Glessner House Museum
The Neighborhood
Glessner House is located at the corner of 18th Street and South Prairie Avenue. Prairie Avenue, once known as "millionaires' row" declined in the early 1900s as a residential area due to its proximity to the growing downtown and the push of the printing, publishing and automibile industries into the area. The Prairie Avenue Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was designated a City of Chicago Landmark District in 1979.
Want to explore Prairie Avenue on your own? Look on the Tours page to download a self-guided tour of the street.
Want to read more about Prairie Avenue? Visit our newsletter archives here.
Watch a segment of Now. Chicago about the South Loop from the WCIU archives which features Bill Tyre, Executive Director and Curator of the Glessner House Museum, talking about the history of Prairie Avenue. Original air date November 20, 2010. Click here.
BEGINNINGS 1812-1871
The history of this area has been closely linked to that of the City of Chicago for nearly two hundred years. On August 15, 1812, during the war with Great Britain, a band of 95 soldiers and civilians were ordered to evacuate Fort Dearborn for the safety of Fort Wayne in Indiana. Upon reaching the area in the general vicinity of 18th Street and Prairie Avenue, the band was attacked by Native Americans sympathetic to the British. Over 50 members of the party perished in the brief battle, which became known as the Fort Dearborn massacre. The bodies of those killed laid undisturbed for four years until the fort was rebuilt in 1816. A stately cottonwood tree marked the site for over 100 years, making it Chicago’s first true landmark. After it died in 1893, the tree was replaced by a bronze statue commissioned by George Pullman. Today, the event is viewed with the understanding of the Native Americans’ struggle to hold onto their lands, and the term ‘massacre’ is used only in its historical context.
In 1834, Elijah D. Harmon purchased a 138-acre tract of land bounded by present day 16th Street, Cermak Road, State Street and Lake Michigan. Soon after, he sold a 20-acre parcel to Henry B. Clarke, who completed his Greek Revival home in 1836 in what is now the 1600 block of Michigan Ave. Having been moved twice, it survives as Chicago ’s oldest house. In the early 1850s the area was subdivided, and in 1853 the first house on Prairie Avenue was completed for John Staples. Additional houses were built over the next decade, with building activity increasing dramatically after the close of the Civil War. In 1870, Daniel Thompson built the first $100,000 house on the South Side at 1936 S. Prairie Ave. George Pullman and Marshall Field both acquired property on the street and announced plans to build, firmly establishing Prairie Avenue as Chicago ’s premier residential street. The Chicago Fire of 1871 bypassed the area; burned out of their homes elsewhere in the city, other business and civic leaders soon purchased lots and built in the neighborhood.
GLORY DAYS 1872-1904
When Philip Armour joined Field and Pullman on the street in 1877, Chicago’s three wealthiest citizens living within a four-block stretch of Prairie Avenue. Leading architects were engaged to design elegant free-standing and attached houses on Prairie and Calumet avenues in a variety of styles, the most popular being the Second Empire with its steeply-pitched mansard roof. Richard Morris Hunt of New York and Henry Hobson Richardson of Boston were engaged to design the Marshall Field and John J. Glessner houses, respectively. However, most residents engaged local architects, including Cobb & Frost, Treat & Foltz, Solon S. Beman, John Van Osdel, Francis Whitehouse, and William LeBaron Jenney. Burnham & Root received nearly a dozen commissions on the street, beginning with the John Sherman house at 2100 S. Prairie. The neighborhood became the center of the social and cultural life in the city, with lavish dinners and balls announced regularly in the society pages. By the time of the Columbian Exposition in 1893, Prairie Avenue was touted as one of the must-see sites in Chicago. A guidebook issued by Rand McNally & Co. shortly thereafter proclaimed, “That remarkable street is home to merchants whose business affects every mart on the earth…and who possess wealth that at last aroused the jealousy of New York.” By the turn of the century, however, social and economic forces were in place that would send the neighborhood into a steady decline, and the last new house on the street for nearly a century was built in 1904.
DECLINE 1905-1965
The close proximity of the neighborhood to downtown, originally an asset, was the major factor in its decline. Increased noise and pollution from adjacent transportation routes and the spread of businesses south from the Loop quickly made the area a less desirable place in which to live. At the same time, new residential areas including the Gold Coast and suburban communities along the North Shore were luring residents away, especially children raised on the street who were now starting families of their own. Large commercial buildings began replacing homes as early as 1905 with the first two appearing on Indiana Avenue. The houses themselves were considered old-fashioned and outdated; many were soon converted to non-residential use. By 1910, a medical school and a clinic for the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction were in operation on the street. Other houses were adapted for use as offices for the publishing and printing industries or converted to boarding houses. The R. R. Donnelley & Sons printing plant, designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw, was begun in 1912 on Calumet. In 1915, the Hump Hairpin Mfg. Co. factory became the first to replace a residence on Prairie. The automobile industry firmly established itself along Michigan Avenue, with over 100 showrooms rapidly transforming the residential street. Only a handful of residents remained by the 1930s, and the very last resident, Addie Hibbard Gregory, abandoned Prairie Avenue in 1944. Eventually, all but eleven houses in the entire area were razed.
REBIRTH 1966-present
In 1966, a group of preservationists banded together to purchase the Glessners’ house, which was threatened with demolition. This effort created a renewed appreciation of the neighborhood and served as an important catalyst in the citywide preservation movement. When three neighboring houses were demolished within the next few years, discussions began over bringing formal recognition and protection to the remaining eight houses on Prairie Avenue. In 1973, the City of Chicago announced plans to create an historic district with a restored 1890s streetscape and the addition of the Henry B. Clarke house, which was relocated to the 1800 block of Indiana.
The Prairie Avenue Historic District was designated in 1979 and includes five houses on the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Prairie Avenue along with three rowhouses on Cullerton. Clarke House Museum, individually designated as a landmark, opened in 1982 following an extensive restoration. The opening of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in 1996 and the Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens in 2000 brought additional cultural offerings to the area.
In the early 1990s, businesses began moving out and several loft buildings underwent residential conversion. The first to be converted was the Eastman Kodak Co. building at 1721 S. Indiana in 1993; six years later, the Hump Hairpin Mfg. Co. building was demolished and replaced with a townhouse development, the first new residential construction on Prairie Avenue in 95 years. A strong housing market has resulted in numerous additional residential developments, ranging from loft conversions to condominium towers.
Lost Houses of Prairie Avenue
John G. Shortall/ Robert B. Gregory, 1638 S. Prairie Built 1868 John W. Roberts, architect
Originally built for abstract firm owner John G. Shortall, whose family lived on the street for four generations. For over sixty years, this was the residence of Addie (Hibbard) Gregory, who chronicled her life on the street in A Great-Grandmother Remembers in 1940. Her husband served as president of Lyon & Healy. Razed 1944.
William G. Hibbard, 1701 S. Prairie Built 1869 William Le Baron Jenney, architect
Hibbard was president of a large wholesale firm, Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. In 1921, the house was purchased by the American Terra Cotta & Ceramic Co., which provided free office space to architect Louis Sullivan, until his death in 1924. Razed 1932.
Glessner Townhouses, 1700 and 1706 S. Prairie Built 1902 Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, architects
John Glessner commissioned mirror-image, Georgian-style townhouses for his children. Razed 1954.
Wirt Dexter, 1721 S. Prairie Built 1863 Architect unknown
This large frame home with cupola was among the earliest on the street, and received a Federal style addition to the front in 1889, designed by Boston architect Arthur Little. Razed 1927.
George M. Pullman, 1729 S. Prairie Built 1870-1876 Henry S. Jaffray, architect
One of the grandest homes on the street, the residence featured a 200-seat theatre, pipe organ, and bowling alley. Late additions by architect Solon S. Beman (who designed the town of Pullman) included a palm room and a large conservatory and park across 18th Street along Calumet. Razed 1922.
John W. Doane, 1827 S. Prairie Built 1882 Theodore v. Wadskier, architect
One of the grandest houses on the street, featuring stained glass windows by John La Farge, chief rival to Louis Tiffany. Doan was a founder of the Western Edison Light company, and his residence was the first in Chicago to be illuminated by electric lights. Razed 1936.
Fernando Jones, 1834 S. Prairie Built 1866 John M. Van Osdel, architect
Built for one of Chicago’s pioneers, whose residency extended back to the days of the Potawatomi Indians. In 1886, the Italianate residence received a mansard addition to bring it into fashion with many of its neighbors. Razed 1942.
Marshall Field, 1905 S. Prairie Built 1871-1873 Richard Morris Hunt, architect
The rather austere exterior of this house concealed a lavish interior that was the scene of some of Chicago’s most extravagant social events. During the 1930s, it housed Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s Bauhaus design school, and was later converted to an aeronautical university. Razed 1955.
Byron P. Moulton, 1912 S. Prairie Built 1882 Treat and Foltz, architects
This expansive Chateauesque style home became the residence of future Illinois governor Frank O. Lowden in 1898, and was later home to the widow of railroad magnate T. B. Blackstone. Razed 1939.
Daniel M. Thompson/Samuel W. Allerton, 1936 S. Prairie Built 1870 Lavall B. Dixon, architect
The first $100,000 house on the South Side helped to establish the prominence of Prairie Avenue. Meatpacker Samuel Allerton married Thompson’s daughter and took over ownership of the house in 1879. In 1915 it was razed and replaced by the Hump Hairpin Mfg. Co. factory.
John B. Sherman, 2100 S. Prairie Built 1874 Burnham & Root, architects
Sherman was manager of the Union Stock Yards, and his daughter Margaret married architect Daniel Burnham during construction. Sherman often recommended the firm to his neighbors, making them the most prolific architects represented on the street. Razed 1936.
David Kelley/Philip D. Armour, 2115 S. Prairie Built 1871 Architect unknown
Originally built for lumberman David Kelley, this stately Second Empire residence was for nearly fifty years the home of the family of meatpacker Philip Armour, one of Chicago’s wealthiest businessmen. Razed 1937.
William F. Tucker/ Byron L. Smith, 2140 S. Prairie Built 1876 John M. Van Osdel, architect
This imposing brick residence was acquired in 1881 by Byron Smith, founder and first president of the Northern Trust Company. Prior to demolition in 1936, the dining room was dismantled and reassembled as a private dining room at Northern Trust.
www.glessnerhouse.org • glessnerhouse@sbcglobal.net
312.326.1480 • fax 312.326.1397 • 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616
