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The Beverly Maisonettes By Harold T. Wolff, Ridge Historical Society Beverly/Morgan Park has very few examples of the town house – that is, that elegant version of the rowhouse intended as the upscale residence of city dwellers whose lifestyle focuses on business or the social whirl and leaves little time for domestic activities. One such complex is now called the Vanderpoel Townhome Condominiums, though it was introduced to the public as the Beverly Maisonettes. In 1936.
The Beverly Maisonettes were designed for the Beverly Hills Building Corporation in 1935, when new construction of multi-family buildings was still a somewhat chancy undertaking, following the Great Depression. In fact, the illustration accompanying the Chicago Tribune’s article on the project, in the Sunday issue of December 29, 1935, carries the title "Chicago’s First Large Apartment in Years." Before even attempting construction, the owners solicited tenants, and 32 applications were on file for the 22 "flats" before they decided to proceed with the venture. The architects for the Beverly Maisonettes was the firm of Quinn & Christiansen, whose principals were Roy T. Christiansen (1896-1968) and Everett F. Quinn (1896-1963). Both attended Armour Institute of Technology, a predecessor of the Illinois Institute of Technology, though Christiansen did not graduate, probably because of World War I. Indeed, he also served in World War II. He would go on to become the City of Chicago’s Commissioner of Buildings from 1947 to 1954. Quinn also served in World War I, but his graduation appears to have been delayed because he obtained a degree in piano and composition from the Sherwood Conservatory of Music while pursuing his studies at Armour. (In later years he wrote several musical comedies which were performed by amateur groups.) Both worked for various architectural firms before they formed their partnership in 1925. They specialized in apartment hotels and cooperative apartment buildings. The original style of the townhomes was Art Moderne, although this has been somewhat obscured by modifications made over time. There is a porthole window on the unit at 9522 South Vanderpoel Avenue, and the three horizontal stripes near the roofline can still be seen in many places, although it is covered by a false mansard roof for long stretches. The corners on 95th Place are all rounded on the first floor but squared off on the second. The units originally had small porch roofs consisting of semicircular aluminum marquees above each door or pair of doors, but these have been replaced by metal canopies. Quinn & Christiansen’s original concept called for the second floor walls to be set back to allow for outdoor porches or sundecks, but these appear to have been eliminated in favor of bigger or additional bedrooms even before construction began. Inside, the Tribune reported, each two-story unit had a living room, dinette or dining room, and kitchen on the first floor and one or two bedrooms on the second floor. Although there are many individual Art Moderne houses on the Ridge, examples of other building types in this style are rare, so it is refreshing to find this largely intact example preserved in the Vanderpoel Townhome Condominiums, to give us an idea of the lifestyle of small families and couples on the go in the 1930s. |
The
Vanderpoel Townhome Condominiums, seen from above, would appear as a reversed
letter "S" forced into a square, with its base along Vanderpoel
Avenue and its side on West 95th Place. The Vanderpoel houses
face directly on the street, while all but one of the 95th
Place residences face onto a small grassy court whose south end opens
onto that street. The property is so arranged as to give all the units
a tiny back yard either in a small gated north-facing courtyard behind
the Vanderpoel Avenue houses or in a fenced area on the west side of the
complex. These back yards really are more of a common grassy space than
property devoted to individual use.