| 300 East | |
 TheNational Historic LandmarkJohn J. Glessner House at 1800 South Prairie Avenue | |
| Maintained by | Department of Streets & Sanitation |
|---|---|
| Location | Chicago |
| South end | 134th Street (13400 S)[1] |
| North end | Roosevelt Road (1200 S) |
Prairie Avenue is a north–south street on theSouth Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in theNear South Side to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins as a major trail for horseback riders and carriages. During the last three decades of the 19th century, a six-block section of the street served as the residence of many of Chicago's elite families and an additional four-block section was also known for grand homes. The upper six-block section includes part of the historicPrairie Avenue District, which was declared aChicago Landmark and added to theNational Register of Historic Places.
Several of Chicago's most importanthistorical figures have lived on the street. This is especially true of the period of recovery from theGreat Chicago Fire of 1871 when many of the most important families in the city moved to the street. Residents of the street have influenced the evolution of the city and have played prominent national and international roles. They have influenced thepolitical history, thearchitecture, theculture, theeconomy, as well as thelaw and government of Chicago. The street has over time been influenced by thedemographics of Chicago.
The importance of the street declined, but it still has landmark buildings and is the backbone of a historic district. Preservation battles regarding various properties on the street have been notable with one having been chronicled on the front page ofThe New York Times. In the early 21st century, parts of the street were redeveloped to host townhouses and condominiums. In the late 20th century and early 21st century the street was extended north to accommodate new high-rise condominiums, such asOne Museum Park, alongRoosevelt Road. The redevelopment extended the street so that it has prominent buildings borderingGrant Park with Prairie Avenue addresses.
Prairie Avenue once served as anIndian trail linkingFort Dearborn toFort Wayne inIndiana and thus derived its name from the vastmidwesternprairie land between the two endpoints.[1] In 1812, theBattle of Fort Dearborn occurred in the area that is now the northern section of the street, in what is known as theNear South Sidecommunity area.[2] Casualties of the battle, such asWilliam Wells andGeorge Ronan, were struck down here.[3]
Over time, the district has evolved from an upscale neighborhood to a factory district and back to an upscale neighborhood. Zoning in 1853 anticipated residential development, although only one grand villa existed at the time. By 1877 the eleven-block area of Prairie Avenue as well as Calumet Avenue housed elite residences. By 1886 the finest mansions in the city, each equipped with its own carriage house, stood on Prairie Avenue.[4] In the 1880s and 1890s, mansions forGeorge Pullman,Marshall Field, John J. Glessner andPhilip Armour anchored a neighborhood of over fifty mansions known as "Millionaire's Row".[1] Many of the leading architects of the day, such asRichard Morris Hunt,Henry Hobson Richardson andDaniel Burnham designed mansions on the street. At the time of the 1893World's Columbian Exposition, guidebooks described the street as "the most expensive street west ofFifth Avenue".[5][6] However, afterBertha Palmer, society wife ofPotter Palmer, built thePalmer Mansion that anchored theGold Coast alongLake Shore Drive, the elite residents began to move north.[1]
By 1911, warehouses and factories cramped the Prairie Avenue District. Large industry overtook the district by 1950. Early 21st century deindustrialisation, urban congestion, and historic preservation have brought the return of trendy buildings, and restored as well as renovated structures. Simultaneously new infill housing is resuscitating the district.[4] Now, the historic northern section of the street is part of theChicago Landmark Prairie Avenue District that is listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[7][8] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1972 and declared a Chicago Landmark on December 27, 1979.[7][9] The historic district includes the 1800 and 1900-blocks of South Prairie, the 1800 block of South Indiana and 211 through 217 East Cullerton.[10]
In the 1850s, railroad related industries prospered near the lumber district along the South Branch of theChicago River. Thus, the business district began to supplant the elegant residences alongMichigan and Wabash Avenues south of Jackson Boulevard.[11] Shortly after theCivil War, the city's wealthy residents settled on Prairie Avenue due to its proximity to theLoop less than a mile away and the fact that traveling there did not involve crossing theChicago River. In 1870, Daniel Thompson erected the first large upper-Prairie Avenue home.Marshall Field followed in 1871 with aRichard Morris Hunt design.[12] Prairie Avenue was the most posh Chicago address by the time of theGreat Chicago Fire of 1871.[11]
Many of South Michigan Avenue's elegant villas were destroyed in theGreat Chicago Fire of 1871.[13] The post-fire South Side ofChicago grew rapidly as all economic classes left the city's center. Many of Chicago's elite families settled along Prairie Avenue. By the 1870s and 1880s, Prairie Avenue was the location of elaborate houses between 16th Street and 22nd Street (nowCermak Road).[14] In 1886, the urban elite, includingGeorge Pullman,Marshall Field,Philip Armour and John B. Sherman all owned family homes in this area that created an opulent Prairie Avenue streetscape reminiscent of European city streets;[13] as such, it was widely regarded as the city's most fashionable neighborhood. Businesses, such as thePullman Company,Armour & Company andD.H. Burnham & Company, with ties to Prairie Avenue had national and international reach and impact.[15] Additional grand homes (including manyQueen Anne style architecture in the United States andRichardsonian Romanesque) were located on Prairie between 26th and 30th Streets starting in the mid-1880s.[12] The last mansion, a three-story Georgian Revival residence with 21 rooms, was built in the district at 2126 Prairie Avenue in 1905.[5]
However, as the start of the 20th century came, industry's pervasive reach, increased railroad soot, and an encroaching vice district, caused the area to become less desirable, and the social elite vacated the region for quieter neighborhoods such asKenwood, theGold Coast and more commonly the suburbanNorth Shore.[13] TheChicago Tribune highlighted 1898 Prairie Avenue as a place that was undesirable to those for whom it was affordable, and unaffordable to those for whom it was desirable.[16] Light industry and vacant lots overtook Prairie Avenue during the second half of the 20th century. The elegant mansions were mostly torn down or fell into extreme disrepair.[12] By the 1970s, most of the residential buildings had been replaced by factories and parking lots.[6] Starting in the late 1990s, the downtown housing market flourished in Chicago and the resulting boom that has transformed many neighborhoods revived Prairie Avenue, causing most of the factories to be demolished or converted to loft condominiums. The factories have been replaced by condominium projects and most of the remaining mansions have been renovated.[6]
 George Pullman residence: 1729 S. Prairie Ave. (c. 1900)  Interior of Pullman Residence (1922)  Al Capone residence: 7244 S. Prairie Ave. (1929) |
 Marshall Field residence: 1905 S. Prairie Ave. (c. 1905)  Mercy Hospital: 2537 S. Prairie Ave. (1910)(whereTheodore Roosevelt went after 1912-10-14 shooting) |
During the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s, upper Prairie Avenue residents were central to cultural and social fabric of the city. The economy was supported by the thousands of jobs created by thePullman Car Company andArmour and Company. Chicago's richest man, Marshall Field, changed the buying habits of the city. John Shorthall saved the property from total chaos after theGreat Chicago Fire by saving property records. At one point in the 1880s, sixteen of the 60 members of theCommercial Club of Chicago lived on Prairie Avenue.George Armour headed the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, which became theArt Institute of Chicago.[17] 1801 South Prairie resident,William Wallace Kimball, employed about 1500 people around the start of the 20th century in his organ and piano manufacturing company.[18] John Glessner, a founder ofInternational Harvester, built what has been described as the centerpiece of the historic district.[5]
As a home to many of Chicago's leading families, Prairie Avenue became the base of many important political movements. Woman'ssuffrage had activists, such as Illinois Women Suffrage Association President Jane Jones, on Prairie Avenue.Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. State of Illinois,146 U.S.387 (1892), pitted the public welfare of the city against the railroad industry and was the foundation for the public trust doctrine which facilitated the city's reclamation of much of the lakefront. Prairie Avenue residents bolstered other efforts to fight against the railroads. The concentration of wealth also made Prairie Avenue the target of complaints about taxation inequities.[19]
Many of these leading families also took part inphilanthropy. John Shorthall, founder of Chicago Title & Trust and Prairie Avenue resident, created the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and convened local and state societies to unite under a national organization (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) that could combine its political strength and lobby Congress. TheIllinois Institute of Technology was a successor entity of the Armour Institute of Technology, which was an outgrowth of the generosity of Philip andJoseph Armour.[20]
Historic preservation in Chicago has saved some of the city's architectural heritage. The efforts of theChicago Architecture Foundation and theLandmarks and Preservation Council of Illinois have been at the forefront of these efforts. TheCommission on Chicago Landmarks (now part of the city's Department of Planning and Development) has designated the Prairie Avenue Historic District as a city landmark.[21]
A few of the mansions of the heyday still remain in the 1800-block including the National Historic landmark designatedJohn J. Glessner House designed in 1886 by architectHenry H. Richardson for Glessner;[11][22] these provide a sense of the street's former character. Glessner House, which was the subject of a notable preservation battle in the 1960s,[6] is considered to be Richardson's finest urban residence.[5] This district includes theHenry B. Clarke House, which although twice relocated is purported to be the city's oldest standing house. In addition to the Clarke House and the Glessner House, nine other houses from the late-19th century remain in the historic district portion of Prairie Avenue.[5][21] Both the Glessner House and the Clarke House are on theNational Historic Register and now serve as museums.[21] Most of the Prairie Avenue families worshiped at the Chicago LandmarkSecond Presbyterian Church of Chicago, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[23]
Marshall Field lived at 1905 South Prairie and purchased 1919 South Prairie for Marshall Field, Jr. It is believed thatSolon Spencer Beman had contributed to the design of what is now known as the Marshall Field, Jr. Mansion. Then, Field hiredDaniel Burnham to design extensions and additions to the property after purchasing it 1890.[10] In 2007, theCommission on Chicago Landmarks announced the rehabilitation of the Marshall Field Jr. Mansion, which had been vacant for 40 years and which was renovated as six private residences, won a Preservation Award.[24]
Today, Prairie Avenue has buildings indexed in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey in theNear South Side,Douglas,Grand Boulevard,Washington Park andChathamcommunity areas.[25] Among the properties listed is a simple two-flat used by Al Capone in the 1920s at 7244 South Prairie in Greater Grand Crossing.[26] Other current prominent addresses are the Kimball House at 1801 South Prairie (Near South Side),[23] 2801, 3564, 3566, and 3600 South Prairie (Douglas),[27] and 4919 South Prairie (Grand Boulevard).[28]
TheWilliam Wallace Kimball House, which is a three-storyturretedchateau, was designed bySolon Beman, who is best known for his work in thePullman District of thePullman community area.[5] Adjacent to the Kimball House and across from the Glessner House is the Coleman-Ames mansion at 1811 South Prairie.[5] These two houses were formerly owned byR.R. Donnelley & Sons Company and now jointly serve as the national headquarters for theUnited States Soccer Federation (USSF), which leased them from 1991 until 1998 when it purchased them from the Chicago Architectural Foundation.[5] The Kimball house, which has been the product of a $1 million renovation in the 1990s by the USSF was featured inRichard Gere'sPrimal Fear as well as several television shows.[5]
Al Capone and his family lived in the two-storyred brick duplex at 7244 South Prairie Avenue from 1923, which is shortly after he moved to Chicago, until 1931, when he was sent off to prison forincome taxfraud.[29] The Capone family kept the home until his mother's death in 1952. In 1988, the privately owned house was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places by historians as the home of one of Chicago's most famous citizens.[30] The nomination was withdrawn after local politicians and members of Italian-American groups sharply argued that it would appear to validate the life of a murderer and hoodlum. The house retains the security bars on the basement windows and the brick garage out back, which the Capone built for his bullet-proofCadillaclimousine.[29]
In 2000, theHoward Van Doren Shaw-designed 1907Georgian Revival Platt Luggage Building at 2301 South Prairie was the subject of preservation debates whenMcCormick Place attempted to tear it down to build a parking garage. The conflict, which was not settled beforewreckers had knocked a hole in a corner of the building and which included protests and a petition to theIllinois Supreme Court, was described on the front page ofThe New York Times.[31] Preservationists, including theLandmarks Preservation Council of Illinois and theNational Trust for Historic Preservation, eventually dropped their appeals once the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority committed to incorporating the originalfacade of the building into the exterior of the parking garage at an additional cost of $2.5 million to the project.[32][33] TheHarriet F. Rees House at 2110 South Prairie was spared demolition in 2014 and moved one block north to 2017 South Prairie.[34]
A book on the history of the street, entitledChicago's Historic Prairie Avenue, was published on June 2, 2008, as part of Arcadia Publishing Co.'s Images of America series. William H. Tyre is the author.[35] In 2006, thePrairie District Neighborhood Alliance, a non-profit organization, was formed to provide representation for thousands of South Loop residents, including the Prairie District, Central Station and Museum Park, Motor Row, the South Michigan Ave Corridor, as well as other areas of the Near South Side.[36]
In 2003, the area redevelopment was well underway.Deindustrialization andurbanization had pushed outmanufacturing. As a result, factories were generally demolished, or converted toloft apartment buildings. Some neglected mansions survive as restored or renovated properties in the historic district.[4] Today, Prairie Avenue is undergoing a redevelopment that includesOne Museum Park (1215 South Prairie Avenue) andOne Museum Park West (1201 South Prairie Avenue). These Prairie Avenue addresses border theRoosevelt Road side ofGrant Park. One Museum Park is the tallest building onChicago's South Side and among thetallest buildings in Chicago.[37] It surpassed340 on the Park as the tallest all-residential building in Chicago,[37] and it is second to theTrump World Tower in the United States.
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