Sunday June 8, 2014
1:00 – 4:00pm
$50 per person
$45 for museum members
Join me (I’m volunteering)! This very special tour, the annual benefit for Glessner House Museum, presents attendees with the rare opportunity to visit the interiors of seven historic homes in and around the Prairie Avenue Historic District. Visitors will be treated to a breath-taking array of beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, and fireplaces in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble. The Glessner and Clarke House Museums are also included on the tour as well as historic Second Presbyterian Church with its important arts and crafts interior and collection of windows including nine by Tiffany Studios and two by Morris and Company.
Highlights include the dramatic two-story stair hall of the William Kimball house (1892, Solon S. Beman, architect – shown above), a stunning mahogany-paneled music room illuminated by a stained glass dome in the William Reid house (1894, Beers Clay and Dutton, architects), an elaborately carved fireplace faced in onyx in the Josephn Coleman house (1886, Cobb & Frost, architects), and the last opportunity to tour the Harriet Rees house (1888, Cobb & Frost, architects) before it is moved one block to the north later this summer.
Following the tour, attendees are invited to return to the coach house of Glessner House Museum for a reception and silent auction, featuring theatre tickets, Chicago memorabilia, collectibles, architectural fragments, and other items of interest.
For more information, or to make reservations, please call 312-326-1480. Glessner House Museum is located at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue in Chicago’s South Loop.