FEATURE image: Detail of 804 Forest Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. The Prairie style house was built in 1906 by architect George Washington Maher (1864-1926) whose influence on the Midwest was profound and prolonged and, in its time, as great as Frank Lloyd Wright’s. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 3.95mb
Wilmette’s architectural character reflects the evolution of Chicago’s North Shore from nineteenth-century village to premier suburban community, where distinguished residential, civic, religious, and commercial architecture created an environment of exceptional design quality that remains remarkably intact today.
1231 Forest Avenue, 1898.
A two-story clapboard with a flared hipped roof with three dormers, one each in the front and on the sides. The façade-length porch also has a hipped roof. The first floor has a projecting polygonal bay window and a front door and separate square vestibule window. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.76mb
1215 Forest Avenue, c. 1909.
The two-story home is built of finely dressed (cut, worked) ashlar stone. The home has a hipped roof and steep pitched pediment with a broken cornice and a false balcony with rounded attic window. In a rigidly centralized composition, there is a slight projecting bay above the entrance that is sheltered by a large porch with a massive projecting pediment held by a masonry pier with short bulging columns. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 5.67mb
1041 Forest Avenue, 1873.
Masked by later additions, this house was originally Italianate whose hooded windows and small square attic window remain on the façade. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.20mb
1020 Forest Avenue, Community Church of Wilmette, 1920.
A pioneer large church building tucked unobtrusively onto a residential street whose type of subdued stance was replicated by other churches built in its wake in the suburb. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 6.05mb
1020 Forest Avenue, Community Church of Wilmette, 1920. The building has massing of large rubble ashlar walls with broad arches and a porch. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 3.57mb
A grand two-story Classical Revival house has a high hipped roof and ionic pilasters at the corners and sides and pediment of the projecting entrance. Ionic columns support the porch. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.86mb
922 Forest Avenue pre-1873 and c. 1900.
The house was originally built in the Italianate style evident in the cornice with double brackets in the front and single brackets on the side of the house along with pedimented windows. The third-floor gables were added around 1900 along with the broad bow façade. These changes worked to add space and mask the original style. The front porch is more recent. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 5.61mb
George Washington Maher (1864-1926).
Born in West Virginia, Maher was an American architect in the Prairie School style who was known for blending with the Arts & Crafts style. According to H. Allen Brooks in The Prairie School – Frank Lloyd Wright and his Midwest Contemporaries (1972) “[Maher’s] influence on the Midwest was profound and prolonged and, in its time, was certainly as great as was Wright’s. Compared with the conventional architecture of the day, his work showed considerable freedom and originality, and his interiors were notable for their open and flowing…space.” At the time of his death, G.W. Maher had designed over 270 projects; from houses to parks to public buildings. Public Domain.
804 Forest Avenue, 1906, G.W. Maher.
A solid 4-square house that is modest compared to a similar-styled project the Prairie-school architect completed in 1899 in Oak Park known as Pleasant Home.June 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.85mb
Wilmette combines architectural distinction, affluent residential design, civic beauty, and lakefront suburban development into one of Chicago’s most visually cohesive communities.
Sources:
A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels and on Foot, Ira J. Bach, Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1981, pp. 534-547.
The Prairie School – Frank Lloyd Wright and his Midwest Contemporaries. Brooks, H. Allen New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1972, p. 330.
FEATURE image: Architect Louis Bourgeois incorporated a variety of religious architecture and symbols including for Hindus, Buddhists, Native Americans, Jews, Christians and Muslims, to convey the Baháʼí principle of the unity of religion. Author’s photograph.
The Baháʼí Temple in Wilmette is one of America’s most distinctive religious monuments, where architect Louis Bourgeois fused spiritual ideals, innovative design, and intricate ornament into a landmark that took more than forty years to complete and remains a singular achievement in twentieth-century sacred architecture.
Text & Photographs by John P. Walsh.
The temple was designed by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois (1856–1930). By 1906 Bourgeois and his wife joined the Baháʼí faith. Photo c. 1922. Public Domain.
The Chicago Baháʼí Temple House of Worship is the second such house of worship constructed and the oldest one that is still standing. The popular destination along Lake Michigan on Chicago’s Northshore attracts visitors from around the world today for its amazing architecture, beautiful gardens, and message of religious unity in prayer and for peace.
The temple was designed by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois (1856–1930). After studying and traveling in Paris, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Iran, Bourgeois settled in Chicago in 1896 where he worked with Louis Sullivan. Bourgeois moved to Southern California and, in 1898, designed in Hollywood a landmark Mission Revival style house for painter Paul de Longpré (1855-1911) whose architecture and gardens became a tourist attraction.
The building serves as the North American Baháʼí House of Worship. Located in Wilmette, Illinois, it has become one of Chicagoland’s most recognizable landmarks.
The nine sides of the building represent the largest single digit number which stands fortheBaháʼí belief in the unity and oneness of humankind. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 6.55mb
The idea for the construction of the first Baháʼí Temple in the Western world began in Chicago in 1903. When there was a call for designs, Louis Bourgeois’ plans were the most promising. He worked on the complex design from 1909 to 1917. Before that time, Louis Bourgeois and his wife had joined the Baháʼí faith after having come into association with the Baha’i Faith through Boston’s Baháʼí community. In that time Bourgeois constructed a plaster model of his completed vision and in the 1920’s until his death in 1930 worked on the temple’s construction in Wilmette, Illinois.
While building activity was delayed though the Great Depression of the 1930’s and into World War II, temple construction began again in earnest in 1947 and the temple was dedicated in 1953.
Designed by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois, its more than 40-year construction history reflects the determination of the Baháʼí community to realize Bourgeois’s ambitious vision.
Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), eldest son of Baháʼu’lláh (1817-1892), the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, participated in the ground-breaking ceremony in 1912 of Baháʼí Temple. Construction began in earnest in the 1920s. It is four stories of reinforced concrete. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.11mb
Baháʼu’lláh (1817-1892) was an Iranian religious leader who founded the Baháʼí Faith. Public Domain.
Money for the building was raised entirely by the temple congregants as their gift to the people of the world. June 2014. Author’s photograph. 6.30mb
The temple blends influences from Gothic, Islamic, Byzantine, Renaissance, and other world architectural traditions into a unified design. Its lace-like concrete ornamentation creates one of the most elaborate exterior surfaces in American architecture.
The temple rises 191 feet from its base to its ribbed dome’s peak. The main story pylons are 45 feet high each. The building’s surfaces are teeming with carved lacelike ornamentation. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 4.50mb
The Baháʼí Temple has a highly traditional appearance whose architectural reputation—in an age of orthodox modernism and postmodernism—has grown only more positive with the years. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 4.85 mb
Interior of the auditorium inside the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. The entire surface—from the towering walls to the massive dome ceiling—is covered in highly detailed, openwork ornamental lattice patterns that filter natural light.
The Grand Dome: A central, monumental circular dome rises high above the space, featuring a gilded calligraphic emblem at its center. Molded seamlessly into the pillars and lace-like quartz masonry are major global religious symbols layered chronologically from bottom to top—including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism—symbolizing the fraternity and evolution of mankind.
Soaring Arches and Pillars: Nine main pillars and towering arched window bays flank the multi-layered walls, drawing the eye upward. The number nine is the highest single-digit number, mathematically representing oneness, perfection, and the ultimate completion of God’s revelation.
Concentric Seating Layout: Curved rows of rich, red velvet-cushioned wooden seating wrap around a highly polished, reflective floor that mirrors the warm lighting from above. PHOTO: “The forbidden temple.” by kern.justin is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
The room is strictly dedicated to prayer, quiet contemplation, and meditation. There are no sermons, rigid ritualism, or set religious dogmas permitted here. Because the faith emphasizes that all major world religions originate from the same Creator, the devotional readings regularly feature sacred scriptures from different faiths. In alignment with Baháʼí principles, the room features no professional clergy, religious imagery, or musical instruments. Any music performed during devotionals comes strictly from a cappella choirs or soloists.
The temple occupies a unique place in American religious architecture because it is unlike any traditional church, synagogue, mosque, or cathedral.
The temple’s main prayer room seats 1,200 people. In the Baháʼí faith there are no clergy, no sermons and no rituals. Scriptures are read from many different faith traditions and music by soloists or a cappella choir. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 5.31mb
The Baha’i House of Worship Choir, under the direction of Van Gilmer, performs “This is the Day”—featuring words by Báha’u’lláh and arranged by Stanford E. Scriven—at the 17th Annual Choral Festival in Wilmette, Illinois.
“The Source of All Learning is the Knowledge of God – Exalted Be His Glory.” There are an equal number of entrances each with a quotation above it by Baháʼu’lláh (1817-1892), founder of the Baháʼí faith. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 5.94mb
The Baháʼí temple is open year-round presenting its unique beauty through the seasons. February 2021. Author’s photograph.7.97mb
The nine-sided plan reflects Baháʼí religious symbolism and the principle of unity. The structure demonstrates how architecture can express universal spiritual ideals through light, geometry, and decoration.
The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and situated on a broad, landscaped site that looks towards Lake Michigan. PHOTO: “Wilmette, 2015” by gregorywass is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
SOURCES:
Chicago Churches and Synagogues: An Architectural Pilgrimage, George Lane, S.J., and Algimantas Kezys, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1981, pp. 160-161.
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, Fifth Edition, Franz Schulze and Kevin Harrington, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 267-269.
A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels and on Foot, Ira J. Bach, Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1981, p. 535.
FEATURE image: 946 N. Sheridan Road, Waukegan, Illinois 1876.
Waukegan’s surviving architecture serves as a visual record of the city’s transformation from frontier trading post to prosperous Great Lakes industrial center, preserving nearly a century of changing architectural tastes and civic ambitions.
Text & photographs by author.
INTRODUCTION
Waukegan, Illinois, is an historic community on Lake Michigan about 40 miles north of downtown Chicago. It is one of the oldest settlements in Illinois. The site of the city was visited by French explorers Louis Jolliet (1645-1700) and Père Jacques Marquette, S.J. (1637-1675) in 1673 where Waukegan began as a French trading post and Potawatomie village.
Inside the Kiva (c.1905-1912), oil on canvas. 20 in. x 30.25 in., Kate Cory (1861-1958), Waukegan Historical Society. Waukegan photographer, sculptor, painter and muralist Kate Cory moved to Newark, New Jersey, with her family as a child. Between 1905 and 1912 she lived among the Hopi of the Oraibi Mesa in Arizona where this painting was made. Public Domain.
Waukegan’s origins as “Little Fort.”
“Little Fort” was the first name for the environs of Waukegan. It started around 1700 as a log building overlooking the Waukegan River on its southwestern shore as it drained into Lake Michigan. This point marked the portage from the Lake to the Des Plaines River as it traveled west. The state of Illinois was established in 1818. Over the next quarter century, the Illinois volunteer army fought local native American tribes and forced them to sign treaties and migrate west of the Mississippi. The Potawatomie left Waukegan by 1829 as they ceded their land in this area and throughout northeastern Illinois to the U.S. Government. The 1830s brought vast changes to the area with opportunities for development. In addition to the land transfer, the building of the Erie Canal in 1830 brought boatloads of settlers from New England and New York State into the Illinois and the Midwest region.
Along with other communities which developed on Chicago portage routes, the history of Waukegan’s founding and development shares a similar time frame as well as personalities and activities. In 1835 Thomas Jenkins was the first settler at “Little Fort.” Jenkins was followed in quick succession by other enterprising and hard-working New Englanders who settled much of northern Illinois in the 1830s which was the edge of the Western wilderness. Like Marquette and Jolliet in the 17th century, these newcomers recognized the potential monumental impact that access to Lake Michigan had for transport of goods in and out of the region and what that commercial activity and subsequent settlement would have on the surrounding real estate. As more people arrived, the creation of a village emerged. The area was platted and streets designated, and in a contested election in 1841, “Little Fort,” became the governmental center for a recently formed Lake County.
Little Fort Becomes Waukegan
Between 1844 and 1846 the town’s population multiplied from 150 to 750 persons. In 1849 the community changed its name from “Little Fort” to Waukegan. By 1859, when the town was incorporated as a city, Waukegan boasted a population of 2,500 people. Chicago, by comparison, had a population of 112,172 denizens in the 1860 census. Waukegan is an English alliteration that closely approximated the word for “fort” or “trading post” in the Algonquin language. In the 2020 census Waukegan reported a population of 89,321 people.
Growing population in the port city. Coming of the railroad
Waukegan had a natural deep harbor and was a port city. This feature attracted merchants and farmers who could readily ship their goods, produce, and grain from Lake and McHenry County businesses and farms to Chicago –- and, from that point, to the Midwest and the world. Waukegan soon became one of the busiest ports on the lake. When the railroad came to Waukegan in 1855 (today’s Chicago and North Western Railway), it stimulated interest in Waukegan as a manufacturing town that included ship and wagon building, flour milling, sheep raising, pork packing, beer brewing and dairy farming (Hawthorne-Melody Farms). The railroads made it feasible for the establishment of larger industries which appeared in Waukegan at the end of the 19th century such as U.S. Sugar Refinery, Washburn and Moen Wire Mill (U.S. Steel Corporation), U.S. Starch Works, and Thomas Brass and Iron Works, among others. This mercantile and agricultural activity generated sufficient wealth for its citizens to build big houses along Waukegan’s main streets. These residences expressed the current tastes in residential styles from Greek revival and Italianate styles to the Victorian and Prairie School.
1890-1930: Population boom fueled by immigration
Between 1890 and 1930 Waukegan experienced a population boom fueled by European immigrants and, in the 1920’s, Black Americans during the Great Migration. Waukegan thrived though by the end of the 20th century, the city suffered from an exodus of its population to farther west suburbs. This was accompanied by a shuttering of industries as management sought cheaper labor in other countries. At the same time, Waukegan was welcoming a new influx of immigrants from Latin America.
Famous residents
A few of Waukegan’s most famous residents in history include comedian Jack Benny (1894-1974), science fiction writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), World War II combat photographer under Colonel Darryl F. Zanuck (Twentieth Century Fox) Albert Klein, the aforementioned fine artist Kate Cory and NFL quarterback for the Cleveland Browns Otto Graham (1921-2003).
When he became famous, Jack Benny never forgot his hometown of Waukegan.
Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury said he had a sign over his typewriter for 25 years as advice to himself and other writers: “DON’T THINK.”
When Otto Graham played for the Cleveland Browns the team played in 10 consecutive title games, 4 all-American Conference and 3 NFL championships. In Waukegan, Otto Graham’s father was a music teacher who taught Jack Benny to play the violin.
THE HOUSES:
408 N. Sheridan Road, 1875. Built in the Italianate style in 1875. The set of four symmetrical bay windows on the first and second floors have 12 tall thin windows. The moldings have scroll cut, incised, and cut out brackets with heavy decorative surrounds with keystones. In the center above the canopied main entrance are a second floor and gable windows with heavy shoulders for its surrounds. Above the gable window is punched out, playfully decorative bargeboard. The two story porch to the south (left) while integrated to the Italianate building is a later turn-of-the-century addition.
414 N. Sheridan Road, 1847. The strict Greek Revival-style modest building dates from 1847. Built by John H. Swartout, the frame house has a portico with a perfect classical pediment with Doric columns holding up a blank entablature. The façade hosts three identical openings – two being windows with shouldered moldings and a door with a transom. It is a simple and relatively small building that was in need of repair in 2014 when this photograph was taken by the author.
438 N. Sheridan Road, 1840s. The house was built up around a small 1840s Greek revival Style house. The Italian Villa style with its tall central tower, porch and columns, double brackets under the eaves and pediments above the windows, dates from the middle 1850s. the central door starts with the rope molding around the double doors and ascends to double arched windows on the second and third floors.
438 N. Sheridan Road, 1840s. Same house as above, southern exposure. The tower’s windows are replicated on each side at the same level as the front view.
505 N. Sheridan Road, 1850s. A central tower with a double window and a peaked arched pediment and a steep pitched roof marks this house from the 1850s as Greek Revival style. The door has heavy shoulders for its surrounds.
526 N. Sheridan, late 1840s. A Greek revival style house prevalent in the state of Ohio. The Greek Revival gable has short returns with the second-floor windows extending into the gable area. This is a construction short cut for these upper story rooms. The porch with its octagonal columns and front door entry with its heavily bracketed canopy are later additions although no later than the mid1870s.
619 N. Sheridan Road, 1840s. The present house was built around an earlier house erected in the 1840s. It is in the Victorian Gothic style. There are steep gables for the central tower and dormers. The central doors and windows have simple and neat surrounds.
Detail of same house above, 619 N. Sheridan Road, 1840s.
Waukegan’s historic houses and neighborhoods reveal the story of a city shaped by lake commerce, railroads, industry, immigration, and economic growth, with its architecture preserving the ambitions and cultural aspirations of successive generations from the 1840s through the early twentieth century.
710 N. Sheridan Road, 1872. A restored Second Empire and Italianate Victorian mansion. The frame house features a double door entrance with glass panes and a veranda-like columnar front porch. A square-shaped second-floor porch is above the front entrance in the central section of the house and below its double bracketed cornice and Mansard roof.
Detail of double bracketed cornice of restored 1872 Second Empire and Italianate Victorian mansion at 710 N. Sheridan Road in Waukegan, Illinois.
Waukegan preserves a remarkable range of architectural styles including Greek Revival, Italianate, Italian Villa, Victorian Gothic, Second Empire, and Tudor Revival.
837 N. Sheridan Road, 1858. The front porch and polygonal bay window were added to this late-1850s Italianate brick house more than 60 years later, around 1910.
907 N. Sheridan Road, early 1930s. Made of Lannon stone from Wisconsin, the buff-colored, blocky, sedimentary dolomite rock house is designed in the English Tudor style. It has a slate roof. The tall wide chimney is integrated into the façade of the solid stone wall building flanked by casement windows in gabled wall dormers.
Another view of same house above, 907 N. Sheridan Road, early 1930s. The well-designed monolithic stone and slate fortress was erected during the Great Depression.
Individual houses illustrate changing architectural fashions across nearly a century of development. Waukegan’s built environment reflects both nineteenth-century optimism and twentieth-century prosperity before later industrial decline and demographic change.
946 N. Sheridan Road, 1876. An Italianate house has a central tower with notable openings – a ground floor heavy doorway; above that, a pair of windows under a semi-circular pediment; and finally, at the top, a triplet of windows under a triangle pediment. The second floor carries the semi-circular pediment design across three more of its windows and there are double brackets under the eaves. The porch is likely an early 20th century addition.
1004 N. Sheridan Road, late 1890s.
Sources:
Bach, Ira J. 1981. A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels and on Foot. Chicago: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, pp. 97-111.
FEATURE image: Detail of wood, stone and brick used by architect Joseph Emil Hosek for his 1951 Prairie-style house at 8958 S. Hamilton Avenue in Northern Beverly. See a fuller description and another photograph of the house in this post.
Beverly and Morgan Park preserve one of Chicago’s most distinctive residential landscapes, where nineteenth-century suburban origins, commuter rail development, and an exceptional range of architectural styles created a neighborhood that feels unlike any other part of the city.
Text & photographs by John P. Walsh.
INTRODUCTION.
The Beverly/Morgan Park community owes its charm and uniqueness to the variety of architecture styles and the plan for residential areas that were laid out in the late 19th century. Historic districts were established to help preserve that ambience.
Prairie School founder Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) designed a handful of houses in Beverly/Morgan Park (4) between 1900 and 1917 as did Walter Burley Griffin who boasts an historic district on 104th Place. Today there are four historic districts – (1) the Ridge Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, and Chicago Landmark Districts (2) covering historic homes and churches on sections of Longwood Drive and Seeley Avenue, (3) Prairie-style houses designed by architect Walter Burley Griffin, and (4) the train stations along the old Rock Island line.
The architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) has one of the historic districts in Beverly/Morgan Park named after him for his work designing Prairie-style houses. Griffin went on to become internationally famous as the designer of the new Australian capital city of Canberra in 1913. Public Domain.
The Ridge Historic District is an extensive area and one of the largest urban historic districts in the U.S. Boundaries include a substantial amount of historic Beverly and Morgan Park with architectural styles from the 1870s to the 1930s. More homes of historic value that are not in the historic district find designation and protection in the Chicago Landmark Districts.
The Beverly-Morgan Park area is a former homeland of the Potawatomi peoples. In 1833, the Native Americans ceded their land rights to this area to the U.S. government. In 1839, John Blackstone purchased 300 acres encompassing land known as the Ridge, a heavily wooded highland. Chicago and Fort Dearborn were accessible by an indigenous trail, also called the Vincennes Trail.
The area has mature trees, long, winding streets and old houses set back and nestled into hilly green plots. Morgan Park is the older community started in 1844 and later annexed to Chicago in 1914. Its original land tract was bought from John Blackstone by Englishman Thomas Morgan, between 91st and 119th street along the west side of Longwood Drive (the Blue Island Ridge). The area was a farming community until, after the Civil War, Morgan’s children sold the land to the Blue Island Building and Land Company, and, in 1869, Thomas F. Nichols planned a picturesque subdivision with winding streets, small parks, and roundabouts that evoke images of an English country town. Although the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad laid tracks through the area in 1852, commuter service to downtown was established over 35 years later, in 1888, which was six years after Morgan Park incorporated as a suburban village.
Map of Morgan Park, IL, as laid out by Thomas F. Nichols for the Blue Island Land and Building Company, 1870. Public Domain.
Following the Chicago fire, Morgan Park developed quickly in the 1870s including Morgan Park Military Academy (1873), Baptist Union Theological Seminary (1877), and Chicago Female College (1875). The seminary was run by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed (1842-1927) and William Rainey Harper (1856-1906) who established The University of Chicago in Hyde Park in 1890. The seminary left Morgan Park at that time to become the University’s Divinity School. The political battle for Morgan Park’s annexation to Chicago resulted in its suburban women voting overwhelmingly for annexation in 1914 because it meant better city services and schools.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad had opened a station at 91st Street in 1889 and called it Beverly Hills which became the name for the whole area north of 107th along the Ridge. Beverly’s churches and schools reflected the community’s growth from east to west. Beverly (or Beverly Hills) developed along similar lines as adjacent Morgan Park though annexed to Chicago a quarter of century earlier in 1890. Beverly was originally part of the village of Washington Heights to the east which was also annexed to Chicago in 1890.
Notable Buildings in Beverly/Morgan Park.
Beverly originally developed as the western half of the independent Village of Washington Heights, which was officially incorporated in 1874. Chicago annexed Washington Heights (including Beverly) in 1890. It was built as a country retreat for wealthy Chicagoans seeking a park-like escape after the Great Chicago Fire.
J.T. Blake House, 2023 W. 108th Place, 1894, H.H. Waterman.
H.H. Waterman (1869-1948), a Wisconsin native, was a Wright contemporary. Waterman was known as Morgan Park’s “Village Architect” because he designed so many buildings in the community (no less than 15) even as Waterman also built houses out-of-state. Waterman’s architecture is vibrantly creative yet stately and recognizable by their charming and irregular designs. The J.T.Blake House is from the early mid 1890’s, a fecund building period for Waterman. It has a steeply pitched and swooping gabled roof that is asymmetrical and a jutting angled stairway bay. The house materials are stone, wood, and stucco.
Another H.H. Waterman confection is the so-called “Honeymoon Cottage” (above) nestled onto a broad, hilly corner Ridge lot, built in 1892. Waterman built this house for his young wife, Ida May Vierling (1872-1896), who died at 24 years old in 1896, leaving the talented architect alone to raise their baby daughter, Louise Hale Waterman (1895-1953). The house has a pretty terraced entrance with an exaggerated gabled entry porch. There is a high hipped roof that adds to the English cottage style whimsy and disproportion that is the architect’s own home. The Harry H. Waterman House, at 10838 S. Longwood Dr., built in 1892, is part of both the Ridge Historic District and the Longwood Drive District.
Morgan Park Methodist Episcopal, 11000 S. Longwood Drive, 1913, H.H. Waterman and addition, 1926, Perkins, Fellows & Hamilton.
Dwight H. Perkins (1867-1941) was Prairie School architect and contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. Public Domain.
The original office of Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton who designed Morgan Park Methodist Episcopal church’s 1926 addition, was on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and briefly shared with Frank Lloyd Wright. Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton became known for designing schools and civic buildings with prolific output in the Chicagoland area. Project designs included the Bowen High School, Carl Shurz High School—considered one of the most beautiful high schools in the area—as well as Evanston Township and Winnetka’s New Trier high schools. The firm also designed park facilities such as the Lincoln Park Boat House and the Lincoln Park Zoo’s famed Lion House.
Chicago Public Library, George C. Walker Branch, 11071 S Hoyne Avenue, 1890, Charles S Frost. Additions in 1933 and 1995.
George C. Walker was president of the Blue Island Land and Building Company. The original portion of the library building was designed by Charles Sumner Frost (1856-1931), cost $12,000, and opened on April 22, 1890. In 1929 its space was quadrupled and, in 1995, it received a major renovation. When Chicago Public Library, George C. Walker Branch, was built, Frost was 34 years old and at the beginning of a new stage in his early mid-career. The low-rise stone building is greatly influenced by the Richardsonian-Romanesque style which was prevalent among young architects in the 1880’s and 1890’s before the onset of the Beaux-Arts revival.
Charles Sumner Frost (1856-1931) was born in Maine and trained as an architect in Boston, Frost moved to Chicago in 1882. The partnership of Cobb and Frost designed and began construction of the Potter Palmer mansion (1882-1885) at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive (demolished in 1951). Public Domain.
Entrance towers, Chicago Public Library, George C. Walker Branch, 1892.
Adapted to a residential-commercial street in a middleclass neighborhood outside downtown Chicago, the building shows the characteristics associated with the Richardsonian Romanesque style, including strong picturesque massing, round-headed arches, clusters of short squat columns, recessed entrances, richly varied rustication, blank stretches of walling contrasting with bands of windows, and cylindrical towers with conical caps embedded in the walling.
Bryson B. Hill House, 9800 S. Longwood Drive, 1909, Albert G. Ferree.
Bryson B. Hill House (above) is a classically-inspired mansion with two-story tall Doric columns helping form the front entrance. While Prairie style of architecture was new and modern, the Chicago “Great House” did not go out of style, at least until the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 which necessitated downsizing of many house plans. Albert G. Ferree (1848-1919/1924) also built two and three flats in Chicago in the same period.
Beverly Unitarian Church (Robert C. Givins House), 10244 S. Longwood Drive, 1886, architect unknown.
Part of the Longwood Drive Historic District, the Robert S. Givins House, at 103rd Street and Longwood Drive, is also known as the Givins Beverly Castle (above). Built by an early developer, the castle-like keep is built of Joliet limestone that attracts attention for its crenellated battlement and towers with arrow-slit windows. The gatehouse entrance is a traditional Richardsonian Romanesque rounded arch. This late 19th century castle on its hill is probably the community’s best-known landmark.
Robert W. Evans House, 9914 S Longwood Drive, 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Frank Lloyd Wright. Public Domain.
The Evans House (above) with a low hipped roof is built atop the Blue Island Ridge and not into it. There is a central fireplace around which the expansive house pinwheels. The original stucco exterior was later covered with flagstone. The earliest Wright house in the area is the Jessie Mae and William Adams House (9326 South Pleasant) completed in 1901. Robert and Alberta Evans had been married for 12 years when Wright built this home. Robert Evans was a sales manager and treasurer for the Picher Lead Company and Alberta Wetzel Evans was an award-winning botanist.
Headmaster’s House, 2203 W 111th Street, 1872, architect unknown.
The T-stem Victorian Gothic with stone foundation has a front porch on brick supports with thick square doric columns. There is a steeply pitched roof with brackets under the roof line.
The Berry House, 9750 S. Walden Parkway, 1922.
Regular commuter service from Beverly/Morgan Park to Downtown Chicago has been in place since 1888.
Directly to the south, Morgan Park operated as its own independent municipality. It was incorporated as a village in 1882 and was heavily marketed as a strict “dry” town focused on education, religion, and temperance. Morgan Park fiercely resisted joining Chicago for decades, fighting a massive political battle between “Annexationists” and “Home Rulers”. The city finally annexed the village in 1914.
Train station: Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad – Morgan Park Station (111th St. Metra Station), 1891, John T. Long.
The first floor of the station (above) is faced entirely in wood advertising the woodsy ambience of its then-suburban setting. A waiting room fireplace survives.
Hiland A. Parker House, 10340 S Longwood Drive, 1894, Harry Hale Waterman.
The H.A. Parker House sits on a dramatic hill site met by a base of Richardsonian huge rusticated brownstone stone blocks to form a large semicircular porch and tower at the back. The tall roof with steeply pitched gabled dormers on this helps exaggerate the house’s height.
Setting and landscape are an integral aspect of residences in curvaceous and hilly Beverly and Morgan Park.
Normand Smith Patton (1852– 1915) whose firm designed the Morgan Parak Congregational Church began practicing architecture in Chicago in 1874. He left for for Washington DC two years later where he remained until 1883. Patton returned to Chicagoand opened a practice with another architect, C.E. Randall. Randall died in 1885 but Patton’s firm survived under various forms as Patton & Fisher, Patton, Fisher and Miller, Patton & Miller, and Patton, Holmes & Flinn until his death in 1915.Patton & Miller designed scores of Carnegie libraries. Public Domain.
Morgan Park Congregational Church, 11153 S. Hoyne, Chicago, 1916, Patton, Holmes & Flinn.
Morgan Park Congregational Church, 11153 S. Hoyne, Chicago, 1916, Patton, Holmes & Flinn.
Blended with Mission style, Morgan Park Congregational Church is a handsome red brick Craftsman building that has been identified as the best preserved in Chicago. The church was designed by Patton, Holmes & Flinn. Normand Smith Patton (1852– 1915) was an American architect based in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Patton’s firm specialized in public buildings, particularly Chicago public schools as well as libraries and chapels.
Clarke House, 11156 S. Longwood Drive, 1892, John Gavin.
The Sarah D. Clarke House (or W.S. Kiskaddon House) is a miniature Queen Anne-style house with an Italianate corner tower.
James R. McKee House, 10415 S Seeley, 1908, John M. Schroeder.
The simple front entrance of the J.R. McKee House is on the side hidden by an oblong triangular brick wall. A projecting sunroom that faces the street is encased by a broken arch.
Large lots, mature trees, and winding streets create a suburban character unusual within Chicago city limits.
Frederick C. Sawyer House, 9822 S Longwood Drive, 1908, Horatio R. Wilson.
The Sawyer House is a mansion with many windows, three floors of solid red brick from 1908. The fashionable traditional Beaux-Arts style was built in a time of new Prairie style architecture in ascendance.
Horatio R. Wilson started as a draftsman in 1877. In 1889 he was in partnership with another Chicago architect and, in the 1900’s established an independent office. In this early 20th century period Wilson planned and built many important buildings, including the Illinois Theatre in Chicago, the L. C. Case Office Building in Racine, Wisconsin (1905), the Sharp Office Building in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Railroad Station at Wheaton, Illinois, for the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railroad. After 1910 he was associated with John A. Armstrong in organizing the firm of H. R. Wilson & Company of which he remained the head until his death. During this later period important examples of his firm’s works were the Macmillan Publishing Company’s Office Building and Warehouse (1911) in Chicago, erected at Prairie Avenue and 20th Street, including its addition in 1916. Wilson also designed the Raymond Apartment House on North Michigan Avenue, and the Surf and Sisson Hotels in Chicago. Architect Horatio R. Wilson also designed the South Michigan Avenue building that would later house Chess Records and the Milwaukee mansion that holds today’s Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
Howard Hyde House, 10410 S Hoyne Avenue, 1917, Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Howard Hyde House is an American System Built home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1917. The client was a cashier at International Harvester. Like the era’s popular Sears Catalog homes. Wright designs were prepackaged and ready to build. Wright had a long-term concern for affordable housing and he worked in short term partnerships with builders such as Milwaukee-based Richard Bros. and Burhans-Ellinwood & Co. The Hyde House was built as a model for a proposed subdivision that the U.S. entry into World War One halted. The only other house Wright built under this plan was 10521 S. Hoyne across the street.
Frank Lloyd Wright in 1926. Public Domain.
10541 S Hoyne, 1917, Frank Lloyd Wright.
From Victorian villas to Tudor, Prairie, Colonial Revival, and Mid-Century homes, Beverly/Morgan Park demonstrates how architecture expressed the aspirations of generations of Chicagoans seeking space, beauty, and community beyond the crowded urban core.
Horace Horton House, 10200 S Longwood, 1890, J.T. Long.
The H. Horton House (above) is Colonial Revival style.
Chicago State University, President’s House/Frank Anderson House, 10400 S. Longwood Drive, 1924, Oscar L. McMurry.
The CSU President’s House is Italian Renaissance Revival with Classical pediments.
Russell L Blount House (2), 1950 W 102nd Street, Chicago, 1912, William Burley Griffin.
The Russell L. Blount House (2) was designed by architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) in 1912. The house has the same floor plan as the Blount House (1) also built by Griffin in 1911 at 1724 W. Griffin Place. The 1912 house has a cathedral ceiling which is intimated in the façade trim. Russell L. Blount, a real estate manager for a bank, and lived with his family in and out of Griffin houses as Blount built and sold them for considerable profit.
Walter Burley Griffin, 1912. Public domain. Born in Maywood, Illinois, Griffin grew up in Oak Park and Elmhurst, Illinois. Graduating as an architect from University of Illinois, Griffin was influenced by the Chicago-based Prairie School in ascendency at the turn of the 20th century. Griffin began working in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park studios and oversaw the construction of several noted houses by Wright and supplied landscape plans for Wright’s buildings. Griffin’s own architectural designs began in these years. Griffin developed his own modern style and, working in partnership with Marion Griffith (née Mahony) after 1911, they designed over 350 buildings, landscape and urban-design projects as well as designing construction materials, interiors, furniture and other household items. Marion Mahony was the first woman to be licensed to practice architecture in Illinois as well as Frank Lloyd Wright’s first employee in the mid 1890’s in Chicago. In 1913, upon winning the competition to design Canberra, Australia, Walter Burley Griffin, relocated there with his wife for the next 20 years. Griffin is credited with being the first architect to use reinforced concrete, originating the carport, and developing the L-shaped floor plan. Public Domain.
9332 South Damen Avenue, Chicago, 1894, is the childhood home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (1920-2019).
The childhood home of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (1920-2019) who used to sleep and spend time on this front porch is at 9332 S. Damen Avenue (above). The Waid-Coleman home was built in 1894 and retains its original stained glass, hardwood floors, pocket doors, and beamed ceilings. The exterior was stripped and painted in 2003 which Justice Stevens later commented made the house look now than he remembered.
Beverly/Morgan Park remains an important example of architecture as a reflection of social aspiration, family life, and neighborhood identity.
On September 12, 1992, MAE JEMISON, engineer, physician and astronaut, made history as the first African American woman to travel in space when she took off as part of a NASA crew on the Space Shuttle Endeavor for 8 days in space.
“You’re the Inspiration” was written by PETER CETERA and David Foster. Cetera sang lead vocals for the 1984 album, Chicago 17. The song reached no.3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985. Peter Cetera, bassist and founding member of Chicago, is from Morgan Park and grew up on Vincennes Avenue.
AJA EVANS, Olympic bobsled bronze medalist in 2014 and World Championships Bobsled Bronze medalist in 2017, is from Morgan Park.
BRIAN PICCOLO in 1967. Public Domain. Brian Piccolo played for the Chicago Bears for four years before his death from cancer at age 26 on June 16, 1970. The Piccolo family lived in two different Beverly homes in that time. Signed by the Bears in 1965, the Piccolo family moved into a home in the 9200 block of Vanderpoel Street and later to a home in the 2000 block of West Hunt Avenue. In 1964 Piccolo led the nation in rushing at Wake Forest in North Carolina and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. Piccolo was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Florida. His wife, Joy, came from Georgia. While Piccolo was passed over in the 1965 draft, the Bears did pick up running back Gale Sayers and linebacker Dick Butkus. In 1965 Piccolo tried out for the Bears as a free agent and made the practice squad. In 1966 he was on the main roster playing on special teams. In 1967 and 1968 Piccolo got more playing time backing up Gale Sayers. His best season statistically is 1968 when he gained 450 running yards on 123 carries, a pair of touchdowns, and 291 yards on 28 receptions. In August 1969 Piccolo was made starting fullback next to Gale Sayers in the backfield. It was during the Bears-Falcons football game in Atlanta in November 1969 that Piccolo took himself out of the game because of chest pain and a persistent cough. A couple of days later an X-ray showed a tumor in his lungs. Piccolo was diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of testicular cancer that had metastasized. Piccolo began chemotherapy and while today the cure rate for this form of cancer can be upwards of 90%, in 1970 it was virtually incurable.
Gale Sayers playing. Public domain. In Sayers’ rookie NFL season, he set a league record by scoring 22 touchdowns—including a record-tying six in one game—and gained 2,272 yards and named the NFL’s Rookie of the Year. In his first five seasons, Sayers was in four Pro Bowls and was selected All-Pro first team five times. In 1968 a right knee injury forced Sayers to miss the last five games of season but he returned in 1969 to lead the NFL in rushing yards and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year. An injury to his left knee in the 1970 preseason and subsequent injuries kept him sidelined for most of his final two seasons.
In 1967, Gale Sayers and Chicago Bears teammate Brian Piccolo became the first interracial roommates in NFL history. Their friendship, which ended with Brian Piccolo’s death at 26 years old in 1970 following a battle with cancer, inspired Sayers to write his autobiography, “I Am Third,” which became the basis for the 1971 made-for-TV movie Brian’s Song. Sayers, who had recovered from a serious knee injury with the help and grit of his team-mate and friend, Brian Piccolo, saw Sayers lead the NFL in rushing in 1969 (1032 yards on 236 carries; 8 touchdowns). For his successful efforts, Sayers won the George S. Halas Most Courageous Player award. Typically awarded in August, Sayers asked for the award presentation to take place at a May 25, 1970 dinner. His reason was that Brian Piccolo, who had been diagnosed with cancer in November 1969, was seriously ill. Just a couple weeks later, on June 16, 1970, Brian Piccolo died. The following year, when Brian’s Song debuted on ABC on November 30, 1971, it became the most-watched made-for-TV movie in history. Brian’s Song, starring Billy Dee Williams as Sayers and James Caan as Piccolo, included that award presentation in its drama that had taken place in real life just one year before. “You flatter me by giving me this award, but I say to you here and now Brian Piccolo is the man of courage who should receive the George S. Halas Award. It is mine tonight, it is Brian Piccolo’s tomorrow. “I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him, too. And tonight, when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”
Author & wife visiting the gravesite of Brian Piccolo, St. Mary’s Cemetery, Evergreen Park, Illinois, July 2017.
Chambers House, 10330 S. Seeley, Chicago, 1874.
The Chambers House (above) has a well-preserved French Tower. The architect is unknown who built this suburban villa from the 1870s and which boasts plenty of style and details.
Louis A. Tanner House, 9640 S. Longwood drive, 1909, Tallmadge & Watson.
Ignatius Chap House, 8831 S. Pleasant Avenue, 1928, Homer G. Sailor.
This modest late 1920’s home dressed in a Spanish Revival (or southern California hacienda) style has a central miniature tower and blind arches. Its colorful decorative tiles embedded into the stucco are original. The architect of the Ignatius Chap House (above) was Homer Grant Sailor (1887-1968) who was one of the last draftsmen for Louis Sullivan. In 1917 Sailor established his private practice, designing small Prairie School residences, low-rise commercial buildings and churches in the Chicago area. His work drew upon Sullivan’s simple massing and exhibits a program of applied terra cotta ornament more restrained than that of Sullivan.
Along with small parks and winding streets, roundabouts were part of the original plats of Beverly and Morgan Park.
Along Longwood Drive.
George W. Reed House, 2122 W. Hopkins Place, 1929, James Roy Allen.
The G.W. Reed House (above) is a massive building with irregular massing and that has 4 wings which pinwheel around a central core. With its assortment of beams, arches, and crenellations, the style is an amalgam of medieval, late medieval/early Renaissance, and with some Classical details. Built in 1929, the brick and limestone mansion on a Beverly hillside suggests a Tudor mansion added onto over different time periods. The house is one of two known extant works in Chicagoland of its architect, James Roy Allen (the other is the main gate of the Lake Forest cemetery at Lake Road). Allen designed the home for an executive of the Peabody Coal Company. The house has 19 rooms—plus a servants’ residence with three more rooms—and stands on one acre in the Dan Ryan Woods section of north Beverly. The interior is carved oak and walnut moldings set off by leaded glass windows, with four fireplaces and the original sterling silver andirons, as well as sterling silver sconces.
Magdalen H. Phillips House and Studio, 8910 S. Pleasant Avenue, 1954, William G. Carnegie.
The M.H. Phillips House (above) is a sprawling Late Prairie style single-story house on a northern Beverly hillside. It is by architect and engineer William G, Carnegie (1888-1969) who reiterates in the house design the popular idiom of Walter Burley Griffin with its deep eaves and patterned wooden muntins on the windows.
Everett Robert Brewer House, 2078 W. Hopkins Place, 1924, Murray D. Hetherington.
Beverly/Morgan Park displays work by generations of Hetherington family architects. This family’s architectural legacy began with John Todd (J.T.) Hetherington (1858-1936) who designed residences, churches, banks, and parks in Chicagoland. His son, Murray D. Hetherington (1891-1972) designed the Brewer House (above). He was the most prolific of the Hetherington architects to design in Beverly/Morgan Park and worked in the English Manor style, which is Tudor Revival sans half timbering. The Brewer House is a prime example of his work, many of these elegant residences designed in the booming 1920s into the 1930s. Hetherington paid close attention to the landscape settings of his houses as the Brewer House also conveys set atop hills and nestled by the Dan Ryan Woods. Using materials such as clinker brick and limestone the architect added texture and contrast to his designs and gave each house an individual character. The Brewer House’s irregular roofline with its variegated slate and random sized slabs are a case in point for this well-designed and constructed individuality. Hetherington interiors are also well designed and appointed with the modern design of large windows.
Murray D. Hetherington House, 8919 S. Hamilton Avenue, 1924, Murray D. Hetherington.
This is the second generation Beverly/Morgan Park architect’s house.
James Alex Brough House, 8929 S. Hamilton Avenue, 1927, Murray D. Hetherington.
J.A Brough House (above) is a stucco Spanish Revival house on a corner lot by Murray D. Hetherington in 1927. It sits across from the architect’s own home built in 1924.
8958 S. Hamilton Avenue, 1951, Joseph Emil Hosek.
Joseph E. Hosek (1907-1993) was based in the Chicago area who did buildings for various clients, primarily in southwestern Chicago and suburbs. This large Prairie-style multi-level home at 8958 S. Hamilton Avenue has 5-feet wide eaves and, in a nod to a popular post-war style, variegated facing stones.
Wood, stone and brick used by Joseph Emil Hosek for his house at 8958 S. Hamilton Avenue in Northern Beverly.
S.P. Balzekas House, 9000 S. Bell Avenue, 1935, William Sevic.
S.P. Balzekas House (above) is a stylish Prairie and Modernist mid1930’s house. William Sevic was an American architect, active in Illinois.
Garden, Beverly/Morgan Park.
William G. Ferguson House, 10934 S. Prospect Avenue, 1873, architect unknown.
Ingersoll-Blackwelder House, 10910 S. Prospect Avenue, 1874; and addition, 1887. Architect (s) unknown.
Luther S. Dickey, Jr. House, 10990 S. Prospect Avenue, 1912, Chatten & Hammond.
The L.S. Dickey, Jr. House is a successful example of the eclectic Arts & Crafts style. Seen here is its half-timbered double gable. Chatten & Hammond were a prolific architectural partnership. In 1907, Charles (C.) Herrick Hammond (1882–1969) formed a partnership with Melville Clarke Chatten, a firm that expanded to become Perkins, Chatten & Hammond in 1933. The partnership lasted until the early 1950s.
Dr. William H. German House, 10924 S. Prospect Avenue, 1884, Frederick G. German.
The Dr. W.H. German house is a catalog of the decorative power of wood sheathing, clapboards, patterned shingles, fretwood, and half timbers. Frederick G. German (1836-1937) was a Canadian-American architect with offices in the 1880s in Duluth, Minnesota.
Montague, M.L. (1901). Biographical Record of the Alumni and Non-Graduates of Amherst College (’72-’96) – The Third Quarter-Century. Amherst: Carpenter and Morehouse, Printers. p. 26.
Montague, M.L. (1901). Biographical Record of the Alumni and Non-Graduates of Amherst College (’72-’96) – The Third Quarter-Century. Amherst: Carpenter and Morehouse, Printers. p. 458.
FEATURE Image: Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, 1121 N. Leavitt, Chicago. The walls of the church building are load-bearing brick covered with stucco. The bell tower and octagonal belfry, dome, and roof are made of wood with metal trim and latticework. July 2015. Author’s photograph. 2.80 mb
Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral demonstrates how Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924), best known for his commercial architecture, adapted his design genius to a modest immigrant church, creating a distinctive synthesis of Russian provincial tradition, Eastern Orthodox worship, and Sullivan’s own ornamental imagination within Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.
Louis H. Sullivan designed the bell tower (above and below) with its ornamentation and eaves and soffits for Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.
how Louis Sullivan adapted traditional Russian architecture to create the bell tower of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral The octagonal open lantern where the bells hang is a classic feature of 17th-century Russian wooden architecture, traditionally referred to as an “octagon on a cube” (vosmerik na chetverike). Rising above the open belfry is a steep, grey-shingled tent-shaped roof. This architectural style was historically popular in Russia for its ability to keep heavy snow from piling up on church towers. The Wave-Like Roofline and slender window slats are Sullivanesque. Crowning both the main tent roof of the bell tower and the smaller side turret are brilliant golden onion domes. In Orthodox theology, the onion dome symbolizes a burning candle flame reaching up toward heaven.
Built in 1903 on a limited budget, the church is a relatively small structure whose architectural impact far exceeds its size.
Louis H. Sullivan designed the portal canopy (above) and its ornamentation such as the fretwork. Sullivan also designed the window frames (example below).
Louis H. Sullivan designed key architectural elements of the cathedral, including the bell tower, portal canopy, window frames, and decorative ornament.
Louis Sullivan’s genius directly merges with traditional Russian Orthodox geometry in this window, which serves a vital role in illuminating the church’s interior. The top of the window frame features a uniquely Sullivanesque, multi-tiered, stepped triangular pediment that beautifully complements the sharp lines of the building’s exterior roof eaves. Along the sides, the outer wooden posts feature finely routed parallel grooves and subtle decorative blocks. This style of ornamentation is a hallmark of Sullivan’s organic philosophy—using natural light and shifting shadows to give rigid wood components a rich, rhythmic texture.
Furthermore, each major pane of leaded glass features a complex geometric pattern centered on an octagon. While the octagon served as Sullivan’s favorite transitional shape to bridge the gap between square and circle, it simultaneously held a profound meaning for the Orthodox parish. This eight-pointed geometry carries a deep spiritual resonance, symbolizing the “Eighth Day” of creation (the eternal Kingdom of God) and echoing the architectural octagons found in the cathedral’s main dome and bell tower.
Holy Trinity Cathedral was built on a limited budget. It is a small building at 47 x 98 feet situated on an east-west axis. The main body of the church is square with extensions and an octagonal dome above. The picturesque country-church entrance has a metal and wood canopy whose design and ornamentation were created by the architect, Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924). Dedicated in 1903, the church was designated a cathedral in 1923.
Prominently featured in the foreground is a traditional Slavic-style wooden cutout Crucifixion scene, known as a Golgotha. Mounted inside an ornate white-and-gold carved wooden kiot (shrine framework) is a distinct icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The icons, the painted Golgotha cutout figures, and the surrounding sanctuary murals were painted by artist Genrik Borutsky and his workshop crew between 1902 and 1903.
This exterior view of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral captures the masterful architectural synthesis achieved by Louis Sullivan in 1903. Commissioned by 28-year-old Saint John Kochurov of Chicago in 1899, Sullivan deliberately blended traditional, rustic Russian provincial church aesthetics with modern American Prairie School and organic design principles.
Rather than grand stone or brick used in churches, Sullivan utilized a rough-textured stucco facade paired with heavy, natural wood ornamentation. Peeking out from the roofline on the left is the wooden octagonal lantern of the bell tower. Its open-air arched windows, multi-tiered flared roof profiles, and crowning golden onion dome are textbook elements of classical Russian Orthodox wooden church design. The deep, dramatic wooden overhang of the roofline supported by exposed structural wood rafters is a hallmark element of both Prairie School architecture. Above the two multi-paned windows are distinct, sharp triangular wooden pediments that are distinctively Sullivanesque. The building’s bell tower is organically shaped around the dome.
The church building was completed for around $27,000 in 1903 (approximately $1 million in 2022) with Sullivan donating half his commission to the church project.
Who is St. John of Chicago (1871-1917)?
After 12 years of fruitful missionary work in the American Midwest—where he helped establish several additional parishes and co-organized early Orthodox mutual aid societies—Father John returned to his native Russia in 1907.
In 1916, he was assigned to serve at St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo, a suburb of St. Petersburg. In October 1917, the violence of the Bolshevik Revolution erupted directly in his town. To ease panic, Father John organized an outdoor prayer procession through the streets, pleading for peace among the warring factions.
On October 31, 1917, Bolshevik forces stormed the town. Because he had prayed publicly for peace rather than endorsing the revolution, Father John was arrested by a Red Guard mob, dragged to the outskirts of town, and shot to death. This tragic event earned him the solemn historical distinction of becoming the proto-hieromartyr (the very first clergyman killed) of the Soviet era.He was officially canonized and glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in December 1994, and his memory is deeply celebrated every October 31st by Orthodox Christians globally, particularly at the cathedral he built in Chicago.
Historic photograph of the interior of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago, originally taken in 1905 by a photographer for the Chicago Daily News. The image captures a service in the cathedral shortly after its completion, with Saint John Kochurov likely visible leading the parish. Public Domain.
Same view over 110 years later. Chicago. Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral. October 2016. Author’s photograph. 6.95 mb
The Eastern Orthodox central plan creates an interior where the congregation stands in a square space topped by an octagonal dome. For Easter services and the like, the cathedral is filled to capacity with parishioners and others spilling out the front door with its decorative canopy onto the public sidewalk.
Painted by Genrik Borutsky between 1902 and 1903 during the initial interior decoration of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago this mural is an exact full-scale replica of the fresco “The Ecumenical Councils” designed by the legendary Russian master Viktor Vasnetsov between 1885 and 1896 for St. Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The mural depicts a grouping of the Great Church Fathers and Bishops of the Early Christian Church. In front of a Byzantine domed cathedral is, from left to right, Saint Athanasius the Great (c. 296–373), Patriarch of Alexandria; Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390), Theologian; Saint Basil the Great (c. 330–379), Archbishop of Caesarea; Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), Archbishop of Constantinople; Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–395) or Saint Cyril of Alexandria; and Saint Nicholas of Myra (c. 270–343).
The congregation was composed largely of immigrants from regions near present-day Ukraine and the Carpathian Mountains.
The parishioners that built this church were rural people who had emigrated from southern Russia near the Ukraine as well as the area of the Carpathian Mountains.
The photograph captures the sanctuary (altar area), the most sacred part of an Orthodox church, situated behind the iconostasis screen and accessible only to clergy.
• The Holy Table (Altar Table): In the foreground sits the square Holy Table, draped in bright red vestments and a gold liturgical stole (epitrachelion). Resting on top are liturgical items, including a heavy book of the Gospels and a hand cross.
• The Seven-Branch Candlestick: Positioned directly behind the Holy Table is an ornate, golden seven-branched candelabra modeled after a tree, flanked by hanging processional banners.
The murals along the curved apse wall represent the Great Hierarchs and Liturgists of the Church, rendered by Genrik Borutsky in 1902–1903 as exact copies of Viktor Vasnetsov’s masterpiece designs. Depicted, left to right, are Saint Gregory of Nazianzus; Saint Basil the Great; Saint John Chrysostom; and Saint Nicholas of Myra.
High above the central gold tabernacle structure is a separate, framed icon depicting the Holy Trinity (the Hospitality of Abraham).
The image depicts Saint Mary Magdalene, as indicated by the Church Slavonic inscription at the bottom: “СВ РАВНОАП МАРIЯ МАГДАЛИНА” (Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene). In the Orthodox tradition, her title “Equal-to-the-Apostles” highlights her vital role in proclaiming Christ’s resurrection to the disciples. She carries the alabaster jar she brought to the empty tomb to anoint Jesus’s body.
While the architectural structure of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago was designed by legendary architect Louis Sullivan, the church’s traditional interior iconography and stenciled murals were executed based on the work of famous Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov (V. N. Vasnetoff).
Vasnetsov was a leader of the 19th-century Russian revival movement, famed for blending historical Slavic folklore with classic Byzantine iconographic principles. The elaborate decorative borders, geometric framing, and gold accents wrapping around the pillar echo this late 19th-century style rather than Sullivan’s signature secular Art Nouveau ornamentation.
The stenciled artwork (above) is not by Louis H. Sullivan. Rather, the interior murals and iconographic schemes throughout the cathedral were executed by artist Genrik Borutsky and his team. Borutsky did not paint original compositions; instead, he meticulously painted full-scale copies of the monumental frescoes designed by legendary master Viktor Vasnetsov for St. Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine. Vasnetsov’s influential “Russian Revival” style defined late 19th-century Orthodox art by blending strict Byzantine iconographic rules with softer, emotional realist elements.
The two saints painted on this adjoining corner pillar are St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The church stands as one of Sullivan’s most unusual and personal works, distinct from the skyscrapers and commercial buildings that made him famous.
SOURCES:
Chicago Churches and Synagogues: An Architectural Pilgrimage, George Lane, S.J., and Algimantas Kezys, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1981, p. 106-107.
Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 260.
