Cyrus Bentley House
[Cyrus Bentley House (1911) Jenney, Mundie & Jensen, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
In 1911 this small section of Astor Street in Chicago's Gold Coast was buzzing with building activity. Five houses on five lots, three on one side of the street, two across the street, all designed with a Georgian Revival feel, by three architectural firms. When Cyrus Bentley built this house, his architects Jenney, Mundie & Jensen had also just drawn up plans for another Georgian-inspired house across the street.
[Cyrus Bentley House, 1505 N. Astor Street, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Cyrus Bentley was a lawyer, just like his father before him, and had a roster of clients that included the head of a prominent Chicago family, Cyrus McCormick. This Cyrus was not the inventor of the famous reaper, but the son, who took the McCormick farm implement concern to the next level when he created International Harvester. Cyrus Bentley assisted his friend Cyrus in implementing the Harvester plan, and was the firm's lead counsel as well as the McCormick family lawyer.
The two Cyrus were also good friends. They enjoyed spending a portion of their summers together with family and friends in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. So much so that they purchased, and kept purchasing, acres of property, which provided a vast refuge from the hurly-burly of city life. They built cabins, plotted hiking trails, (one of which was named the Bentley Trail) and invited their friends to join them for a few weeks each summer in the wilderness. Today the 17,00 acre property is a federal reserve open to the public.
Elizabeth King Bentley became very active in the fight against childhood tuberculosis and founded a sanatorium for children suffering from the disease, with applications for admission to the facility mailed directly to Mrs. Bentley's Astor Street address. When she died in the house in 1953, she had been living there as a widow for 23 years, and by 1959, the servants quarters and storage rooms at the top of the 20-room mansion had been converted into an apartment. Today the house is divided into two living units, one condominium is made-up of the basement and first two floors, while the second condo includes the top two floors and a roof deck. All of it still tucked discreetly behind Jenney, Mundie & Jensen's dignified Georgian-inspired facade.
See the Bentley's Georgian-styled next door neighbor at the: William H. McDoel House, and another Georgian across the street at: Francis R. Dickinson House.
Posted by designslinger at 11/1/2011 4:10 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Jenney Mundie and Jensen Gold Coast mansions Astor Street
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Jenney Mundie and Jensen Gold Coast mansions Astor Street
Your posts are wonderful - is it possible to pitch buildings for you to consider? thank you
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Thank you very much!! Of course you can suggest buildings. We have a topic "to do" list, and would be happy to add to it. We're at about 200 buildings right now, but are always looking for more!
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"We have a topic "to do" list, and would be happy to add to it." - Sadly, I could not find this to do list link on your home page - thanks again - Mark
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The topic list is just a big, fat file we keep of buildings we hope to get a few snaps of, do some research on to write about, and not on the blog's page. But if you have any suggestions please send 'em on, and we'll add them to the file if they're not already there. No telling when we'd get to them though. There are so many places to cover, and only so much time!
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My sincere apology - of course you have a huge file "To Do"! The building I am curious about is at 223 East Walton - and it is on the National Historic Register - maybe you already covered it - I will go through your awesome archive. thanks again -
markjfraz@gmail.com
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No apology necessary!! We haven't done 223, but the next time we're in the neighborhood (and there's decent light!) we'll get some pics and start the hunt for a story.
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