Trip 39: Washington Square, including a Private Tour

Date: June 15, 2010
Trip: 38
Landmarks Visited: 3
Landmarks To-Date: 74
Landmarks Remaining: 279

On Tuesday morning I played hooky from work for a little while and visited the Washington Square historic district. This was an unusual trip because I also got a private tour--my first for this project. The Newberry Library is a part of the Washington Square district. Someone at the library found my blog and asked me if they could link their local history blog to my blog. And offered me a tour of the library.

From Autumn, a research librarian, I learned that the Newberry is a private foundation that is open to the public. It's a research library with a focus on the humanities. I left with a library card and hope to find time to do some research at the Newberry for this blog.

Thanks again for the tour!

Washington Square itself is relatively small (especially by New York standards) but it is unusual for Chicago. It has a simple fountain in the middle with the Newberry Library to the north and the Scottish Rite Cathedral to the east. The 'extension' to the district includes a number of the last surviving early, post fire homes.




The Newberry Library

It was a difficult day to take photos because of bright sunshine. So the colors of the library are unfortunately washed-out in these photos. It's a much for beautiful building than these photos show.

Scottish Rite Cathedral

I read somewhere that the cathedral originally had matching steeples. A fire gutted the interior and destroyed the original steeples. Styles must have changed, and the church was re-built in its current configuration. Construction is going on around the church--condos I think.

I probably shouldn't call it a church. It was originally built for that purpose. But I think Scottish Rite is some sort of fraternal order that bought the build at some point.

Homes in and around the district:

Trip 38: Swedish American State Bank Building

Date: June 9, 2010
Trip: 38
Landmarks Visited: 1
Landmarks To-Date: 71
Landmarks Remaining: 282

On a chilly spring morning I drove to Andersonville on the way to work. It's Chicago's historically Swedish neighborhood, and home to the Swedish American State Bank Building. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the building is that the entire facade is ceramic tile. There are a lot of brick buildings in Chicago with ceramic tile accents, but this is the first I've seen with the entire building covered from the peak to the ground with large ceramic tiles. It also has large arched windows.

The building now houses a Hamburger Mary's restaurant. I've eaten at the restaurant with my brother Jeff and his wife Kathy, and I've been to a chamber event in the second floor party room. It's an impressive room with a vaulted ceiling. I wondered at the time if it was originally the board room for the bank.

Trip 37: A Rain-Shortened, North Side Bike Ride

Date: June 6, 2010
Trip: 37
Landmarks Visited: 5
Landmarks To-Date: 70
Landmarks Remaining: 283

On Sunday I had big plans for a leisurely bike ride to see 10 to 15 north side landmarks. But nature didn't cooperate. The ride started out with sun glare making it difficult to get good photos, but quickly turned into cold rain. It was still worth it to see a couple buildings that I had never seen. This trip was all about buildings that you might not notice if you weren't looking for them specifically.

The Gauler Twin Houses are two side by side Prairie Style houses on a quiet residential street in Andersonville. I think the name is a little of a misnomer because they are really mirror image houses or right-handed and left-handed houses. It's nice that the owner or owners have kept them matching with even the same color exterior paint.

The Rosehill Cemetery Entrance is a Gothic castle looking gateway to the cemetery. Today there is a raised train track that runs in front of the entrance and blocks your view of the gateway until you pass through the underpass below the tracks. It makes the gateway kind of surprising when you first see it. On the other side of the tracks is a quiet neighborhood.

I visited this cemetery once before with Shawn, my brother Jeff and his wife Kathy on a Memorial Day. It was much wamer that day than the day I re-visited to take these photos.

The cemetery itself has some interesting grave makers, but is not as impressive as Graceland Cemetery. (That's a teaser to an upcoming trip to Graceland which is also on the landmarks list.)

The Carl Sandburg House was probably landmarked more for its historical significance (according to Wikipedia, Sandburg rented a room in the house for 3 years and wrote the poem "Chicago" there) than for its architectural significance. It's a relatively large, three story frame house. It appears to still be a private home.

The Dr. Wallace C. Abbott House is a larger, more luxurious home less than a block from the Sandburg house. I would say it's Victorian in design, and with the large porch makes me think of the houses on the shore in Cape May, New Jersey. The sign you see you in one of the photos is a for sale sign, so this home could be yours.

Kitty corner to the Abbott house on Hermitage Avenue is the All Saints Church and Rectory. The plaque says that the church is a rare local example of the Stick Style. It does look more like a country church than an urban church, but then it was built when the Ravenswood neighborhood was still a separate town from Chicago.

The church building needs work--from peeling paint and cracking plaster to missing boards. I don't know if the congregation is running short on funds or if they are just waiting for a major renovation effort at some point.