Warehouse and Stores for Jacob Amos & Sons

Practically in the shadow of his Syracuse Savings Bank Building, sits Joseph Silsbee's Amos Block.  It was part of the massive complex of buildings that stretched another three blocks west, forming the Jacob Amos & Sons mills.  It was designed in 1877 and constructed the following year.  The 1878 structure incorporates an older structure with an addition and a new facade to create a series of stores and warehouse for the milling company.  It was constructed for the Amos family and was likely overseen by Charles Amos, a son of Jacob Amos Sr. who oversaw operations of the Syracuse mill.      

The Amos Building has one of the most varied and intricately detailed facades of any Silsbee building I know.  Stylistically, with it's Romanesque and Moorish influences, it is a departure from the High Victorian Gothic business blocks that he designed elsewhere in the city of Syracuse.

The facade boasts a dictionary-full of masonry details and motifs. The masonry surface is accented with a series of masonry piers. Fields of wall are composed of bricks that are turned at forty-five degrees to create a serrated pattern. Others are accented in a checkerboard pattern with every other brick recessed.

Almost every window head has a different type of arch. Some are Moorish or horseshoe arches. Others have simple round arches with stone accents and others are grouped under shallow segmental arches.  Tiny Romanesque arches support a shallow coping at the roof-line.  Carved lintels and stone accents provide additional variety to the lively facade.  The variety is a rare example of Silsbee's affinity for exotic styles and motifs.

The overall composition on the Water St. side of the building serves to break up the building in a series smaller hospitable parts while incorporating the three buildings behind it into a discernible whole.  It is not as refined, in rich material or design, as some of his other commercial structures but given it's function as a store, it certainly would have garnered a lot of attention for the Amos Company.

Home for Herman Hettler

When I started researching this home, I didn’t intend on blogging about it anytime soon.  I thought that I might some day see the interior and wanted to wait until that day.  After my experience at the home a few weeks ago, I now doubt that day will ever come.  My bad experience with a caretaker of the property also piqued my interest because, except for maybe an experience I had with a B&B owner in upstate New York, it may be the most negative experience I have had with a Silsbee homeowner.  After a little digging, I found that the recent history of the home was just as rich as the 100 years that preceded it.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog that on the eve of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Joseph Silsbee’s office was extremely busy.  It was busy with work for the Exposition but it was also busy with work on homes and public buildings, seemingly evidence that the entire city was preparing to put on a huge show for the influx of guests that would be arriving.  

In 1892, construction began on a large home he designed for lumber dealer, Herman Hettler.  Hettler was co-owner of Hartwell Lumber.  Edwin Hartwell, the senior partner in the firm lived a block north on Newport (now Stratford Place).  At the time, the streets Hawthorne and Newport comprised a small enclave of large, very remarkable, architect-designed homes.  Though few still exist, shingle style homes by George Maher, Burnham & Root, Louis Sullivan as well as two other homes by Silsbee graced the streets.

Hettler’s home has a wide front porch supported by delicately detailed columns.  It extends across the front of the home and incorporates a porte-cochere, giving the home a strong horizontal character.  A side gable roof arrangement seems to accentuate this horizontality and, as a counterpoint, a large round tower in the front rises above the steep roof line.  The base and parts of the first floor are made of large rough-cut stone with the upper stories clad in shingles.  Flared barge boards at the dormer, half timbering in the turrett and a side double-gable give the home an English character.  It is the only known shingle-clad home designed by Silsbee that still stands in the city of Chicago.  This is significant as Silsbee has been noted by many historians as the architect that introduced Chicago to the Shingle Style.  Also, Silsbee's contributions to the style have particular importance as it relates to the early work of his former employee, America's most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

One mystery on the site is a small garden cottage, once referred to as a “Japanese tea cottage”.  Local lore states that it was used by Hettler’s company at the World’s Columbian Exposition.  After some research, I found that the Hartwell Lumber Company did have an exhibit in the Forestry Building at the fair but I found no evidence that this building was used as part of it.  It is likely that it was an exhibition piece as it showcases an array of siding sizes and shingle styles.  It is s simple structure yet beautifully detailed with a flared base, compound trim at the windows and door and a T-shaped bay window arrangement on one side.  Given the style and detailing on the small structure and the fact that it was constructed the same time as the home, I believe that it is very likely that Silsbee was involved in its design.  If there are any World’s Columbian Exposition sleuth’s out there, I’d love to hear your opinion.

In the past twenty years, the home had a tumultuous history.  It was auctioned by the Hettler family in 1984.  At the time, the home had retained many of its original features.  It was sold to the highest bidder, the neighboring Chicago City Day School.  In early 1996, the school demolished the coach house that stood behind the home.  It is likely that Silsbee designed that as well.  The property became a galvanizing agent for local preservationists.  A preservation official with the city was fired for allowing the demolition and a tide of support for a landmark designation of the street followed.  The school, in turn, threatened to tear down the home and went as far as to file a permit for demolition.  The local landmark designation was approved and demolition was not allowed.  The process was taken to the courts but newspaper accounts taper off after that.  The home still stands.  This recent history can be seen as a snapshot of how preservation activism plays out in some communities.  It is also evidence of just how vulnerable historic structures like this home actually are.               

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.