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160-448: Chicago Training School can refer to: Chicago Manual Training School Chicago Training School for Home and Foreign Missions Chicago Training School for Home and Public Nursing Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Chicago Training School . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

320-479: A day's journey from Chicago, which guaranteed the tavern a steady supply of prospective customers for many years. At about the same time he purchased a stone quarry about a mile south-west of the settlement (where Robbins, Illinois now stands) and operated it concurrently with the inn, although apparently without as much success. He was a member of the school board when Blue Island built its first brick schoolhouse in 1856, and served as clerk and later as assessor for

480-673: A $ 5 million gift from the philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932), who was president of Sears, Roebuck and Company . It is likely that Robert Seyfarth was introduced to Maher through family connections. Because Edward Seyfarth was an important local businessman, he would almost certainly have been familiar with the established architect's work that was being built in Blue Island. Robert Seyfarth began to offer his services as an independent architect almost immediately after his graduation from Chicago Manual Training School. A late 19th century directory of Blue Island, published while he

640-786: A German-ethnicity sovereign state , within what today comprises Germany, occurred in 1778 as the state flag of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz , a defunct principality in the modern state's borders. Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the German Mediatisation from 1795 to 1814, and the territory was included within the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine organized in 1806. The 1815 Congress of Vienna confirmed these changes and

800-412: A building, quite devoid of ornament, may convey a noble and dignified sentiment by virtue of mass and proportion. It is not evident to me that ornament can intrinsically heighten these elemental qualities. Why, then, should we use ornament? Is not a noble and simple dignity sufficient? ... I should say that it would be greatly for our esthetic good if we should refrain entirely from the use of ornament for

960-399: A careful analysis will show that Seyfarth served a broad-based clientele, and although he has a number of small houses to his credit the largest percentage of his work was done for what would be considered upper middle-class clients. During his career, Seyfarth's work appeared in magazines and journals and in the advertisements of various architectural supply firms. The extent to which this

1120-625: A century. Here he was practicing what Root and Louis Sullivan had preached: "The value of plain surfaces in every building is not to be overestimated. Strive for them, and when the fates place at your disposal a good, generous sweep of masonry, accept it frankly and thank God." – From a paper read by Root before the Chicago Architectural Sketch Club, January 3, 1887 and later published in Inland Architect . and "...I take it as self-evident that

1280-656: A certain extent. One client of this class, Willoughby G. Walling (1878–1938), of Winnetka, IL, is known to have mingled with European royalty and with at least one President of the United States in his capacity as the acting director general of the Department of Civilian Relief and as Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the American Red Cross . His brother William English Walling

1440-432: A distillation of prevailing revivalist architecture, characterized not by the frequent devotion to detail that typified the movement but by strong geometry, a highly refined sense of proportion, and the selective, discriminating use of historical references. Although any use of these references was condemned by many of the proponents of what was seen as "modern" architecture in the ensuing years, "the neoclassical impulse ...

1600-453: A hardware dealer, especially in an age when primogeniture was considered important. Besides his classes in drawing Seyfarth studied mathematics, English, French, Latin, history, physics, chemistry, foundry and forgework, machine shopwork, woodwork, political economy and civil government. He attended classes and graduated in 1895 with the son of Dankmar Adler, the son and the nephew of Henry Demarest Lloyd and with Henry Horner (1878-1940) who

1760-468: A legacy of architecture that "speaks of good breeding with an independent spirit." Robert Seyfarth grew up as a member of a prominent local family. His grandfather William Seyfarth had come to the United States in 1848 from Schloss Tonndorf in what is now the state of Thuringia , Germany, with the intention of opening a tavern (what would now be considered an inn) in Chicago. Advised to locate outside of

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1920-711: A minimum voting age of 21. Between 1920 and 1932, under the Weimar Republic , six Landtag elections were held. Thuringia was one of the states where the Nazi Party first gained real political power during the Weimar Republic. Wilhelm Frick was appointed Minister of the Interior in the state coalition government after the Nazi Party won six deputies to the Thuringian Landtag in

2080-553: A noted architect after he left Seyfarth's employ shortly before the advent of World War II . Humrich enjoyed a distinguished career designing and building houses in the Usonian style of Frank Lloyd Wright. He earned his architectural license in 1968. In a series of interviews with the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986, he summed up Seyfarth's appeal: "He had an excellent sense of proportion and scale. His houses were all true to

2240-400: A noted proponent of modern architecture, recognized the emotional limitations of houses that expressed their design using the typical modern vocabulary of glass, concrete and steel: "They have often interesting aesthetic qualities, they arrest us by their novelty and their drama, but too often they have very little to say to us". The case for the use of historic references in modern architecture

2400-422: A period of years, in order that our thought might concentrate acutely upon the production of buildings well-formed and comely in the nude ... This step taken, we might safely inquire to what extent a decorative application of ornament would enhance the beauty of structures - what new charm it would give them ... We shall have learned, ... that ornament is mentally a luxury, not a necessary, for we shall have discerned

2560-555: A phrase which perfectly reflected Seyfarth's design for this particular house and may have been one of the reasons why images of it were included. Because of his association with the Chicago Architectural Club, Seyfarth would have ample opportunity to become acquainted with the major players of Chicago's progressive architectural community, a large number of whom were active members. These were relationships that Maher would doubtless have encouraged. Notables among

2720-460: A relationship that lasted until about 1893. He briefly enjoyed a professional relationship with Northwestern University in Evanstion, Illinois, where in 1909 (during Seyfarth's tenure in his office) he designed Swift Hall and the first Patten Gymnasium (demolished 1940). These buildings were bold expressions of his unique design philosophy and were to have been integral parts of his master plan for

2880-610: A satisfied client. Seyfarth had designed a house for him at 230 Fairview Road in Glencoe in 1919 that appeared in The Western Architect the following year (see image, left), and an addition to the Dartnell Corporation building at R avenswood and Leland Avenues in Chicago in 1932. This house is one of Seyfarth's largest, and sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. The layout is such that most of

3040-582: A street that today contains one of the most intact collections of residences built in the late 19th century for Chicago's elite. The same book also shows that Orasmus Beardsley was a member of various prestigious clubs, including The Chicago Athletic Association (where William Wrigley Jr. and L. Frank Baum were members) and the South Shore Country Club (now the South Shore Cultural Center ), where he associated with

3200-447: A strong tendency from rural areas towards the big cities. From 2008 to 2012, there was a net migration from Thuringia to Erfurt of +6,700 persons (33 per 1000 inhabitants), +1,800 to Gera (19 per 1000), +1,400 to Jena (14 per 1000), +1,400 to Eisenach (33 per 1000) and +1,300 to Weimar (21 per 1000). Between Thuringia and the other German states, the balance is negative: In 2012, Thuringia lost 6,500 persons to other federal states,

3360-726: A study for the Ernest J. Magerstadt house which Maher built at 4930 S. Greenwood Avenue in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago in c.1908. It appeared in the background of establishing shots in the 2011 New Line Cinema film The Rite , which starred Anthony Hopkins and Colin O'Donoghue . Pictures of the house appeared in Architecture magazine in 1917 and in The Architectural Record in October 1914. Here it

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3520-538: A well-equipped winter sports destination – half of Germany's 136 Winter Olympic gold medals had been won by Thuringian athletes as of 2014. Thuringia was favoured by or was the birthplace of three key intellectuals and leaders in the arts: Johann Sebastian Bach , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , and Friedrich Schiller . The state has the University of Jena , the Ilmenau University of Technology ,

3680-635: A wide circulation in its time. It was acquired the following year for the collection of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh , and referred to that same year in an illustrated article that appeared in Printers' Ink Monthly entitled "The Loose-Leaf Portfolio - an Aid to Reader Interest", where it was described as "...a very attractive loose-leaf portfolio" and as a successful example of its type of publication. The last known example of Seyfarth's work to be published during his lifetime appeared in

3840-504: Is temperate with humid westerly winds predominating. Increasingly as one moves from the north-west to the south-east, the climate shows continental features: winters can be cold for long periods, and summers can become warm. Dry periods are often recorded, especially within the Thuringian Basin, leeward to mountains in all directions. It is Germany's driest area, with annual precipitation of only 400 to 500 mm. Artern , in

4000-418: Is a signature feature of Seyfarth's work is the embellishment of the front door as the main decorative feature of the house, usually to the exclusion of everything else on the building. This allowed for the buildings' geometry and finish materials to speak for its architectural style, and act as a counterpoint to what was seen, especially then, as the fussiness of the architecture of the previous three quarters of

4160-469: Is about 1.78% less. The current population is 2,120,237 (31 December 2020) with an annual rate of decrease of about 0.5%, which varies widely between the local regions. In 2012, 905,000 Thuringians lived in a municipality with more than 20,000 inhabitants, this is an urbanization rate of 42% which continues to rise. In July 2013, there were 41,000 non-Germans by citizenship living in Thuringia (1.9% of

4320-819: Is an average by the average of averages.". Toward the end of his life, when he was chairman of the Municipal Arts and Town Planning Committee of the Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects , Maher became the driving force behind the restoration of the former Palace of Fine Arts, then a crumbling ruin which was by then the only major building that remained from the World's Columbian Exposition. In an article that appeared in The American Architect in 1921, Maher made

4480-497: Is being developed and perfected, and even now its first achievements are beginning to delight us. This is not the old thing made over; it is new. It springs out of the past, but it is not tied to it; it studies the traditions, but it is not enslaved by them. It is doing original work, and it will do more. " Seyfarth's adaptation of "old world standards" to suit modern taste was done in several ways. First of all, Seyfarth flooded his interiors with natural light. What made this possible in

4640-593: Is bordered by Bavaria , Hesse , Lower Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , and Saxony . It has been known as "the green heart of Germany" ( das grüne Herz Deutschlands ) from the late 19th century due to its broad, dense forest. Most of Thuringia is in the Saale drainage basin , a left-bank tributary of the Elbe . Thuringia is home to the Rennsteig , Germany's best-known hiking trail . Its winter resort of Oberhof makes it

4800-551: Is forest with beech as its predominant species, as can still be found in the Hainich mountains today. In the uplands, a mixture of beech and spruce would be natural. However, most of the plains have been cleared and are in intensive agricultural use while most of the forests are planted with spruce and pine . Since 1990, Thuringia's forests have been managed aiming for a more natural and tough vegetation more resilient to climate change as well as diseases and vermin. In comparison to

4960-560: Is from the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Seyfarth embraced Wright's feeling that "...We no longer have an outside and an inside as two separate things. Now the outside may come inside and the inside may and does go outside. They are of each other." Seyfarth frequently designed outdoor living space that was under the protective roof of the house but exposed its occupants to the benefits of fresh air and sunlight (see gallery images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 24, although some have been subsequently enclosed.) And

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5120-416: Is known to have entered his work at two of these exhibitions - the first time in 1903 (before he became a member), when his submission was listed as a "Library", and again in 1905, where the subject of the entry was his own house in Blue Island. The preface to the catalogue of the 1905 exhibition was devoted to what the noted architect Elmer Grey (1872–1963) called "Inventive and Indigeonous Architecture",

5280-470: Is now Thuringia were the Sorbs proper , who unified all tribes in what is now southern half of Eastern Germany. The Ostsiedlung movement led to the assimilation of Slavic people between the 11th and the 13th century under German rule. The population growth increased during the 18th century and stayed high until World War I , before it slowed within the 20th century and changed to a decline since 1990. Since

5440-545: Is one notable exception. The Hubbard/Brach house, which stood at 595 Sheridan Road in Winnetka, IL, was demolished in 2001 by a developer over the strong objections of local historians and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois . The property had a hat trick in the arsenal for its defense that should have prevented it from being razed, but Winnetka had a weak landmark ordinance that required

5600-718: The Bratwurst and the Forest , because a large amount of the territory is forested. Named after the Thuringii Germanic tribe who occupied it around AD 300, Thuringia came under Frankish domination in the 6th century. Thuringia became a landgraviate in 1130 AD. After the extinction of the reigning Ludowingian line of counts and landgraves in 1247 and the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247–1264),

5760-566: The Evangelical Church in Central Germany or to the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck ( Schmalkalden region). Catholic dioceses are Erfurt (most of Thuringia), Dresden-Meissen (eastern parts) and Fulda (Rhön around Geisa in the very west). Thuringia is a stronghold for the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party emerged as the largest in Thuringia in the 2021 national elections . In 2017

5920-685: The German Democratic Republic in 1949, but was dissolved in 1952 during administrative reforms , and divided into the Districts of Erfurt , Suhl and Gera . Thuringia was re-established in 1990 following German reunification , slightly re-drawn, and became one of the new states of the Federal Republic of Germany. The name Thuringia or Thüringen derives from the Germanic tribe Thuringii , who emerged during

6080-851: The German Peasants' War of 1525. In Mühlhausen and elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Thomas Müntzer , a leader of some non-peaceful groups of this sect, was active in this city. Within the borders of modern Thuringia the Roman Catholic faith only survived in the Eichsfeld district, which was ruled by the Archbishop of Mainz , and to a small degree in Erfurt and its immediate vicinity. The modern German black-red-gold tricolour flag's first appearance anywhere in

6240-640: The Goldene Aue , a fertile floodplain around Nordhausen with the Helme as most important river. The north-west includes the Eichsfeld , a hilly and sometimes forested region, where the Leine river emanates. The central and northern part of Thuringia is defined by the 3,000 km (1,200 sq mi) wide Thuringian Basin , a very fertile and flat area around the Unstrut river and completely surrounded by

6400-637: The Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station in the Thuringian Highlands. Thuringia is Germany's only state with no connection to navigable waterways. The geographic centre of the Federal Republic is in Thuringia, within the municipality of Vogtei next to Mühlhausen . The centre of Thuringia is eight kilometres south of the capital's Cathedral , in the municipality of Rockhausen . Thuringia's climate

6560-711: The Migration Period . Their origin is largely unknown. An older theory claims that they were successors of the Hermunduri , but later research rejected the idea. Other historians argue that the Thuringians were allies of the Huns , came to central Europe together with them, and lived before in what is Galicia today. Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus first mentioned the Thuringii around 400; during that period,

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6720-764: The Rhön Mountains around Geisa in the southwest. Protestant church membership is shrinking rapidly, whereas the Catholic Church is somewhat more stable because of Catholic migration from Poland, Southern Europe and West Germany. Other religions play no significant role in Thuringia. There are only a few thousand Muslims (largely migrants) and about 750 Jews (mostly migrants from Russia) living in Thuringia. Furthermore, there are some Orthodox communities of Eastern European migrants and some traditional Protestant Free churches in Thuringia without any societal influence. The Protestant parishes of Thuringia belong to

6880-725: The University of Erfurt , and the Bauhaus University of Weimar . The Frankish Duchy of Thuringia was established around 631 AD by King Dagobert I . The modern state was established in 1920 by the Weimar Republic through a merger of the Ernestine duchies , save for Saxe-Coburg . After World War II , Thuringia came under the Soviet occupation zone in Allied-occupied Germany , and its borders were reformed, to become contiguous . Thuringia became part of

7040-544: The Vogtland , a hilly but in most parts non-forested region in the south. The far eastern region (east of White Elster) is the Osterland or Altenburger Land along Pleiße river, a flat, fertile and densely settled agricultural area. There are two large rivers in Thuringia. The Saale , a tributary of the Elbe , with its tributaries the Unstrut , Ilm and White Elster, drains the most part of Thuringia. The Werra –

7200-595: The electoral threshold of 5%. The other two parties of the traffic light coalition in Berlin, Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), did not pass the threshold and lost all of their seats, which contributed to the break-up of that coalition on November 6th. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) recorded small gains and came second with 24%. The newly-founded Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance BSW debuted in third place at 16%. The AfD in Thuringia became

7360-793: The " Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich " of 30 January 1934, which replaced the German federal system with a unitary state . Thuringia was the location of the Buchenwald concentration camp with multiple subcamps. After being controlled briefly by the US following the end of the Second World War , from July 1945 the state of Thuringia came under the Soviet occupation zone and was expanded to include parts of Prussian Saxony, such as

7520-606: The 2011 Census results. Since the Protestant Reformation , the most prominent Christian denomination in Thuringia has been Lutheranism . During the GDR period, church membership was discouraged and has continued shrinking since the reunification in 1990. Today over two thirds of the population is non-religious. The Protestant Church in Germany has had the largest number of members in the state, adhered to by 20.8% of

7680-537: The 40 most important buildings in Chicago ), the Rosenberg Fountain in Grant Park (dedicated October 16, 1893, restored 2004), and Tree Studios at 601-623 N. State Street (1894–1913, with Parfitt Brothers, renovated 2004). Bauer is credited with the invention of the isolated footing foundation system, which allows for a longer span between vertical supports. This innovation among other things permits

7840-447: The Arkansas Soft Pine Bureau released a 32 page portfolio featuring houses built from Seyfarth's designs. Included were photographs, floor plans, bills of material, an estimate of the costs, and a brief description of important features. Entitled The Home You Longed For , the booklet was announced in Building Age Magazine under the heading "New Catalogs of Interest to the Trade". Although generally unavailable today, it must have enjoyed

8000-420: The Beardsley Dairy for a number of years. Her husband Orasmus Drake Beardsley had been the secretary and treasurer of her father's Chicago-based company, The Sykes Steel Roofing Company, which made a variety of products including roofing materials and pool tables. While there, according to the 1908 edition of The Chicago Blue Book of Selected Names , the Beardsleys lived at 4325 Grand Boulevard (now King Drive) on

8160-434: The Calumet State Bank. He served as village treasurer from 1880–1886 and as village trustee from 1886–1889 and again from 1893-1895. Over the years other members of the family were also active in the community - they were involved in banking, the board of education, and the Current Topics Club (later the Blue Island Woman's Club), who was largely responsible for the founding of the Blue Island Public Library. Charles A. Seyfarth

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8320-484: The Chicago Manual Training School, which was founded by the Commercial Club (after 1907 The Commercial Club of Chicago) out of a concern for the quality of the education of skilled labor in the Chicago region. The school had opened its doors on January 4, 1884 with four teachers and seventy-four pupils and the support of the sixty members of the club who had "pledged themselves to found a manual training school, and guaranteed for its construction, equipment and support [with]

8480-411: The Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1893, demolished 1972) and the Auditorium Building (1889) (now the home of Roosevelt University ). How long Maher worked for Bauer and his partners is not known, but by the 1880s he was working in the office of Joseph Lyman Silsbee , who before he became an architect had been professor of architecture at the new College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University . Silsbee

8640-402: The Chicago architect Augustus Bauer (after 1881 in partnership with Henry Hill who, with Arthur Woltersdorf would build St. Benedict Church in Blue Island in 1895 ) by his parents who, as was not unusual at the time, needed to augment the family income with the earnings that this type of employment would provide. As history would show, this turn of events proved to be fortunate for Maher. Bauer

8800-440: The Conquest." (The first two as an assistant to George Maher ). Notes Further reading Thuringia Thuringia , officially the Free State of Thuringia , is one of Germany's 16 states with 2.1 million people, its 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, its 11th-largest in area. Erfurt is the capital and largest city. Other cities include Jena , Gera and Weimar . Thuringia

8960-405: The December 1929 election. In this position, he removed from the Thuringian police force anyone he suspected of being a republican and replaced them with men who were favourable towards the Nazis. He also ensured that, whenever an important position came up within Thuringia, a Nazi was given that post. Following the Nazi seizure of power in Berlin, the Landtag was formally abolished as a result of

9120-412: The George Mahler house at 90 Ridge Road in Highland Park (1942) was demolished and replaced with a larger home, but its virtual twin still stands at 12857 S. Maple Avenue in Blue Island, having been built for William Schrieber in 1950, the year of Robert Seyfarth's passing. Ada Louise Huxtable , the Pulitzer Prize -winning architectural critic for The New York Times , made this classic observation about

9280-423: The House and the Secretary of State for James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur ] and Julius Rosenwald. Other wealthy clients exported Seyfarth's talents when they built houses outside the Chicago area. Norman W. Harris (of Chicago's Harris Bank ), whose intown residence was also in Winnetka, raised Arabian horses at Kemah Farm in Williams Bay, Wisconsin where his family lived in a "white cottage ..., one of

9440-431: The Ludowingian Landgraves of 12th-century origin. The eight stars around it represent the eight former states which formed Thuringia. The flag of Thuringia is a white-red bicolor, derived from the white and red stripes of the Ludowingian lion. The coat of arms and flag of Hesse are quite similar to the Thuringian ones, since they are also derived from the Ludowingian symbols. Symbols of Thuringia in popular culture are

9600-447: The McBride House), the Pacific Lumber Company (featuring the Churchill house in Highland Park at 1375 Sheridan Road), The Creo-Dipt Company (see image, left), the White Pine Bureau, the American Face Brick Association and the Stewart Iron Works Company of Cincinnati (with a picture of the H. C. Dickinson house at 7150 S. Yale in Chicago). In 1908, his Prairie-style house for Dickinson was published in House Beautiful magazine. In 1918,

9760-655: The North Shore ..., and they're outstanding. He had a knack, kind of a freshness to it, and it was good." In 1911 Robert Seyfarth designed and built a gambrel roofed Shingle Style house for his family on Sheridan Road in Highland Park, across the street from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ward Willets house (1901), and it marked a change in the direction of his design work - for the rest of his career his would design in an eclectic style combining Colonial Revival , Tudor and Continental Provincial elements with strong geometric forms. During his career Seyfarth would design 73 houses in Highland Park alone, where his output began before

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9920-411: The September, 1948 edition of Good Housekeeping magazine. The "Little Classic" was an expandable ranch that the magazine had commissioned which it noted featured "...a cornice [that] is pure sculpture - no jackscrews of mingled mouldings [to] confuse its clean profile." The illustrated article also pointed out that "...the porch at the head of the garden is reached through paired French doors from both

10080-446: The Thuringian states' inclusion in the German Confederation ; the Kingdom of Prussia also acquired some Thuringian territory and administered it within the Province of Saxony . The Thuringian duchies which became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany were Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , Saxe-Meiningen , Saxe-Altenburg , Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and

10240-422: The Thuringii were famous for their excellent horses. The Thuringian Realm existed until after 531. The Landgraviate of Thuringia was the largest state in the region, persisting between 1131 and 1247. Afterwards the state known as Thuringia ceased to exist; nevertheless the term commonly described the region between the Harz mountains in the north, the White Elster river in the east, the Franconian Forest in

10400-426: The United States was founded by architect William Robert Ware at MIT in 1868 with nine students, and even by 1896, the year after Seyfarth's graduation, there were only nine schools in the country with a combined student body of 273. ) Seyfarth joined during the time he worked for Maher, who over the years was an active member of the club as a speaker, writer, exhibitor and judge in its annual competitions. Seyfarth

10560-484: The age of 17 working for Fiedler during the time the latter was architect to the board of education, and records show his position at the time he was hired to be "messenger" (although, as noted above, his graduation notice suggested something more than that), for which he was compensated with a salary of $ 6.00 per week (about $ 219.76 in 2023). Fiedler operated out of offices in Adler and Sullivan's Schiller (later Garrick Theater) Building (1891, demolished 1961), and Seyfarth

10720-416: The age of five, due to the adverse economic conditions in Mill Creek at the time, his family moved to New Albany, Indiana . There Maher attended primary school, but by the time he was in his early teens the family was on the move again, this time to Chicago. They went there to take advantage of the prosperity that had come to the city after the Great Fire of 1871, and in 1878 George was sent to apprentice with

10880-435: The architectural world at large for the next forty years. In her book A Poet's Life - Seventy Years in a Changing World , the writer, founder of the magazine Poetry and social critic Harriet Monroe succinctly noted forty-five years after the closing of the Fair that "... like all great achievements of beauty, it has become an incalculably inspiring force which lasted into the next 'age'." The education of an architect in

11040-410: The area east of Saale and Loquitz valley, is marked by a hilly landscape, rising slowly from the flat north to the mountainous south. The Saale in the west and the White Elster in the east are the two big rivers running from south to north and forming densely settled valleys in this area. Between them lies the flat and forested Holzland in the north, the flat and fertile Orlasenke in the middle and

11200-549: The area into a number of smaller states, according to the Saxon tradition of dividing inheritance amongst male heirs. These were the " Saxon duchies ", consisting, among others, of the states of Saxe-Weimar , Saxe-Eisenach , Saxe-Jena , Saxe-Meiningen , Saxe-Altenburg , Saxe-Coburg , and Saxe-Gotha . Thuringia generally accepted the Protestant Reformation , and Roman Catholicism was suppressed as early as 1520; priests who remained loyal to it were driven away and churches and monasteries were largely destroyed, especially during

11360-403: The areas around Erfurt , Mühlhausen , and Nordhausen . Erfurt became the new capital of Thuringia. Ostheim , an exclave of Landkreis Eisenach, was ceded to Bavaria. In 1952, the German Democratic Republic dissolved its states, and created districts ( Bezirke ) instead. The three districts that shared the former territory of Thuringia were Erfurt, Gera and Suhl . Altenburg Kreis

11520-415: The balance was negative with Switzerland (−2,800) and Austria (−900). Of the approximately 850 municipalities of Thuringia, 126 are classed as towns (within a district) or cities (forming their own urban district). Most of the towns are small with a population of less than 10,000; only the ten biggest ones have a population greater than 30,000. The first towns emerged during the 12th century, whereas

11680-408: The beginning of Urbanisation around 1840, the Thuringian cities have higher growth rates resp. smaller rates of decline than rural areas (many villages lost half of their population since 1950, whereas the biggest cities ( Erfurt and Jena ) kept growing). The 1981 census projected that Thuringia's population would reach 2,221,222 by 2011. The population counted in the 2011 census was 2,181,603, which

11840-415: The birth ratio. Furthermore, the population is getting older and older with some rural municipalities recording more than 30% of over-65s (pensioners). This is a problem for the regional labour market, as there are twice as many people leaving as entering the job market annually. The birth rate was about 1.8 children per women in the 1970s and 1980s, shrinking to 0.8 in 1994 during the economic crisis after

12000-524: The broad expanses of glass that have become a standard feature of modern architecture. Maher was not Bauer's only notable protégé - at the beginning of the Civil War and again at the end of it, Bauer employed Dankmar Adler (1844–1900), who would later work with Louis Sullivan on buildings that would come to be regarded as important contributions to the Chicago School of architecture, notably

12160-562: The building is unequalled as a pure example of classical architecture. It is the last remaining memorial of one of Chicago's greatest achievements, the Columbian exposition." Maher didn't live to see what he had begun come to fruition, but during the Century of Progress in 1933 the Museum of Science and Industry opened in the newly restored building, a project which was funded largely with

12320-467: The campus, which the board of trustees had commissioned through a competition in 1911 but failed to execute. This prompted one commentator in later years to lament "It's probably the most regrettable loss in Northwestern architectural history: the unique Prairie School campus that never was". Frank Lloyd Wright would have predicted the outcome. What follows is point 13 in his list of advice given "To

12480-427: The ceiling of a convention dormer and half the area of the cheek walls is virtually eliminated (see image above - the angle of the sunlight as shown here is represented as it would be at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes in Chicago ). Elsewhere, bays and banks of windows were frequently included to offer the same benefit. Another device that was sometimes used quite dramatically by Maher (see image, upper left) that

12640-460: The centrally located fireplaces that Wright espoused, along with their prominent chimneys, were to become a major feature of Seyfarth's work. One feature of the current age, the ubiquitous attached garage (the successful inclusion of which apparently continues to confound architects today), was frequently incorporated into the design of the main house with such skill one observer noted that "...Norman peasants must have been driving automobiles since

12800-554: The charming, low, rambling houses for which Robert Seyfarth, its architect, is famous.". Another such client was Jessie Sykes Beardsley, who returned to her husband's farm in Freedom Township near Ravenna, Ohio in 1918 the year after his death and built a large house (locally known as the Manor House) which was designed by Seyfarth that she had commissioned, presumably while she was still in Chicago. Here she operated

12960-537: The city, he settled with his wife Louise in Blue Island, which a couple of years earlier had begun to experience an influx of immigration from what was then known as the German Confederation . William purchased a building that was standing at the south-west corner of Grove Street and Western Avenue and opened his business. The location was a good one - it was on what was then called the Wabash Road

13120-701: The city, including the Lincoln Park Conservatory (1890–1895) and the West Virginia Building and the Moving Sidewalk for the World's Columbian Exposition (1893). While he worked for Silsbee, Maher worked alongside George Grant Elmslie (1869–1952), Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) and Irving Gill (1870–1936), who would each later become prominent architects, although with decidedly different architectural styles. In 1888 Maher established his own office with Charles Corwin,

13280-426: The college towns Erfurt , Jena , Weimar and Ilmenau have the highest rates, whereas there are almost no migrants living in the most rural smaller municipalities. The Thuringian population has a significant sex ratio gap, caused by the emigration of young women, especially in rural areas. Overall, there are 115 to 120 men per 100 women in the 25–40 age group ("family founders") which has negative consequences for

13440-447: The community was taxed trying to perform all of the work that was necessary to keep up with the task. Chicago was developing at a rate that astounded anyone who was paying attention to its growth, such that "one unfamiliar with the city would find ... fresh subject for astonishment, daily, in [its] ever-changing and ever-extending boundary lines." As the Chicago architect John Wellborn Root recalled years later: "The conditions attending

13600-555: The conventions and rules of the classic types of architecture. They would express a new and democratic spirit." He went on to say "...there is no doubt that just now the Chicago insurgents and their work is attracting more attention and causing more comment than any other architectural development in America". The beginning of Maher's life, however, wasn't quite so auspicious. He was born in Mill Creek, West Virginia , and at about

13760-540: The development of architecture in the West have been, in almost every respect, without precedent. At no time in the history of the world has a community covering such vast and yet homogeneous territory developed with such amazing rapidity, and under conditions of civilization so far advanced. Few times in history have ever presented so impressive a sight as this resistless wave of progress, its farthermost verge crushing down primeval obstacles in nature and desperate resistance from

13920-400: The early years of the 20th century was quite different from what it is today, and the ambitious prospective architect could take many avenues to acquire it. In April 1905, for example, Seyfarth attended his first meeting as a member of the Chicago Architectural Club, which had been founded in 1885 as the Chicago Architectural Sketch Club by James H. Carpenter, a prominent Chicago draftsman, with

14080-573: The economy has seen an upturn and the general economic situation has improved. Agriculture and forestry have declined in importance over the decades. Nevertheless, they are more important than in most other areas of Germany, especially within rural regions. 54% of Thuringia's territory is in agricultural use. The fertile basins such as the large Thuringian Basin or the smaller Goldene Aue , Orlasenke and Osterland are in intensive use for growing cereals, vegetables, fruits and energy crops. Important products are apples, strawberries, cherries and plums in

14240-474: The enduring qualities of the typical American home of today." Here he reiterated the thoughts that the architect and writer John Wellborn Root had expressed in a paper he read to an audience at the Chicago Architectural Sketch Club in 1887 that later appeared in The Inland Architect (February, 1888, pp. 3–5): "Now, in America, we are free of artistic traditions ... A new spirit of beauty

14400-472: The first far-right party in Germany since World War II to win a state election. Thuringia is divided into 17 districts ( Landkreise ): Furthermore, there are five urban districts: Thuringia's economy is marked by the economic transition that happened after the German reunification and led to the closure of most of the factories within the Land. The unemployment rate reached a peak in 2005. Since that year,

14560-525: The following hill chains (clockwise from the north-west): Dün , Hainleite , Windleite , Kyffhäuser , Hohe Schrecke , Schmücke , Finne , Ettersberg , Steigerwald , Thuringian Forest , Hörselberge and Hainich . Within the Basin the smaller hill chains Fahner Höhe and Heilinger Höhen . South of the Thuringian Basin is the state's largest mountain range, marked by the Thuringian Forest in

14720-399: The following observation, which indicates a predilection for classical architecture despite the conclusion one might otherwise come to upon examining his existing body of work: "For slightly over a million and a half dollars, Chicago could have, in perpetuity, one of the most beautiful specimens of architecture in the world ... It is universally agreed among architects, artists and critics, that

14880-440: The forest, agriculture is still quite conventional and dominated by large structures and monocultures. Problems here are caused especially by increasingly prolonged dry periods during the summer months. Environmental damage in Thuringia has been reduced to a large extent after 1990. The condition of forests, rivers and air was improved by modernizing factories, houses (decline of coal heating) and cars, and contaminated areas such as

15040-751: The forested mountains, are protected as natural reserves, including Thuringia's first national park within the Hainich mountains, founded in 1997, the Rhön Biosphere Reserve , the Thuringian Forest Nature Park and the South Harz Nature Park . During the Middle Ages, Thuringia was at the border between Germanic and Slavic territories, marked by the Saale river. The main Slavic tribe in what

15200-461: The former Uranium surface mines around Ronneburg have been remediated. Today's environmental problems are the salination of the Werra river, caused by discharges of K+S salt mines around Unterbreizbach and overfertilisation in agriculture, damaging the soil and small rivers. Environment and nature protection has been of growing importance and attention since 1990. Large areas, especially within

15360-816: The headwater of the Weser – drains the south-west and west of the state. Furthermore, some small areas on the southern border are drained by tributaries of the Main , itself a tributary of the Rhine . There are no large natural lakes in Thuringia, but it does have some of Germany's biggest dams, including the Bleiloch Dam and the Hohenwarte Dam on the River Saale, as well as the Leibis-Lichte Dam and

15520-486: The house until 1999, when it was sold to George Garrick, who had become wealthy as an internet venture capitalist. At the time the Brach family bought it, the house underwent a significant renovation that was designed by Seyfarth, at which time it was extensively remodeled and increased in size to 11 rooms. All of this notwithstanding, Garrick felt the house had no architectural or historic value and his only apparent interest in

15680-401: The inhabitants; its deeper and calmer waters teeming with life and full of promise more significant than has ever yet been known." The club was an effort to help develop the talents of the city's many draftsmen so that they could become qualified architects themselves, at a time when a formal education for architects was generally unavailable and not required. (The first architectural school in

15840-619: The largest party with 33% of the vote (and 36% of the seats), its best ever performance and the first time it placed first in a state election in Germany. The incumbent governing coalition suffered dramatic losses; the Left had split up, with new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) becoming the more popular part, while the remaining Left lost more than half of its support and fell to fourth place on 13%. The 130+ year old SPD, which since late 2021 rules Germany under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, recorded its worst result in any postwar state election, barely passing

16000-417: The latest ones received town status only in the 20th century. Today, all municipalities within districts are equal in law, whether they are towns or villages. Independent cities (i.e. urban districts) have greater powers (the same as any district) than towns within a district. * Average annual change in percent within the last three years (13 December 2009 to 31 December 2012), adjusted from incorporations and

16160-519: The likes of Clarence Buckingham , John G. Shedd , John J. Glessner , Martin Ryerson , Clarence Darrow , Joy Morton and Willoughby Walling. The Beardsley's Freedom Township house was later owned by Ohio State Senator James P. Jones. Another among Seyfarth's clients of this type was the mail-order innovator Aaron Montgomery Ward (1843–1913), who was briefly a neighbor after Seyfarth moved to Highland Park c. 1910. All of this notwithstanding, however,

16320-538: The limitations as well as the great value of unadorned masses." – From an article by Sullivan entitled "Ornament in Architecture" published in Engineering Magazine in 1892. Having worked in the frequently austere style of Maher for a "period of years", Seyfarth was ready to work with traditionally inspired ornament, judiciously applied. And as stylistically different as Seyfarth's work

16480-571: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chicago_Training_School&oldid=476165741 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Robert Seyfarth#Chicago Manual Training School Although his early independent projects directly reflected Maher's stylistic influences, as his own style developed Seyfarth's work became distinguished more as

16640-440: The list included Charles B. Atwood , Daniel Burnham , Dankmar Adler , Louis Sullivan , Howard Van Doren Shaw , William Le Baron Jenney and Frank Lloyd Wright. The club's headquarters for many years was located in the former mansion of the piano manufacturer William W. Kimball at 1801 Prairie Ave. in Chicago. It ceased to operate as an active organization in 1940 and was dissolved in 1967, but exists again today after it

16800-542: The living and dining rooms." - even in this late example of Seyfarth's work the abstracted design and covered exterior living space continued to be important elements of the composition. With a long history of having his work published, Seyfarth was following the example of George Washington Maher, who was widely published during his career. Articles by Maher and about him appeared regularly in publications that included Western Architect , Inland Architect , Architectural Record and Arts and Decoration . The house could be

16960-609: The majority of his work in the Chicago area, he also designed projects in Michigan , Wisconsin , Ohio , Virginia , Kentucky and Alabama . By the end of his career, he had designed over two hundred houses. One of his more important works is the Samuel Holmes House designed in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places . A shingle style house overlooking Lake Michigan , its landscaping

17120-436: The most important public planning documents ever created. Chicago Manual Training School was a private secondary school and was designed to graduate its students three years from the time they entered. The student body, which was all male, was required to spend an hour each day in the drafting room and two hours a day in the shop, in addition to the time spent in classrooms studying the conventional high school curriculum. In 1891

17280-460: The most to Bavaria , Saxony , Hesse and Berlin . Only with Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg the balance is positive. The international migration is fluctuating heavily. In 2009, the balance was +700, in 2010 +1,800, in 2011 +2,700 and in 2012 +4,800. The most important countries of origin of the Thuringia migrants from 2008 to 2012 were Poland (+1,700), Romania (+1,200), Afghanistan (+1,100) and Serbia / Montenegro / Kosovo (+1,000), whereas

17440-493: The north-east, is warm and dry, with a mean annual temperature of 8.5 °C and mean precipitation of 450 mm; contrast this with wet, cool Oberhof , in the Thuringian Forest, where temperature averages only 4.4 °C and mean annual precipitation reaches 1300 mm. Due to many centuries of intensive settlement, most of the area is shaped by human influence. The original natural vegetation of Thuringia

17600-709: The north-west, the Thuringian Highland in the middle and the Franconian Forest in the south-east. Most of this range is forested and the Großer Beerberg (983 m) is Thuringia's highest mountain. To the south-west, the Forest is followed up by Werra river valley, dividing it from the Rhön Mountains in the west and the Grabfeld plain in the south. Eastern Thuringia, commonly described as

17760-476: The owner's consent before a proposed landmark could be designated. The house sat on a three acre lot overlooking Lake Michigan. It was built c.1854, and in 1871 had become the home of Gilbert Hubbard, a founding father of the town and the developer of a large section of it that today is called Hubbard Woods. The house was sold in 1924 to Edwin Brach (an heir to the Brach's candy fortune), who with his family owned

17920-463: The party got 22.7%, while in 2021 they got 24.0%. Thuringia is notable for being the first and only state in Germany where the communist party that ruled former East Germany until 1989, The Left (Die Linke), and the new Alternative for Germany (AfD) have seen their first-ever first place finish in a state election. Die Linke in 2019 , and the AfD in 2024 . The Alternative for Germany (AfD) became

18080-639: The phenomenon in a 1968 article she wrote about the demolition of Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel (1923–1968) in Tokyo: "There is no art as impermanent as architecture. All that solid brick and stone mean nothing. Concrete is as evanescent as air. The monuments of our civilization stand, usually, on negotiable real estate; their value goes down as land value goes up. ... The logic and mathematics are immutable." Most demolitions of Seyfarth's buildings fall into this category - they're torn down with little fanfare to be replaced by larger homes and buildings. There

18240-514: The population in 2018. Members of the Catholic Church formed 7.6% of the population, while 71.6% of Thuringians were non-religious or adhere to other faiths. The highest Protestant concentrations are in the small villages of southern and western Thuringia, whereas the bigger cities are even more non-religious (up to 88% in Gera ). Catholic regions are Eichsfeld in the northwest and parts of

18400-569: The population − among the smallest proportions of any state in Germany). Nevertheless, the number rose from 33,000 in July 2011, an increase of 24% in only two years. About 4% of the population are migrants (including persons that already received German citizenship). The biggest groups of foreigners by citizenship are (as of 2012): Russians (3,100), Poles (3,000), Turks (2,100) and Ukrainians (2,000). The number of foreigners varies between regions:

18560-400: The principal rooms of the first floor were the floor-length windows, which here and elsewhere were frequently wider than what might be acceptable to Palladio , but that were always in proportion to the building of which they were an element. On the upper floors where inverted dormers were used, sunlight is allowed to come directly into the room since the tunnel to the outdoors that is created by

18720-408: The property was in the land on which it was located. Shortly after coming into possession of it he requested a demolition permit for the house so that the property could be sub-divided for two new houses. Without a strong preservation ordinance, the village was powerless to stop the demolition, and after fruitless attempts were made to come to some other accommodation the permit was granted and the house

18880-471: The proportions and lines of an Italian villa to a contemporary American suburban residence; a formal treatment model has been converted into a comparatively informal modern residence, with a large enclosed porch and with none of the landscape gardening which is ordinarily needed to bind the house to the site. ". The image above shows the house as it appeared in the article for The Architectural Record . It has subsequently been demolished. Aspley must have been

19040-673: The renovation of the interior of the Nickerson mansion for Lucius Fisher . Here, according to the Historic American Buildings Survey , he designed and carved the woodwork for the rare book room. Maher was an influential architect associated with the Prairie School movement. According to H. Allen Brooks , professor emeritus of fine arts at the University of Toronto "His influence on the Midwest

19200-477: The reunification and rose again to more than 1.4 children in 2010, which is a higher level than in West Germany. Nevertheless, there are only 17,000 births compared to 27,000 deaths per year, so that the annual natural change of the Thuringian population is about −0.45%. In 2015 there were 17,934 births, the highest number since 1990. Migration plays an important role in Thuringia. The internal migration shows

19360-441: The rooms face the lake. The house features the inverted dormer windows that are a hallmark of Seyfarth's work, and lannon-stone walls that are likely the work of Caesar Fiocchi, who was one of a small group of craftsmen that Seyfarth relied upon to interpret his work as he intended. Fiocchi would also have been responsible for the carving over the front door. Not all of Seyfarth's buildings have survived. One house at 67th and Yale

19520-542: The second half of the 19th century. In 1869 Bauer designed the first German school in Chicago at 1352 S. Union Street for Zion Lutheran Church, and in 1872-73 Bauer and Löebnitz designed Concert Hall, Chicago Turngemeinde (demolished) at Clark Street and Chicago Avenue. The output of the Bauer partnerships included many distinguished projects, including Old St. Patrick's Church at 700 W. Adams Street (1856, renovated and restored 1992-1999, which Chicago magazine ranked among

19680-588: The south and the Werra river in the west. After the Treaty of Leipzig , Thuringia had its own dynasty again, the Ernestine Wettins . Their various lands formed the Free State of Thuringia, founded in 1920, together with some other small principalities. The Prussian territories around Erfurt , Mühlhausen and Nordhausen joined Thuringia in 1945. The coat of arms of Thuringia shows the lion of

19840-636: The street from the school . The ride would have taken him directly over the Midway Plaisance of the World's Columbian Exposition, where he would have a clear view to the west of the great Ferris Wheel and to the east of the Beaux Arts majesty of the main body of the Fair. It is difficult to imagine that to a boy from small-town America in the early 1890s this would not have created an impression and provided him with enormous inspiration, as it did

20000-415: The sum of one hundred thousand dollars". The club, which was founded in 1877, was a group of the city's most influential leaders that included Marshall Field , George Pullman , Edson Keith , Cyrus McCormick and George Armour . The club's successor, The Commercial Club of Chicago would later sponsor Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett 's Plan of Chicago (1909), which is widely regarded as one of

20160-524: The support of the magazine Inland Architect , whose first issue had been published in February 1883. The club was formed in Chicago during a period when architecture there was in its ascendancy - after the Great Fire of 1871 a large population of some of the country's best architectural talent had come to rebuild a modern city using the most advanced and progressive techniques of the day. Even so,

20320-569: The time Robert Seyfarth left Blue Island in about 1910 for Highland Park, the village had grown from being a pioneering hamlet of about 200 persons to a prosperous industrial suburb with a population of nearly 11,000, which the noted publisher and historian Alfred T. Andreas had called "...a quiet, though one among the prettiest little suburban towns in the West". It was in this atmosphere that Seyfarth grew up, attended primary school, married his first wife Nell Martin (1878–1928), and built their first home. Seyfarth began his architectural education at

20480-534: The time of his arrival as a resident and lasted until shortly before his death. Here he elected to ignore the notion that in later years was famously offered to young architects by the Sage of Taliesin "... go as far away as possible from home to build your first buildings. The physician can bury his mistakes—but the Architect can only advise his client to plant vines.". Almost exclusively a residential architect with

20640-476: The township of Worth from 1854 until he died in 1860. William and Louise had five sons, including Edward, who was the father of the architect. Edward Seyfarth was active in community affairs on many levels. Not only did he own and operate the local hardware store, but in 1874 he was a charter member of the Blue Island Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and in 1890 was one of the founders of

20800-462: The tuition averaged $ 100.00 per year "to those able to pay it". In 1903 the institution became part of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, operating out of CMTS (later Belfield) Hall. Although it was to take him in a totally different direction, Chicago Manual Training School, with its focus on the industrial arts, was a logical choice for the secondary education of the oldest son of

20960-576: The twenty-first floor until 1934 when the Depression forced the move of his business to his home in the North Shore community of Highland Park . His was a small office - he did the design, drafting and supervision work himself, and for many years was assisted by Miss Eldridge, who typed specifications and generally kept the office running. After the office was moved to his home, he took as his assistant Edward Humrich (1901–1991), who himself became

21120-649: The two principalities of Reuss Elder Line and Reuss Younger Line . In 1920, after World War I , these small states merged into one state, called the Free State of Thuringia ( Freistaat Thüringen ); only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the new capital. The coat of arms of this new state was simpler than those of its predecessors. The Landtag of the newly established state first convened in 1920 in Weimar. Its deputies were elected for three years according to proportional representation , with

21280-481: The western half became independent under the name of " Hesse ", never to become a part of Thuringia again. Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margraviate of Meissen , the nucleus of the later Electorate and Kingdom of Saxony . With the division of the house of Wettin in 1485, Thuringia went to the senior Ernestine branch of the family, which subsequently subdivided

21440-741: The woodwork and other decoration for the Samuel Nickerson House (1879–1883) on Erie Street in Chicago (now the Driehaus Museum), and the interiors of the Hegeler Carus Mansion ( William W. Boyington ,1874–1876) in LaSalle, Illinois . In an 1881 letter to a colleague, one of Fiedler's contemporaries commented on the quality of Fiedler's design work for Nickerson by saying that "...it would be hard to comprehend its beauty without seeing it". From 1893 to 1896 he

21600-418: The young man in architecture": "Enter no Architectural competition under any circumstances except as a novice. No competition ever gave to the world anything worth having in Architecture. The jury itself is a picked average. The first thing done by the jury is to go through all the designs and throw out the best and the worst ones so as an average, it can average upon an average. The net result of any competition

21760-680: Was a short walk from the Chicago Stock Exchange Building. Seyfarth was likely drawn to establish his office there thru the influence of his Blue Island neighbor Benjamin C. Sammons (1866-1916), who was the president of the Bankers Club of Chicago and a long-time vice-president of the Corn Exchange National Bank. Seyfarth later moved into the newly completed Tribune Tower (1925, John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood ), where he had an office on

21920-720: Was a talented architect who designed in the latest architectural fashion. He was noted for his Shingle style buildings and "... was a master of the Queen Anne style , and in gaining the romantic effect admired by his clients he depended less upon [its inherent] chaos than his contemporaries". He came to Chicago in 1882 to act as an interior architect and as such was responsible for the opulent interiors of Potter and Bertha Palmer 's fantastic castle at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive (built 1881-1885, demolished 1950, Henry Ives Cobb (1859–1931) and Charles Sumner Frost (1856–1931) architects), and stayed to design several important projects for

22080-518: Was almost certainly introduced to him through his uncle Henry Biroth, who was one of the earliest pharmacists in Chicago and served at various times as the secretary and president of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, which occupied offices down the hall from Fiedler. The Seyfarth family had been acquainted with Fiedler for several years before Seyfarth began to attend Chicago Manual Training School. Henry Biroth

22240-411: Was an active member of Chicago's large ethnic German community, and in 1887, Fiedler (with his partner John Addison) had designed a house for him in Blue Island. How long the young Seyfarth worked for Fiedler and the board of education is not known (Fiedler separated from the board of education late in 1896, and was replaced by Normand Patton ), but by 1900 he was working for George Washington Maher on

22400-405: Was an effort to purge American architecture of the wilder excesses of historical revivalism [of the nineteenth century] by returning to fundamental architectural principles. The ideals this architecture sought to express were the very ones the most inventive Chicago architects were trying to embody in their own work - order, harmony, and repose ...". As a result, the conception of modern architecture

22560-401: Was anything but a static event. "Architects and critics engaged in lively debates concerning the definition of modern architecture and the future direction of building design. This discourse reflected the development of diverse architectural ideologies and forms that ranged from Beaux-Arts classicism to streamlining." Joseph Hudnut , the first dean of Harvard University's School of Design and

22720-694: Was carefully imbued with the warmth and character of earlier times. From his introduction to The Home You Longed For - "These few old world standards, rightly employed, have become completely molded to fit our present conditions so that ... our modern examples are not imitations, but rather developments of early principals ... With such a rich inheritance handed down to us, why should not all our homes be of this sort, examples of these splendid former types which were fashioned on sound principles beyond reason for change of design and possessing an artistic grace from which future generations may gather lasting inspiration - made to live in and adorned to please - such should be

22880-426: Was considered to be one among "the city's prominent social and cultural arbiters." He had come to the United States in 1853 having been a part of the wave of German immigration that had brought Robert Seyfarth's grandfather to the United States, and he and his various partners, who were also of German extraction, played an important role in providing architectural services for the large German community in Chicago during

23040-399: Was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the construction of Kennedy–King College . The parking lot for the 6th District ( Gresham ) police station, built in 1997, occupies the spot where Dr. F.S. Tufts had built a store and offices (at 7754 S. Halsted St.) in 1909. At least one demolished house continues to live on, in a manner of speaking. Although it was a designated local landmark,

23200-405: Was demolished. In the end, Garrick never developed the parcel. The basement of the old house was filled in and the lot was allowed to return to its natural state. He later sold the property for a $ 500,000 loss and returned to California. Although considered a revivalist architect, Seyfarth's designs were not pedantic copies of existing work or even typical examples of the revival architecture that

23360-443: Was described as follows: "...These [Midwest country] houses almost uniformly give the impression of being built for people of refinement who take a keen interest in making their homes attractive, and who have to that end sought the advice of competent architects. One of the most attractive of these houses is that of Mr. W. [ sic ] Kozminski, at Highland Park, Ill. Its architect, Mr. Robert Seyfarth, has charmingly adapted

23520-466: Was designed by Jens Jensen . Robert Seyfarth continued to live and work in Highland Park until his death on March 1, 1950. The Chicago History Museum Research Center has an archive consisting of drawings for 70 of Seyfarth's projects dating after 1932. Seyfarth is sometimes considered to be a "society architect", and an examination of the body of his known work will bear this out, but only to

23680-886: Was done is not entirely known, but articles by Eleanor Jewett (1892–1968), art critic for the Chicago Tribune ("Cape Cod Architecture seen in B.L.T.'s Home" discussing the Taylor house at 92 Dell Place in Glencoe, Illinois ) and Herbert Croly of the Architectural Record ("The Local Feeling in Western Country Houses", October, 1914, which discusses the Kozminski and McBride houses in Highland Park at 521 Sheridan Road and 2130 Linden, respectively) survive to give us some idea of how Seyfarth's work

23840-497: Was made by no less than William Adams Delano (1874-1960), who was considered to be one among the "new generation of architects [who] shaped and developed American taste, producing a style leavened with erudite abstraction and sparing composition". Delano argued that if a project was "handled with freedom and ... answered the needs of our present day clients, it will be really expressive of our own time". Seyfarth opted to take his career down this divergent path, and in doing so created

24000-537: Was most likely still working for the Chicago school board, contained a listing for "Robert Seyfarth, Architect" that showed the Seyfarth building (demolished 1992) as his address. After he began working in Maher's office his independent work began to show the influences of Maher and other Prairie School architects, and his earliest known independently attributed work comes at this time. In 1905 a "Neat Little Dwelling House"

24160-616: Was one of the founding members of the Blue Island Elks in 1916. (The architect was himself apparently a person of catholic interests - he was an active member of the Poultry Fancier's Association during the time that Blue Island was the headquarters for the Northeastern Illinois Fancier's Association in the early years of the 20th century ). From the time his grandparents arrived in 1848 to

24320-453: Was part of Leipzig Bezirk. The present State of Thuringia was recreated with slightly altered borders during German reunification in 1990. From the northwest going clockwise; Thuringia borders on the German states of Lower Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Saxony , Bavaria and Hesse . The landscapes of Thuringia are quite diverse. The far north is occupied by the Harz mountains, followed by

24480-475: Was popular at the time. Despite the fact that his design aesthetic was more traditional than that of his previous employer, Seyfarth had absorbed many of Maher's (and the Prairie School's) ideas and incorporated them into his own architectural philosophy. His buildings provided their owners with architecture that offered the most up-to-date conveniences and floorplans that were considered modern - but that

24640-474: Was profound and prolonged and, in its time, was certainly as great as was [Frank Lloyd] Wright's. Compared with the conventional architecture of the day, his work showed considerable freedom and originality, and his interiors were notable for their open and flowing ... space". Henry M. Hyde, in a 1913 article in the Chicago Tribune , recognized the work of Maher and of the other members of "the new American School of Architecture" by noting "They pay no attention to

24800-473: Was published with plans, bills of material and estimate of costs in the May edition of The National Builder magazine. Seyfarth earned his architectural license from the state of Illinois in October of 1908 and continued to work for Maher until about 1909, at which time he opened his own practice. In the early years the office was located in the Corn Exchange Bank Building (1908, Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge , demolished 1985) at 134 S. LaSalle Street, which

24960-494: Was re-formed in 1979. Robert Seyfarth graduated from the Chicago Manual Training School in 1895, and literature published by the school shows his position upon graduation to be that of a "Draughtsman" for the Chicago architect August Fiedler. Fiedler was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1869, establishing himself first in New York City and then in Chicago as a much sought-after designer of high-end residential interiors, later becoming an architect. He designed some of

25120-409: Was received during the time he was practicing. (Croly would later go on to become the founding editor of The New Republic magazine. ) Additionally, photographs of houses he designed appeared in The Western Architect magazine a number of times in the 1920s. Also surviving are copies of advertisements from the Arkansas Soft Pine Bureau (see image, right), the California Redwood Association (again with

25280-410: Was recognized by W.E.B. Du Bois as the founder of the NAACP , and Willoughby himself "...became a major spokesman for the Chicago movement". Here he worked alongside the noted social reformer Jane Addams and some of Chicago's wealthiest and most influential citizens, including Mrs. Cyrus McCormick , Mrs. Emmons Blaine [whose father-in-law James G. Blaine was variously a Senator , the Speaker of

25440-464: Was the chief architect for the Board of Education for the city of Chicago (being the first to assume the position upon the creation of the building department on January 18, 1893 ), for whom he designed and/or supervised the construction of fifty-eight school buildings, and he was responsible for the design of thirty-eight buildings (thirty-six in the German Village alone ) at the World's Columbian Exposition . Seyfarth began his career as an architect at

25600-425: Was the governor of Illinois from 1933 until the time of his death. Despite the fact that it was 17 miles away, Seyfarth enjoyed the advantage of the school's convenient location. The railway depot that marked the beginning of his trip was a two-block walk from his home at Grove Street and Western Avenue, with the end of the ride being at the Illinois Central's Twelfth Street Station, which was located directly across

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