117 N Benton St
Palatine, IL 60067, USA

Charles H. Patten House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:
The Charles A. Patten House is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places w1der Criterion C for architecture as a good local example of Chateaus and Queen Anne architecture. Built in 1898 by Chicago architect Julius F. Wegman for Mr. Charles H. Patten and family, the house is a testament to architectural, engineering, and design talent and skill. Mr. Patten was a very prominent person in the community having been instrumental in orchestrating both the Palatine and Barrington Water Works that brought water to both communities. He was also the mayor of Palatine from 1894 to 1895 and was among the first bankers in town.

This property is significant because it embodies the distinctive characteristics of both Cbateauesque and Queen Anne architecture. There is no other house in Palatine of this size and with such ornament and workmanship both outside and inside. The period of significance is 1898, the year the house was completed.

CHATEAUESQUE ARCHITECTURE
(The following was taken from the Sterling Masonic Temple National Register nomination form)
The Chateaus style is often called the Francis I style as it owes much to the reign of the French king when Italian Renaissance ideas and classical forms were combined with the native Gothic architecture. However, since the style also contains a mixture of earlier, fifteenth-century French elements that the term, Chateaus is preferred.

France began a revival of the Francis I style in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and the first American chateau inspired house was designed by Detlef Liena for LeGrand Lockwood at South Norwalk, Connecticut, it was built in 1864-1868. Fifteen years later, Ecole des Beaux-Arts graduate Richard Morris Hunt designed a house for William K. Vanderbilt on Fifth Avenue in New York. The house was described by architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler as "An attempt to summarize in one building the history of a most active and fruitful century in the history of architecture, which included the late Gothic of the fifteenth century and the early Renaissance of the sixteenth, and spanned the distance from the minute and complicated modeling of the Palais de Justice at Rouen and the Hotel Cluny at Paris, to the romantic classicism of the great chateaux of the Loire."

Hunt became a leader of the Chateauesque movement and the Vanderbilt family its leading patrons. Among its highlights was the construction of Biltmore, near Asheville, North Carolina by Hunt for George Washington Vanderbilt in 1890- 1895. Other American architects who designed Chateauesque styled buildings included George B. Post and Stanford White. The style was not highly popular as it took talented architects to carefully mix Renaissance and Late Gothic details for successful new designs. The Chateauesque style was used primarily for architect-designed houses. Few examples of institutional, fraternal, or commercial Chateauesque buildings are found throughout the country. Most Chateauesque buildings were constructed from the late 1880s through the early 1900s.

Chateauesque styled buildings are of masonry construction with brick or stone or a combination of both. Many have asymmetrical plans and silhouettes with high, steep-sided hipped or mansard roofs rising to a ridge or flat top. The roofs are sometimes capped by metal railings or cresting. Round turrets corbelled out from the walls at upper floor levels with conical roofs are often used. High, pinnacled gabled dormers sometimes having decorative tracery are often used to enliven the silhouette of the buildings. Decorative pinnacles are also used. Windows often have heavy lintels or basket-handle arches. Vertical mullions divide the narrow windows with transoms above.

OUEEN ANNE ARCHITECTURE
Queen Anne architecture has its roots in England in the third quarter of the 19.h century. It had nothing to do with Queen Anne, who ruled in the early years of the 1700s, nor with the architecture of her time. One of its principal proponents was British architect Richard Norman Shaw. Its elements come mainly from 17th and 18th century architecture with eclectic sources from other eras including Medieval times.

Queen Anne architecture proved to be very popular in the United States. Noted architect Henry Hobson Richardson built the first house to be called "Queen Anne “in Rhode Island in 1875. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia several houses in this style were showcased by Great Britain Queen Anne soon became the most popular architecture in this country. Its heyday was from 1880 to the turn of the century, though examples can be found in the first two decades of the 201 Century. Elements that differ from British Queen Anne architecture in this country are the varied kinds of wood detailing and a freer floor plan.

Queen Anne architecture is an eclectic style that varies in many ways. New York brownstones, San Francisco's painted ladies, and homes all over the country share this broad classification. Some elements that distinguish Queen Anne architecture are an asymmetrical shape, gables at various heights, steeply pitched roofs, and wood detailing. Queen Anne houses vary enormously from large mansions to small cottages. The details are richly varied. Among the many details found on these homes are bay windows, spindles in the earlier homes and more classic columns in the later ones, towers or turrets, "gingerbread" brackets, lentils, Palladian windows, porches (especially wrap-around), clapboards mixed with fish scale or other shingles, horizontal bands of leaded glass windows, big chimneys, balconies, pediments, and overhanging eaves.

STYLISTIC FEATURES OF THE PATTEN HOUSE
Perhaps the most recognizable Chateauesque features of the Patten House are on the roof. The highly pitched hipped roof has finials, wall dormers capped with pinnacles, and tall chimneys. The turret and tower are castellated with corbeled brackets and also topped with finials. The irregular massing, tracery, and basket-hand le arches are other characteristic of the style. Towers and turrets are also commonly found in examples of Queen Anne architecture. Another feature of the Queen Anne style found on the Patten House is the decorative wall surface, which is achieved by using different wall planes (bays, towers, horizontal bands) and textures (wood tracery and scrollwork). The wrap-around porch is also a common Queen Anne element.

ARCHITECTURAL COMPARISONS

In I 898, the year the Patten House was built, the village of Palatine had a wide variety of architectural styles. Most of the homes were built by local carpenters starting in the mid-1850s. A few were built from pattern books like the George Clayson House in the French Second Empire Style. Most were simple frame houses. There are no homes in Palatine today that can truly be classified as Chateauesque; that is not unusual for these houses were architect-designed and limited to very wealthy clients. The closest examples in Palatine are three Queen Anne houses, which are similar only due to the characteristics shared by both styles, such as decorative detailing and irregular massing.

The Smith Davis House at 5 N. Benton Street was built in 1892 by Albert Smith. It is a two-story frame house with a small front porch with spindle work and a tower at the southwest comer. There is a small front porch with spindles. It was quite modem for Palatine when built with a gas and hot water heating plant. Smith was a successful business man. Today the house is owned by the Davis family and still retains many of its original features including woodwork, carved staircase, fireplace, stained glass, cabinets, and tin ceiling in the kitchen. The house is smaller than the Patten House and does not have as many distinctive Queen Anne features.
The house at 234 N. Plum Grove Road was built in 1885 by Edwin & Zilpha Converse. It is also a two-story frame house with an enclosed front porch. There is a narrow square tower at the southern front comer of the house. It retains some of its original features in woodwork, fireplace, stained glass, and steam radiators. There is a remnant of a dumb waiter in the kitchen. This house is smaller than the Patten House. Its rooms are smaller and less elaborate.

Not much is known about the history of the restored Queen Anne at 201 N. Hale Street. It has the typical spindle porches of the earlier Queen Anne houses. The tall chimney is also a Queen Anne feature as are the mixture of clapboards and fish scale shingles and the bay windows.

Not much is known about the history of the restored Queen Anne at 201 N. Hale Street. It has the typical spindle porches of the earlier Queen Anne houses. The tall chimney is also a Queen Anne feature as are the mixture of clapboards and fish scale shingles and the bay windows.