A Shooting, A Sanitarium and an Abandoned Shell
[Marshall Field, Jr. Residence (1884/1890) Solon S. Beman/Daniel Burnham, architects /Image & Artwork:
designslinger]
In 1889, Marshall Field purchased the mansion next door to his opulent residence as a
wedding present for his son Marshall, Jr. The problem was that the house wasn't quite large enough for Field's taste so he asked architect Daniel Burnham enlarge it. Burnham more than doubled the size of original house with a large addition at the back of Solon S. Beman's 1884 design. In 1890, Junior and his bride moved into their 43-room, 30,000 sq.ft. house, but their time there was short-lived.
[Gatlin Institute, 1919 Prairie Avenue, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
On November 23, 1905, Chicago newspapers were filled with headlines about the shooting
of Marshall, Jr. Word was that he had been cleaning his gun when it accidentally went off, piercing his liver. Rumors began circulating that he had attempted suicide as the result of a nervous breakdown he'd had a few years earlier. But the rumor that took hold after his death on November 28th was that he'd actually been shot by a prostitute in the Everleigh Club. The notorious but oh-so socially acceptable brothel was near his home on the city's oh-so socially prominent Prairie Avenue. The story goes that his wounded body was taken to his mansion a few blocks from the Club to avoid scandal. It wouldn't look good for the son of the city's richest man to have been shot while partaking of the delights offered by an Everleigh girl, better to call it a horrible accident at home.
[Marshall Field, Jr. Condominium, Prairie Avenue Townhouses (2010) /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Whether an accident, suicide or murder it may have proved to be too much for Field père
to handle. He died just months after his son, it was said, of a broken heart. As if the shooting wasn't shocking enough for the wealthy elite of Prairie Avenue, in 1909 Dr. Milton Pine moved his Gatlin Institute for the treatment and cure of alcoholics into the house. As one stately neighbor declared at the time, "Rather a sanitarium than a factory." Unfortunately it wasn't long before factories started taking over the neighborhood. Even the Marshall Field mansion, built in 1875 for a reputed $2 million, was torn down to make way for a manufacturing plant. But the Field, Jr. house held on, though barely. After Gatlin left the property in 1923, the building became the location of the Rest Haven Convelescent Home until 1957 when they vacated the place which sat abandoned, deteriorating, and a shell of its former self until 1993.
Today, $2,000,000 might buy you one of the six condos that make-up Junior's old mansion,
or one of the 2,000 sq.ft. townhouses, part a row of residences where the factory once stood that replaced Marshall, Sr.'s 20,000 sq.ft. Victorian jewel.
For more, see: The Ghosts of Prairie Avenue.
Posted by designslinger at 9/14/2010 1:56 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: Solon S. Beman Marshall Field and Co. mansions Prairie Avenue Daniel Burnham
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: Solon S. Beman Marshall Field and Co. mansions Prairie Avenue Daniel Burnham
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