Renovations for the University Club of Chicago

Often times, the most significant commissions are not those that are the largest of those that cost the most money.  The work that Joseph Silsbee did for the University Club of Chicago, though modest in comparison with other works, may have been the most important in sustaining his career.

Silsbee was a founding member of the club in 1887 and was hired to design renovations to the third and fourth floors of the Henning & Speed Building for use as the Club headquarters.  The officers and founding members of the club consisted of prominent citizens, many of whom were graduates of eastern Ivy League Universities.  Several were Silsbee's classmates at Harvard.  As the club grew, it's membership list reads like a directory to Silsbee's residential clients.

In 1889, the club had outgrown it's initial space and purchased a building on Dearborn street to renovate for it's new clubhouse.  Again, Silsbee was hired to oversee the renovations and a large addition.  The building was the Hansen Building, designed in 1885 by architect John Addison.  Addison was a talented architect and his five-story brick and terra cotta office building seemed to be a perfect canvas for Silsbee to add to.            

Silsbee oversaw complete modifications of the interiors for the club's use.  On the exterior, he was responsible for a two-story and attic addition that dramatically changed the profile of the existing structure.  The addition is marked by two large intersecting gable roofs.  It is remarkable how Silsbee's addition almost seemlessly blends with Addison's structure.  Facing Dearborn street, the pilasters of the original structure are extended an additional story and capped with ornimantal terra cotta.  The bottom of this large gable is composed as an abstract over-sized Paladian window with a giant terra-cotta encrusted pediment at the top of the gable.  A flag pole extended from the center of this element.  An excellent image of this feature, with foliate elements intertwining the initials "U C", can be found in the archives of the Art Institute. 

In 1892, on the eve of the World's Columbian Exposition, Silsbee was hired once more to renovate the rooms, staircase and elevator to prepare the club for the numerous visitors that were expected for the World's Fair.  At this time, Silsbee also renovated the second floor of the club so it could be sublet to the Chicago Literary Club.  Silsbee and many other University Club members were also members of this club.  It began meeting in the University Club library, pictured below, a year before it made it's permanent home on the second floor.

It is in the meetings of the Literary Club where we get a rare glimpse of Silsbee's interest in architecture theories.  His close friendships with prominent club members Frederick Gookin and Joseph Kirkland are worth noting but more important is the fact that Silsbee delivered scholarly papers at the club.  Though they were never published, he presented papers on Color in Architecture and Back Yards.  The most interesting presentation would have been his contribution to a four-part series given by himself along with architects Irving Pond, Peter Wight and Louis Sullivan in 1895.  In this series, each architect pondered the question: "Can Architecture Become Again a Living Art?".  The Literary Club stayed in the University Club building until 1906 when it moved to the Orchestra Building in rooms designed by club member, Irving Pond.   

The most remarkable room in the University Club was the Banquet Hall.  This was a two-story space on the sixth floor.  It had a dramattic curved beam ceiling and the walls were decorated with the shields of the colleges represented by the club members.  At the time of the 1893 renovations, there were thirty-seven.

As with all of the rooms in the clubhouse, the room had elaborate woodwork and was richly decorated.  At the end of this room was an ornate balcony, where musicians could perform during club events.

In 1909, The University Club moved to its current clubhouse, the masterpiece of architect Martin Roche, on Michigan Ave.  The Dearborn Street clubhouse was sold to the Press Club of Chicago.  Silsbee was also a member of this club and it is due to the pride that the Press Club had in this building that we have the above images.  All of the images are from various club publications now found online.  The Press Club stayed in the building until it moved in 1915.  It moved back to the building in 1929, where is stayed until the club disbanded in 1939.  The entire block, which also contained Henry Cobb's Boyce Building, was demolished in the 1960's.        

Home for John Wilkinson

While undertaking this research, I am continually surprised and intrigued by the connections between the various places where works are found.  Sometimes the connections are so clear and obvious that it is hard not to imagine a larger pattern or history at work.

In 1887, J. L. Silsbee designed a home for Chicago banker, inventor, Unitarian, and generally outspoken citizen, John Wilkinson.  A native of Syracuse, N. Y., wilkinson was the son of Syracuse’s first  lawyer, John Wilkinson Sr.  The elder Wilkinson is considered a founding father of the upstate New York city and gave it it’s name in the 1820’s.

Silsbee’s social and professional connections to the Wilkinson family are varied.  He designed additions to a Syracuse mansion for Wilkinson’s sister, Rebecca, and her husband, George Barnes.  Silsbee was also a close friend with Joseph Kirkland, another Central New York native and inlaw to the younger John Wilkinson.  Silsbee designed the Kirkland School in Chicago in 1890.  The Kirklands, Wilkinsons, and Silsbees, along with Silsbee’s inlaws, the Sedgwicks and Gannetts were all influential and active Unitarians and had close personal and social ties.

In addition to its architectural significance, due to the social standing of the Wilkinsons, the home also has important local historical significance.  It was the site of the first meeting of the Chicago Unitarian Club in 1888 and the site of many subsequent social and organizational meetings for Unitarians.  Wilkinson’s wife, Laura Ware Wilkinson, was an active author and was very influential in the home economics movement in America.  Perhaps not coincidentally, the Kirkland School taught young women many of the same household economics principles that Laura Wilkinson wrote about.

The Wilkinson home is a very simple structure and was constructed for a modest $7,000.00 by contractor John Mountain.  The overall form of the home is a typical Chicago row home with a prominent front bay and entry to one side but Mountain’s expertise in carving and arranging stonework is showcased in the carefully detailed granite façade.  Mountain seemed to be Silsbee's contractor of choice when it came to these stone structures.  A year later, he also built the remarkable Henry Stone residence, just a few blocks away.  The richness of the granite and this level of craftsmanship, with curved window heads, intricately detailed finials and trim, and random ashlar stone sets the design of this home apart from its neighbors.             

Home for Ora S. Hubbell

In January of 1887, a description was published for a Silsbee-designed home in San Diego, California.  It was to be built for banker and real estate magnate, O. S. Hubbell ("O. S." is almost always how he is referred to) and was to be the largest and most extravagant residence to be built in the city at that time.   

The residence would have been two and a half-stories tall, with a stone base and shingle clad upper floors.  A large turret with an open walkway around the top is the most prominent feature of the home but closer observation shows it had many complex balconies, recessed porch areas and glazed sun rooms.  The new residence was for O. S. and his wife, Kate Groesbeck, and was to be built on Groesbeck Hill, now known as Prospect Hill.

The home was never constructed to Joseph Silsbee's plans.  Instead, Hubbell's mansion was re-designed and built to plans of James and Merritt Reid.  The mansion, known locally as the U. S. Grant Jr. or Havermale Mansion, was demolished in the 1920's to make way for the El Cortez Hotel.  The change in architects, from J. L. Silsbee to the Reid Brothers is a hint at a much larger puzzle about Silsbee in San Diego that still remains unsolved.

A year after notices about the Hubbell Residence appear in newspapers, additional notices appear that Silsbee is suing the Coronado Beach Company, developers of the landmark Coronado Hotel, for payment for his design work on the hotel.  Given the amount he was suing for, he was trying to recover the entire design fee.  The main partners in this development were Hampton Story and Elisha Babcock.  O. S. Hubbell was the treasurer of the company.  Incidentally, Hampton and Story were also officers for the First National Bank; a bank where Hubbell was director and vice-president.

The story of how Coronado was built and the work of the architects, James and Merritt Reid, has become legendary.  The two brothers from Evansville, Indiana supposedly slaved over drawings and would hand them off to contractors who were literally building the hotel around them.  The notion that Silsbee, a well respected designer famous for his shingle-style structures, was involved in the designs of the largest standing shingle-style hotel is a fascinating story.  It is also interesting to look at the remarkable hotel building with this in mind.  An early plat of the Coronado development shows a site for a hotel and a small outline for a hotel structure but it does not resemble the structure that was built.  There are no records of what Silsbee's design looked like so any conclusions about his authorship requires a lot of conjecture.  Furthermore, the outcome of the court case was never published so any official opinion about his involvement is also unknown.

This is one of the many examples of works where J. L. Silsbee was hired for a design in a place far from where he lived.  Some of these projects were built and though they were either re-designed or superintended by local architects, they still resemble Silsbee's work. Others, like the Hubbell residence, appear to have been completely re-designed with few references to the original plan.  Silsbee was obviously proud of this design as it was published twice in different architectural journals, in 1890 and 1894. 

Home for Charles R. Steele

From about 1887 to 1889, Joseph Silsbee's popularity as a fashionable residential architect seemed to soar and he became responsible for designs of structures for a myriad of lawyers, bankers and other notable local figures scattered across the country. At this time, he was at work on structures from Syracuse, New York to San Diego, California and all parts in between. Given that his primary office was in Chicago at the time, it is no surprise that the greatest number of these works were scattered across the state of Illinois.

In 1887, he was commissioned by banker and former City of Waukegan mayor, Charles R. Steele to design a substantial home, befitting his prominent social position. Sadly, it is unlikely that Steele ever saw his home completed as he died in 1888.          

The resulting design was one of Silsbee's largest homes of the period; a huge three-story mansion all made of stone with a massive turret at the corner and wide porches on two sides.  The style of the structure is a mixture of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival.  An ogee-shaped roof caps the corner turret of the home.  Evidence suggests that Charles' son, Nelson, lived in the home but little more is known about the structure.  It was said to have been demolished in the 1980's after a fire. 

Residence for Charles Germain

This large Shingle Style home was commissioned by lawyer Charles Germain and is located along Buffalo's "Millionaire's Row", Delaware Avenue.  It is one of several opulent homes by Silsbee & Marling in this affluent section of Buffalo.   It is a huge home with a brick first story and shingles on the two stories above.

Despite many alterations, the home has many decorative features intact, including bands of foliate carved wood trim and a roughcast clad cove below the front gable.  The brick work and stone detailing are also exceptional.  

The original plan called for a more complex series of interior an exterior spaces at the main entry and directly above it.  An excellent view of the home, soon after it was first built, along with other Silsbee & Marling structures, can be seen on this website devoted to the work of architectural photographer C. D. Arnold.