Glessner House
Aerial view of the Glessner House Museum
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 Location in Near South Side, Chicago
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| Established | 1971 |
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| Location | 1800 South Prairie Avenue, Near South Side, Chicago, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°51′27.39″N 87°37′15.78″W / 41.8576083°N 87.6210500°WCoordinates: 41°51′27.39″N 87°37′15.78″W / 41.8576083°N 87.6210500°W |
| Type | Historic house museum |
| Director | William Tyre |
| President | Barbara Gordon |
| Website | www |
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John J. Glessner House
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| Area | 13,070 ft² |
| Built | 1886-1867 |
| Architect | Henry Hobson Richardson |
| Architectural style | Romanesque, Richardsonian Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000233 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 17, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | January 7, 1976 |
| Designated CL | October 14, 1970 |
The John J. Glessner House, operated as the Glessner House Museum, is an architecturally important 19th-century residence located at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. It was designed in 1885-1886 by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in late 1887. The property was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 14, 1970. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 1970, and as a National Historic Landmark on January 7, 1976.
John Jacob Glessner (1843–1936) was a partner in the firm of Warder, Bushnell & Glessner, a farm machinery manufacturer headquartered in Springfield, Ohio. Immediately after his marriage in 1870 to Frances Macbeth, Glessner relocated to Chicago where he opened a branch office. In 1902, the firm and four others, including firms controlled by J. P. Morgan, Cyrus McCormick, and James Deering, merged to form International Harvester (now known as Navistar International Corporation), which became the fourth largest corporation in the country. Glessner was appointed vice president and continued in that capacity until his death in 1936 at the age of 92.
During the late 19th century, Chicago's most prestigious residential street was Prairie Avenue on the South Side. Enjoying economic success, Glessner decided to build a home for his family on Prairie Avenue and 18th Street. He chose one of the young nation's foremost architects, H. H. Richardson.
Eager to develop a style of architecture that would reflect what he saw as the musculature of the fast-growing United States, the late-19th-century architect Henry Hobson Richardson developed what would be called the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The Richardsonian Romanesque style took elements of European Romanesque architecture from buildings constructed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and adapted them to American idioms.
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