 2nd-floor window surround.
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Top: A photograph of the Hill House published in the Inland Architect and News Record soon after its construction in 1902. Daniel O. Hill, the first owner of the house, was a noted department manager in Marshall Field & Co.'s wholesale store in the West Loop, where he supervised the purchase and sale of silks. Left: A picture of Hill published at the time of his death in 1907 (from Chicago Tribune, April 2, 1907). Above: A promotional card for the Marshall Field wholesale store (from ).|10 10|
leading Chicago department store continued its recovery from the disastrous Chicago Fire of 1871. In 1881, Hill became the head manager of the wholesale silk department of the newly-renamed Marshall Field & Company.
As renowned as Field's retail store on State Street became, arguably the wholesale store in the West Loop was as noteworthy, as it served buyers from stores both large and small throughout the American Midwest. Within this context, Hill was a prominent and well-known merchant in the wholesale field of silk. His Inter-Ocean obituary notes, "The silk interests in this and many other countries recognized Mr. Hill as the leading operator in this particular time. Manufacturers and buyers all over the world sought his advice and profited through his sagacity and his forecasts of market conditions." In their 1952 history of Marshall Field & Co., Give the Lady What She Wants!, authors Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan specifically called out Hill as a prominent member of Field's expansive and thriving wholesale store:
Dan Hill, in charge of the silks, was fat andjolly, with a flair for the sensational that seemed strangely out of keeping with the conservatism of the firm. A typical exploit of his was to buy 5,000 pieces of silk and to advertise it at his own expense, sending to the merchants powerful exhortation that concluded with the call, Come and Get IT! "The method was frowned on, but not the fact that he sold every shred of silk in less than three days at excellent profit.
By 1902 Hill was prosperous enough that he could afford a new home. He also had a wife, Annie, and five children, four boys and a girl, making a large house useful. The new Hill House on West Barry was not an inexpensive building. Surviving records from an archival collection of Perkins' drawings, photographs, and office records held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicate that the house cost Hill at least $30,690, a substantial sum in 1902 when the typical middle -class home was worth around $5,000.
Sadly, Daniel Hill did not live long enough to enjoy his house more than a few years. He died unexpectedly on March 30, 1907, after an operation for appendicitis. His funeral was held at the Barry Avenue home on April 2, with pallbearers drawn from the upper ranks of Marshall Field employees. John G. Shedd, now the head of Marshall Field & Co., was an honorary pallbearer, and he spoke highly of his "friend and business associate," as the Inter-Ocean reported.
The Hill House and the American Four Square House
The Daniel O. Hill House is a large-scale, finely-designed American Four Square mansion, exemplifying through its design, ornament and craftsmanship the importance of this single-family house type in the 1890s and early 1900s. The building's overall form reflects the visual simplicity of American Four Squares, popularized in reaction to what was considered by 1900 the out-of-date, "fussy" elaboration of Victorian-era houses. In its materials, proportions and details, the Hill House combines elements of traditional Classicism with the avant-garde Prairie style of George Maher and other Prairie architects.
American Four Square houses developed around 1900 as a modern, up-to-date house type. In their visual simplicity, American Four Squares reflected a turning-away from the visual elaborateness of Victorian-era styles such as the Italianate, Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque. Americans of the second half of the nineteenth century favored highly-ornamented homes, both outside and inside. Such homes were formal in appearance and layout, reflecting the values of the day.
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The Daniel O. Hill House is an exemplary, unusual American Four Square house in its large scale, Prairie-style horizontality, and Classical-style ornament. American Four Square houses were widely popular in the early twentieth century as Americans turned away from the visually-elaborate houses of the Victorian era and embraced simpler, sparer, more "modern" houses that emphasized comfort and greater informality. Top: A representative example of a typical American Four Square house, with its cubic form, full-width front porch, hipped roof, and centrally-placed front dormer. Left: American Four Square houses were popular among developers and mail-order house companies, such as the Chicago House Wrecking Co., which, despite its name, sold house plans to middle-income Americans from its offices in Chicago (from
The Hill House, in its strongly-horizontal proportions and use of Roman brick, shows the influence of progressive architect George W. Maher, who designed "modern classical" houses in Chicago and its suburbs in a style that we now classify as Prairie. Above: Maher's William Coffeen House, built in Hinsdale, Illinois, in 1900, is similar to the Hill House in overall form, proportion and building details from ).
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Tn contrast, American Four-Square houses combine exterior simplicity with interior plans that enabled a more informal lifestyle, at least in comparison with an earlier generation. These homes combine a rectangular footprint and overall cubic form with (typically) a wide front porch and hipped roof, often with dormers. Ornamentation was typically kept simple with decoration adorning porches, front doors, and dormers. Interiors emphasized large rooms that flowed together without unnecessary spatial separation.
Some American Four Square houses have ornament based on Classicism, a centuries-old design tradition harkening back to ancient Greece and Room., while other Four Square houses utilize medieval-influenced half-timbering as second-floor decoration, but with a focus on rectilinear patterns and simplicity of detail. Many American Four-Squares show the influence of the Prairie style with an emphasis on horizontal proportions and grouped bands of windows, plus often the use of long, narrow Roman brick to emphasize horizontal ity even further.
American Four Square houses were seen as modern, economical and efficient. As importantly, they were seen as "American." Architectural historian Alan Gowans, in his book, The Comfortable House, notes how they seemed to fit the post-Victorian tastes of Americans:
/¦ Its Americanness was often stressed at the time. Thoroughly American in architecture, it is a
house anyone will be proud to identify as 'My Home, "Was [the mail-order house seller] Aladdin's description of its Williamette model. Massive'Was another popular adjective for the four-square: The ever-popular square type which gives an air of massiveness, 'says one advertisement, while another praises the square, significant of massiveness and strength." The American foursquare thus appealed to that same need for stability and solidity which on another level was satisfied by associations with English or colonial American roots.
The Hill House resembles most closely early Prairie houses designed by George Maher in Chicago and its suburbs. These houses were often called "modern colonial" by contemporary writers due to their boxy forms, symmetry, hipped roofs, and emphatic horizontality that harkened back to early American houses. They saw them as a bridge between American architectural traditions of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and present-day modernity. Houses such as the John Far-son House (1897) in Oak Park, Illinois; the William Coffeen House (1900) in Hinsdale, Illinois; and the Edwin Colvin House (1909), at 5940 N. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago share similarities of overall form, proportions, and building materials with the Hill House. (The Colvin House was designated as an individual Chicago Landmark in 1994.)
The Hill House also demonstrates the continuing appeal of Classicism in its exterior ornament. The bold cartouches found on porch pillars, the swag-ornamented shields decorating the front door and roof dormer, and the swags surrounding the small second-floor window all demonstrate the continuing appeal of Classical-style ornament in stylish houses such as the Hill House.
The East Lake View Neighborhood
The Daniel O. Hill House is an exemplary, "first-generation" single-family house within the historic context of the East Lake View neighborhood. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, East Lake View historically was part of the larger Lake View Township, and it has transformed from wilderness to scattered farms and estates to suburban town to urban neighborhood within the last
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175 years, always remaining a desirable lakefront neighborhood. The Hill House reflects an important period in the neighborhood's history when it was an upper middle-income area of high-style houses and small yet stylish flat buildings.
Originally, Lake View Township stretched from the then-City of Chicago limits at Fullerton Avenue on the south to Devon Avenue on the north, and from Lake Michigan west to the North Branch of the Chicago River. The first European settlers to the area were Swiss-born Conrad Sulzer and his wife Christine. In 1836, the Sulzers journeyed beyond the then- newly incorporated City of Chicago and established a 100-acre farm along the "Ridge," near what is now the intersection of Montrose Avenue and Clark Street (now considered part of the Ravenswood neighborhood). Other ethnic-European farmers followed in the wake of the Sulzers.
The sandy marsh land along the northern shores of Lake Michigan, largely inhospitable for farming, remained vacant until 1853, when James Rees, a prominent surveyor and real estate speculator, bought 225 acres of lakefront property north of Belmont Avenue to develop as a country retreat. In 1854, Rees built a grand hotel with a veranda that offered a sweeping view of Lake Michigan. The hotel, located in the vicinity of what is now Grace Street and Sheridan Road, became known as the Lake View House, and the surrounding area was dubbed Lake View Township, which was officially organized in 1857.
In 1865, when Lake View Township was incorporated as the town of Lake View, much of the new township remained farmland. During these post-Civil War years, a number of wealthy Chicagoans were attracted to the beauty of the rural, unspoiled lakeshore and built large summer homes on multi-acre estates on the lakefront east of today's Broadway (then Evanston Avenue). None of these estate houses are known to survive today.
In the years after the Chicago Fire of 1871, residential development of the southern part of Lake View quickened as residential development was encouraged by the extension of city mass transit services into the suburb. Both large houses and small cottages were constructed in the 1870s and 1880s as Chicagoans of both great and modest financial means built homes in Lake View in the years before its annexation by Chicago in 1889. Larger houses tended to cluster nearer the lake-front, while more modest houses were farther inland. Much post-Fire development took hold along the western edge of Lake View near the North Branch, where several large industrial plants, including brick and terra-cotta manufacturers, were established, adjacent to worker's housing of various types, including cottages and small flat buildings.
A number of larger, high-style Lake View houses from this pre-annexation era are known through photographs, although surviving buildings are rare. Examples of these suburban houses of note include the Frederick Wesemann house at what would become known as 515 W. Briar PI., which was a visually-prim Italianate-style brick house, probably built in the 1870s; the John Nash house on the southeast corner of N. Clark St. and W. Oakdale Ave., which was a similar Italianate-style house with round-arched windows and a full-width front porch, believed to be constructed soon after the 1871 Fire; and the Valentine Busch house at the southeast corner of N. Clark St. and W. Diversey Ave., another Italianate-style brick house also dating from the early 1870s. An example of a large lakefront house was the house owned by Samuel B. Chase known as "Lockby Hall," which once stood at the foot of Belmont Avenue when the street dead-ended into Lake Michigan beaches. Set on an expansive property with several secondary buildings, the Chase house was a large brick mansion with Italianate-style visual features. All of these houses have been demolished.
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The East Lake View neighborhood developed in the 1870s and 1880s as a lightly-populated suburban community of estate-sized houses near Lake Michigan and smaller, yet still visually-impressive homes along and near major roads extending north into Lake View from Chicago.
Right: "Lockby Hall," owned by Charles B. Chase, was once located on a large parcel of land on the northeast corner of W. Belmont Ave. and N. Sheridan Rd. (from Chicago History Museum).
Top right: The Italianate-style house of John Nash which once stood on the southeast corner of N. Clark St. and W. Oakdale Ave. (from Chicago History Museum). Top left: The similar Italianate-style house of brewer Valentine Busch on the southeast corner of W. Diversey Ave. and N. Clark St. The photograph shows the Ferris Wheel from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition after its relocation to N. Clark St. near Wrightwood, where it stood until 1904 (from Ravenswood-Lake View Commu-
Right: The Italianate-style home of Frederick Wesemann, built circa 1885 at what would today be 515 W. Briar PI., a little north and west of the Daniel O. Hill House. Although Mr. Wesemann died in 1900, his widow is believed to have remained in the house until 1921 (from Chicago
Before and after Lake View's annexation to Chicago in 1889, East Lake View, especially the portion between Diversey and Belmont, filled with large-scale houses. Many survived into the post-World War II period before they were demolished for new construction.
Top: The north side of W. Wellington Ave., east of N. Pine Grove Ave., in 1921 (from Chicago History Museum).
Left: This large house once stood at 457 W. Wellington Ave. The photograph dates from 1964 (from Chi-
A number of "first-generation" houses remain standing in East Lake View and are contributing buildings to the Lake View National Register Historic District. They include: top) a set of eight brick row houses at 501-515 W. Oakdale Ave.; (bottom left) the French Neo-Grec-style house at 441 W. Surf St.; and (bottom right) the Queen Anne-style house at 503 W. Barry Ave. The Surf house is also a contributing building to the Surf-Pine Grove Chicago Landmark District.
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A number of surviving East Lake View houses built in the first years after annexation were clad with stone. Examples include (clockwise from top left) a pair of limestone-clad houses at 507-509 W. Barry Ave.; the graystone at 456 W. Barry Ave.; and two rough-faced houses at 515-519 W. Wellington Ave.
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Additional surviving houses built in East Lake View in the 1890s and early 1900s include: (top left) a pair of houses with decorative "criss-cross" brick patterns at 544-548 W. Oakdale Ave., built in 1894; (top right) an American Four Square at 509 W. Wellington Ave., designed, along with its twin at 501-503, by Herman Mueller in 1901; (right) the house at 536 W. Barry Ave., designed by Huehl & Schmid in 1900 for wholesale grocer Louis Stayart; and (bottom) the grand Georgian Revival-style house at 510 W. Wellington Ave., built circa 1900 and the one-time home of Wabash Railroad president Frederic A. Delano. This house was later acquired by Bethany Homes, then the Baptist Missionary Training School, and expanded and used for institutional purposes.
One early house of some scale that does survive is a wood-frame "Italianate villa," complete with tower, that is tucked at the back of its lot at 2930-32 N. Burling St., just off N. Halsted St. Probably dating from the 1870s as well, this house is one of the few physical links remaining in East Lake View to this early era of development before and just after the Chicago Fire. Most of the oldest surviving buildings in East Lake View appear to date from the 1880s. One example of such probable 1880s construction is the set of row houses at 501-515 W. Oakdale Ave., which although visually simple in form show the influence of the Queen Anne style in the roughly-textured, rusticated stone window surrounds and paneled cornices that ornament them. Also probably from the 1880s, based on its architectural style, is a Queen Anne-style brick house at 503 W. Barry Ave.
In 1887, the town of Lake View was incorporated as a city, electing its own mayor and city council. Two years later, in 1889, Lake View was annexed to the City of Chicago. Just before this annexation, the Lake View town council passed a fire ordinance requiring fireproof masonry construction for all public buildings and businesses, plus residential buildings taller than two stories, in the portion of the town bounded by Fullerton, Halsted, Belmont and Lake Michigan. These "fire limits" were kept upon annexation, and this portion of East Lake View, including the area where the Daniel O. Hill House was built, developed during the next forty years as an urban neighborhood of handsome masonry houses and apartment buildings.
This residential development was encouraged by improvements in mass transportation. Within five years of annexation, by 1894 slow horse car lines on Clark St. (then called Green Bay Rd.) and Halsted St. (two important north-south streets on the western edge of East Lake View) were upgraded to electric streetcars, while in 1896 Broadway (then Evanston Avenue) saw its own streetcars electrified.
The early 1890s saw East Lake View in general develop with single-family houses and small flat buildings, Much of this early residential development has already been recognized for its architectural and historical significance, including Chicago Landmark districts on Hawthorne Place, Newport Avenue and Oakdale Street. The portion of East Lake View between Diversey and Belmont especially developed with both free-standing houses and groups of row houses. The 1894 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company atlas for the area, compiled by the company as an aid to insurance companies, shows that streets such as Barry, Briar (then known as George), Wellington, Oakdale and Surf were largely developed with large single-family houses, some set on expansive lots. A number of urban-scaled row houses were built by this time on N. Pine Grove and W. Oakdale. A scattering of vacant lots kept density even lower than might otherwise be expected. The lake front itself east of Sheridan Road (then Lakeview Avenue) was empty with the exception of a popular beer garden at Diversey and the lake shore, run by various entrepreneurs over time.
Some of these early 1890s houses survive, including a freerstanding brick house at 441 W. Surf, built in 1890 for brewer Gustav Hoffman. This red-brick house, designed in the then-fashionable French Neo-Grec architectural style, was designed by Edmund R. Krause, an early partner of architect Frederick W. Perkins, the architect of the Hill House. Other houses built just after annexation include eight graystone-clad row houses at 2817-31 N. Pine Grove, built the following year in 1891 as speculative ventures for two owners, C. F. Johnson and H. Strassheim. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style popularized by famed architect Henry Hobson Richardson, these row houses were designed by the Ostling Brothers. (Both the Surf house and the Pine Grove row houses are contributing buildings to the Surf-Pine Grove Chicago Landmark District, designated in 2007.)
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Beginning in 1913, with the construction of the Arthur Meeker house at W. Barry Ave. and the inner Lake Shore Dr., the eastern most section of the East Lake View neighborhood began to develop as a northern outpost of Chicago's Gold Coast with high-style mansions for wealthy Chicagoans, including Lester Armour, Mrs. Montgomery Ward, Oscar Meyer, Irving Florsheim and Robert Hotz. Part of what popularly became known as "Meekerville," after the meat packer Meeker's Barry house, the enclave has seen many houses demolished for high-rises in the post-World War II era. Two that survive on Barry Ave., to the east of the Hill House, are (top) the Meeker house itself, designed by nationally-significant eastern architect Charles Piatt; and the Georgian Revival-style mansion at 340 W. Barry Ave., designed in 1917 by Henry C. Dangler and owned by interior decorator William P. Nelson and his wife, Elizabeth Cudahy Nelson.
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Wellington Avenue retains the largest concentration of "Meekerville" mansions. Three of those remaining include: (top) a Renaissance Revival-style house for Chicago Board of Trade broker James E. Bennett, designed in 1930 by Frederick Lindquist; and (bottom) a pair of Georgian Revival-style houses built in 1926 by meat packer Oscar Meyer and designed by Rissman & Hirschfeld. Most Meekerville mansions are contributing buildings to the Meekerville National Register Historic District.
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A number of Meekerville mansions have been lost over time.
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Top left: This Tudor Revival-style house once stood at 339 W. Barry, across from the extant Nelson house at 340 W. Barry (from Chicago History Museum). Top right: The Renaissance Revival-style house at 334 W. Wellington Ave. now demolished, was the home of Irving Florsheim, chairman of the board of the Florsheim Shoe Company (from Chicago History Museum).
Bottom: The "Kellogg Mansions," so-called due to their long-time ownership by Helen Kellogg, wife of the president of the Kellogg cereal company, once occupied much of the inner Lake Shore Drive block between Oakdale and Wellington avenues. A historic preservation effort to designate the buildings as Chicago Landmarks failed in the early 1980s after the courts ruled that already-issued City of Chicago demolition permits for the buildings were valid, superseding City Council designation (from
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Beginning in the early 1900s and continuing today, the East Lake View neighborhood has seen the construction of apartment buildings, often built on the sites of former single-family houses deemed obsolete. Many early apartment buildings built in the years prior to World War I were relatively low in scale and, although often larger than existing houses, were designed in historic revival styles that blended well with their earlier neighbors. Top right: The Tudor Revival-style apartment building at 500-504 W. Barry Ave. is one example. Left: Tall apartment buildings such as the Barcliff Apartments, built in 1928 at 340 W. Barry, immediately to the east of the Hill House, dramatically changed the scale of the neighborhood. Other high-rise apartment buildings built in the last days of the 1920s and later, starting in the 1950s, continued this change. Also contributing to changes in scale and density in the 1960s were the construction of "four-plus-one" apartment buildings, many of which replaced single -family houses and early small flat buildings. Bottom: The four-plus-one building at 445 W. Barry, across the street from the Hill House.
Within another decade, by 1905, East Lake View streets south of Belmont Ave. had largely been built up, mostly by single-family houses, including the Daniel O. Hill House, although the earliest construction of small-scale flats buildings had begun. A handsome Romanesque Revival-style stone-faced house at 517 W. Wellington Ave. was designed for George Rounsavell circa 1893 by Frederick W. Perkins, who would later design the Hill House around the corner on Barry. An orange-brick house at 536 W. Barry Ave. was designed by Huehl & Schmid in 1900 for wholesale grocer Louis Stayart. Besides the Hill House from 1902, two smaller American Four Square houses were built nearby at 505 and 509 W. Wellington Ave., designed by Herman Mueller and built in 1901. These and others survive amidst later multi-residential development that dominates East Lake View streetscapes today.
Somewhat apart from the neighborhood development west of Sheridan Road were the so-called "Meekerville" mansions east of Sheridan. Nicknamed for the Meeker family, who built, in 1913, the first house on property east of Lake Shore Drive, Meekerville developed in the 1910s and 1920s as a coherent, compact cluster of upper-income mansions for some of Chicago's best-known entrepreneurial families. The Meeker house, a sparely-detailed Georgian Revival-style mansion, was designed by Charles Piatt, one of America's preeminent residential designers of the early 1900s, and built for a meat-packing family. Another meat packer, Lester Armour, commissioned an Italian Renaissance Revival-style house from architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, one of Chicago's most significant architects of high-quality houses in the early twentieth century. The Armour house is at 325 W. Wellington Ave., near two house built for fellow meat-packer Oscar Mayer at 333 and 335 W. Wellington Ave., both designed by Rissman & Hirschfeld. Other houses in Meekerville were designed by noted architects Mayo & Mayo, E. F. Frommann, Henry C. Dangler, and Frederick Lindquist, and are scattered along Barry, Wellington and Oakdale amidst later buildings, most of which are much larger in scale. Most Meekerville mansions are contributing buildings to the Meederville Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
East Lake View's period as a predominantly single-family house neighborhood was brief. By 1900, and leading up to 1917, when the United States' entry in World War I interrupted private building construction for several years, the neighborhood saw the construction of many small-scale apartment buildings, including two- and three-flats and three-story corner apartment buildings, mainly on lots left vacant by the first wave of single-family houses. It was also during this early period that the area's first tall apartment buildings were constructed, including the Brewster Apartments on the northwest corner of W. Diversey Parkway and N. Pine Grove Ave. (built in 1893 and an individual Chicago Landmark designated in 1982); the Commodore Apartments on the northeast corner of N. Broadway and W. Surf St., built in 1897; and the Greenbrier Apartments from 1901, built across W. Surf from the Commodore. Both the Commodore and Greenbrier are contributing buildings to the Surf-Pine Grove District, a designated Chicago Landmark district three blocks south of the Hill House.
After World War I, during the 1920s, East Lake View continued its transformation with high-density development encouraged by improved mass transit and the northward extension of Lincoln Park. By 1917, Chicago Motor Company buses on N. Sheridan Rd. linked East Lake to Chicago's Loop, and this service was enhanced in 1924 when similar bus service to the Loop began to run along Diversey Ave. Between 1907 and 1915, the Lincoln Park Commissioners built the long-planned extension of Lincoln Park on new manmade land along Lake View's lakefront, providing the developing neighborhood with one of its finest amenities (and encouraging the construction of
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Meekerville mansions). A variety of tall apartment buildings and apartment hotels were built in East Lake View during this period, including the Pine Grove Apartment Hotel at 2816-2828 N. Pine Grove Ave., built in 1922; the Barry Apartments on the northwest corner of N. Sheridan Rd. and W. Barry Ave., dating from 1924-1925; and the Barcliff Apartments at 440 W. Barry Ave., immediately adjacent to the Hill House, which was built in 1928.
The Great Depression of the 1930s, followed by World War II in the early 1940s, saw little new construction in East Lake View, with the exception of small-scale courtyard townhouse developments such as the one at 404-422 W. Wellington Ave., built in 1938. The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s saw a great deal of redevelopment in the neighborhood as new high-rise apartment buildings were built on never-developed lots and on the sites of smaller-scale houses and flat buildings demolished for this higher-density development. The 1960s especially saw new construction in the form of "four-plus-one" apartment buildings that transformed many East Lake View streets through the destruction of many first-generation houses and second-generation flat buildings in favor of boxy, somewhat plain apartment buildings with parking at ground level. Based on available records, including Sanborn fire insurance maps, many East Lake View single-family houses and small flat buildings that had survived the real-estate frenzy of the 1920s, the subsequent disinvestment of the Depression-era 1930s, and the revival of development in the 1950s came down in the 1960s in favor of four-plus-ones.
Today, East Lake View remains a vibrant residential neighborhood. Although the portion of the neighborhood east of Broadway remained largely stable in its building stock in the last twenty years, new construction continues to happen where teardowns are possible and on the rare vacant lot. Although a small portion of the area's buildings, single-family houses such as the David O. Hill House form an outsized, vital link to the neighborhood's physical origins as a high-style suburban, then urban, neighborhood.
Architect Frederick W. Perkins
Frederick Wainwright Perkins (1866-1928), the architect of the Daniel O. Hill House, was born in Burlington, Wisconsin. His father, Frederick Stanton Perkins, was an artist and antiquarian trained in the studio of Hudson River School artist Jasper F. Cropsey. Educated mostly in Wisconsin schools, Perkins spent his last year of secondary education at the elite Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating in 1882. He then studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the 1880s one of the only, and arguably the most prestigious, architecture schools in the United States. He then traveled abroad to Paris to study at the famed Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the most significant architectural school in the world at this time.
After his study abroad, Perkins came to Chicago in 1888 and opened his own practice. Early in his career, he partnered for a time with Edmund Krause, best known today for his designs for the Majestic Theater (an individually designated Chicago Landmark) and the Commodore and Greenbrier apartment buildings (both contributing buildings in the Surf-Pine Grove District). However, most of Perkins' career saw him practicing without partners.
Based on available records documenting his career, Perkins designed a variety of building types, including commercial buildings, apartment houses, and factory buildings. However, he focused largely on the design of high-style houses for wealthy and influential businessmen, entrepreneurs
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Top left: Frederick Wainwright Perkins, the architect of the Daniel O. Hill House. A native of Wisconsin, Perkins practiced in Chicago from 1888 to 1920. Two of his earliest major commissions set the tone for his career, which largely focused on high-style residences for businessmen and entrepreneurs in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. Top right: The Philip D. Armour, Jr., mansion, located at 2735 S. Michigan Ave. and built for the son of one of Chicago's pioneering meat packers. Bottom: The John G. Shedd house at 4515 S. Drexel Blvd., designed for the president of the Marshall Field & Co. department store and the benefactor of the Shedd Aquarium. Both houses were designed in the mid-1890s as grandly-scaled Chateauesque-style houses. Both have been demolished
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Top: Shedd's daughter, Laura Shedd Schweppe, commissioned another important house from Perkins. Built in 1915, "Mayflower Place" remains one of the largest and most architecturally ambitious historic houses in the North Shore suburb of Lake Forest (from pin/67835538108625877/). Bottom: Perkins is known to have designed at least four Lake Forest houses, including a home for commission merchant Finley Barrell, built in 1916 (from
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and industrialists, and it is these buildings for which he developed a solid reputation. As a so-called "society" architect, Perkins served elite clients in Chicago and throughout the Midwest, designing houses that were seen as the height of sophistication and class for upper and upper-middle-income patrons.
Perkins did not have a particular signature style, unlike some contemporaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright. Instead, Perkins was fluent in many styles, both historic and progressive, and tailored his designs to the tastes and desires of his clients. He designed houses in what can seem a dizzying array of styles, including Chateauesque, Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival and Mediterranean Revival. All were finely designed and crafted with excellent proportions, exhibiting Perkins' skill at design. The Daniel O. Hill House, with its combination of Prairie and Classical Revival styles used for an American Four Square, is one of Perkins' most innovative houses in. terms of form and style.
Perkins' clients were varied, but most appear to be business leaders in their communities. In Chicago, important patrons include John G. Shedd, the successor to Marshall Field as head of the Marshall Field and Company department store. Shedd's house, one of Perkins' earliest, was built in 1896-1897 and located at 4515 S. Drexel Blvd. It was a grandly-scaled Chateauesque-style mansion, showing influences from 16th-century French country palaces. It was demolished in the 1970s. Shedd's daughter Laura Shedd Schweppe commissioned a sprawling Tudor Revival-style mansion at 405-429 N. Mayflower Rd. in Lake Forest. Built in 1915, the Schweppe mansion known as "Mayflower Place" (extant) stands out as exceptional in a North Shore suburb filled with extraordinary single-family houses, both historic and contemporary. Philip D. Armour, Jr., son of a pioneering meat packer, built a Perkins-designed house at 2735 S. Michigan Ave. Dating from around 1896, the Armour house (demolished) was a gray-limestone Chateauesque-style mansion similar in overall form and detail to the Shedd mansion.
A majority of Perkins' Chicago residences appear to have been demolished. Many were built in South Side neighborhoods such as Grand Boulevard and Douglas, where much demolition of historic buildings has occurred. Surviving Perkins houses of note are clustered in two neighborhoods, Kenwood and the Gold Coast. The South Side Kenwood area historically was one of Chicago's most elite and visually-distinctive neighborhoods. At least four houses by Perkins appear to be contributing buildings to the Kenwood Chicago Landmark District, including:
4832 S. Ellis Ave., 1890, owner and wholesale grocer Alonzo N. Fuller- Romanesque Revival
4840 S. Ellis Ave., 1905, owner Frank H. Fuller - Arts & Crafts with rough stone walls
4921 S. Dorchester Ave., 1898, owner A. H. Trotter - American Four Square
4860 S. Kimbark Ave., 1902, owners Norman Carroll/John Devore - Arts & Crafts
On the North Side, the Gold Coast neighborhood developed with finely-crafted mansions for wealthy Chicago families from the 1880s through the 1920s. In this neighborhood, Perkins is known to have designed two surviving houses and three that have been demolished:
1525 N. Astor St., 1916, owner William H. Rehm, president of the National Brewing Co. and co-owner of other companies - Georgian Revival (extant - contributing building to Astor Street Chicago Landmark District)
1515 N. State St., 1905, owner W. F. McLaughlin - Italian Renaissance Revival (extant)
1138 N. Lake Shore Dr., 1901, owner Charles H. Hulburd, president of the Elgin Watch Co. (demolished)
1311 N. State St., 1897, owner John W. Amberg, manager of the Loretto Iron Co. (demolished)
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A majority of Perkins' Chicago houses appear to have been demolished. Three of those houses are: (clockwise from top left) the Thomas Dennehy house at 1549 N. Astor St., built in 1912 in the Tudor Revival style; the Eugene Fishbein house, built in 1892 at 233 E. Huron St. in the Classical Revival style; and the Leon Klein House on the southeast corner of S. Grand Blvd. (now S. King Dr.) and E. 44th St., dating from 1901 and a tall French Renaissance Revival-style mansion (Dennehy and Klein house photographs from Frederick W. Perkins collection, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Fishbein house image from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago).
Most of Perkins' known surviving Chicago houses are clustered in two neighborhoods-Kenwood and the Gold Coast. A lakefront neighborhood located on the South Side, Kenwood has at least four known designs by Perkins, including (top left) s the Alonzo Fuller house at 4832 S. Ellis Ave., built in 1890 for a wholesale grocer. Top right: The Frank Fuller House, next door at 4840 S. Ellis Ave., was built for another wholesale grocer the following year, in 1891 (from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago). Above: Records are unclear whether this house was built in 1898 for Norman Carroll or John Devore. It is located at 4860 S. Kimbark Ave. in Kenwood (from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago). Bottom: The William H. Rehm house at 1525 N. Astor St. in the Gold Coast neighborhood on Chicago's Near North Side was constructed in 1916 for the owner of the National Brewing Co. All of the buildings on this page are contributing buildings to Chicago Landmark districts, either for
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Besides the Daniel O. Hill House, two other surviving Perkins-designed houses on Chicago's North Side are: (left) the W. F. McLaughlin House at 1515 N. State St., dating from 1905; and (bottom) the George Rounsavell House at 517 W. Wellington Ave., built circa 1893.
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Frederick Perkins designed two prominent vacation houses on Mackinac Island for Chicagoans. Top: "Stonecliffe," an expansive Tudor Revival-style house, was built in 1904 for meat packer Michael Cudahy. It now serves as a hotel (from Frederick W. Perkins collection, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Bottom: The Lawrence Young cottage was built in 1902 for a Chicago lawyer. It was acquired by the State of Michigan in 1944 and now serves as the summer home of the Michigan governor (from ).
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Many of Perkins' clients were prominent businessmen in cities throughout the Midwest. Left: Automobile manufacturer John Barker commissioned this Tudor Revival -style house in 1901. Located in Michigan City, Indiana, it is a museum and civic center today and is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places (from o/1192903/).
Left: The Dr. Everett J. Brown House was built in Decatur, Illinois, in 1913. It is a contributing building to the Decatur National Register Historic District (from HARGIS, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency).
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Between 1910 and 1925, Perkins designed at least six mansions in Duluth, including (bottom left) the John Williams house from 1913, and (bottom right) the George French house, built in 1914 (from Duluth Preservation Alliance, Historic Duluth's Historic East-
1549 N. Astor St., 1912, owner Thomas C. Dennehy - Tudor Revival (demolished)
Besides the Shedd and Armour houses on the South Side, and the Dennehy, Hurlburd, and Amberg houses in the Gold Coast, other Perkins-designed houses in Chicago have been demolished. They include a fine Tudor Revival-style house built by Grace and Finley Barrell, a commission merchant, at 2109-15 S. Calumet Ave., circa 1905; a French Renaissance Revival-style house at 4401 S. Grand Blvd. (now S. King Dr.) built by department store owner Leon Klein in 1901; a Classical Revival-style house built in 1892 at 233 E. Huron St. for Eugene H. Fishburn, president of the Chicago Dock & Canal Co.; a Queen Anne-style brick house for Frederick W. Jackson at 4827 S. Ellis Ave., built in 1899; and a Romanesque Revival-style double house at 4833 S. Dorchester Ave., built in 1891 by John Norcott.
Besides houses in Chicago, Perkins is known to have designed significant houses elsewhere in the Midwest. In Lake Forest, commission merchant Finley Barrell commissioned a second house from Perkins. Located at 747 E. Deerpath, the Barrell house (extant) was designed in the Georgian Revival style and built in 1916. Other houses in Lake Forest designed by Perkins include:
1490 N. Lake Road, known as "loka," 1903, owner Dexter Cummings - demolished
180 W. Laurel Ave., 1907, owner George D. McLaughlin, a coffee merchant and the son of W. D. McLaughlin, another Perkins client - extant
Elsewhere on the North Shore, Perkins designed a Tudor Revival-style house for John W. Gary, vice-president of Lyon, Gary & Co. and a dealer in investment securities, in Hubbards Woods, Glencoe, while the Perkins collection of photographs and drawings held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign lists several houses designed for clients in Highland Park and other Chicago suburbs.
Perkins designed a number of significant houses in smaller cities in Indiana and Illinois. A large Tudor Revival-style house was built for automotive pioneer John Barker in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1901; it is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public as a museum. At least three houses were built for businessmen and civic leaders in Decatur, Illinois, including:
323 W. Macon St., 1912, owner Smith E. Walker, a leading banker in Decatur - Tudor Revival
505 Powers Ln., built before 1916, owner Charles A. Ewing, attorney, businessman and landowner - Mediterranean Revival
600 Powers Ln., 1913, owner Dr. Everett J. Brown, a noteworthy local physician - Classical Revival
All are contributing buildings to the Decatur Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and all are specifically called out in the nomination for architectural significance.
Some of Perkins' most important commissions were built on Mackinac Island, Michigan, and in the Minnesota city of Duluth. Mackinac has long been renowned as a premier vacation resort in the Midwest. Perkins designed vacation homes for two Chicagoans. "Stonecliffe" is believed to be the largest private house ever built on the island. It was built for Chicago meat packer Michael Cudahy in 1904. A sprawling Tudor Revival-style mansion, it is now the Inn at Stonecliffe. The other house, a more modest wood-frame vacation home built for Chicago lawyer Lawrence Young, was acquired by the State of Michigan in 1944 and has since served as the summer home of the governor of Michigan.
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Perkins designed at least six houses for Duluth businessmen in the early 1910s and 1920s. These houses are significant buildings in the East End neighborhood of Duluth, Minnesota, a high-style neighborhood filled with finely-crafted houses overlooking Lake Superior. These include:
2400 E. Superior St., 1910, owner Alexander Hartman, president of Duluth Edison Electric Co. - Tudor Revival - the home since 1936 of the Duluth Women's Club
2601 E. 2nd St., 1913, owner John Williams, a local attorney - Tudor Revival - author Sinclair Lewis lived here for two years (1944 to early 1946)
2431 E. 1st St., 1914, owner Cassius Bagley, head of Bagley & Co. jewelers - Mediterranean Revival
2425 E. 1 st St., 1914, owner George French, the president of the French and Bassett Furniture Co., a major Duluth business - Italian Renaissance Revival
2531 E. 7th St., 1914, owner George P. Tweed, a Duluth banker and mining financier -Italian Renaissance Revival
2516 E. 5th St., 1925, owner Oscar Mitchell, a local attorney - Georgian Revival— designed in association with James Roy Allen
The Daniel O. Hill House falls in the middle of Perkins' career. It is unusual in the overall arc of his career as an American Four Square with Prairie and Classical influences. It also is unusual for its North Side Chicago location, as most of Perkins' work appears to have been concentrated in the Gold Coast neighborhood and the South Side, plus the North Shore and communities farther afield. One exception is the George Rounsavell house (extant) at 517 W. Wellington, a finely-crafted Romanesque Revival-style house from about 1893. Another Perkins-designed house in the East Lake View neighborhood, the Robert S. Hotz house on the southeast corner of N. Sheridan Rd. and W.'Barry Ave. at 3033 N. Sheridan Rd., was demolished in 1967. Hotz was president of the Harms Electric Co. and one of the principals of Hotz & Rehm, a real-estate and investments firm.
Perkins moved from Chicago to Boston in 1920. His subsequent career, other than the Mitchell house in Duluth, has not been documented. He appears to have retired from architectural practice in 1925. He died while traveling in Europe in 1928, with his death occurring suddenly from heart disease while staying at a hotel in Brighton, England.
The Later History of the Hill House as the Serbian Cultural Club and the Serbian American Museum St. Sava
After Daniel Hill's death, his house soon passed to other owners. His widow Annie sold the house in September 1909 to Caroline J. Bolter. Almost four years later, the house passed briefly into the hands of Emma S. Theurer, the recently-widowed wife of brewer Joseph Theurer. Mrs. Theurer acquired the house at the end of May 1913, then sold it to Carl Hanson only four months later in late September of the same year. Hanson swiftly sold the house to Frank Taylor Andrews, a prominent Chicago gynecologist and Northwestern University medical school professor, who bought the house in late November 1913. Andrews was well-placed in society, and his family's social connections were noticed by Chicago newspapers, who closely reported on the Andrews children's marriages in the early 1920s.
Margaret W. Collins acquired the house in 1923 from Andrews, and it remained in her hands until 1950, when she (as Margaret W. Wilcox) sold it to Ben Levin. Two years later, the house was sold to the Serbian Cultural Club, which continues to own the house today as the Serbian American Mu-
35
A photograph of some of the elaborate stone decoration that ornaments the Daniel O. Hill House.
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seum St. Sava. Founded by Dr. Slobodan Draskovic (also spelled Draskovich), the Club has been a center of ethnic Serbian cultural and humanitarian activities in the Chicago area for more than 60 years. Many artists, photographers, writers, and other creative professionals have presented their work in the house over the last half-century.
The Encylopedia of Chicago notes that Serbian immigrants first immigrated to the Chicago metropolitan area during the great wave of Southern and Eastern European migration that occurred in the roughly 40 years before World War I. Although some were professionals, most were working-class men escaping poverty in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They settled where work was available, including the steel district of the Southeast Side of Chicago, in the cities of Gary and Joliet, and in the Wicker Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Ethnic Serbians in Chicago, as with most immigrant communities in Chicago, created a host of organizations that supported them and their families as they found their bearings in a new country. Churches, mutual benefit organizations, fraternal societies, athletic and youth groups, and ladies' societies were all established by Serbian Americans in the twentieth century. The Serbian Cultural Club, now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava, is part of this long and important tradition.
Although seven families are credited with providing money to buy the Hill House in 1952 for the new club, Dr. Slobodan Draskovic (1910-1982) is known as the Serbian Cultural Club's founder. Dr. Draskovic earned a Ph.D from the University of Munich in 1933 and was a professor of economics at the University of Belgrade until 1941. Imprisoned during World War II, Dr. Draskovic emigrated to the United States in 1947, settling in Chicago. He was a writer, editor and lecturer, with a focus on communism and U.S. policy towards Yugoslavia. During the early 1960s, he contributed a monthly column, "On the Cold War Front," for the periodical "American Opinion." A staunch anti-communist, Dr. Draskovic wrote a number of books, including Tito, Moscow 'sTrojan Horse, concerning Yugoslavia's post-World War II leader. He also lectured widely and testified before the United States Congress on the issue of communism, while also speaking on radio and television. The Daniel O. Hill House served as the base for Dr. Draskovic's many activities.
The Serbian Cultural Club was a center of Serbian culture and society starting in the 1950s. It served as a meeting place for Serbians living in and around Chicago. Concerts, lectures and book readings, movies, art exhibits and conferences were part of the Club's mission. The Club's building at 448 W. Barry Ave. was also the headquarters of the Serbian Literary Association, which published the "Serbian Struggle" journal, as well as "Mira Sremcevic," founded 15 years ago and credited as the first Serbian American theater in Chicago.
In 2011 the Serbian Cultural Club became the Serbian American Museum St. Sava, dedicated to protecting and promoting the history and culture of Serbians through a variety of undertakings. The Museum has hosted museum displays on a variety of subjects, including the noted inventor Nicola Tesla and the Serbian royal family.
The Serbian American Museum St. Sava has recently decided to sell the Daniel O. Hill House, its long-time headquarters, and the building is threatened with demolition and replacement with new residential construction. As previously noted, the Daniel O. Hill House is color-coded "orange" on the Chicago Historic Resources Survey. This means that the building has been identified as having significance at least to the surrounding neighborhood. As such, the City of Chicago demolition permit application for the building is subject to a 90-day delay . Such a demo-delay allows the Depart-
37
Frederick W. Perkins' death statement compiled by the American Consular Service in England upon his death in Brighton, England, on July 2,1928 (from Ancestry.com ).
38
A Chicago Tribune article from 1967 concerning the sale and demolition of the Robert Hotz house, a Frederick W. Perkins-designed mansion at 3033 N. Sheridan Rd. Located less than a block from the Daniel O. Hill House, the Georgian Revival-style Hotz house was one of many East Lake View houses that have been demolished in the last 60 years for multi-residential construction.
Well-known mansion at 3033 Sheridan rd. was sold yesterday (lower photo). A IS itory apartment building will be erected on the site.
Apartments to Replace Old Mansion
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ment of Planning and Development to determine whether an alternative to demolition, including Chicago Landmark designation, is possible. The Hill house, as with many other first-generation houses in East Lake View, are contributing buildings to the Lake View and Meekerville National Register historic districts, but such federal listings do not prevent demolition if owners are so inclined.
Criteria for Designation
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 a significant degree of historic integrity to convey its significance.
The following should be considered by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in determining whether to recommend that the Daniel O. Hill House be designated as a Chicago Landmark.
Criterion 1: Value as an Example of City, State, or National Heritage
Its value as an example of the architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other aspect of the heritage of the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, or the United States.
The Daniel O. Hill House, built in 1902, exemplifies the significant early residential history and development of the East Lake View neighborhood as a area of high-quality single-family houses and mansions built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Hill House remains among the best-surviving of these "first-generation" mansions that drew Chicagoans of wealth to the East Lake View neighborhood in the years both before and after its annexation to Chicago in 1889.
Since 1952, the Hill House has been the home for the Serbian Cultural Club, now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava. As a cultural and social center for the ethnic Serbian community of Chicago, the building exemplifies the historic importance of such ethnic cultural and social institutions to the City.
Criterion 4: Exemplary Architecture
Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship.
The Daniel O. Hill House is an excellent American Four Square mansion, combining Prairie proportions and use of materials with Classical ornament.
The Hill House is finely crafted in terms of brick and stone, and it possesses beautifully-detailed Classical-style ornament, including cartouches, swags, and moldings.
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Three additional Perkins-designed houses in Chicago that have been demolished.
In 1890, Finley and Grace Barrell commissioned a city house from Perkins. This was more than two decades before the summer house in Lake Forest that Perkins designed for them. It was located at 2109-2115 S. Calumet Ave., on land now occupied by the R. R. Donnelley & Sons Calumet Plant (from Frederick W. Perkins collection, University of Illinois at Urbana-
John Norcross commissioned the design for this Romanesque Revival-style double house from Perkins in 1891. It was located at in Lake Forest. It was located at 4833 S. Dorchester Ave. in the Kenwood neighborhood and was demolished for new construction in the urban renewal years of the 1950s and 1960s (from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Also built in Kenwood was this Queen Anne-style brick house for Frederick W. Jackson. It was located at 4827 S. Ellis Ave. and built in 1899. A more recent house is on its site today (from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago).
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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 States.
The Daniel O. Hill House was designed by Frederick W. Perkins, a significant residential architect in the context of Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Perkins is significant for his designs of finely-designed and -crafted single-family houses built in fashionable late-nineteenth century and early twentieth-century Chicago neighborhoods. Built largely for upper- and upper-middle-income clients, Perkins' houses were mainly built in handsome period styles of the era, including Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Georgian Revival, and finely detailed in traditional building materials, including brick, stone, and decorative metal.
As a "society" architect working fluently in a plethora of popular architectural styles, Perkins designed houses for Chicago business leaders and entrepreneurs in Chicago and North Shore suburbs such as Lake Forest, including department store magnate John G. Shedd, meat packer Philip D. Armour, Jr., department store owner Leon Klein, and brewer William Rehm.
Perkins is especially noteworthy for his designs for houses in the Gold Coast and Kenwood neighborhoods, historically two of Chicago's premiere residential neighborhoods developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of Perkins' houses remain as contributing buildings to the Astor Street and Kenwood Chicago Landmark Districts. Others are contributing buildings to National Register of Historic Places historic districts, including the Daniel O. Hill House.
Perkins also designed significant buildings in cities and towns throughout the Midwest, including high-style houses for business leaders in communities as far-flung as Decatur, Illinois; Michigan City, Indiana; Mackinac Island, Michigan; and Duluth, Minnesota.
Integrity Criteria
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, architecture or aesthetic interest or value.
The Daniel O. Hill House exhibits high levels of historic integrity, retaining its historic location, setting, overall design, and all exterior decorative details. Its exterior retains historic brick walls, limestone trim, hipped roof, dormers and chimneys. Double-hung wood sash is generally retained in the building's windows.
Exterior changes to the Daniel O. Hill House are minor. They include metal pipe railings attached to the house's front steps and the replacement of original roof tile with asphalt shingles. The building's interior has not been evaluated for integrity.
Despite minor changes, the Daniel O. Hill House retains the ability to express its historic, community, architectural, and aesthetic values as a finely-designed and -crafted American Four Square
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single-family house designed in the Prairie and Classical Revival architectural styles and for its historic associations with its architect, Frederick W. Perkins, a significant architect in the context of Chicago and Midwestern architectural history. The building's historic integrity is preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express such values.
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" of the 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 upon its preliminary evaluation of the Daniel O. Hill House, the Commission staff recommends that the significant features be identified as:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the building.
The free-standing one-story garage located on the same parcel as the Daniel O. Hill House is excluded from the significant historical and architectural features.
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Highest PraUe for.
TIT0, MOSCOW'S TROJAN HORSE
A'.ijrotit took r. Milwaubm Senllnai
Simply njagnilieenl .... a powerful,
eloq^nl.'daianlngr Hunkiof hls^ory-v ... . . Roy Bioit 'lomar-N.^YlSBm^Bql^ km Cotreipondenl.
T^;"complc^ answer to Lh'a p^Blenl -.idea'tfe:Ed^.;Sdtodiiy; EyeatBsr.-PasL' :A;new^'taportO]^
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Dr. Slobodan M. Draskovich
Noted. Serfafan Exile, Editor, University Profostor and Author of TITO, MOSCOW'S TROJAN HORSE ; . . ; A Compelling Speaker . ,. .
.Why Ji^iho.O^^'SlatM .gottlagBO^Mowrod'O^ . Why- aid wa being' told, lb bo 'more friendly
W Coamiunlst: CWnfl7 . ; . Vrtry OTO Arnaricon nowimon .aiid .tcIbeoatotB leUlng us Ihiat NATIONAt COM. ; MUNlSM ia b;gojod thing?... Why.is Tllo. (h» pojraiih^.dtetplnr. blsto(j'piayod:up,oi a;d^acixrtic IbadSr who doioiH«-.ourjflUj»porl7; .'Why is Communal MtLOVAN DI—AS being glorified' f—¦ writing* THE NEW
Dr. Slobodan M. Draskovich (also spelled Draskovic), the founder of the Serbian Cultural Club (now the Serbian American Museum St. Sava) was a noted writer and lecturer on communism and United States policies on Yugoslavia in the Cold War era after World War II. This informational flyer was prepared by a lecture bureau on behalf of Dr. Draskovic (from Univeristy of Iowa Libraries, digital.lib.uiowa.edu/tc).
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Selected Bibliography
"Alonzo M. Fuller House," ; accessed October 29, 2016. American Contractor database. Chicago History Museum. American Institute of Architects. Archives.
Block, Jean F. Hyde Park Houses. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1978.
Brooks, H. Allen. The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His Midwest Contemporaries.
New York: The Norton Library, 1972. Chicago Historic Resources Survey, 1983-1995. Chicago History Museum. Prints and Photographs Collection. Chicago Public Library. Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection. "Chicago Silk Buyer Buried Yesterday," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 2, 1907. Chicago Transit Authority. Historical Information, 1859-1965. Chicago: CTA, 1966. Chicago Tribune, various dates. City of Chicago. Historic Building Permit Records.
Clark, Steven Bedell. The Lakeview Saga. Chicago: Lake View Trust, 1974.
Cohen, Stuart, and Susan Benjamin. North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-
1940. New York: Acanthus Press, 2004. Cook County. Recorder of Deeds records.
Duluth Preservation Alliance. Historic Duluth's East End Walking Tour. Duluth: Duluth Preservation Alliance, 2010. Duluth Public Library. Reference Department.
Drury, John. Old Chicago Houses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941, 1975.
"Frederick Wainwright Perkins, Paper. "Illinois History and Lincoln Collections, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"Frederick Wainwright Perkins." Report of the death of an American citizen. Ancestry.com ; www.home.ancestry.com ; accessed November 1, 2016.
Gilbert, Paul, and Charles Lee Bryson. Chicago and Its Makers. Chicago: Felix Mendelsohn, 1929.
Gowans, Alan. The Comfortable House. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986.
Grossman, James R., Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff, eds. The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Inland Architect and News Record index.
"Inn at Stonecliffe." www.theinnatstonecliffe.com ; accessed November 9, 2016. Inventory of the Slobodan M. Draskovich papers, 1949-1974, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.
Kitagawa, Evelyn M., and Karl E. Taeuber. Local Community Fact Book Chicago Metropolitan
Area 1960. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1963. Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society.
Letter from Dr. Martina Markovic Bertsch, former vice-president and treasurer, Serbian American Museum St. Sava, to Commission on Chicago Landmarks and Department of Planning and Development, City of Chicago, November 17, 2016.
"Mackinac Island." National Historic Landmark nomination, 2000.
Mayer, Harold M., and Richard C. Wade, ed. Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses. Rev. and expanded ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984, 2013.
Nelson, Paul L. "John H. Barker Mansion." National Register of Historic Places nomination, 1975.
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"New for Sheridan Rd.; Apartments to Replace Old Mansion," Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1967. "Noted Silk Expert, Daniel O. Hill, Dead." The Inter-Ocean, April 1, 1907. Pacyga, Dominic A., and Ellen Skerrett. Chicago: City of Neighborhoods. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1986.
Perkins family histories. Ancestry.com ; www.home.ancestry.com ; accessed November 1, 2016. Peters, Linda. "Meekerville Historic District." National Register of Historic Places nomination form, 2005.
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago. Archival Collections. Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps, 1894, 1923, and 1950.
Scott, James Allen. Duluth's Legacy. Vol. 1. Duluth: City of Duluth, Department of Research & Planning, 1974.
Sinkevitch, Alice, ed. AIA Guide to Chicago. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. State of Michigan. "Places," www.michigan.gov ; accessed November 9, 2016. Wagner, Robert. "Decatur Historic District." National Register of Historic Places nomination, 1976.
Wagner, Robert, Paul Sprague Historic Preservation Services. "Lakeview Historic District." National Register of Historic Places nomination form, 1977.
Wendt, Lloyd, and Herman Kogan. Give the Lady What She Wants! Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952.
Withey, Henry F., and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1970.
A historic photograph of the main staircase in the Daniel O. Hill House published in the Inland Architect and News Record soon after the house's construction (from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago).
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Acknowledgments
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
Terry Tatum (consultant), research, writing, photography, and layout Matt Crawford (project manager), editing Melanie Bishop (intern), research
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 1000, Chicago, IL 60602; (312-744-3200)phone; (312-744-9140)fax, website: www.cityofchicago.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.
Department of Planning and Development
CITY OF CHICAGO
CHARLES M. NETTERSTROM
and HOUSE
833 W. Aldine Avenue
September 7, 2017 Report to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks on the
DANIEL O. HILL HOUSE (NOW THE SERBIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ST. SAVA)
448 West Barry Avenue
The Department of Planning and Development finds that the proposed designation of the of the Daniel O. Hill House and the Charles Netterstrom House as Chicago Landmarks supports the City's overall planning goals for the surrounding Lakeview community area and is consistent with the City's governing policies and plans.
Several plans have recently been completed for Lakeview, however these primarily focus on the commercial streets. The 44th Ward Master Plan of2006 addresses Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs), open space, orientating commercial development to the needs of pedestrians, and bicycle infrastructure. The 46th Ward Master Plan, updated in 2013, deals with similar needs. Local chambers of commerce have also developed-plans in 2011 and 2013 which focus on streetscape improvements to improve the character of the commercial streets in Lakeview.
The Lakeview community has expressed concerns that the area lacks planning guidance for residential development, particularly on how to accommodate residential development without diminishing the ' neighborhood's historic character. In light of this, the community and Alderman Tunne'y have voiced strong support for landmark designation of the Hill and the Netterstrom Houses. This is in keeping with the community's and Alderman Tunney's support for historic preservation, as demonstrated by recent landmark designations such as the Surf-Pine Grove District, the Oakdale Avenue District, the Terra Cotta Row District and the Newport Avenue District
Historic single family houses and small flat buildings tend to be more threatened with increased development pressure. Rather than treating these historic buildings on a case-by-case basis; the Department recognizes the need for a more comprehensive approach in East Lakeview. The Department has surveyed the East Lakeview neighborhood to identify and evaluate these historic resources, and we are now exploring options to preserve these buildings either through a landmark district or a multiple property documentation.
In conclusion, the Department supports landmark designation of the Hill and Netterstrom Houses, and the Department plans to return to the Commission with a comprehensive preservation plan for similar buildings in Lakeview. ^
Eleanor Esser Gorski, AIA Deputy Commissioner
12 1 NORTH LASALLE STREET, ROOM 1000, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS G0602
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