Art in a Marble Palace
[Samuel M. Nickerson Mansion (1883) Chicago; Burling & Whitehouse, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
When the Samuel Nickerson family took up occupancy in this large home in 1886, the
building sat in a neighborhood filled with other large mansions built by other wealthy Chicago business tycoons. At the time Nickerson was the president of the city's premiere financial institution, the First National Bank of Chicago, and filled the house with one of the largest collections of art from China and India in private hands.
[Driehaus Museum, 50 E. Erie Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
He also had architects Burling & Whitehouse fill the interior with marble. The entry hall
alone has 7 different varieties of the polished stone covering the floor, walls, ceiling and stairs. Another 20 cover surfaces throughout the remainder of the 30-room house, which was why the Nickerson mansion became known as "The Marble Palace," the only dwelling like it in the city. The building currently serves as a repository for the art collection of financier Richard Driehaus of the Driehaus Foundation, which has turned the 25,000 square foot home into a museum. Extensively and exquisitely restored, the home/museum is open to the public for tours, but no interior photography is allowed.
[Nickerson details, July 9, 2009 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Nickerson built the house to keep his art collection safe from fire and thieves with 2-foot
thick stone and brick walls and all the windows, except at the front of the house, covered with decorative iron bars. Unfortunately during the early morning hours of February 22, 1897 two burglars pried open a non-barred, front window and entered the home. Nickerson heard a noise downstairs and by the time he got from his bedroom to the lower main floor, the thieves had exited the building with several pieces of rare, Asian art. Apparently no one had ever anticipated that anyone would be bold enough to break in through the front of the house. Fortunately, from 1991 until 2003 when the mansion served as the home of the R.H. Love Galleries, no one tried to pry open any windows and steal any art.
[Nickerson's Marble Palace and the adjacent Murphy Memorial Auditoirum /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Mr. & Mrs Nickerson left their mansion and Chicago in 1900. They also left their art
collection to the Art Institute, the largest single donation made to the museum up until that time. In 1923 the American College of Surgeons took possession of the house and built the French inspired auditorium and library building in the mansion's large sideyard. More on that building tomorrow.
Posted by designslinger at 4/5/2010 2:15 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Preservation
Tags: Chicago Nickerson Mansion Burling and Whitehouse Driehaus Museum
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Preservation
Tags: Chicago Nickerson Mansion Burling and Whitehouse Driehaus Museum
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