So here’s a question:
If you are an architecture fan, and you have a few hours extra to spare while in Chicago, where will you go?
That is not an easy question to answer. Chicago is perhaps the foremost city in the world for great architecture. For a lot of different reasons. One can see the entire development of the skyscraper, simply by walking around the Loop. I encourage you to do that if you have the opportunity.
Or go directly west to the first suburb after the city limits, Oak Park, and you can bask in a collection of buildings from the prime era of the Prairie School movement, and even tour inside several buildings that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Walk about, or press your nose to the glass of your vehicle, as you drive past many others. It’s sort of the architectural version of DisneyWorld. All quite beautiful, and a bit overwhelming.
Or, just a smidgen to the west, is the sister suburb of River Forest, where you can see more of the same. And I should say in addition to the architecture that came out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, you can also see wonderful work by many of his contemporaries. Some of them worked with him for a time--such as Isabel Roberts (who was in fact an architect), William Drummond, and John Van Bergen. Others did not.
If you want to see the most innovative school of the mid 20th century, then you want to see the New Trier High School.
You could do an all Joseph Lyman Silsbee tour of the city, or an all Mies van der Rohe tour, or an all Louis Sullivan tour, and barely scratch the surface. Don't forget about beloved Uncle Dan Burnham...
If you want to see one of the first planned suburbs with meandering streets anywhere in the world, then you want to go out to Riverside, where you will enjoy works by a number of notable architects, all residential. Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park in New York City was the genius behind Riverside. It is still a suburb in great demand, more than 125 years later.
If you’re thinking that this is about a week's worth of architectural sightseeing (and you haven’t quite got started yet), you are correct.
In the midst of all of that Chicago Architectural Wonderland is a little street that sometimes gets overlooked. People say to themselves, "We don’t have time to go there and do that and see that and so forth". I understand that. Over the course of many years of visiting in Chicago, I never got there. Until a trip to Chicago that had absolutely nothing to do with architecture provided me with a few extra hours to do as I pleased. In Beverly is a cluster of homes designed by Walter Burley Griffin, one of the architects working with Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, who contributed to the development of prairie style architecture.
There’s a street in Beverly that is like a miniature Oak Park with many a home designed by Walter Burley Griffin, in full collaboration with with his wife Marion Mahony Griffin, also an "alumni" of the Oak Park studio.
The photos that I made that day, are without question, the highlight of my visit to Chicago four years ago.
Quite apart from the reason for going to Chicago, I spent a very pleasant several hours strolling past these various Walter Burley Griffin designed houses. And photographing them from the public sidewalk, which I always encourage people to do when they go to see architecturally significant homes, because most of the homes are still private residences and lived in by people who, though they may be very appreciative and take good care of them, are not actually thrilled to have people tripping across their lawn, peeking in their windows, coming up on the porch, and so forth. Trust me, you don’t want to do this. Even if you think to yourself, "Well other people have surely done it." Let me say again: Don’t.
The impression that one gets when visiting these Walter Burley Griffin homes is that they are modest. They are definitely middle class homes, anything but pretentious. So they would not appeal to people who are impressed by vast square footage and a superabundance of dubious glitz. They sit comfortably on their lots, but they don’t announce themselves dramatically. If one were to drive down the street knowing nothing whatsoever about architecture, one might notice there’s something different in their style from other homes that one sees, but there is nothing that would make one's chin drop open and say, "Wow look at that place!"
As I say, the houses are mostly modest. They whisper or hum; they do not shout.
They’re mostly stucco. And they tend to have dark brown wood trim. Those who have studied prairie style architecture will say they are firmly in the genre of similar homes, such as the Willits or the DeRhodes or the Ziegler, or ever-so-many other houses in the Midwest that are part of the Oak Park studio's output.
That’s no surprise. Because Walter Burley Griffin had a lot to do with developing that style.
Walter Burley Griffin was a valuable and hard-working member of the Oak Park studio staff. He eventually had a falling out with Wright over not being paid. It’s funny about employees, but they do like to be paid for their work.
People who are cavalier about money, and Frank Lloyd Wright is the top of the list in that regard, sometimes get their feathers ruffled when someone who has worked hard for them has their hand out and says, "You owe me three months back salary", or something similar. Funny, that.
So, the association with Wright ended. Griffin was out on his own designing buildings, quite successfully, with the able collaboration of Marion Mahony Griffin, an architect in her own right, and Walter’s wife.
In Beverly, this cluster houses is part of the result.
People who are slavishly devoted to the point of blindness to Frank Lloyd Wright will point to these little houses in Beverly (if they bother at all), and say, "Look how Walter borrowed from Frank in order to create these houses." Well, please take a deep breath. Because the reality is the opposite. Many of the stylistic elements that one thinks of as quintessential Prairie Style were developed by Walter Burley Griffin while working for Frank Lloyd Wright.
What happened next? After Walter designed these lovely little houses, he won a prestigious international competition, that many architects entered, to design the new capital city of Australia, Canberra.
The result of winning that competition was that he was engage to make it into reality. Which meant leaving the United States and going to Australia. There, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin are justifiably remembered and honored as extremely gifted architects. As national treasures. The lake at Canberra is named in their honor. I don't know of a body of water in Washington DC named for Mr. Wright, do you?
Meanwhile back in United States, Frank Lloyd Wright was struggling to recover from the damage that he inflicted upon himself by running off to Europe with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and the resultant loss of business. Wright's world was egocentric in the extreme. The day was good if it was good for him, and it was bad if it was bad for him. The world of architecture was good if people were showering him with praise. And if they didn’t bother to praise him, he praised himself, long and loud, as he was won't to do.
But Wright did not stop at praising himself. He continued by putting down other people who had ever work for him. If they went on to their own successes, they fell afoul of him.
Wright was extremely jealous of Walter's success. It came just at a time when Wrights architectural career was on the skids. Wright never got over his bad habit of trying to erase others' accomplishments. He did with the other Oak Park era folks as well. To his discredit. He, and the world, would’ve been better served had he said in effect , "Look at what a wonderful judge of talent I am, to have found these people and brought them into my studio, and let their talent shine as they worked for me."
But Wright wasn’t that kind of a guy was he?
I’ll go on, below, to talk about each of these houses individually. But I do also want to say that a happy sidelight of this happy side trip was that there was a gentleman moving a car out of his driveway and onto the street as I was quietly sauntering past looking at one of the houses and taking as subtle a photograph as I could, so as not to be intrusive. He noticed me, invited me into his Walter Burley Griffin home, gave me a tour, and told me about the many years of living in his home. He introduced me to his wife, who may or may not have been somewhat surprised to see a stranger in her home...
Do you hear that? Someone in Chicago who was a stranger and who wasn’t expecting me, invited me into their home. Showed me around. Made me feel welcome.
Which reminds me of Matthew 25:35:
"I was a stranger - and you invited me into your home."
How does St. Paul put it in Romans 12:13? Oh yes:
"Always be eager to practice hospitality."
BUT NOW, ON TO THE HOUSES...!
The story of how Griffin came to Beverly is an interesting part of local history.
The land that includes what is now Griffin Place was part of a “gentleman’s farm” owned by Samuel J. Wells, a meat packing company buyer.
Wells was born in 1858 in Birmingham, England, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1872. There are several mentions, in 1877 and 1883, of patents being granted to a Samuel J. Wells of Chicago, if that is the same man. The patents were for a hair loop to help with braiding hair, and a trunk fastener.
Wells’ older brother, Thomas, owned a large amount of stock in the Continental Packing Co., where Wells worked as a buyer. In 1908, Wells opened his own company as a commissioned buyer of hogs.
His wife was Helen Nash, and the 1900 U.S. Census listed the Wells Family living at 10407 S. Wood St. Their original house still stands, although it has been significantly altered and the address changed due to city renumbering. The 1910 U.S. Census listed Wells as a “squab raiser.” Those young domestic pigeons were a culinary delicacy.
In 1909, Wells’ daughter, Helen, became engaged to Russell L. Blount, manager of the real estate department for a bank. By that time, Wells was interested in developing his Beverly land for housing, and he gave the couple a lot on which to build.
Frank Lloyd Wright had built several homes in Beverly, including the Evans House on Longwood Drive, introducing the area to this innovative new Prairie style. It’s possible that Blount was actually interested in hiring Wright, but a visit to Wright’s studio led him to meet another architect working there, Griffin.
He designed a house for Blount, and during construction, Edmund C. Garrity, a plumbing contractor made Blount a substantial offer for the property; so, Blount sold him the “wedding” house. Thus, in 1909, the first Griffin home, the Edmund C. Garrity House, was built at 1712 W. 104th Pl. The cost was $4,000.
Spurred by the need for a home of his own and encouraged by the sale of the first house, Blount decided to become a developer and secured more plans from Griffin. Several more houses were built, and then in 1912, Griffin won a prestigious international competition to—literally—design Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
Griffin moved to Australia, where he remained until another commissioned project took him to India in 1935, where he died unexpectedly a few years later.
After Griffin left, Blount continued to build houses based on Griffin’s designs - three based on the Van Nostrand House (Williams, Hornbaker, and Clarke), and one based on the Salmon House (Furneaux) - and later worked with other architects.
Blount also continued to work in banking, and he was an officer with the Commonwealth Trust and Savings Bank, which was a successful bank of its time.
Blount and Wells started up several construction companies in the area, including the Longwood Hills Construction Co. and the Tracy Ridge Company. One of the original Griffin homes was actually built for Wells, but Wells never lived in the house and rented it instead to Walter D. Salmon, for whom the house is named. Salmon later bought the house.
Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending for either of the men who brought Griffin to Beverly.
On Aug. 14, 1915, Wells, 56, and his son Raymond, 22, were killed when their automobile was demolished by a train near Aurora. It was not clear how the accident occurred. They were out for an afternoon of sightseeing, and Wells was considered an excellent driver. But, who was actually driving the car at the time and why the auto was on the tracks remains a mystery.
On Nov. 16, 1933, Blount, 57, was shot in the chest at his home, 1740 W. 104th Pl., and died three days later in the hospital.
At the time, he owned a mortgage brokerage and was the manager of a currency exchange. Three men came to his home in an apparent kidnapping attempt, intending to take him to the currency exchange to force him to open the safe. He drove them off with a tear gas gun shaped like a fountain pen, but Blount was shot in the process.
Blount’s next-door neighbor, Walter Salmon, was also the vice president of Blount’s mortgage concern. Salmon reported that Blount had been held up several years prior at his office. He also reported that the kidnappers would have found no money at the currency exchange, as it had all been taken to the bank via armored truck earlier in the day.
At the coroner’s jury, Blount’s son, Lauren, reported that his father feared kidnappers the week before. The jury returned a verdict that Blount was killed by persons unknown.
Beverly’s Griffin homes were all but forgotten for decades until a 1973 article in The Prairie School Review brought them back to the public’s attention. The article praised Blount for his courage and vision in promoting early modern architecture.
The Harry G. Van Nostrand House
1666 W Walter Burley Griffin Place
1911
This is a small house that was built as a speculative rental property. Harry G. Van Nostrand was the first renter. The exterior shows the typical stucco and dark wood construction popularized by the Prairie Style. The geometric design in the front gable over the screened porch is a recognizable motif used by Griffin often, to create interest without adding cost. The house plan is compact. The long-time owners utilized the screened porch as a fair weather living room. The floor plan is a smaller version of the Garrity House, below.
The Edmund C. Garrity House
1712 West 104th Place
1909
The Garrity House - also known as "The Wedding House" - was the first of the Walter Burley Griffin houses to be built in Beverly. It was originally intended to be the home of Russell and Helen Blount, as noted above. However, it was sold to Mr. Garrity before they ever there. Originally the home was finished in the usual light color stucco with dark brown wood banding. Over the years, it has had modifications to the color scheme. The photo shows it in its 2017 livery.
This pink and blue fantasy is probably not what the Griffins had in mind when they designed the house, but no matter, it brings a bit of whimsy and more than a taste of the islands to often-dreary Chicago. The home sold in recent years and has undergone an exterior color scheme change since I took the photo in my famous visit to Chicago in 2017. Certain elements of the home suggest that Marion had a great deal to do with this particular design. The window fretwork especially. The protecting cantilevered pergola at the center of the front facade is also a stylistic device Marion used elsewhere. And that Wright would later "borrow" on houses such as Fallingwater.
About the client / first resident: Edmund C. Garrity was born in Illinois in 1880. By 1940 he lived at 8011 Maryland Avenue in Chicago. Edmund C. Garrity died in Chicago on December 3, 1950. His obituary states the following:
Mr. Garrity was born near Chatsworth, a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. M. Garrity. He went to Chicago as a young man and has continued to make that city his home since and gained prominence in the Chicago business world as the owner and operator of the National Plumbing and Heating Company. He was associated in the business with his three sons, who now carry on. He is survived by his wife Mary Jane, and four sons, Edmond, Jr., Donald E. and John J. Garrity; two brothers James, of Pontiac and Leo F. Garrity, of Chicago and two sisters, Mrs. Margaret O'Brien and Mother Una. His final resting place is the St. Mary's Cemetery in Chatsworth.
By the way, uninformed writers tend to sometimes call Walter a landscape architect (yes, he did landscape designs and well as houses and other buildings), and they sometimes get further mixed up and attribute this to Marion or call her a "delineator" (which she was in addition to being an architect, and quite talented in that regard). Please, people, give them their due. There's certainly every reason to be proud to be a landscape architect or a delineator Even so, in the Griffins' case, both were architects. Read all about both of them on their Wikipedia entries.
The Russel L Blount I House
1724 W Griffin Place
1909
The Prairie School movement made a concentrated effort to create inexpensive homes. Or perhaps better stated, affordable homes. If you see a genuine Prairie School such as the Blount I, you will note that it is essentially a cube (which more or less flies the the face of Wright's "breaking out of the box" concept. This is one of many Prairie School houses, whether architect-designed or kit houses from Chicagoland, that makes use of the economical and compact use of materials. Inside, it has a plan that is semi-open and revolves around the central fireplace. in that and in other respects, it is part of the family of houses based on the $5000 "Ladies Home Journal" house (see my previous post, and see the Blount I plan, below). As with most of the Beverly houses, this one displays the use of stucco and dark wood.
The Harry F. Newland House
1737 W. Griffin Place
1912
The Newland house is particularly pleasing with its use of wood for the first floor and stucco for the portion of the second floor from the windowsills upward. This provides a visual grounding for the house, and ties the window design together upstairs, as if the windows were more numerous and grouped together, as is often the case in Prairie School houses. Obviously, this arrangement of paired windows is simpler to achieve and permits a greater flexibility in plan, in a smaller house. To avoid looking boxy, the house has the front projecting one story gabled wing, In this case, it was probably an open porch, later enclosed somewhat effectively. Many of the Prairie School houses had this exact same remodeling feature at some point along the way, so that the owners had full use or what would otherwise be a May to September space in the Windy City. This house was begun by Griffin and completed by Spencer and Powers, who were also noted Prairie School architects of the era, and who are usual listed as the architects of record for this house.
Harry F. Newland was born in England in 1866. He married Gladys Perryer. Their son Harry Montague Newland was born in 1889.
The Arthur G Jenkinson and William N Clarke Houses
The Blount I House
Blount I House - First Floor Plan
The William N Clarke House
1731 W Griffin Place
1913
The Clarke House is a variation on the Van Nostrand House which is hard to guess, because it is shifted on the lot 90 degrees, and has lost its porch. Even so, the Clarke House may be the purest statement of Griffin's aesthetic in this cluster of houses, as it follows precise geometry and its spare use of wood banding dramatically emphasizes the overhanging gable. The wood banding that follows the slope of the roof gable has the visual effect of diminishing the perceived height of the house, and therefore tying it more artistically to the ground - a way of emphasizing the horizontal line of the prairie. Observers often mention that this house seems the most Asian inspired of the group, and they would not be incorrect. The corner windows do a good deal to help the house break out of the box, especially from the inside looking out. Somewhat unusual for many of the Prairie School houses, the grouped windows here in the gable, and elsewhere on Walter Burley Griffin Place, are of an even number. So often Wright used group windows, but almost without exception, there were an odd number of them (5 rather than 4, for example). The Jenkinson House (below) is another instance of Griffin's freedom to use the more static even number of grouped windows than odd.
The Arthur G. Jenkinson House
1727 W Griffin Place
1912
Perhaps the best feature of this house is the interplay between the tall "shoulders" of the corners and the downward flare of the centered window design. Imagine both of them gone, and a unified exterior of wood or brick, and suddenly the house becomes much more conventional in nature. The dark wood board and batten cladding has the horizontal line that Prairie School architects so consistantly strived for. The banding (one could almost say it is half-timbering) is bold and pleasing. As with the neighboring Clarke House, the sedan floor banding follows the line of the gable, and for the same reason, to visually tie the house to the ground. For another view of the house see the next photo.
Arthur G. Jenkinson was born August 18, 1885 in Michigan. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister. Arthur died on February 1, 1974. His final resting place is Mount Auburn Cemetery in Harvard, Illinois. He was married to Hester T. Guild Jenkinson (1891-1957). She was a talented vocalist and sang in many local concerts. On June 19, 1913, she and Arthur were married.
When Hester Thompson Guild was born on 1 October 1891, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States, her father, William Wyckoff Guild, was 43 and her mother, Adella Marie Thompson, was 34.
Hester was born to real estate agent W. William Guild and his wife Adell, and grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was active in both church and high school activities including writing for the school magazine and participating in oratory contests. She was a talented vocalist and sang at many local concerts. On June 19, 1913, she married Arthur Gilbert Jenkinson, the son of the Presbyterian minister. Arthur worked as a carpenter and builder. Hester and Arthur are known to have lived in Tracy, Chicago; Maine Township, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana. Hester T. Jenkinson passed away July 31, 1957 at about 65 years of age. Arthur G. Jenkinson passed away in February, 1974, at about 89 years of age.
She married Arthur G Jenkinson on 19 June 1913, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States. She lived in Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1930 and Park Ridge, Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1940. She died on 31 July 1957, at the age of 65, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Harvard, McHenry, Illinois, United States.
Hester Jenkinson at age 22 can be seen here:
More about Arthur's step-father here:
Rev. Henry S. Jenkinson, who was pastor of the Arlington Heights Presbyterian church from 1913 to 1925, died Saturday at his home 1669 W. 104th place, Chicago. Funeral services were held Tuesday with interment in Mount Hope cemetery. Among the pallbearers were Henry F. Muller and Burton Noyes of Arlington Heights.
The deceased was one of the oldest members of the Chicago Presbytery. He was ordained in Canada in 1881, came to Chicago in 1891, serving as Presbyterian pastor at South Chicago, Seventh church, Scotch Westminster, West Pullman, and Arlington Heights. He retired from the ministry and moved to the family home in Beverly when he resigned from the Arlington church in 1925.
Rev. Jenkinson was born Oct. 9, 1856 in Sheltenham, Gloustershire, England, coming to America in 1869. Mrs. Jenkinson died 13 years ago. He is survived by his two daughters, Edith and Jennie, and a son, Arthur G. of Park Ridge. - August 3, 1945
The Jenkinson House
In the view from the sidewalk, the house takes on a symmetrical aspect that is almost ecclesiastical in nature. Before the projecting porch was enclosed, the blend between outdoors and indoors wold have been less rigid, visually. This is another iteration of the $5000 house type, but so deftly done, the house seems anything but boxy. This might be a good place to mention that the front door to the house is not located in a place that is obvious. It is hidden, from casual passers-by on the sidewalk, and this is on purpose. It is also quite unlike 99 percent of the builder houses or houses designed by architects not of the Prairie School. The interest in providing privacy as well as an indoor-outdoor connection prompted the positioning of the main entry in a subtle location, so that one "discovered" it as one approached the house, and such a discovery, it is assumed, was done by those who were invited, or friends of the owner. The resultant sense of mystery and charm is one of the delightful hallmarks of Prairie School design.
William R. Hornbaker House
1710 W 104th Street
1914
This is a little gem of a Prairie School house and is a variation of the Clarke House. If you think it is veering toward the Tudor-esque you are not alone. Aspects of the house suggest that aesthetic, but even so, the familiar Griffin motif of the wood following the line of the gable is present here. Tudor homes would never have used such a design detail. See as well that the windows, while grouped as is expected in a Prairie School house, are even in number, not odd in number. A Griffin "give away". I doubt the second floor window box was part of the original design but it is inoffensive, and in fact has some connection to the planting boxes used in the various versions of the $5000 houses.
William Russell Hornbaker, 1870 - 1933
William Russell Hornbaker was born on month day 1870, at Yountsville, Indiana, to Albert T Hornbaker and Susan Elvira Hornbaker (born Price) . Albert was born on October 6 1846, in Ripley, Montgomery, Indiana, USA. Susan was born on June 22 1847, in Cass County, Indiana, USA. William had one sister: Sarah Price Hornbaker . William married Mary D Hornbaker (born Rogers) in 1893, in Illinois. Mary was born on July 1864, in New York, USA. They had one son: Albert Rogers Hornbaker . William then married Esther R Hornbaker (born Perry) in 1916, at age 46 in Illinois. Esther was born on November 5 1871, in Clifton, Iroquois, Illinois, USA. William passed away in 1933, at age 63 in Florida.
Ida E. Wiliams House
1632 W 104th Street
1913
This is the sister of the Van Nostrand House shown first on the list. So it is pleasant to compare them. Both have L shaped plans thanks to the offset front porch. This one is enclosed, and may have been from the get-go. The fenestration certainly looks authentic. Note the clever use of the angles in the central portion of the windows there. Other similarities include the horizontal wood banding, to make the house look longer rather than taller. Just like when a person wears horizontal or vertical stripes. It is subtle but effective in both houses.
A collage of the Walter Burley Griffin Place Houses
Have a look at the following, which is the 1973 Prairie School Review article by Paul E. Sprague that reignited the interest in these houses after many years of obscurity:
Copyright © 2021, John A. Dalles. All rights reserved.
