Friday, November 13, 2009

Bryn Mawr Historic District [Belle Shore and Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotels]


Both the Belle Shore Apartment Building, and the Bryn Mawr Apartment Building have been..
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 .. and ..
- Designated as Chicago Landmarks on January 20, 1999.





Belle Shore Apartment Hotels ..
Belle Shore Apartment Hotel
Architect: Nathaniel Koenigsberg & Leon Weisfeld ..
Year Built: 1928-1929
Address: 1062 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
In the Bryn Mawr Historic District..

The architects of the eight-story Belle Shore Apartment building were influenced by the Egyptian Art-Deco movement. King Tut’s tomb had been discovered only a few years before in 1922. It was built by Austrian-born businessman Max Malter, who named the building after his wife, Belle. It is constructed of reinfored concrete with tan brick and decorated in green-and-cream terra cotta and has many relief figures. The lobby has a mural with scenes from the Old Testament. It originally housed 138 one-room apartments and eight stores.


Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel..
Address: 5550 N. Kenmore Ave.
Year Built: 1927-1928
Architect: Alexander L. Levy & William J. Klein..

The 12-story Bryn Mawr Apartments is designed in the Gothic Revival style. An early advertisement read, “Modern in the finest sense of the word. All units have fully equipped kitchens. Low transient rates begin at $4.00 daily. One block to lake and bathing beach. Thirty minutes from Loop via subway or limited bus.”

The Official Chicago Landmark website describes ..
Situated across the street from each another, this pair of finely detailed buildings epitomize the rapid growth and expansion of Chicago in the 1920s and the commercial development of Bryn Mawr Avenue and the surrounding Edgewater community. The buildings' extensive use of terra cotta exemplifies Chicago's love affair with this versatile building material after the Great Fire of 1871, especially its decorative applications. The 12-story Bryn Mawr is dressed in white terra cotta designed in a late Gothic Revival style, while the 8-story Belle Shore is clad in rich green and cream terra cotta and features Egyptian-like Art Deco designs..

RELATED LINKS..
# Bryn Mawr Historic District
# Belle Shore & Bryn Mawr Apartment Buildings..
# Edgewater Presbyterian Church ..

REFERENCES:
# Belle Shore & Bryn Mawr Hotels..
# Chicago Landmarks - Bryn Mawr-Belle Shore Apartment Hotels..

3 comments:

Samuel John Lima said...

Yay!! I lived in the Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel for a while. I LOVED that neighborhood!

Jyoti said...

hey samuel!
Thanks for your comment.
Nice to know you lived there...
I really liked the neighborhood very much!!!

Genealogy Addict said...

My great grandmother lived at the Belle Shores Apartments from 1963 until her death in 1983