The Marriage of Art and Architecture

By Harold T. Wolff, Ridge Historical Society

The William Merchant Richardson French House, 9203 S. Pleasant Ave., was designed broadly within the Colonial Revival framework, but was not based on a specific model from Colonial times.

It was erected in 1894 for William M.R. French (1843-1914), the first director of the Art Institute of Chicago. French was descended of old New England stock, and his family included Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. He was named for his grandfather, William Merchant Richardson, who had been chief justice of New Hampshire. He was educated at the public schools, at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1864.

French served in the Civil War until illness forced him to leave the army. After the war, he took up engineering and landscape gardening, and he came to the Midwest originally to lay out part of the North Shore suburb of Highland Park. In 1874, he showed an interest in taking up artistic pursuits, and in 1878 became Secretary of the Chicago Academy of Design.

In 1879 a new society, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, was organized with French as Secretary. Subsequently it became the Art Institute of Chicago and he became its first director. French was married twice, first in 1879 to Sarah Lovejoy, who died in 1881; and then to Alice Helm, who survived him. Besides being an author and lecturer on art topics, he was interested in prisoners’ aid and was the superintendent of the Sunday School of what is now St. Paul’s Bible Church for 18 years.

Although the construction of the French House was frequently mentioned in contemporary Chicago newspapers, no architect is ever named, and in published sources the designer is only identified on an Inland Architect plate depicting an interior of the house. Doubtless this was because French, as director of the Art Institute, had many acquaintances who were architects whom he did not wish to slight.

In fact, the architect of the French House was William Augustus Otis (1855-1929), whom Construction News once labeled "one of the best educated architects in this country." Otis was born in western New York State but grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he attended the public schools and the University of Michigan, earning a degree in civil engineering in 1877. He then studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1877 to 1881.

Returning to the United States, Otis worked for William Le Baron Jenney, becoming his partner in 1887. In 1889, he went into sole practice, in which he remained until 1908, when he elevated his chief draftsman, Edwin Hill Clark, to partner. The firm of Otis & Clark continued until 1920.

In 1922, Otis formed a partnership with Revilot Fuller, which continued until Otis’ death. Otis designed many libraries, including the Orrington Lunt Library at Northwestern University, as well as many churches and residences. Perhaps his most important contribution was setting up the joint program of architectural studies conducted by the Armour Institute of Technology and the Art Institute, known as the Chicago School of Architecture. This was the first architectural school in Chicago and the predecessor of the program at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Perhaps French first met Otis in connection with the series of lectures that inaugurated the program in 1889.

The French House does not quite conform to Colonial models, since its front windows are paired on either side of the main entrance rather than ranked. The main entrance is duplicated above by the door to the balcony which runs atop the porch across the front of the house. There is a semicircular bay on the south side of the house, again with balcony above. The hipped roof contains two chimneys, two front-facing dormers, and a rooftop widow’s walk with balustrade. The roof overhang is supported on brackets, and is typical in Colonial Revival houses. Pilasters of wood emphasize the corners of the building. The door and window surrounds are simple, but are allowed to overshadow the frieze boards beneath the roof brackets. There is an oval window on the south side which is also elaborately framed.

Although not readily visible from the street, the house has certain unique features. On the inside of the fascia of the porch on the first floor there are a series of sculptures, said to have been done by students at the Art Institute, reproducing the similarly placed frieze of the Parthenon. Over the fireplace of the parlor, there is another sculptural frieze, this one done by French’s brother, Daniel Chester French, whose most famous work is the sculpture of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The house deliberately avoids being true to Colonial models, and even the Parthenon frieze betrays more a touch of whimsy than formality. Its symmetry guarantees a degree of dignity, but there is nevertheless a certain air of accommodation, an open sacrifice of formality in favor of decorative effect. In this house, it is as easy to imagine French entertaining his Sunday School class as his Art Institute patrons.