This Old Chicago House: The Palmer Mansion
August 5, 2009
I was reminded the other day that Chicagoans who visit my site are not Borgs; they do not have some sort of collective memory of all things pertaining to Chicago's history. And my visitors from around the country and the world may be even less informed.
A couple days ago I mentioned the "castles" that were built on the Gold Coast at the turn of the century by the city's elite, but failed to provide an example. My bad... So, to clarify, let's take a look at Queen Bertha's abode.
The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer (shown above) was located at 1350 Lake Shore Drive.
The Palmer Mansion...
--was built between 1882 and 1885
--was designed by by Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost
--cost $1,000,000 to construct
--was, at one time, the largest private residence in Chicago and had an elevator
--had no locks and doors could only be opened from the inside
--required a staff of 26
--had 42 rooms
--was "de-constructed" (demolished) in 1950
There are three pages of photos of the interior of the mansion available for viewing in the Art Institute of Chicago Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection
Potter Palmer, the "Father of State Street," obviously believed that a man's home was his castle - literally.
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4 comments:
Does this mean that the summer vacation may be drawing to a close and we're going to see more of CHJ?
We've missed you. And, even though we haven't gotten our regular Journal fix, we hope you've had a great, fun-filled, family packed summer.
Can't wait to see the selections in your CHJ Amazon store.
You've had no comments on this excellent post? That is one incredible house. I'm absolutely flabbergasted that their own son had it demolished.
Ya, kids. What are you going to do...Hey, loved the LOL cat on Rocket Scientist today!
I remember there being a couple (perhaps) of "castle-like private homes still very near to that location on LSD...into the 1970's at least. And I THINK I remember at least one still being there into the 90's.
Originally, I thought that it was a "partial remnant of the Potter Mansion"...but from what I am reading now...it was TOTALLY demolished.
Can you say anything about the other castle-like structure in that specific area?
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