David Adler casts a long shadow in the world of residential architecture. Enough of one that another creator of Chicago-area mansions in the early part of the 20th Century might be overlooked.
Benjamin Marshall designed the Drake and Blackstone Hotels, but his residential legacy has diminished as Adler — renowned for his neoclassic architectural style — has become the subject of numerous books and museum exhibits.
“Marshall wasn’t always as good as Adler, but he was a very accomplished architect,” says Arthur Miller, curator of special collections at Lake Forest College’s Donnelly Library. “Like Adler, he was good with details and dealt with a variety of styles, and that’s what people notice.”
Other architectural experts concur.
“As architects of single-family residences outside the city, Howard Van Doren Shaw and David Adler were both better than Marshall, although there are few if any others as good as Marshall,” says Carroll Westfall, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame South Bend, Ind. “Marshall understood the relationship of room to room about as well as anyone, and [his] urban apartments displayed this to the fullest. In [Chicago], and in larger buildings both residential and commercial, Marshall was better than Adler and the peer of Shaw, from whom he differed very much. Shaw was more inventive, Marshall more stylish.”
“Marshall was more ornate than Adler, he had more details,” says architect Lucien Lagrange, who is restoring the Blackstone Hotel. “Adler was simpler.”
Only a few Marshall houses are listed on the National Register for Historic Places. Among them are the Mayslake Peabody estate and a Lake Forest home. There are easily a dozen other undocumented Marshall homes in Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Bluff and Wilmette that could be demolished as property values escalate and the teardown phenomenon spreads.
One in the spotlight now is the 14,500-square-feet home that Marshall designed in 1911 for Harry Clow, an executive with mapmaker Rand McNally. The Lake Bluff house sits on 20 acres with an 1896 polo field, both of which were later incorporated into a landscape created by premiere designer Jens Jensen.
The Georgian Revival house is on the market for $25 million. Because neither the home nor the grounds are historic landmarks, the dwelling could be demolished and the polo field and surrounding land subdivided.
What makes the house remarkable are the classic Marshall touches such as the dual staircase, according to Miller. The windows above the stairs overlook the polo grounds, a view that rivals the Lake Michigan view to the rear. Marshall could have easily put windows where the stairs meet midway between the two floors, but the porte-cochere would have blocked a full view of the lawn, according to Miller. Instead he located the windows on the second floor, providing a breathtaking view of the grassy greens where Gen. George Patton once played.
Marshall picked up this knack for detail while growing up in Chicago. He was born to a wealthy miller in 1874, just three years after the Great Chicago Fire. Marshall didn’t receive formal architecture training but apprenticed with the Marble and Wilson architectural firm. He was made partner after Oliver W. Marble died, after just two years of apprenticeship.
After returning from a European tour in in 1902 Marshall started his own firm, designing the Iroquois and Chicago Theaters.
One of Marshall’s first residential projects was a Colonial Revival house he designed in 1904 for John T. Pirie, founder of the Carson Pirie Scott department store, said Elizabeth Hedsund of the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical society. That Lake Forest home is now part of the town’s historic district.
In 1905, Marshall paired up with Charles Fox, a partnership that lasted until Fox died in 1926. Fox acted as a construction specialist, while Marshall concentrated on design. The two were best known for their luxury hotels and apartment buildings. These include the French-themed 1550 N. State Pkwy. mid-rise built in 1911, according to the University of Texas, and the Stewart Apartment Building, 1200 N. Lake Shore Drive, which was constructed the following year.
Marshall & Fox’s Blackstone, built in the Second Empire Classical style in 1908, is currently being converted to condominiums, which are expected to be completed by 2005. Prices range from $2.2 million to more than $6 million.
The 21-story hotel was listed on the National Register in 1986. Lagrange, who is dong the conversion, thinks the Blackstone is one of the most beautiful buildings in Chicago. He says that it’s one of two hotels in the city that have mansard roofs. The other is the Belden-Stratford on Lincoln Park West.
Fox and Marshall are famous for the Italian-French-style Drake Hotel, which was built in 1919. The landmark has a cosmopolitan cachet that continues to draw guests today. “The Drake’s not the best use of real estate,” says Lake Forest College’s Miller, noting the 10-story hotel is small compared to surrounding high-rises. “But it’s still there and it’s marvelous. A wedding reception there is a once-in-a-lifetime event.” The national landmark was put on the market in March by English Hilton Hotels Group PLC. There is no set asking price.
Marshall also made his mark in Chicago’s suburbs with a Venetian-style mansion he designed for Samuel Insull, founder of Commonwealth Edison, in 1914.
Prominent businessman John F. Cuneo bought the Vernon Hills estate in 1937 and his family opened up the house to the public in 1991. This 75-acre estate is the best example of Marshall’s work, in Miller’s opinion, because it’s intact and preserved. But it’s not a designated landmark. The family has talked about getting the property on the National Register but hasn’t actively pursued the designation, says Cuneo spokesman Mary Cook. Opening the estate to the public was the Cuneos’ priority.
The architect also designed the legendary — demolished in 1969 — Edgewater Beach Hotel, which opened with great fanfare in 1914.
Marshall’s other local suburban masterpiece is the Mayslake Peabody estate in Oak Brook. He designed the 39-room, Tudor-style mansion for coal magnate Francis Stuyvesant Peabody. Construction began in 1919. Called Mayslake after Peabody’s wife and daughter who were both named May, the house was barely complete when Peabody died in 1922 during a fox hunt on the estate.
The family sold the 848-acre estate to the Franciscan Order of the Sacred Heart and the monks added a chapel, friary and seminary to the property. They sold off large parts of the property and by the 1990s only the grounds immediately surrounding the house and other buildings remained.
The order offered the property to the DuPage County Forest Preserve District, which bought the 90-acre property in 1992. It was added to the National Register in 1994.
Marshall’s own Spanish Renaissance Wilmette studio, built in 1921 on North Sheridan Road, near the B’ahai House of Worship, is a story unto itself. Ever the socialite, he would invite Ziegfeld Follies showgirls to swim at his tropical garden-themed swimming pool, according to a 1971 Chicago Tribune story.
Marshall’s swan song was the Edgewater Beach Apartments, which was built in 1928 next to the hotel with a similar flamingo pink exterior. The apartments, at 5555 N. Sheridan Rd., have an orange rating in Chicago’s Historic Resources Survey, which means the city recognizes the building’s significance, but they are not protected from demolition.
Now a co-op, it’s unlikely the Edgewater would be demolished. Owners recently spent $16 million to renovate the facade.
, The success of Marshall & Fox did not continue after Fox’s death. Marshall redecorated theater interiors to pay the bills, but he had to sell his Wilmette estate, according to Notre Dame’s Westfall. Marshall died in 1944 and the Wilmette house was demolished in 1950.
Other surviving residences may suffer the same fate. For example, the Walden Shaw residence in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood, built by Marshall & Fox in 1906, is color-coded orange in the city’s historic resources survey, meaning it is vulnerable to demolition.
The survey, published in 1996, identifies many Chicago buildings constructed before 1940. More than 17,000 buildings were categorized with various degrees of historical significance. Those buildings deemed “red” and “orange” had some architectural significance on a citywide or neighborhood basis. They were not necessarily eligible for landmark status.
Mayor Richard Daley amended the survey results last year in December 2001 when an orange-rated Loop building, the Mercantile Exchange at 300 W. Washington St., was threatened with demolition. He instituted a 90-day temporary hold on demolition permits for orange-rated buildings so preservationists intent on saving a particular building can explore alternatives. However, demolition is under way.
The government encourages preservation of landmark homes through the use of tax breaks. Andrew Fisher, director of development for the Illinois Landmarks Preservation Council, said the first step is for the owner to get the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Then the owner donates a preservation easement on the property to the council, he says. The easement designates the council as conservator of the property and prevents demolition.
In return for the easement, homeowners receive a one-time 20 percent tax break on the home’s appraised value, Fisher says. Those tax breaks can be significant. Last year a Gold Coast homeowner donated an easement on his $11 million National Register house to the council. In return, he received a $1.75 million tax deduction. It’s important to note that a landmark status doesn’t halt demolition; an easement does, Fisher says.
“This is how we stop teardowns,” he says. “It’s the most important tool we have.”
The owner of the Clow property, auto parts executive Ronald Friedman, is not seeking landmark status, according to listing agent Jane Lepauw of Baird &Warner.
But landmark status and its accompanying tax breaks could be a great incentive for the next buyer, says Lepauw. “It’s a beautiful property . . . hopefully, someone will fall in love with it, save it and be a Chicago hero,” she says. “However, I’m open to all offers.”
Miller hopes a preservationist will buy the Clow property. “The landscape is one of the best preserved Jens Jensen designs on the North Shore,” says Miller. “If it were lost, it would be a great shame.”
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1874: Benjamin Howard Marshall was born the only son of baking company owner
1893: Joined the firm of Marble and Wilson as a clerk until 1895
1903: Iroquois Theater (later Colonial Theater), demolished 1925, 24-28 W. Randolph St.
1905: Established his own practice with Charles Fox
The South Shore Country Club, 7059 S. South Shore Drive; construction completed in 1916
1908: The Blackstone Hotel
1910: Landsdowne — Clow Estate, 128 Moffett Road, Lake Bluff; construction completed in 1911
1913: French-themed mid-rise, 1550 N. State Pkwy.
1914: Samuel Insull Estate (later Cuneo), Vernon Hills
1919: Mayslake Peabody estate, Oak Brook
Drake Hotel, 140 E.Walton St.; construction completed in 1920
1921: Marshall Home and Studio, Wilmette
1926: Charles Fox dies
1944: June 19, 1944 — Marshall dies in Chicago, age 70
