Piano King


[W.W. Kimball Residence (1892) Solon S. Beman, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

When William W. Kimball arrived in Chicago in 1857 and opened a piano salesroom in a
small storefront, the city had a population of around 100,000 people. In January of 1893 when Evaline Kimball threw open the doors of her new, magnificent mansion to a select group of over 200 friends, the city's population had grown to over 1 million and her husband William had become the head of the largest piano manufacturing company in the world, W.W. Kimball & Company.


[W.W. Kimball Residence, 1801 Prairie Avenue, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

By the time William and Evaline built this French Renaissance Revival palace on Chicago's
Prairie Avenue, William was a millionaire several times over but was rather late in joining some of the city's other movers and shakers in building a home on the fashionable street. He purchased the lot from his across the street neighbor George Pullman of railroad car fame and asked Pullman Company architect Solon S. Beman to design a mansion worthy of the neighborhood. Beman chose a revival style of architecture made popular by the house Richard Morris Hunt had designed in 1882 for William and Alva Vanderbilt at 660 Fifth Avenue in New York City.


[U.S. Soccer Federation Headquarters, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Evaline's January soiree was just the beginning of years of high society entertaining that
took place at 1801 Prairie. If you were lucky enough to have been included in the select few who entered the house, not only would you have seen an exquisite interior of the period but also one of the better art collections in the city. William and Evaline were world travelers and acquired one of the finest collections of jade in the U.S. as well as Rembrandt's 1631 portrait of the artist's father, Old Man With a Gold Chain along the way.

Kimball died in the house in 1904, and after Evaline's death in 1921 the house became the
home of the Architect's Club, the offices of the R.R. Donnelley Company who had a large priniting plant just down the street, and today serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Soccer Federation. And what of the art that once graced the old house's walls? The Rembrandt, Millet, Corot, Monet, Gainsborough and Reynolds now hang in Chicago's Art Institute for all the world to see.

See more about the Donnelley Company at: The Telephone Book Goes to Press, and
Lakeside Press Moves On.

 
Posted by designslinger at 9/20/2010 1:45 AM
Categories: Architecture, Preservation, History, Art, Decorative Arts
Tags: Solon S. Beman mansions Prairie Avenue French Revival
 

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  • 9/20/2010 10:28 AM Michael Saper wrote:
    This may be the most beautiful and graceful home in the Chicago area. MSS
    1. 9/21/2010 5:55 AM designslinger wrote:
      Indeed!
  • 4/5/2011 9:37 AM jill murtagh wrote:
    Great piece! With your permission, I'll link to this article as a "Building of the Week" on the facebook page for the Beman Committee of the Pullman Civic Organization.
    1. 4/6/2011 3:22 AM designslinger wrote:
      Please do!! And thanks for taking the time to comment and ask if it's okay to link-up. Glad you liked the post. Thanks - again!
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