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September 16, 2009

Three Wright homes and North Shore home from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' named to landmarks group's Chicago-area watch list

Rosehouse By Bob Goldsborough
Special to the Tribune 
A Highland Park home and pavilion (left) made famous in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," three Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses and an historic district of homes in Wheaton considered one of the nation's first golf club communities were named today as among the Chicago area's most endangered places by the nonprofit Landmarks Illinois preservation group.

The buildings are part of Landmarks Illinois' eighth annual list of what it deems significant historical buildings or collections of buildings in danger of demolition or substantial alteration.  Although no funding comes with the designation, Landmarks Illinois' annual list is designed to educate the public and spur action.
Other structures on the list include the South Side Masonic Temple in Chicago, a streetscape of commercial buildings owned by Children's Memorial Hospital at the corner of Lincoln and Fullerton Avenues on the North Side, the former Libertyville Township High School in Libertyville, the 1875 Cornelius Field House in Highland Park, the Church of the Resurrection in West Chicago and Alden Road, a historic two-lane road in western McHenry County.

Wright The Wright-designed houses are the J.J. Walser house in Chicago's Austin neighborhood (left), the William F. Ross house in Glencoe and the William J. VanderKloot bungalow in Lake Bluff.

Built from 1952 until 1954 and designed by architect A. James Speyer, the Highland Park home and pavilion that appeared in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" currently is for sale for $2.3 million.  It is at risk of being torn down, Landmarks officials say, because several inquiries have been made regarding the demolition of the house and a possible lot split.

The golf club community in Wheaton known as "the Colony" was designed by architect Jarvis Hunt (below). The district encompasses 18 houses on all sides of the Chicago Golf Club, which is the nation's oldest 18-hole golf club.

Built between 1896 and 1916,  the homes mainly were constructed as summer residences for Chicago businessmen. They deliberately located their club near the planned right-of-way of the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago electrical railroad, which opened in 1902 ,and erected a small brick depot across Warrenville Road from the club in 1910.

The early Colony inhabitants were motivated by a desire to be superior to their East Coast counterparts, said Chip Krueger,  Wheaton Center for History board member who has studied the homes extensively.  They attempted to make the Chicago Golf Club's course the finest one in the country and wanted the houses to be at least among the nicest ones in the Midwest, if not the nation, he said.

Wheaton "The Wheaton Colony is a significant and very interesting part of Chicago and Wheaton history that has been largely forgotten," Krueger said.  "The Colony really stemmed from the ideas and concepts that came out of the Columbian Exposition in 1893, and was the implementation of many of those ideas."

Architect Hunt (1863-1941) first moved to Chicago in the early 1890s to design his native Vermont's state building at the Columbian Exposition. He constructed his own summer residence on land just east of Chicago Golf in 1898 and sold it in 1934. The house was razed in 1984.

Later converted to year-round residences, the Colony houses in Wheaton are on Golf Lane, Hawthorne Lane, Plamondon Road, Arbor Avenue and Roosevelt Road. 

"While there are common themes in the architecture, there's a lot of diversity in the architectural styles as well, and that's typical for Jarvis Hunt," Krueger said.

To read more about the properties on Landmarks Illinois' Chicagoland Watch List, and for additional images, click on this link.





And yet again, the loony preservationists want to save buildings that have outlived their usefulness!
This time it's at Lincoln/Fullerton.
The most ridiculous of them, the Martha Wilson Memorial is a type of building that no one is goofy enough to build anymore, a memorial to someone that no one has ever heard of. Just a rich family's folly to a dead relative!
Looks like a mausoleum on the outside & a large space inside, for what, damned if I know what for as her body obviously isn't in it! Are we supposed to mourn for a person we never heard of, whose sole, dubious claim to fame was dying, probably young?
The Wilsons should have just built her a grand tomb at Graceland Cemetery & be done with it!

Architect David Haid, a Mies van der Rohe disciple, designed the car pavilion in 1974.

Join YoChicago for a video walk around the Ravine Bluffs subdivison by Wright. The background noise in the video is the 17-year cicadas.


You're the real loony, Garry. The Martha Wilson Memorial was built as a *hospital*, named in honor of someone. Kind of like how Children's Memorial isn't just a memorial to children. You think rich people should just build grand tombs for themselves instead of donating wings to hospitals, like they still do now? It's no folly. That's why those pictures show people going in and out of it. This building could easily be converted into luxury condos. Hardly outlived its use. Have you ever seen a mausoleum? And if you think memorials are so useless, should we take down the Elks Memorial at Diversey and Lincoln Park?

Outlived their usefulness? "All of the buildings are currently occupied and in fair to good condition." The threat is in Children's moving and opening its properties up for large-scale redevelopment. These buildings are perfectly reusable - do you know of a lot of vacant retail/apartment space on Lincoln Avenue? By singling out the terra cotta buildings, old brick hospital buildings, and the two other retail buildings, the preservationists are clearly admitting that most of Children's campus isn't worth saving and is ripe for redevelopment.

Martha Wilson's "sole, dubious claim to fame was dying, possibly young?"

Martha Wilson was a philanthropist who left 2/3 of her estate, $400,000 dollars (in 1924 money) to Children's.

"Next Saturday and Sunday will be dedicated by the committees in charge of the Children's Memorial hospital to the formal opening of the Martha Wilson Memorial pavilion, which will house the administrative offices, the dining rooms, and kitchens and sixteen well equipped rooms for paid patients, two operating rooms, and commodious quarters on the top floor, in an open solarium for the heliotherapy department. This latter is a sun cure department, a feature that is of increasing importance in our modern therapy. Up to now that remarkably up to date institution, the Children's Memorial hospital, has had no ward for pay patients, and the rich little sick child had no place especially dedicated to children wherein to find a shelter in time of need; that is, when delicate operations became necessary or special treatment that demanded the resources of a well equipped hospital. [because until then the hospital could not admit pay patients]

A remarkable young woman was Miss Martha Wilson, daughter of that distinguished lawyer, the late John P. Wilson. Of great ability and fine ideals, she presented a vision of high courage and gallant self-sacrifice to those who knew under what a terrible burden she labored the last few years of her all too short life, when, knowing well that she was hastening the end by working for the hospital, she nevertheless kept on to the very last in her self-appointed task. From 1902 until her death on Christmas day, 1923, she served on the woman's board of the hospital, beginning as a member and ending as its president. She bequeathed a legacy amply sufficient to accomplish its mission. As long as this great institution shall endure the name of Martha Wilson will be associated with it and its work." -Chicago Tribune, October 24, 1926

How many children's lives will your legacy save?

Oh gee, a flack from Children's is attacking me for what I wrote.
Her good works are so famous that nobody today [outside of a Children's flack] has the faintest idea who she was!
After all, who else would still have the press release that the Trib reprinted, word for word after 83 years?
And the rooms in it were for paid patients, not the horrible street urchins that the hospital had been treating. And it had "commodious quarters on the top floor, in an open solarium for the heliotherapy department. This latter is a sun cure department, a feature that is of increasing importance in our modern therapy."
Isn't that special? NOT!
As for "All of the buildings are currently occupied and in fair to good condition.", that's what the loony preservationists always say. And even if it's in "fair to good condition." it doesn't mean it can be reused. Or at a reasonable price!

Plus of course Children's shouldn't be moving to Streeterville, it should be moving to a location next to an L station, but then there aren't any locations next to L stations in a fancy, shmancy neighborhood like Streeterville. And the rich idiots who just love to give money to have hospital buildings named after them won't like having to hold that gold plated shovel while an L train clatters by. And while they give big bucks to put up the buildings, they never give a dime to pay for the services rendered to the overwhelmingly poor that can't afford the hospital. But then you can't tattoo the rich idiots name on the forehead of a child & have it say "XXX paid for Anela's kidney transplant", can you?

And I'm so impressed by your nom de internet, it's so original!
And the Elks Memorial wasn't useless until the Elks fenced it off so the skateboarders couldn't use the steps anymore.
Yeah, I know, that was nasty.
It's a memorial to the Elks that died in the Great War, & I really do thank & honor their & anyone else's service, but it's just a building that virtually nobody goes to & hasn't gone to in decades except for the Elks employees in the office buildings next door.

Lots of buildings outlive their usefulness & the Wilson is one of them.
Then they're torn down.
Get over it!

Who would have the Tribune, word for word? Anyone with a chicago public library card. It's all online (get a clue.). I'm not with children's, nor any other organization. What would children's care? They're trying to SELL it. If they wanted to make sure it's not torn down, they could. I'm just a guy who knows how to make an informed argument, who are you?

Martha Wilson isn't at issue here, that's not why they are arguing to save the building, it's that it's good architecture. I'm just telling you who the person is who you're saying did nothing worthwhile and telling you that, yes, it isn't just an empty memorial, it's a hospital building named for someone. But since you don't seem to comprehend so well, "From 1902 until her death on Christmas day, 1923, she served on the woman's board of the hospital, beginning as a member and ending as its president." That doesn't mean she just donated 2/3 of her estate, it means it was ongoing support, which is true of most donors. Ongoing donations to sustain the organization, culminating in a big gift.

How can you say it outlived its usefulness if you didn't even know what it was used for, much less its condition or suitability for reuse? Hospitals are easy reuses, their floor plates are mostly the same as apartment buildings. Lots of light, people like that in their apartments and condos. Elevators.


Really? What about the other buildings in this exact watch list that say they aren't occupied or in good condition, like the Wright houses?

I've been reading this blog since it started and you have something to complain about every time a preservation issue comes up. Did a preservationist steal your girlfriend or something? Or do you own a landfill?

Calling preservationists loony is redundant. You can just call them preservationinsts.

Get a clue,
The building is available for purchase at fair market value. What is it about that that you don't understand?
The favorite card in the preservationist deck is the GREED card. Any property owner that questions the extremism of a preservationist is instantly labeld GREEDY. Preservationists refuse to purchase the property for what it's worth, and instead lobby to permanently encumber it with diminished rights. Yet, the money raised by its sale would fund the operations of a charitable not-for-profit hospital. If the hospital can't get what the property is worth, could be that little Tommy won't get the life saving transplant that he needs. So which is the truly GREEDY party?

Wrong, wrong, you need to get a clue!
Ancient hospitals are not easy reuses!
Most were built for such specific purposes that reuse is absurd.
And which is it? You went to the library & went online to find that press release or you did it from home or the office? If went to the library to do so, then you're seriously disturbed to waste that effort.

As to why I hate preservationists, part of it is their greed. They have gotten tax breaks for property & I & others have to make up the difference!
Then there is the insanity & idiocy of so many buildings & structures they want to save!
Like the Z Frank sign at Peterson & Western. Z Frank Chevy thought so little of it they didn't bother to move it when they moved the dealership.
Or the regular stupidity of the morons that own the Farnsworth House which gets flooded on almost a annual basis! There is a simple solution, raise the damn house! Or are you forgetting that Chicago itself was raised up to stop flooding in the mid 19th Century?
I also am old enough to remember the millionaires that didn't want the old 900 N. Michigan Bldg torn down for Bloomingdale's. The millionaires, some of whom lived in the apartments above could have easily gotten together & bought the old building, but didn't.
Because they would have had to spend their own money & millionaires never do that, they want us to spend our money to benefit them!
Essentially, the loony preservationists are the equivalent of the equally insane crackpots at PETA!
But then, I belong to a different PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals!

If this building or any of the other buildings on that list is what you want saved,
But don't ask me or the taxpayers to fund any of it, through TIFs or tax breaks!

So I agree with pk, you're all greedy.

And I forgot:
Sell the buildings & Children's can establish the Martha Wilson Fund for treating children.
Because when Children's moves out, her name permanently disappears from the hospital & you seem to be the only one to worship her memory.
Because Ann Lurie ain't gonna allow any other woman's name on what's now HER hospital!
Even if she died 83 years ago!
No way, now how!

Wow. People really should read these comments so they don't forget how much hate, ignorance, and intolerance exists in the world. It's amazing how angry this Garry person is at preservationists - an entire profession consisting of thousands of people worldwide. At least these people have a Cause, same as PETA, regardless of public opinion they are fighting for something. Garry's only Cause is to sit on the computer all day and hate on people that he doesn't even know.

Preservationist is not a profession, however I agree that they have much in common with PETA.

No M, my cause is to expose foolishness!
And preservationists for some idiotic reason always & I do mean always manage to destroy their own cause by including something that doesn't warrant saving.
And they always want the taxpayers to fund their cause.
Or in the case of the Farnsworth House, which is worth saving, continue to allow it to get flooded & wrecked every couple of years because they keep dithering over whether it should be raised up or not.

In case you forgot, intelligent preservationists from all over the world [there actually are some] managed to figure out a way to save the ancient statues of Abu Simbel from the lake created by the Aswan Dam!

But then they had a tremendous advantage, no one from Landmarks Illinois was in that group.

Dontcha just love the way Garry and pk troll a historic preservation area! These two are a hoot.

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