The corner mansion at 2700 North Lakeview has changed hands and been emptied of its innards, in advance of being redeveloped. This historic property, which for decades has housed a recovery center for the mentally ill, appears poised to become a residence again. The fire escapes and boarded-over windows that disfigured its facade have vanished, yielding a clearer view of this massive townhouse, which, with its three neighbors to the north, were designed by the firm of Adler and Dangler and built between 1915 and 1917.
The Lakeview Avenue Row Houses, as they are called collectively, sought and acquired landmark status from the city in late May, 2016. The original owners of the four Georgian-style houses (numbered 2700, 2704, 2708, and 2710, respectively) were the Philadelphia-born Emily Borie Ryerson, Abram Poole, Henry Corwith Dangler (who co-designed the townhouses and died the year they were completed), and Ambrose C. Cramer (Dangler’s cousin, who was also an architect). Two more townhouses, intended for muralist Frederic Clay Bartlett and investor George F. Porter, were never built. They would have occupied the ground where the Elks Memorial stands.
After Emily Ryerson, a widow, remarried and moved to New York, her house changed hands twice before being acquired in 1946 to be put to use as a private school. (The fire escapes dated from that time.) By the 1970s, the school had outgrown the property and moved up to 541 Hawthorne Place, selling its old home to the non-profit Thresholds, which owned it until 2016. A group of buyers whom Michael Lerner represented bought the by-then-rundown mansion for $2.8 million dollars; but Lerner, et al., quickly unloaded it in an unimproved state, selling it to investors associated with Foster Design Build in March 2017.
This video by Dennis Rodkin, who covers Chicago real estate, gives some idea of the original grandeur of the David Adler-designed interiors, which the other homes in the bloc have better preserved. Because of number 2700’s institutional ownership, much of its inner integrity has been destroyed. The day I walked by, the demolition crew were still working; when asked what was left of the original interior, they mentioned only a ballroom and a spiral stair.
Harley says
A fun post to read, enjoyable and quite informative! I did click on the video and learned even more. . . . Interestingly enough, when I was young (4th-7th grade), I had a friend who went to the school located in that building. The name was The Harris School; small enrollment and a private one.
Celia says
Hm, I wondered about the history of the Harris School–I found a news clipping from the seventies reporting its plans to expand and move to 541 Hawthorne (currently the Chicago City Day School), but the Day School website doesn’t mention the Harris School on its history page. Maybe the Harris School expanded but then became defunct? There is a long history in America of families banding together to form small in-home schools for their children to attend, arrangements that predate the development of public schools.
Thank you for writing in–
Celia
sasha austin says
You have done a lot of research on this! Your work gives the building life. Usually old buildings sit mutely and mysteriously as people pass by without consideration of their history. My grandmother lived in a David Adler coach house in Lake Bluff. I love his spare, French-feeling architecture.
I hope these new owners have respect and love for the past and will restore whatever they can. Thanks for this piece.
Celia says
Well, the histories of many buildings, perhaps most, would be impossible to recover. Others, however, like these rowhouses, have a very rich provenance. I had no time to write in my post about the first owner of 2700 N Lakeview, Emily Ryerson: she and her late husband were on the Titanic with their three children. They were returning to the US having heard that another of their children had just died in an auto accident. Mr Ryerson saw that his wife and their children (including one boy) got on Lifeboat 4; he went down with the ship while they survived. After many years of dividing her time between Chicago, the East coast, and Europe, she remarried at age 64 and left Chicago for good.
I envy you getting to know one of Adler’s houses well–that’s special.
CHC
Celia says
Click here for more on the Lakeview Row and its first residents.
Kev Varney says
Wasn’t the Harris school purchased by the former Harvard-St. George School as a high school campus that lasted just a few years before it brought those students back to the HSG location on Ellis Avenue near the University of Chicago?
Celia says
Interesting question–I’ll have to look into it. Thank you, Celia
Lony Ruhmann says
I went to to The Harris School in the 60’s & 70’s, if you have any questions.