216 S 4th Ave
Maywood, IL 60153, USA

Harry H. Nichols House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Nichols House meets Criterion C for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It is architecturally significant for being a fine example of a high style Queen Anne house. Because of its disciplined profile and less lavish ornamentation than most high style Queen Anne residences, it is closer in character to the simpler quality of most Maywood residences. Even so, this fairly large masonry house located on a corner lot is slightly more complex in massing and surface treatment than al l the other Queen Anne style houses in the community except for the Jacob Bohlander House at 316 North 4th Avenue.

The house at 216 South 4th Avenue was built for Harry H. Nichols, the son of Col. William Nichols, President of the Maywood Company, which developed the community of Maywood. The home of Harry H. Nichols, who once served as the town postmaster, is the only existing residence associated with the Nichols family. Its brick construction and attention to ornamental detailing give the home a feeling of solidity and importance befitting a member of Maywood's most important early family.

Like other Queen Anne home, the Nichols House is asymmetrical with gable, porches, bays and a tower, and its internal shape is discernable from the exterior. Typically, the late 19th Century house contains a mix of ornamental details made possible because of the industrial revolution. Here spindles ornament the porch and balustrade because of the invention of the power lather; shingles decorate the tower because of the invention of the band saw. Classical details abound in the form of Greek and roman motifs-- cornices, swags, urns, garlands and fluted columns with Ionic capitals. This is predictable since building records indicate the house was, in al l probability, constructed the year following the World's Columbian Exposition, which was dominated by Classicism.

The Queen Anne house was meant, through its highly individualized ornamental detailing, to impress the visitor and to express the owner's personal identity and artistic taste. This house was no exception. The guest immediately was struck with its elegance. He entered to fin d a stair hall with richly-surface lincrusta-walter wallpaper; from there he could enter the formal front parlor or a small but even more lavishly decorated reception area. In the rear parlor off the reception area, he would fin d the elegant classically, detailed fireplace. Despite the presence of a heating system, fireplace s was important, and builders ' handbooks of the period recommended they be made as elegant as possible. Ornamentation on the interior was, in some places, elaborate; in other places, it was quit e simple. This was in keeping with the house's exterior. There was just enough formality and ornamentation to place the Nichol s House in the mainstream of the late 19th Century homeowner's preoccupation with social status and display.

The excellent integrity of the Nichol s House underscores its significance as a characteristic Queen Anne home and one of the two different but fines t Queen Anne houses in Maywood.