Richard Nickel

Richard Stanley Nickel (May 31, 1928 – April 13, 1972) was a Polish American architectural photographer and historical preservationist, who was based in Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for his efforts to preserve and document the buildings of architect Louis Sullivan, and the work of the architecture firm of Adler & Sullivan.

Richard Nickel was born in the Chicago neighborhood of Humboldt Park in a two-flat located at 4327 W. Haddon. He was raised by first-generation Polish Americans with his grandfather John Nikiel, born in Posen, Germany in 1880. Richard's father, Stanley, a driver for the Polish Daily News, Americanized the surname to Nickel in the face of Anti-Polish sentiment. The family soon moved to 4329 W. Crystal where a young Richard attended grammar school at St. Cyril and Methodius. It was here that Richard first became fascinated by light as he stared at the saintly figures drawn in stained glass. Nickel would tell a reporter in 1969 "That makes an impression on you that you never completely forget. It might be subconscious and, at some point, something triggers it".

The family moved to a second floor apartment at 2457 N. Rockwell in the Logan Square community, while Nickel was in fifth grade and enrolled at St. John Berchman's School. At the time the neighborhood was predominately Polish, and years later Nickel described it as the "Polish neighborhood where I became happily abnormal". The family lived near Logan Boulevard, an area lined with historic mansions and wide parkways that would later become recognized as a Chicago Landmark. More important was his father Stanley's acute interest in photography which Richard would take up as well.

In 1948 after leaving the Army, Nickel was given a victory medal and subsequently enrolled at the Institute of Design, which became part of IIT- The Illinois Institute of Technology. The school was housed in the former Chicago Historical Society building, located at 632 N. Dearborn Street (Northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets, now called the Excaliber nightclub).

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