Happy New Year

Happy New Year, sorry for my dearth of postings in December and so far in the New Year. I've been gradually catching up with some incomplete postings from last year (see the Courtyards de Luxe for instance). However, I have been taking new photos and up to have some interesting postings up for you in the very near future, so soon as now (this posting) and as soon as today for some others.

And I'll leave you with a springy shot of a gothick building....

Springfield, Springfield

No, nope, sorry. I'm sorry, no, it's not a Simpson's Tribute, and nope, sorry, it's not a Governator Blowdryavitch posting, it's Springfield, Mass! Yes, in Springfield Massachusetts, this lovely ten-family building was built in the early years of the last century. It has quite a lot in common with our humble high-class six-flat planwise, but with the addition of two floors and an additional luxury, a lift. With the elevator, it really breaks with our local building tradition, however, it does make for a rather luxurious building, which is, in fact, what this was intended to be.

Despite this, it was built quite economically, with, and I quote "less than $200 worth of stone in the whole front". However, it also featured an incinerator connected to the provision of domestic hot water and heating via the boiler. The intent was to give a comfortable and home-like appearance, rather along the order of the Arts and Crafts movement, albeit with a dash of New England thrift and dosh of Yankee practicality, one would imagine, being in an industrial town (I believe, they call themselves a city). In fact, it was, it appears, to have been a great success, with the average local rent being $6.50 a room, while this fine building garnered $10/room.

As you can see from the plan, there were a few units with a slightly different plan, intended for smaller families. Closets were ample for the time and the finishes were of great quality, while not ostentatious and good provision was made for service staff as well, in a maid's room.

The information came from The Architectural Record, however, unfortunately, I cannot recall the issue or year, as it was not on the pages these came from. The architects were a local firm called Huestis & Huestis and the builder was a local of the name Russell C. Parsons.


December 4, 2018

So, an update after, what four years or so? According to Google Streeview this delightful building is currently abandoned and boarded up. Anybody out east have any information? 

It's located at Six Corners, 184 Maple Street. 

Viking Apartments

Continuing on our Wisconsin themed posts (you did know, didn't you, that we had this theme going?), I present here, the patented plans of the Viking Apartments in Milwaukee by one Herbert W. Tullgren in 1931. Yes, I did say patented, U.S. Patent # 1,896,734. His plan, used several times in Milwaukee, features a skip-stop elevator set-up with duplex or maisonette units, with the elevator stopping only at the living room floors. While I'm not a big fan of design patents, I do find it rather interesting that he did so. Unfortunately this set-up is not very common in the US due to our, perhaps admittedly over-stringent fire codes and overly paranoid and litigious society, however it works quite well for creating a house like, even exclusive feel to what would otherwise be an ordinary apartment, as well as saving money on construction by having fewer elevator doors and creating more rentable, leaseable and saleble space within the building, or by allowing more, larger units with fewer elevators (the other solution for large elevator apartments would be more elevators with smaller lobbies). It is also an attractive simple art deco or moderne building of white masonry construction.
As a sidenote or aside, the building is on the National Register for it's contribution to it's local area.

Out of town two flat

Here's an adorable two-flat, set of two-flats, actually, from a quick trip to Racine last weekend. Those wide bays, mission arches on the parapet wall and two entrances, each entry seems to have it's own porch, all add up to a nice change from the densely packed Chicago two-flat. I'd love to see inside, I'd hope they are as substantial inside as they look to be from outside.

Do blondes have more fun?

Do blondes really have more fun? Certainly, in Chicago, it would seem that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - just look at all of the Sarah Siddons that Caro... Oh, sorry, wrong blog, but yes, Chicago IS a blond brick city, just look at all the examples of it, from the humble bungalow, to six flats, to courtyard buildings to Pei Ieoh Ming's rowhouse (or townhouses if you prefer) in Hyde Park with several hundred thousand tri-levels in between.
Blond brick is omnipresent, though it seems to be concentrated when it appears. Here is a yellowish tinge in Edgewater.
An early example in Ravenswood, with wonderful cornices.A more formal example along the north lakefront.A mid-rise example.

And since blondes have more fun, I'll leave you with some examples of fun blond brick entryways from the Farwell Avenue Corridor. I would say that certain gentlemen did prefer blond, the builders of these buildings, that is.
Cos' I'm a blond,yeah yeah yeah, don't you with you were me, b.l.a.n.d.e., oh I don't know.... I really shouldn't write these posts late at night...

Farwell Corridor

This posting is about the Farwell Corridor, as I term it (which also includes Morse, but that's neither here nor there), in West Rogers Park (or West Ridge, if you really, really prefer). This short stretch features a treasure trove of high class apartments (as well as some newer, somewhat interesting higher density housing) from Tudor to Art Deco and between.
It features everything from two and three flats to...
Courtyard buildings.
With Tudor-Gothick facades.
It features from truly grand de Luxe three-flats with impressive facades.
Which feature elegant facades with generous sizes, which must have large sized rooms.
As well as some truly massive six-flats.
With incredibly rich and varied facades.
From Neo-Classical to Tudor/Gothick to nearly Art Deco.
To imposingly massive...
I suspect that some of this development was due to proximity to good transport, both streetcar (along Western Avenue) and heavy rail (currently, today's Metra), as well as a combination of zoning and speculation. These really are good examples of some of the best of Chicago's residential architecture of the era, and even of American residential design of the era. There was also the convenience of proximity to a large park nearby.

Six-Flats deLuxe

Even though the humble six-flat is the workhouse of family apartment housing, they are sometimes elevated to something more, which I call the six-flat deLuxe which can be found in middle-class areas, and more especially upper-middle and upper class areas which fairly high densities, such as Lake View or Hyde Park.
Here we have an early example from the south side's grand boulevard, Hyde Park Boulevard, where many high class buildings were built as "exposition" buildings for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. This building appears to have one of the finest features of the de luxe building, which is side by side living and dining rooms, rather than having the dining room at the rear, either in front of the kitchen or facing the rear at the end of a long corridor.
Here we have another six-flat, but this time with a conventional layout, with the dining room at the end of a long, winding and twsiting hall in front of the kitchen, maids room and butlers pantry. This ordinary exterior belies it's interior, which hides two light wells, linen room and cedar room (NOT closets, but rooms), multiple bathrooms and luxury features.
Here we have a red brick entry with elegant features and sparse details.
And another similar example. Some buildings have another version of the front dining room plan, which places the dining room behind the living room besides the front hall, with the foyer or entry hall next behind the living room and the kitchen next to the front stairs which open front-wards onto the entrance hall and posess three staircases, two service and one main, as opposed to the standard rear kitchen layout, which has two sets of stairs.
Here with have another example of a side-by-side living room and dining room building, which has, if you look carefully to the right, where you can see, side porches and service stairs.
Our last building also features in the 20's variants, which four examples fall into, however with a more conventional plan, dressed up in a tudor or gothick facade. I hope you've enjoyed out little tour of six-flats de Luxe, of which I shall be getting some plans up and posted soon as well, to better explain the three basic layouts.