Bryn Mawr Historic District

It was to see this mural "Growing 2008", that I took a trip to Bryn Mawr. I had no idea of it's "Historic District" status. However, the moment I got down from the CTA Red Line, I liked the place, especially it's small town feel. I took a lot of pictures of the mural, for which I was there and then a few pictures of some of the buildings that I liked. Coming back home I made a Google search of the place and found some interesting information..

Bryn Mawr Historic District
Wikipedia explains that Bryn Mawr is the Welsh for Big Hill.
Location: It extends along Bryn Mawr Avenue between Broadway Avenue and Sheridan Road ..
In 1995, it was declared a "Historic District" by the Chicago City Council due to the presence of several Chicago Landmark sites. [I dont know how far the use of the word "several" is justified, since I know of only two buildings designated as Chicago Landmarks] ..

View from the Bryn Mawr Avenue, from CTA Station [Red Line - Bryn Mawr]..

View from the Bryn Mawr Avenue from the CTA Station [Red Line - Bryn Mawr].. looking west ..

Belle Shore Apartment Hotel

Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel

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.
For more .. click here ..

Edgewater Presbyterian Church ..

Manor House..
Location: 1021-29 W Bryn Mawr
Completed: 1908
Designed by John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
It was also included as a part of the Bryn Mawr Historic District, which was added to the NRHP in 1995.

Redtwist Theater..

Illinois Akido Club Building..
Address: 1101-1105 W Bryn Mawr Avenue
Architect: Raymond Gregori
Completed: 1927
This three-story Byzantine Gothic building is constructed of red brick with white terra-cotta details.It has mansard red tile roof. The Akido Club replaced the earlier Guild Hall building, Edgewater's First Community Center, designed by architect Joseph L. Sillsbee in 1886. The Hall housed Cochran's real estate office, the first business to locate on Bryn Mawr.

Bryn Mawr Cafe..
Location: 5547 N Kenmore Avenue ..

Buildings I missed taking images of ..
# The Bryn Mawr Theater
# The Stoyas Building
# Edgewater Beach Apartments ..

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

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..

Bryn Mawr Historic District [Edgewater Presbyterian Church]

Edgewater Presbyterian Church..
Location: 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue..
At theintersection of Bryn Mawr Ave. and Kenmore Ave..
In the Bryn Mawr Historic District..
Completed: 1927
Designed by Perkins, Fellow and Hamilton.
Built in the Italian Romanesque style it has fire-proof reinforced concrete and Bedford stone. The facade of The New Community House features carvings by American sculptor Emil Zettler..

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

Historic Michigan Boulevard District

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Michigan Boulevard District ..
Address: Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street and 11th streets ..
Year Built: 1882 to 1930
Architect: Various
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: February 27, 2002 ..
Forty-five properties of the district are protected by the Landmark status.
Of these ..
- Five buildings are individually designated as official Chicago Landmarks ..
- Ten of the buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places ..
- One [the Auditorium Building] was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975 ..

The row of buildings on Michigan Avenue, between Randolph and 11th Street, is an intact collection of historic structures built before 1930 .. This 12-block stretch of buildings, all facing east towards Grant Park, has earned the named Michigan Avenue "streetwall" .. Other well-known one-sided streets New York City's Fifth Avenue and Edinburgh's Princes Street ..

In the words of Mayor Richard M. Daley ..
"No other street in the city reflects the beauty and evolution of Chicago more than Michigan Avenue. There isn't a more worthy and important landmark district in our city today .. This collection of buildings can be seen as one. Together, they make a district that is like no other in the world, one that is symbolic of the cultural, commercial and architectural heritage of Chicago."

Although the origin of Michigan Avenue as a streetwall facing Grant Park can be traced back dates back to 1836, when the city's first subdivision map labeled all land east of what was then called Michigan Boulevard as "public ground ... to remain forever open, clear and free." The importance of the legal battles of Aaron Montgomery Ward, cannot be ignored. Montgomery Ward opposed the development of Grant Park [then Lake Park] with public buildings with the exception of the Art Institute of Chicago Building. After prolonged legal battles, Ward's ideas were adopted by Daniel Burnham in his Plan of Chicago, which called for "insured light, air, and an agreeable outlook" along the Grant Park street frontage .. Till today, the only building on the eastern side of the Landmark Michigan Avenue District is the Art Institute of Chicago.

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# The five Chicago Landmarks in the district are ..
The Auditorium Building [designated in 1976], the Chicago Cultural Center [designated in 1976], the Fine Arts Building [designated in 1978], the Gage Group [designated in 1996], and the Blackstone Theater [designated in 1998] ..

# The ten buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places are ..
The Buckingham Building, The Blakstone Hotel, The Chicago Cultural Center, People's Gas Building, Lake View Building, Santa Fe Building, Auditorium Building, Gage Buildings, Fine Arts Building, and Crane Company Building ..

# One building was declared a National Historic Landmark ..
The Auditorium Building in 1975 ..

The Michigan Avenue Streetwall has some of the finest individual buildings of Chicago .. It has been said .. "as if some of the best of Chicago architecture gathered along the lakefront, and posed for a group photo." Many of these buildings were designed by Chicago's most important architects, including Adler & Sullivan, Louis Sullivan, D. H. Burnham, Holabird & Roche, Marshall & Fox, Henry Ives Cobb, S. S. Beman, and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White ..

Adler and Sullivan: Auditorium Building ..
Louis Sullivan: Gage Building at 18 South Michigan Avenue..
D.H.Burnham: Santa Fe Building, People's Gas Building..
Marshall & Fox: The Blackstone Hotel..
Henry Ives Cobb: Chicago Athelic Associatioan Building..
S.S. Beman: Fine Arts Building
Graham, Anderson, Probst & White: Metropolitan Tower..
Holabird & Roche: Chicago Hilton & Towers, McCormick Building, The University Club of Chicago, Congress Hotel Addition, 888 South Michigan, Gage Building [24 S and 30 S. Michigan ave.] buildings..

For more on..
# The five Chicago Landmarks in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..
# Developments around the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..

Historic Michigan Boulevard District - II

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Historic Michigan Boulevard District ..
Continued from part I on .. Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here ..

The five individual Chicago Landmarks in the Landmark Michigan Boulevard District are ..
The Auditorium Building [designated in 1976],
The Chicago Cultural Center [designated in 1976],
The Fine Arts Building [designated in 1978],
The Gage Group [designated in 1996] .. and ..
The Blackstone Theater [designated in 1998] ..

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Chicago Cultural Center ..
Address: 78 E. Washington St.
Year Built: 1897
Architect: Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 15, 1976 ..
This is the first permanent structure of the city's public library system .. The interior is extensively decorated with mosaics, marbles, bronze, and two stained-glass domes ..

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Gage Group Buildings ..
It includes three buildings ..
Address: 18, 24 and 30 S. Michigan Ave.
Year Built: 1899-1900
Architect: Louis H. Sullivan for 18 S. building .. and
Holabird & Roche for 24S and 30 S. buildings ..
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: September 11, 1996 ..
The facades, which resulted from Sullivan's collaboration with Holabird & Roche, demonstrate two different approaches to the Chicago School .. The buildings by Holabird & Roche are straightforward, while the facade designed by Sullivan exemplifies his more expressive approach.

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Fine Arts Building ..
Address: 410 S. Michigan Ave.
Year Built: 1885; addition and remodeling, 1898
Architect: Solon S. Beman
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: June 7, 1978
Originally built by the Studebaker company for the assembly and display of their carriages and wagons, this building was converted into studios and theaters for artists and craftsmen in 1898.

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Auditorium Building ..
Address: 430 S. Michigan Ave.
Year Built: 1886-90
Architect: Adler & Sullivan
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: September 15, 1976 ..
The extraordinary engineering talent of Dankmar Adler and the architectural genius of Louis H. Sullivan created this building to reflect the cultural maturity of Chicago ..

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Blackstone Hotel ..
Address: 636 S. Michigan Ave.
Year Built: 1908-10
Architect: Marshall & Fox
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: May 29, 1998 ..
Built by prominent hoteliers Tracy and John Drake, the Blackstone became known as the "Hotel of Presidents," serving as host to a dozen U.S. Presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy ..

The ten buildings in this Michigan Boulevard Landmark District are listed in the National Register of Historic Places are .. It includes the above five buildings .. and .. five more .. The Buckingham Building, People's Gas Building, Lake View Building, Santa Fe Building, and Crane Company Building ..

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Santa Fe Building ..
Address: 224 South Michigan Avenue
Year Built: 1904
Architect: D.H. Burnham & Co...
- Upon the completion of the building, architect Daniel H. Burnham moved his office here,
It was at the top of this building that the 1909 Plan of Chicago was drawn up
- It's the headquarters of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. A ground floor exhibit area is open to the public, and the foundation operates a gift shop and bookstore on the Michigan Avenue side.
- Chicago's largest architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is headquartered here.

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Peoples Gas Company Building ..
Location: 122 South Michigan Avenue
Completed: 1911
Architect: D.H. Burnham & Co ...
Built in standard three-piece skyscraper formation .. with a lot of classical embellishments like ornamental lions ..

For more on..
# Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..
# The five Chicago Landmarks in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..
# Developments around the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..

Michigan Boulevard District - III

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Historic Michigan Boulevard District ..
Continued from part I on .. Historic Michigan Boulevard District .. click here ..

This post is about developments that seem to undermine the beauty of this Streetwall district ..

There has been some controversy about the trend along the Michigan-Wabash corridor of constructing large-scale towers behind the historic structures. Examples include the The Heritage at Millennium Park, The Legacy at Millennium Park [within the Jewelers Row District] ..

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The Legacy at Millennium Park 

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 The Heritage at Millennium Park 

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The Chicago Athletic Association Building ..
Address: 12 South Michigan Avenue, IL 60603 ..
Architect: Henry Ives Cobb
Completed: 1893 ..
Architectural style: Venetian Gothic style, which is rare in Chicago .. It is exemplified with patterned brick and intricately carved limestone ..

Another controversy surrounds the Chicago Athletic Association Building closed its doors on August 31, 2007 .. There was a proposal to convert this building in a 300-room Omni hotel. This proposal was vehemently opposed by preservationists as it included proposals of new addition that would have risen above the original height of the building ... which would have "shatter the integrity of the Michigan Boulevard Historic District" .. However, with the recent slump in the economy and declining real estate value, the hotel conversion of the Chicago Athletic Association property does not seem to be feasible and the plan seems to have crashed .. The future preservation of this building still remains an unresolved issue.
For more on this issue .. click here .. "Foreclosure suit hits Chicago Athletic Assn. hotel conversion" ..

For more on..
# Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..
# The five Chicago Landmarks in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..
# Developments around the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here..

Old Chicago Water Tower District

Image I: Old Water Tower
Image II: Chicago Avenue Pumping Station
Image III: Chicago Fire Department, Fire Station No. 98..

Old Chicago Water Tower District..
Address: Michigan and Chicago Avenues ..
It includes three buildings:
# Old Water Tower..
Year built: 1869.. Architect: W. W. Boyington
# Michigan Avenue Pumping Station..
Year built: 1869.. Architect: W. W. Boyington
# Chicago Fire Department, Fire Station No. 98..
Year Built: 1904.. Architect: C. F. Hermann

- All the three structures are part of the Old Chicago Water Tower District, which has been designated a Chicago Landmark on October 6, 1971 [amended June 10, 1981]..
- The Water Tower and Pumping Station were jointly added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1975.
- The Water Tower was also named an American Water Landmark in 1969.

The Old Water Tower and Chicago Avenue Pumping Station are the only public buildings to survive in the area destroyed by the Fire of 1871. Both structures were designed in a castellated-Gothic Revival style.

For more on ..
# Old Water Tower.. click here..
# Michigan Avenue Pumping Station..click here..
# Chicago Fire Department, Fire Station No 98..

Old Water Tower

Old Water Tower..
Completed: 1869
Architect: W. W. Boyington..
Old Water Tower [as also Michigan Avenue Pumping Station] is one of the few buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

- The Old Water Tower is part of the Old Chicago Water Tower District, click here.. which has been designated a Chicago Landmark on October 6, 1971 [amended June 10, 1981]..
- The Water Tower and Pumping Station were jointly added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1975.
- The Water Tower was also named an American Water Landmark in 1969.

The Chicago landmarks website informs..click here..
The Water Tower was originally built to house a 138-foot standpipe, which became obsolete and was removed in 1911..



The plaque reads..
Old Water Tower..
This water tower completed in 1869, marks establishment of Chicago's second water works. Although most other buildings of pumping system were burned, it stands as a principal memorial of 1871's Great Fire.
Erected by Chicago's Charter Jubilee
Authenticated by Chicago Historical Society, 1937..



The plaque reads..
1869-1969
In this centennial the Chicago Water Tower has been designated the First American Water Landmark because of it's significance in the development of Chicago's water resources and it's symbolic identity with the "spirit of Chicago".
- Richard J. Daley, Mayor City of Chicago..



The plaque reads..
This tablet is erected in recognition of the outstanding services to the city of Chicago given by Dewitt Clinton Cregier
Engineer of Chicago Avenue Pumping Station: 1853-1879
City Engineer: 1879-1882
Commissioner of Public Works: 1882-1886
Mayor of Chicago: 1889-1891..



For more on ..
# Old Chicago Water Tower District.. click here..
# Old Water Tower.. click here..
# Michigan Avenue Pumping Station..click here..
# Chicago Fire Department, Fire Station No 98..