James Charnley House

“At the north end was the laundry room. All the main rooms in the house have fireplaces, and those on the first floor are of marble with elaborately carved wooden mantels in typical Sullivanesque style.”

“Except for a profusion of ornamentation in scattered areas, the Charnley House interiors were as simple as anything done by the Austrian pioneer, Adolf Loos and others twenty years later.”

“Designated as a landmark by the Commission on Chicago Architectural Landmarks in 1962, as one of the 29 Chicago buildings photographed and recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1964, and as a National Historic Landmark, the Charnley House stands unique, as the first stepping-stone in Frank Lloyd Wright's rapid climb to his place as leader of an architectural revolution that occurred in Chicago between 1890 and 1913 and ushered in the Prairie School.”

“Blake does find, however, "certain romantic, art nouveau touches Wright had obviously acquired from Sullivan", such as the projecting balcony with a low wall ornamented in a typically Sullivanesque manner and the continuous frieze embellishing the edge of the flat, projecting roof that was reminiscent of Sullivan's decorative treatment of the roof fascia of the Wainwright Building in St.”

“He was married in 1871 to Helen M. Douglas, daughter of John D. Douglas, who in 1881, was not only president of the Illinois Central Railroad but the "& Company" of James Charnley & Company.”

“In contrast to his father, who had eight or nine children, he had only two, James B. III and Ellen, who became Mrs. John Borden and later Mrs. John Alden Carpenter, mother-in-law of Governor Adlai Stevenson.”

“He served in the Navy in World War I and was married for the first time in 1925 to Sarah Given, with whom he had two children--another James B. and another Robert A.!”

“Instead, the house has been rented, which leaves its fate in question. So goes the story of an early Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece and the people who lived in it.”

“With the exception of the windows flanking the entrance, upper-floor windows are double-hung. The long balcony above the entrance apparently was originally of stained wood. It is now painted brown, and the thickness of what must be many coats of paint detracts from the beauty of what is presumed to be Wright's geometric adaptation of carved Sullivanesque ornamentation on both the low balcony wall and the entablature that rests on a colonnade of eight wooden pillars.”

“The Charnleys, who had one son, were prominent members of the Fourth Presbyterian Church and lived on Lake Shore Drive for many years before buying property in 1890 at the corner of Schiller and the new street named Astor, where the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed for them was to be built.”