Henry George Fiddelke, Designing for a Community (Part 1 of 2)

To many people, one of the most interesting aspects of J. L Silsbee's practice is that so many talented architects passed through his office. While some are obsessed with one particular former employee, I like to delve into the careers of some of the lesser known names. In the process, I think it illuminates the places where they practice and gives some more insight into unexpected ways that Silsbee may have affected their careers later on.     

Living in Oak Park, it is hard to ignore the work of Henry George Fiddelke. Not because folks consider him the greatest architect but that he equal parts creativity and proliferation, that his work stands above many others. With the help of my friend Andrew Elders, I've been researching the neighborhoods around Oak Park and Forest Park, trying to find some evidence of his practice. The amount of work we found surprised me.  

The home where Henry Fiddelke lived with his family, on Superior Street in Oak Park. It is only a block from his former co-worker at Silsbee's office, Frank Lloyd Wright. He purchased and moved into the home after it was renovated by his client, William Ruppert, in 1902. 

The time when Fiddelke was with Silsbee was probably this busiest time of that architect's career. He had work happening in multiple cities around the country, he was regularly published, and held an esteemed position amongst his peers. While in Silsbee's office, Fiddelke had three of his drawings published. Each was designed in the style that Silsbee is best known for, the shingle style. One is a flamboyant house in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood; the second, rather square take on the shingle style in a home for a home in Winnetka overlooking Lake Michigan; and a third, a more pastoral home for a close family friend of Silsbee's in a park on the west side of Syracuse, NY.        

From left to right: A spec home for John Cochran, Edgewater; a home for Frederick Greeley, Winnetka; and a home for Moses Dewitt Burnet Jr. Burnet Park, Syracuse.  

Fiddelke was of German heritage but a native of Illinois. He was born in Matteson, a small railroad town about 30 miles south of Chicago. He likely came to Silsbee's office in 1885, at the age of 20. While in Silsbee's office, his experience seemed to be solely on residences.  While stylistically limited, this exposure to speculative ventures for developers as well as custom homes for affluent individuals was invaluable and eventually served him well.

In addition to having his work published under Silsbee's name, Fiddelke soon began publishing several drawings of his own designs in a local building journal, the Building Budget. One that I find interesting is this conceptual sketch for a home from 1890. Its articulation and stylistic detailing show a profound influence from his time with Silsbee, as does its interesting play with triangular geometries. Like many of Silsbee's homes, this design is embraced the landscape with a broad battered piazza at the front of the home that creates a broad base from which the rest of the home seems to spring. The intent for the home's design to be integral with the landscape around it is clear.   

Design for a residence from the Building Budget, 1890.

Fiddelke's training and time after Silsbee's office are a mystery to me. Local historians note that like many of his fellow Silsbee employees, he left that office to work with Louis Sullivan. After that, he spent some time with Jenney & Mundie before becoming a licensed architect. By 1894, he was partnering with Oak Park architect, Frank Ellis, who also happened to be the son of a local millworker and lumber dealer. Fiddelke worked with Ellis for about a year before starting his own firm in Oak Park, May 1895.  

While with Ellis, he completed a series of remarkable projects that are still standing. The most notable of these is the John Seaman Home, built in 1894. Except for the hipped roof form, Silsbee's influence is still incredibly clear both inside and out. The curved bay window and porch help create generous interior and exterior spaces that relate to one another. Detail and applied ornament is relegated to pediments above the dormers and a very elaborate pediment over the entry to the porch. The interior is a showcase of woodworking, frescoing, and art glass, typical of the era.

John Seaman House, Fiddelke & Ellis, architects, Oak Park, 1894.

The neighborhood surrounding Seaman's home was ripe for development in the mid to late 1890's and Fiddelke got a good share of the work, designing speculative and rental homes for developers as well as a handful of custom homes for individual clients. While unique to Oak Park, because it was an attached row of homes, the townhome project for Mrs. Jennie June is a good example of this type of speculative venture. During this time, he was also doing similar and sometimes more substantial work for clientele on the South Side of Chicago. This type of work would follow Fiddelke throughout his career and become a mainstay for his practice. 

Row Homes for Mrs. Jennie June, Fiddelke & Ellis, architects, Oak Park, 1894.

Many of these homes follow a formula, both in form and in ornamental program. A two story form with bays was usually covered by a simple single-gable or hipped roof punctuated with a couple dormers. Two excellend examples of homes from this period are a home he designed for John I. Jones (1897) and another that he designed for Johanot (1898). 

Rev. Rodney Johonnot House, Henry G. Fiddelke, architect, Oak Park, 1896.

John I. Jones Home, Henry G. Fiddelke, architect, Oak Park, 1897.

The front was usually marked with a porch and then fascia, gables, and the porch pediment were adorned with an applied scrollwork. This scrollwork was common to almost all of Fiddelke's frame homes of this period and became a trademark of sorts. There are a handful of similar examples by other Oak Park architects but none of his contemporaries adopted this as a personal expression quite the way that Fiddelke did. 

A small sample of the many pedaments with scrollwork found around Oak Park. Some are by Fiddelke and others remain unattributed. 

Fiddelke's work was not confined to the well to do in Chicago and Oak Park. It is unclear if he had associations with German business groups but he was an active member of the German Baptist church in Forest Park and given his clientele, he clearly had strong ties to the German community. Residential and commercial projects for first and second generation German-American business-people can be found dotting towns near Oak Park, like Forest Park, River Forest, Elmhurst, Wheaton, Melrose Park, Maywood, and LaGrange.

An excellent example of Fiddelke's commercial work is Henry Belling's Billiard Parlor and Bowling Alley, Henry G. Fiddelke, architect, Melrose Park, IL, 1902.

In Wheaton, he designed a modest building for Burckal's Market but his Secker Building is more remarkable. Built in 1898 (now demolished). It took up a large corner lot and featured a striking turret, carved stone work, and art glass windows. In this same vein, in Elmhurst, his Keeler's Luncheon building, Soukup's Hardware, and Weber Building are nice modest examples, and the slightly more elaborate Mahler Building still stands as an excellent example of this type. 

Not all of these commercial structures were so modest though. An early structure for English-born butcher, Samuel Blackler, in Lake Forest, is probably the most elaborate of these early structures. Designed by Fiddelke & Ellis, this three story building and has multi-story bays clad and ornamented with lovingly restored and reconstructed copper. The building also has exceptional brick work, with brick detailed arches and banding. 

Blackler Building, Lake Forest, Fiddelke & Ellis architects, 1895.

Detail of front bay and brick and terra cotta on the Blackler Building. 

Detail of the side bay and brickwork on the Blackler Building

Another large example of this type is in his hometown of Oak Park. It was designed for Dr. John Tope. It too is three stories with elaborate bays and brickwork. The building to the north of it has similar detailing and is most likely also by Fiddelke.  

Dr. Tope's building, Oak Park. Construction began in 1895 under Fiddelke & Ellis and a third story was added under Fiddelke's direction in 1897. The building to the right was also likely designed by Fiddelke.  

Detail of Dr. Tope's building showing accentuated keystone, quoined jamb and arch, and shield and swag motif above, all characteristic of Fiddelke's commercial work. 

While his work seemed to set the tone for small commercial districts in the areas around Chicago, there was no town where his influence was so strongly felt as in Forest Park (formerly Harlem). In the 1890's, Fidddelke designed many modest homes in the village. They can mostly be found dotting the neighborhoods just south of Madison Street, as far south as the expressway, between Harlem and DesPlaines Avenues. He also did work for at least three of the German churches in the community: St. John's Lutheran, St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran, and the German Baptist church. The structures he designed for St. John's are gone but the main churches of St. Peter's and German Baptist both still stand.

St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church (left), built in 1910 and the German Baptist Church (right), built in 1904. Both designed by Henry G. Fiddelke. 

John Reiss House, Henry G. Fiddelke architect, Forest Park, 1895. The shingle is a modern addition but the pedament and other ornamental features appear to be intact.

One of Fiddelke's more profound effects on the character of Forest Park can be seen in its commercial strip, Madison Street. There are records of him working on four store and flat buildings on the street but physical evidence suggests that he designed at least eleven more. Like his residential work, the design of these projects took on a somewhat formulaic approach. Each structure is two-stories, storefront at grade and flats above. The facade is brick and dominated by a metal-clad bay at the second floor. In the brick portion of the second floor, there is typically an arched window with quoined jambs and a heavily accentuated keystone or other ornamental feature. The bay is clad in flat metal and has applied ornament, sometimes similar to the scrollwork of his homes. But unlike the homes, where the ornament is relegated to trim and ornamental components like pediments, fascia, and brackets, the survfaces of the bays are often covered the ornament as well as repeated sculptural medallions like flur de lis, shields, swags, and other heradlry. 

Store and Flats for C. J. Gotsch, Henry G. Fiddelke architect, Forest Park, 1895.

Detail of side bay of the Gotsch Building, Forest Park.

The overall character of this ornament has a decidedly European appearance that seems tailored to an immigrant audience. The ornamental program become a sort of marquee or identifier on the urban street that simultaniously demarks the individual business while also giving the overall street a cohesive appearance. 

Street view of detail from Adolph Peter's Madison Street building, Henry G. Fiddelke architect, 1896. Peter's was a very popular butcher who ran stores in two locations. 

Street-level view of multiple Fiddelke-designed storefronts on Madison Street, Forest Park. 

As is evidenced by examples mentioned above some of these commercial structures have artistic merit on their own but the array of structures that still stands on Madison Street is unique and more remarkable because they are a collection. In Forest Park in particular, it created a unique civic identity for a specific German-American community.  

Selection of Madison Street buildings, Forest Park. Most, if not all, were designed by Henry Fiddelke.

In the early years of his career, Fiddelke was incredibly prolific. He executed at least a hundred commissions in the first 10 years of practice. He could design in a manner that was expressive of his individuality and catered to the refined and expensive tastes of affluent clientele. He did this while maintaining the ability to tailor those design ideas to more modest homes and places of commerce for working class communities. This ability to work within both of those worlds with a high degree of creativity would serve him well as his work and practice matured. 

This is Part One of a two-part post. To see Part Two, CLICK HERE.