Tours

Walking tours

All Saints Episcopal Church

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 26, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4550 N Hermitage Ave

This 1883 church is an outstanding example of stick style architecture in which the vertical and horizontal protrude from the clapboard voids between them, and are painted differently from the clapboards to accentuate the structure of the building. It was stuccoed in the 1920’s, covering highly decorative clapboard and shingle work. Note the many diagonal elements still visible, which add a sense of vigor to the rest of the structure. The original entrance was at the northeast corner of the church, under the bell tower. This door has now been sealed and has a window in its place. Most windows are original.
The architect, John Cochrane (1835-1887), is best known for winning, at age 32, the design competition in 1867 for the new Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield. Between winning the prize and signing the contract he formed a partnership with Alfred H. Piquenard. Cochrane & Piquenard are the architects of record for that building. He also designed a number of other important buildings, including parts of Cook County Hospital and Rush Medical College, as well as Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church. He died at the age of 52 only four years after designing All Saints.

An early photo of All Saints Church, Credit: The 1883 Project

An early photo of All Saints Church, Credit: The 1883 Project


The rectory was designed in a Tudor style by a parishioner, John Hulla, and built in either 1908 or 1905. The passageway connecting the rectory and the church was built in the 1920’s and detracts from the overall composition. The Parish Hall, on Wilson Avenue, was completed in 1936. The funds used for the parish house were collected in the 1920’s toward the goal of a new Gothic stone church on the site of the 1883 frame structure. Were it not for the 1929 crash, this wooden church would not exist.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Former parishioners include Carl Sandburg, who lived nearby, and Grace Sulzer, granddaughter of the first European settlers of Lake View Township.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Parish Records; Lane, George: Chicago Churches and Synagogues. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1981. Permits #11802 (8/12/1908) and 18222 (4/26/1905). No permit for original construction. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4542 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 121′ south along Hermitage.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Galloway House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 24, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4542 North Hermitage Avenue

The house was built for Edgar Galloway and his wife, Helen. They bought the land in 1874 from Thomas A Cosgrove, a member of the Ravenswood Land Company.
Edgar’s brother Albert bought the lot just north of this one in the same year. The Galloways, like other early residents, then began acquiring additional property in Ravenswood.

4542 N Hermitage from a 2008 photo. Credit: Cook County Assessor

4542 N Hermitage from a 2008 photo. Credit: Cook County Assessor


For example, between 1874 and 1880 they purchased or had financial connections to every lot on this side of Hermitage between Wilson and Sunnyside except the church property and the two end lots at Sunnyside.
Their holdings made the Galloway brothers particularly interested in community improvement projects. Edgar, who was a pluumber, was active in the movement ot bring sewers to Ravenswood. In 1884 the movement gained momentum and engineers were consulted.
They recommended running a line down Montrose to the Chicago River to take advantage of the natural drainage this route offered. But the river was in Jefferson Township, and Jefferson objected to a sewer line at Montrose and the river.
For its part, Lake View, which ended at Western Avenue, would not allow Jefferson to run a water main through Lake View to Lake Michigan.
Ravenswood was forced to use an alternate route: it built a sewer main down Damen from Lawrence to Belmont, then over to Western and the river, which at that point was part of Lake View.
Like many large projects, construction of the sewers fell behind schedule. Collection of the homeowners’ special assessment, however, continued on schedule. In 1888 this led several homeowners on Commercial Avenue to petition Lake View City Council to suspend collection of their assessments. The petition was denied. The sewer was eventually built.

SOURCES

Office of Deeds early maps; 1880 Census.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4541 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 20′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Ravenswood YMCA

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 23, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , .

Townhouses at 4541-4555 North Hermitage Avenue and contiguous lots on Paulina Street

1985-1988
These townhouses, designed by the firm of Environ, Inc., were built on the site of the Ravenswood YMCA, a large 1905 building which by the late 1970’s had failed to meet increasingly stringent standards for access for the disabled. As a result, the building had either to be razed or retrofitted at an expense which turned out to be prohibitive.
The YMCA building was demolished and the site remained vacant for several years, monitored closely by UPRAVE and other community groups.
Finally in the mid-1980’s a developer bought the lot and subdivided it into townhouses.
While the architectural quality of these townhouses may not equal that of some of the older buildings in the neighborhood, the developer and architect made a good effort to integrate this project with the neighborhood, yet add something fresh and innovative.
Note the Prairie Style of the Hermitage Avenue townhouses, which is replicated on some the Paulina Street houses.
Most of the Paulina Street houses are, by contrast, gabled and decorated with window and door ornaments similar to those used in the 1880’s. While these decorative differences add some variety to the street, they conceal the fact that all the townhouses are based on one prototype, rotated and slightly changed into a total of four models.

SOURCES

Galley Proofs from AIA Guide to Chicago Architecture, 1993.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4533 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is south 79′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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19th Century Rentals

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 22, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

4533 & 4529 North Hermitage Avenue

 

4533 N Hermitage

4533 N Hermitage in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

4533 and 4529 Hermitage are sister houses. In April 1885 James and Frances Stewart entered into an agreement with John Williams to purchase three consecutive lots. 4529, 4533, and 4537 for $750, and to build houses at 4529 and 4533 within 90 days. Construction costs on each house were to reach at least $2,000. Because the agreement survives we have an example of construction practices of one 1880’s developer: the Stewarts had to pay the contractor $500 when the lumber, “exclusive of millwork,” was delivered. For his part, Williams agreed to lend the Stewarts $1,500 on each house costs: $500 when the frame was up and the roof was on; $500 when the chimneys were up and the house was plastered; and $500 when the house was finished.

4529 N Hermitage Ave in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

4529 N Hermitage Ave in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

Unlike most of the houses on the tour, at least one and possibly both houses were rental homes until early in the 20th Century. To give an idea of rents for similar houses in East Ravenswood in the mid–l880’s: Tebbetts Company a local realty firm. offered a 6-room cottage for $17 a month and an 8-room cottage with bath for $20.
The firm also sold houses and offered a 6-room cottage for $2,000 and an 8-room house for $2,800. These homes, depending on the terms of financing, were certainly within reach of families with annual incomes of $1,0000. For example, in the 1880’s clerks in insurance firms might have a salary of $1,500 to $1,800, while an attorney in a small firm might earn $4,000 by 1890. (Gwendolyn Wright, Moralism and the Model Home [1980])

SOURCES

Recorder of Deeds Office. No permit. Sundry permit issued for remodeling on 3/25/1925. 1900 Census. 1887 and 1891 fire atlases.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4517 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is about 33′ south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Andrews House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 21, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

4517 North Hermitage Avenue

Several features of this house are typical of houses of the 1870’s: note the deeply recessed, coffered front door and curved first-floor windows. First floor openings are all elongated. Roofline slopes gently. Many of its original features remain despite several siding efforts, including asphalt meant to simulate brick. Few such old houses survive on the North Side.

FEATURES (INCLUDING OWNERSHIP)

The James Andrews family was one of the earliest to settle in Ravenswood. Mr. Andrews joined the Congregational Church one block south in September 1873 and was one of the leaders in the effort to build a firehouse, later built at the corner of Ravenswood Avenue and Wilson, perhaps not coincidentally close to the homes of Andrews and the Galloway brothers, who were particularly active in organizing it. The firehouse stood just east of the railroad tracks (which then ran at ground level), across East Ravenswood Avenue from the site of the Pickard Building. The firehouse and its equipment cost $1,200, of which $1,000 came from assessments on local property owners. The remaining $200 was raised from a dance and from the sale of ice cream in the summer months.

4517 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View

4517 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View


It was the only firehouse in Ravenswood, and, of course, was operated by volunteers. Fire was a particular concern in Ravenswood because of the many wooden buildings. Although at least as early as 1879 Lake View Township restricted construction of wooden buildings in the southern part of the township, there were no restrictions in Ravenswood.
The City of Lake View later bought the firehouse for $800. Lake View offered to refund the money to the contributors, but, with their consent, it went instead toward a local public library.
Like his neighbors, the Galloways, Andrews purchased other property in Ravenswood. He also was president of the Ravenswood Loan & Building Association. Andrews’ primary business, however, was not real estate, but hardware. He was a long-time partner in the ventilator manufacturing firm of Andrews & Johnson.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Recorder of Deeds Office, 1880 Census. No permit. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4501 North Hermitage Avenue, the Ravenswood United Methodist Church.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 174’south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Ravenswood United Methodist Church

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 20, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4501 North Hermitage Avenue

The church was built in 1890. The parish house was added in 1912.
John S Woollacott designed this church with its restrained rustication of stone-work. Note, too, the colorful floral and geometric stained–glass windows, which were brought from another church and installed here. The belfry appears to be covered in an attempt to restrain the traffic of pigeons.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

This was the second building for the Ravenswood Methodist Church. The first was originally built downtown, as a temporary structure for the First Methodist Church, which was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. That first building was given to the Ravenswood Methodist church in 1873, and was moved from downtown to a lot three blocks west of this location for the newly organized congregation. In 1879, it
was moved again, to this site, and stood at the back of the lot next to the alley. It may not have been particularly beautiful; one neighbor, John McLauchlan, described it as “a big drygoods box.”

Ravenswood United Methodist Church. Credit: Ravenswood UMC

Ravenswood United Methodist Church. Credit: Ravenswood UMC

The present building, which cost $26,000, was built some 11 years later; its architect, John Woollacott, also designed the Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church at 600 West Fullerton, built in l888.
G.M. Turnbull designed the parish house in 1912; the parsonage, replacing one built in the late 1880s, was built in 1963 through a bequest from Eleanor Abbott Ford, a daughter of Dr. Wallace Abbott. Dr. Abbott, founder of Abbott Laboratories, donated the original organ for the church, which is still in use and fills a monumental arch on the east wall.
Early parishioners include Martin Van Allen, the secretary of the Ravenswood Land Company- and Mary McDowell, the founder of the settlement house of the University of Chicago near the stockyards. Berry Memorial Methodist Church on Leavitt Street grew out of this church.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Parish Records; Recorder of Deeds Office. Parish Hall Permit is A 6001; N 1; Page 304: File 18075, on 7/13/12 (G. M. Turnbull, architect}. American_Contractor. 7/20/1912.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4447 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 194′ south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Sinclair House (The Hudson House)

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 19, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4447 North Hermitage Avenue

Excellent shingle style house, employing a variety of different shingle and clapboard materials. Also note the stained glass and the delicate, restrained front porch. The elegance and sophistication of this building’s design suggests that it was designed by an architect, but we have not been able to identify him.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Although an upstairs wall was signed by a painter in 1890, this house appears to be one of seventeen Levi C. Pitner built in Ravenswood between 1884 and 1886. Pitner was a real estate developer from Evanston. A local newspaper recorded the prices for Pitner’s homes at $3,000 to $5,000, but Pitner charged more for this elegant home: $5,400. He sold it to Albert Sinclair, a depot master of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, in November 1884.

4447 N Hermitage in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

4447 N Hermitage in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

The local train depot was just south of the firehouse on Ravenswood Avenue between Wilson and Sunnyside. In the 1870’s the trains were the most efficient transportation to Chicago, but not the only transportation. A small steam engine with a single car ran on Clark Street between Graceland Cemetery and Fullerton Avenue where passengers could transfer to a street car. If residents had a carriage, they could drive down Lincoln Avenue or Clark Street to Chicago. By 1887 the North Chicago Street Railway had laid a double line of street car tracks on Clark Street from Diversey to Lawrence. Other improvements followed, but it was not until 1907 that what is now called the Brown Line was opened.

In addition to his work at for the railroad, Sinclair found time for politics. After Lake View became a city in 1887 he ran for and was elected alderman of this ward.

A long-time owner was A. Melville Hudson a dentist with offices in the area. Owners of the house still had signs for Hudson’s office in the 1990’s.

The kitchen (little changed since construction) was used in the 1992 film “The Babe,” for which outdoor filming was done on the 4100 block of Paulina Street.

SOURCES

Recorder of Deeds Office;  1900,  1910 Censuses. No permit. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4424 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 223′ south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Kirkham House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 18, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

4424 North Hermitage

The house is one of three brick buildings on these blocks of Hermitage Avenue with similar, if not identical, floor-plans. Note the mintons on the windows, as well as the fluted columns with very simple Ionic capitals on the porch and third-floor dormer window. Clear beveled-glass front window transom. Medallions, dentiled cornice.

4424 N Hermitage in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

4424 N Hermitage in 2008. Credit: Cook County Assessor

HISTORICAL FEATURES


Frank Kirkham was a contractor or “builder” who designed his own houses. He built a number of homes in the area and seems to have lavished on this house an idiosyncratic sense of elegence. In 1898 Kirkham bought this property from the Linthicums, who lived in the 4200 block of Hermitage Avenue, built this house, and in October 1899 he sold it to Harry & Victoria Flanders.
Before agreeing to purchase the home, the Flanders negotiated several points with Kirkham: First, they received six additional feet on the south end of the lot. Next they demanded a number of changes to the house: for example, they wanted a Baker & Jackson furnace that would heat every room to 70 degrees even if the outside temperature fell to 0o. Finally, the Flanders demanded that Kirkham build a house, not flats, on the lot south of this house. He built the house just north of this home, too. These and other changes to the house brought the price to more than $8,000.

SOURCES

CCL Survey: Permit NW 871 on 12/21/1898. American Contractor, 12/24/1898.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to the corner of West Montrose Avenue & North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next stop is about 282′ from you at the next corner.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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1st Congregational Church of Ravenswood/ Library Hall

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 17, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

At the corner of North Hermitage Avenue and West Montrose Avenue

In 1869, as the Ravenswood Land Company was building streets and laying out the subdivision, it offered land to any congregation that would build a church. Other church groups tried to raise funds, or a building, but the Congregationalists were the first to succeed. The original church on this site was a small and simple building. The later building was almost wholly from a $14,000 “refurbishment.” The church was remodeled several times since 1885.

4401 N Hermitage. The smaller building is the original church building. Illustration credit: First Congregational Church of Ravenswood

4401 N Hermitage. The smaller building is the original church building. Illustration credit: First Congregational Church of Ravenswood

The first pastor, Rev. William Lloyd, lived on the southwest corner of Hermitage and Sunnyside. In addition to his work at the church. Rev. Lloyd also kept a cow and supplied several families in the area with fresh milk. This was not unusual. Cows were pastured in the area through at least the 1890’s according to Sophie Chandler, an early resident whose reminiscences are among the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association collection at Conrad Sulzer Regional Library.
This intersection was an important gathering place for the community in the 19th century. Not only was the church often used for concerts and other programs by community groups, but in 1884, on the opposite corner ,where the parking lot is today, the Ravenswood Historical Society erected a building known as Library Hall. Designed by Holabird and Roche, the building housed the first ‘public’ library in the community on the ground floor. A large hall used for meetings, concerts and dances filled the second floor. In 1894 the Ravenswood Masonic Lodge signed a 20-year lease and commissioned W. L Klewer to add a third floor to the building. The building, however, continued to be used for community meetings and programs of the historical society through World War I. By 1929, after the Masons had moved to thier new building at Paulina and Wilson, Library Hall was vacant. Eventually it was torn down and a gas station was operated on the site.

Library Hall. Credit: Archives of the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association

Library Hall. Credit: Archives of the Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association

SOURCES

Parish records, CCL survey, Recorder of Deeds Office. No permits. Archives of Sulzer Library.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4307 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next stop is in the next block, on the left, before the next corner.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Cole House

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 16, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

4307 North Hermitage


Look at the intact wooden ornament, including eccentric mixture of Italianate brackets and fleur-de-lis cutouts under the gable’s cornice. The bay on west facade, window surrounds, recessed double front doors with coffered jamb and window transom, and possibly original porch. Note the elongated windows. Possible addition adjacent to front porch, as well as rear porch addition. The main entrance to the house was off Cullom, because this house apparently predated the one immediately to its south, which is said to have been built on this house’s front lawn. The small house just east of the corner lot was the carriage house for 4307.

4307 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View

4307 N Hermitage. Credit: Google Street View

HISTORICAL FEATURES

The Cole family purchased the lots for 4307 and 4303 in 1872, just three years after Ravenswood was platted. The first owner was Martin Cole, a realtor; the second, John Cole, a surveyor and engineer; and the third, Arthur Cole, an architect, who designed several homes in Ravenswood. The construction date of the house is not clear, although, John Cole was living in Ravenswood as early as 1875, possibly in
this house. While in Ravenswood John Cole worked on the sewer system mentioned earlier. Also, in 1884 he helped redesign the Lake View Pumping Station at Montrose and Halsted, which first brought lake water to the Township in 1875. Prior to this time, and even after, shallow wells were the main source of water. Most house also had cisterns.
In later years John and Arthur Cole lived in Hyde Park, while Martin lived on the west Side. Presumably the houses were rented; for example, Robert McLean, the editor of the Inland Architect, lived in one of the houses from 1887 until 1890.

SOURCES

No Permit. Recorder of Deeds Office; 1880 Census. Historical records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4600 North Hermitage Avenue, the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 72′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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