It's been a while -- more than a century. The first single-family home to be built on Prairie Avenue since 1904 will be open for viewing during an upcoming tour on the historic street, the place for Chicago's wealthiest residents in the late 1880s.
The new home blends in well with its surroundings, with "beautifully executed limestone exterior, massing and scale help it to blend well with its historic neighbors, including the Marshall Field Jr. house," said William Tyre, executive director of the Glessner House Museum, the sponsor of the event. "Beautiful floors, wood moldings, fireplaces and a graceful staircase too."
Prairie Avenue
Prairie Avenue: A Walk Through Time
What: Vintage mansions from 1800s (plus a new house) open for viewing.
When: 1-4 p.m. June 14, with reception and silent auction to follow.
Tickets: $50.
Info: Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie, (312) 326-1480; http://www.glessnerhouse.org/
The house, completed in 2005, extends the full depth of the lot, wrapping around an in-ground pool.
In the late 1800s, historic Prairie Avenue, from 16th Street to Cermak Road on the Near South Side, was the most fashionable address in Chicago. The area was known as "the sunny street of the sifted few" and "the residence street par excellence."
Self-made men achieved fortunes establishing businesses that put Chicago on the map, and they built their lavish homes on Prairie Avenue.
Here are the other homes on the tour:
The Joseph G. Coleman house, built in 1886, is new on the tour this year.
"Coleman was a prominent wholesale hardware manufacturer," Tyre said. "His wife was the daughter of Silas Cobb, one of Chicago's earliest residents and a hugely successful real estate developer. He built homes for each of his three daughters along Prairie, and he himself resided on Prairie."
The Coleman house was designed by the Cobb & Frost architectural firm, which also designed the gigantic Potter Palmer mansion on the Gold Coast. In 1916, it was Charles Sumner Frost who designed the Navy Pier Auditorium, also known as the Hall, at the east end of Navy Pier.
The entrance hall is highlighted by dark oak paneling, a beamed ceiling and a fireplace with mosaic tiles. The stairway is brightened by leaded glass windows. The parlor and dining room feature elaborate fireplaces in onyx and marble.
Coleman's wife died in 1888, it's noted in Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue (Arcadia Publishing). The home was acquired by coal merchant Miner T. Ames, who died in 1890. It was then leased for several years to David Mayer, partner in the retail firm Schlesinger and Mayer.
Leopold Schlesinger and David Mayer, both immigrants from Germany, founded their clothing store in Chicago in 1872. The company soon opened branches in New York and Europe. In 1899, the firm commissioned architect Louis Sullivan to redesign its downtown department store at State and Madison, where it employed nearly 2,500 people.
When the refurbished structure was completed in 1904, Schlesinger & Mayer was no longer financially able to operate there. Instead, rival Carson Pirie Scott moved in immediately, attaching its name to the ornate building that would become an architectural landmark.
Solon S. Beman, the architect for the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side, designed the William Kimball Home in 1890.
"This was the last of the 'mansion-sized' houses built along Prairie Avenue," said Tyre.
The exterior is carved limestone. The interior features a two-story hallway paneled in oak. "Here, he displayed his sizeable collection of Old Master paintings -- including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Turner-- now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago," Tyre said.
William Kimball was founder of the Kimball Piano and Organ Company. "Kimball manufactured pianos and made them available to a much wider audience, a good quality instrument at an affordable price," he said.
The Kimball House was used as the archbishop's residence during the filming of the 1996 movie "Primal Fear," starring Richard Gere.
The Elbridge Keith home was built in 1870, designed by John W. Roberts. Keith and his two brothers all built homes along Prairie Avenue, but this is the only one still standing.
Keith was originally involved in the family millinery business, but then he got into the banking business. He served as president of the Metropolitan National Bank, forerunner to the First National Bank of Chicago.
The home was the Prairie Avenue Bookshop from 1974 to 1978.
"The third story with its mansard roof was an early 1880s addition," Tyre said.
The dining room features a parquet floor and original Lincrusta embossed wall coverings.
The three-story rowhouse, built in 1894, is the only residence on the tour to have been a single-family home throughout its existence. The house was built for William Henry Reid, a banker. He had resided in an earlier house on the site since 1870.
A stained glass dome illuminates the central music room. Other highlights include mahogany paneling, mosaic floors and numerous fireplaces (in marble and mosaic).
The house survived two attempts at demolition -- the first in the mid-1950s when homes to either side were razed for parking lots, and the second in 1968. "At that time, R.R. Donnelley had acquired the adjacent parking lots, and wanted to raze this house as well," Tyre said.
"They sent in an attorney to negotiate the sale, but she became enamored with the house and convinced Donnelley to keep the house standing, and lease it back to her. She eventually purchased it, and carefully preserved it until her death in 2001."
In 1888, Cobb & Frost were the architects for a tall, narrow rowhouse, designed in the Romanesque style for Harriet Rees, a 70-year-old widow. In the late 1890s, the house was acquired by Edson Keith Jr., whose daughter Katherine grew up in the home and later became the wife of architect David Adler.
The house has undergone extensive renovation by the current owners. Each of the nine fireplaces features a different design in tile, some of them incorporating several different designs and colors of tiles. The elevator, located near the servant's staircase in the back part of the house, was operated by a hand-crank, and it's still functional today.
Thomas & Rapp were the architects for the Dr. Charles W. Purdy House, built in 1891. Purdy was an expert on the treatment of kidney disease, and he was the house physician for the Auditorium. The home's architectural details include an overhanging cornice featuring brackets, dentil work and egg and dart trim. Lion heads guard a second-level oriel window.
The interior of this house required extensive renovation -- it had been divided into apartments. "However, many of the original details survived -- fireplace mantels, built-in seating and beautiful moldings," Tyre said.
The main floor of the house is on the second level. "This was done since the house comes right up to the sidewalk, and the lower floor is right at ground level," he said.
The tour also will include the Glessner House Museum (1800 S. Prairie), the Clarke House Museum (1827 S. Indiana) and the Second Presbyterian Church (1936 S. Michigan).
