|
The
House c.1892
|
The Charnley
House is situated on "...part of Lot 35 in John Jacob Astor's
addition to Chicago being a Subdivision of part of the N.W.
fractional 1/4 of Section 3, Township 39, North, Range 14."
The property
was purchased by James A. and Helen Charnley from Louise S. Long
on February 12, 1890. In 1891, Charnley commissioned a residential
design from the firm of his good friend Louis Sullivan. Frank
Lloyd Wright was the chief draftsman at Adler and Sullivan at
the time, and is recognized as the principal designer of the house.
Later, Wright claimed to have been the sole author of this "first
modern building," although some Sullivanesque elements seem
to dispute this. The house was completed in 1892.
Attorney
Redmond Stephens purchased the house from the Charnleys on November
3, 1911. He then sold the house to real estate executive James
B. Waller on August 8, 1918. In the 1920s, there was a three-story
addition to the south face. The property passed to Waller's
son, James B. III, who owned it until 1941, and then Nettie
J. Waller.
The Chicago
City Council designated the house as a Chicago Landmark on August
30, 1973. In April 1975, the House was added to the National
Register of Historic Places.
Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill Foundation purchased the house in 1986 for
its headquarters which it shared with the Chicago Institute
for Architecture and Urbanism. In 1988 the building was restored,
and the three-story extension was removed. In 1995, the Society
of Architectural Historians received the house through the
benefaction of Seymour H. Persky and now uses it as their headquarters.
In May,
1998, the house was a semifinalist for national landmark status.
|
