The Great Cover-Up on Sheridan Road
Imagine this building front ...
[4032-34 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, August 2, 2009 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Looking like this building front.
[4751-59 N. Sheridan Road /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
And you'll have a better understanding of a cover-up that occurred on Chicago's North
Sheridan Road in the 1920s.
[4060-62 N. Sheridan Road; 4715-19 N. Sheridan Road at W. Lawrence Avenue /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Many, many, years ago, Sheridan Road was a desirable address for people who were
searching for desirable addresses. Once lined with large, single-family homes, and traditional Chicago-style, 3-flats containing huge, floor-through apartments, the neighborhood was changing by the time the Roaring Twenties rolled around. Apartment buildings were turned into multi-cubicled rooming houses, the graceful entrance was removed, and the charming front yard was covered over for retail storefronts.
[4028-30 N. Sheridan Road /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Imagine again, the bow-front bays, the porch entry, and the yard of the building above ...
[4022-24 N. Sheridan Road with storefront; detail of original bow front bay facade behind retail addition /Image
& Artwork: designslinger]
.... becoming the backside of a commercial/retail space, which is what happened to this
building. The commercial front stands smack up against the sidewalk, but if you look closely, you can see the rounded window bay of the original building rising up behind the brick wall of the retail addition.
[4000-08 N. Sheridan Road at W. Irving Park Road /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
I realize that this is not a phenomenon unique to Chicago, and Sheridan Road is not the
only street scape in the city that underwent this type of change. But, I don't know of any other avenue that has as many examples of "maximizing your property's income potential" as the blocks of Sheridan from Irving Park to Lawrence. In a land use map that I found dated 1905, not one of these structures had a storefront in their front yard, and all had an elegant one-, or two- story porch. The map was updated in 1928, and many of the buildings were marked "rooming house." The street was now lined with retail establishments jutting-out from the front of turn of the century facades.
[4068-70 N. Sheridan Road /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
I've only posted pictures of a few of these "adaptive-reuse" examples, there are many
more. But, not every owner saw a green lawn as a way to increase their rental income potential, and several of the rooming house conversions have converted back to the large, single floor-planned apartments of old. I'd be interested to know whether any of you have anything similar in your neighborhood. So please drop us a line, or if you're very ambitious, send a pic, and we'll post them in the near future.
Looking like this building front.
And you'll have a better understanding of a cover-up that occurred on Chicago's North
Sheridan Road in the 1920s.
Many, many, years ago, Sheridan Road was a desirable address for people who were
searching for desirable addresses. Once lined with large, single-family homes, and traditional Chicago-style, 3-flats containing huge, floor-through apartments, the neighborhood was changing by the time the Roaring Twenties rolled around. Apartment buildings were turned into multi-cubicled rooming houses, the graceful entrance was removed, and the charming front yard was covered over for retail storefronts.
Imagine again, the bow-front bays, the porch entry, and the yard of the building above ...
& Artwork: designslinger]
.... becoming the backside of a commercial/retail space, which is what happened to this
building. The commercial front stands smack up against the sidewalk, but if you look closely, you can see the rounded window bay of the original building rising up behind the brick wall of the retail addition.
I realize that this is not a phenomenon unique to Chicago, and Sheridan Road is not the
only street scape in the city that underwent this type of change. But, I don't know of any other avenue that has as many examples of "maximizing your property's income potential" as the blocks of Sheridan from Irving Park to Lawrence. In a land use map that I found dated 1905, not one of these structures had a storefront in their front yard, and all had an elegant one-, or two- story porch. The map was updated in 1928, and many of the buildings were marked "rooming house." The street was now lined with retail establishments jutting-out from the front of turn of the century facades.
I've only posted pictures of a few of these "adaptive-reuse" examples, there are many
more. But, not every owner saw a green lawn as a way to increase their rental income potential, and several of the rooming house conversions have converted back to the large, single floor-planned apartments of old. I'd be interested to know whether any of you have anything similar in your neighborhood. So please drop us a line, or if you're very ambitious, send a pic, and we'll post them in the near future.
Posted by designslinger at 8/5/2009 2:31 AM 
Categories: Cities, Architecture, History
Tags: Chicago retail conversion Sheridan Road
Categories: Cities, Architecture, History
Tags: Chicago retail conversion Sheridan Road
That's something. I walk by the Holiday Club intersection once a week, and I never noticed this. I'm gonna look for it now. Thanks!
You're very welcome. We moved to Chicago eight weeks ago from LA, and have fallen in love with all the great architecture, even in all it's glorious quirkiness. And, in the ever increasingly small world of the internet, I actually stumbled upon your flickr page months ago while we were still living in the land of surf and sun.Thanks for stopping by, and hope you'll be back soon.
I recently acquired an old steamer trunk that was my great grandmothers. Her name was Mrs. Joseph E. Clark. On the tag of the trunk was the address of 4022 Sheridan Road Chicago. I Googled the address and found this blog. Thanks for the nice perspective on where she may have once lived...
Thanks for writing! This is one of the great things about blogging, connecting with people in ways we could never anticipate.
These aren't actually examples of adaptive reuse. Adaptive reuse is reusing an existing structure for another purpose than what is was built for. Your examples are all ones where a residential building remained residential but had an addition put on that serves as commercial. They are just examples of maximizing the building lot. If the original residential building were changed to commercial/office, than it would certainly be adaptive reuse. Great collection and interesting observation, but not adaptive reuse.
Technically no, they aren't adaptive reuse in the strictest use of the term, that's why we used the quotation marks. Thanks for your comment though, and for your visit!
Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer! I didn't know that!
Useful information like this one must be kept and maintained so I will put this one on my bookmark list! Thanks for this wonderful post and hoping to post more of this!
Thank you very much. It does take quite a lot to put this all together, and it's nice to know that the work is appreciated.
4000 N. Sheridan Rd. was the long time home of the Crystal Restaurant, which had a slightly different facade than the Holiday Club. Across the street, 4001 N. Sheridan Rd. was the Biarritz Night Club.
Too bad the site of the Biarritz is now a vacant lot.