Along Cedar Street; A Pan Hellenic Row


[40-48 East Cedar Street, Chicago (1896) C.M. Palmer, architect; 50-54 East Cedar (1892) L. Gustav Hallberg, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

There is a group of townhouse/row houses on Chicago's East Cedar Street that have survived the "modernization" seen in so many neighborhoods beginning in the late 1950s. Surrounded by some of the worst, banal high-rise apartment buildings architecture has to offer, this little row gives you a sense of what once was, and what's been lost.


[40-48 East Cedar Street, (1896) C.M. Palmer, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Our first group was built in 1896 by real estate magnate Potter Palmer and designed by C(harles). M. Palmer. Although they shared the same last name, they weren't related, other than the fact that they were long time building business partners. C.M. worked on Potter's original Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago, as well as several other buildings for the hotelier/millionaire in the city's commercial district. Palmer, the real estate man, owned a lot of property along these Lake Shore Drive adjacent streets in what eventually came to be known as Chicago's Gold Coast. He developed and sold housing to people who could afford homes like these, as well as pay for servants who could provide the care and upkeep required for an upscale lifestyle.

Time marched on, as it always does, and as the original owners made way for new
inhabitants this little stretch of row houses became home to musicians, artists, fraternities and sororities.

 
[50-54 East Cedar Street (1892) L. Gustav Hallberg, architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

See more of the row at: Socials, Soroities & Consuls.
Posted by designslinger at 6/21/2010 2:58 AM
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: Chicago East Cedar Street row houses C. M. Palmer Potter Palmer L. Gustav Hallberg
 

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  • 6/21/2010 5:51 AM Joanne Capella wrote:
    Thank you for sharing yet another piece of architectural paradise.
    1. 6/21/2010 7:50 AM designslinger wrote:
      We're so glad to know you enjoy our ds stories, and to have you as a ds friend!
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