2018 S Calumet Ave
Chicago, IL 60616, USA

Wheeler-Kohn House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:
The Wheeler-Kohn House is locally significant for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. It meets Criterion C for architecture as a good example of a Second Empire styled house with later Queen Amie alterations. Its period of significance is c. 1870 the year the house was built to e. late 1880^s through the early 1890's when the house was upgraded with the Queen Anne alterations. Among the Second Empire features on the house are the mansard roof, dormer windows, molded cornice with decorative paired brackets and dentils, corner quoins, and segmental arched windows. The later Queen Anne alterations include the decorative, pressed copper two-story window bay with a pyramidal roof and a decorative entry porch.

The Wheeler-Kohn House is an important example of the upgrading mansions went through during the 1880's and 1890's. As early Chicagoans established themselves, they built large imposing houses. Within a decade of their construction, it was commonplace for owners to make alterations to their houses to keep them current stylistically.

The Second Empire style developed in France from 1852 through 1870 during the reign of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. It was popularized in France and the United States by important exhibitions held in Paris in 1855 and 1867. In the United Slates the emergence of the style coincided with the boom period following the Civil War, leading to the prolific construction of examples of the style. The Second Empire style is the foundation of the Wheeler-Kohn House and evidenced in the building's overall box-like for, which is enhanced by applied ornament, such as quoins and pilasters (imitation columns). Other characteristics are the tall arched window openings (Italianate), with molded incised window hoods. Overall, the style emphasizes height and vertical proportions. The most prominent aspect of the style was its tall mansard roof, the invention of 17"' century architect Francois Mansart. it gave a stylish finish lo houses, but its height also provided a story of usable space instead of an attic, the Wheeler-Kohn House roof has a typical Second Empire cornice supported by scrolled brackets delineating the roof. In this case the pilasters connecting to the brackets and cornice appear as though they support the roof giving the house proportions of a typical Italianate house. The arched "dormer windows in the Wheeler-Kohn House are a standard Second Empire element.

The Italianate elements of the house are found in its fundamental original design including the arched windows and doors, long narrow lights, molding around window and door openings, and box like massing accentuated by the pilasters.

The American Queen Anne style came into popularity around 1880 and lasted through 1910, and was borrowed from the British Queen Anne style developed by British architect Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912). the fundamental difference in these newer styles from older styles was created by the onset of industrialization and the ability to mass produce, by machine, building materials, and then transport them from one place to another. Some of these mass-produced materials included uniform 2x4 wood, nails, spindles and many other decorative details. Queen Anne houses are characterized by the use of towers, bay windows, and other devices to avoid a smooth walled appearance. Some of the later additions to the house are Queen Anne in style. The most obvious addition is probably the highly decorated front entry porch roof with its wood spindles, turned posts, and decorations of acanthus leaves, sunburst pattern, paneled boxes and horseshoes. The two-story pressed copper bay on the front of the house is very ornate and many of the same decorations found on the entry porch roof are also seen on the copper bay (boxes, acanthus leaves). Pressed copper was also a manufacturing technique used after the house was originally constructed. The bay also divides the cornice (not typical in Italianate/Second Empire) and protest into a large arched window opening wilt a pyramidal topped roof similar lo a Queen Anne turret. Acanthus leaves are also a decoration found on the keystones of the dormer windows and may have been applied later over a simpler keystone. Later period additions to the interior included Oriental influenced balusters added to the first and second floor of the main staircase, and beamed ceilings in the entry' and dining room.

There are two significant Chicago houses still standing that are similar in age to the Wheeler Kohn House; the Elbridge G. Keith House at 1900 S. Prairie and the Abraham Groesbeck House at 1304 W. Washington Boulevard. Both of these houses are National Register and Chicago Landmark properties due to their architecture and the era represented by the people that inhabited them. The Keith House just two blocks away from the Wheeler-Kohn House is very similar in scale; the height, width, and depth are all very close. This scale is typical of the earlier houses up and down the streets in the earlier development of the neighborhood. Later near the end of the century land became expensive and the homes became narrow and closer. The box like massing, mansard roofs, with ornamental pilasters reaching up to the cornice, "salon- ornamented and arched window hoods are all common characteristics of both houses. The interiors have similar central hall plan design. The Groesbeck House is a simple Italianate design built at the same time as the Wheeler-Kohn House in a neighborhood that slightly pre-dates the Prairie Avenue neighborhood. These houses share the characteristics of the Italianate style including; similar scale, long narrow arched windows, a double arched window over the entrance, a central entrance and hall plan, a bay on the left of the entrance, detailed cornices, and limestone and brick exteriors. The Groesbeck House is much simpler in ornamentation and has a flat roof clearly distinguishing the Italianate from the Second Empire, and some of the later Queen Anne additions to the Wheeler-Kohn House. There are several later Italianate houses in the Near South Side. Armour Square, and Douglas neighborhoods. The Wheeler-Kohn House is one of the few Second Empire houses still standing in this area. There are numerous high styled Queen Anne houses throughout Chicago. The Wheeler-Kohn House is distinguished in that il is a Second Empire house with later Queen Anne additions.

By the 1880's, the part of Chicago's Near South Side centering on Calumet and Prairie Avenue, near 18lh Street, was filled with the large mansions of Chicago's wealthy. Many of the residences were built anew on property where large mansions had been built a decade before. Other houses, however were those ten- to fifteen-year-old residences which were renewed with fashionable remodeling, these upgrades were generally consistent with the original architecture, and enhanced with the addition of bays, porches or ornamental roofs.