[PDF]Alta Vista Terrace National Register Nomination Inventory

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ILLINOIS HISTORIC SITES SURVEY INVENTORY



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1. Name of Site:

Common Alta Vista Terrace District

Historic



3.



Location:

Street and Number



Township



Section



Alta Vista Terrace (Bet/ Grace & Byran at N. Kenmore)

City or Town Zip Code Range 1 A Section

Chicago

County

Cook

Classification:



Category (check one)



(x) District
( ) Site

k. Ownership:

(x) Private
( ) Public



( ) Building
( ) Structure



Integrity (check one)

( x ) Altered ( x ) Unaltered

( ) Moved ( x ) Original Site

Status (check one)

( x ) Occupied

( ) Unoccupied

( x ) Preservation work in progress



Access to Public

( ) Yes ( ) Restricted ( ) Unrestricted

Present Use (check one or more)



( ) Agricultural

( ) Commercial

( ) Educational

( ) Entertainment

( ) Government



( ) Industrial

( ) Military

( ) Museum

( ) Park

( x ) Private Residences'



Ownership of Property:
Owner's Name
Street and Number
City or Town
State



County



( x ) No



( ) Religious

( ) Scientific

( ) Transportation

( ) Other (specify)



Phone Number



Zip Code



Description: 36 residences

(x) Excellent ( ) Good ( ) ffair ( ) Deteriorated ( ) Ruins ( ) Unexposed

Is there a program of preservation underway? (x ) Yes ( ) No



Historical Themes: (check one or more of the following)



) Archeological Site
) Archeological Site
) French Influence
) Illinois Frontier
) Illinois Early
(*) Illinois Middle
( x ) Illinois Late
( ) Famous People



(Pre-Columbian)

(Post -Columbian to 1673)

(1673-1780)

(1780-1818)

(1818-1850)

(1850-1900)

(1900-present)

(give names & dates)



Specific Date: est< 1900

Areas of significance (check one or more of the following)



x



Aboriginal (historic)

Aboriginal (pre-historic)

Agriculture

Architecture

Art

Commerce

Communication

Conservation

Education

Engineering

Industry

Invention

Landscape Architecture



Literature

Military

Music

Political

Religion/Philosophy

Science

Sculpture

Soc ial / Human 1 tar ian

Theater

Transpor tat ion

Urban Planning

Other (specify)



Brief statement of significance: (include all names and dates)

Use additional sheets if necessary. National Register. Chicago Landmarks Coram, Landmark

9. Form prepared by:



Name and Title:




Date: 6/23/75


Organization:




Phone :


Street and Number:


City or Town:


County:


Zip Code



During the course of the Survey we often find it necessary to search for a
particular site. When filling out the Survey form, please list according to the
following example, published references to the site for which forms are being
completed. If a bibliography can be compiled, it will greatly deduct from the Survey's

task.

Bibliography

Robertson, Robert, Of Whales and Men . New York, Alfred K, Knopf, Inc., 1954.



National Register material






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Street and
^0 residences



HMO** .ts*«to*ar



Public and multiple private

3800 to 38^6 and 3801 to 38V? Alta Vista Terrace

Si t v Chicago

Illinois Cook



6 & Description;
stition;



Q Excellent Q Good O Fair D Deteriorated O Ruins D Une^s^d

Is tfc«re a program of pres$r9ation under «ay? D Yes O K©

If yes?, give a brief description on the baek of this page<>



Lsfcori^al themes s (©hffflfe ok® or aiore of the following;



si*



>pro»C



O French influence

D rUinois frontier

CJ Illinois early

C3 TUinoia Middle

58 Illinois late

O Faarous people



!poat-€olu»bian to 1673*'
,67>l/80)

1;



•.give names and dates.



' " Sg££jj£|£ jjgJJLiEli cit»o 1901-1904

Ar»a* m of ai gnif ioanoeg i©he©k one or asore;
O Aboriginal {E*re»historio} C3 Education






£3 Architecture



: owners©



j ^



D 'Conservation



O Industry O Seieaoe

£3 Invention Q Sculpture

KJ Landscape architecture G Sooial^lusianitaxiai*



a

® tfrbsn



Brief ^tattmsn t of & j ffi3ifi©anee g Claelud*' all naaes and dates;

Use bask of page and additional sheets if neceasaryo

8o Form prepared by

>les Mrsy Susan S» Benjamin



Dafeeg 12-11-70



Orjgaai aitiong Commissi on on Chicago Histor ical and Architectur al L andmarks

Street a nd Hump erg ^20 North Clark Street, Room 800

City ©r Town ChicaKp. _ Cmntyg Cook ^ Sip Codes 6o6lO



During the ©curse of the Survey we often find it necessary to aeaixK. foy r#s*r-
enoes for a particular raitSc :



Mhea filling

any published



sea to the site



lint a©
vbioh the



Hold. Kg exa-JSp i ft
1*1



;f a bibliography ©an be ©oaipiladt it will greatly redu


ubbert-aoa,; Atobsrt Bo* Gf Whales and Hes*, 'e;., V; .-.?*^»;



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D e s c r i |) t io n :

Alta Vista Terrace is a block- long street lined by forty small, single family
rowhouses, twenty on each side of the street. Each row house is situated on
a lot approximately 2.k % wide and ^0* deep, with a brick party wall l8" thick
between them.

On each side of the street are eighteen two-story houses, with two three-story
houses occupying the middle of each row. Except for one facade, at 3826, that
has been completely altered with false half- timbering, there are twenty dif-
ferent types of exteriors, and the order in which they occur on one side of
the street is repeated on the other side starting from the opposite end.

Stylistically, the exteriors of the houses were carefully designed to empha=
size individuality rather than sameness. Details of many of the rowhouses
reflect the Classical Benaissance in American architecture that grew out of
the 1893 Vorld , s Columbian Exposition. Columns, pediments, and pilasters
characterize several of the facades. Other details reflect adaptations of
various architectural styles — late Gothic and l8th Century Adam, to name
a few. In the twenty different Roman-brick facades are to be found such
divergent architectural motifs as Doric and Ionic wood pilasters, flamboyant
Gothic arches, Paladian windows, stained-and leaded-glass fanlights, bay and
bow windows, and a wealth of moldings, brackets, dentils, and festoons. Many
eclectic motifs, popular at the turn of the century, decorate the facades.

Some renovation and "modernization" has been done, not all of it in keeping
with the original character of the street's design. A number of windows are
glass block. Metal awnings are to be found. A few gables and several decora-
tive finials have been removed. Still, for the most part, the exteriors have
been changed in the seventy years the houses have stood.

The floor plans of the thirty-six two-story rowhouses were originally identi-
cal, as were those of the four three-story houses. The first floor of each
house had an entrance stairwell, and kitchen on one side and a living room
and dining room on the other. The second floor had four bedrooms and a bath-
room. The top floor of the three-story houses was designed to have four
additional bedrooms, mention has been made of this top floor in some cases
having been used as a ballroom. Eachhouse had a full basement.

Most of the interiors have been extensively altered, and several have beer-
restored or renovated within the last decade.

Signi f icance :

Hidden away in a nondescript neighborhood, Alta Vista Terrace is a street out
of the past, alblock-long microcosm of turn-of- the- century charm and dignity
and architectural eclesticism. Begun in 1900 as one of the last, real estate
developments of Samuel Eberly Gross, Chicago's merchant prince of additions
and subdivisions during the last two decades of the 19th century, its fascinat-
ing history endows it with a link to the past fully as important and interest-
ing as its architectural link.

Joseph and Caroline Kirkland wrote in The Story of Chicago , published in 1894,
"Of those who have contributed so much to the growth of Chicago by offering
cheap suburban building sites to all who chose to buy, Samuel Elberly Gross
stands easily. at the head." Gross was a highly successful and unusually ener-
getic real estate entrepreneur whose additions, subdivisions and suburbs
contributed to the rapid growth of Chicago and the area to the west in the
1800 «s and 1890* s.



Significance, cont.

After the Panic of l873» when trade revived and the city began its resurgence
of growth, Gross, a lawyer by profession, decided to make real estate his
business. By the early 1880* s he was feverishly engaged in platting subdivis-
ions and operating under a very attractive system — that of building homes for
people of modest means and selling the homes for small down payments and
monthly installments.

Gross, achieved spectacular success, which he attributed to public will and
"superior business methods". At the heights of the land boom in 1890, his
firm is said to have sold up to 500 lots a week and transported as many as
3000 people in twenty- seven railroad cars in one day to inspect his West side
properties. In I89I, Gross served as treasurer of the Chicago Real Estate
Board. By 189^, he had sold to, 000 lots, built and sold 8000 houses and
store buildings, and established eighteen subdivisions and suburbs. His
fortune was estimated at 3 to 3 million dollars.

During all this frenzy of buying, selling, and building, Gross, who also served
as a director of the Chemical National Bank and the Calumet Electric Railroad,
did not neglect his cultural, social, or civic life. He made three trips to
Europe, including a visit to the Paris Exposition in I889, and also traveled
to the West Coast, Mexico, and the Orient. He was a patron of the Art Insti-
tute of Chicago and various philanthropic societies and a member of several
prestigious clubs.

It was in 1900, after returning from Europe, that Gross bought the block that
became Alta Vista Terrace. It appears that as a result of looking at row-
houses in London, he decided to make Alta Vista as nearly like a block of
English rowhouses as possible. The property was bounded by the Chicago, Mil-
waukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad on the west and an alley on the east; to
avoid having his houses face either of these, Gross ran a narrow street down
the middle of the plat and built a row of houses on each side of it.

Called by the Historic American Buildings Survey, the "Street of hO Houses,"
Alta Vista is a narrow, tree-shaded way lined on both sides with rowhouses
having an Old World feeling.

The houses on Alta Vista Terrace were substantially built and have been
occupied by substantial families — not necessarily families of wealth or pro-
minence, but families who regarded a home as a more or less permanent invest-
ment to be enjoyed and cared for. A number of the original owners lived on
Alta Vista for the rest of their lives.

The present homeowners speak proudly of Alta Vista Terrace. In 1969, they
received an award from the Chicago Beautiful Committee. The award praised
the street for the way man-made hardness and .naturalness of plant material
complement each other. "The overall effect suggests that building and plant
grew together."

The houses in general are well cared for; the shrubbery and plantings in the
front yards are well-tended, and the character of the street has been retained.



Significance ^ ^co n t.

Alt a Vista provides a refreshing breathing space at the edge of an area increas-
ingly domineered by crowding high- rises, truly an oasis in a neighborhood
showing in spots the effects of neglect, age, and the inevitable litter and
confusion caused by its proximity to Wrigley Field. To walk down such a street
or even just to catch a glimpse of it from the cross-street at either end —
is to be transported briefly to a segment of Chicago* s past that is worth
remembering.

Alta Vista Terrace is a beautiful example of a situation where each house,
individually, might not be outstanding but where the street, taken as a whole,
is unique in Chicago,

Bibliographical References :

Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Illinois , Chicago: Calument
Book and Engraving Company, I896. pp. ^2-3^5-

Dedmon, Emmett. Fabulous Chicago . New York: Random House, 1953- pp- 216-218.

Gross, Samuel E. The Merchant of Cornville . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Privately
printed by University Press, 1896.