It is interesting sometimes to revel in the twist and turns of agricultural tales, how one action can lead to another. Here, a tenuous connection ultimately ended up as a house on the National Historic Register – not because of who lived there, but who built it.
This story begins with James Charnley, a successful lumberman from Pennsylvania. According to the Society of Architectural Historians, he came to Chicago in 1866 to establish a business with his brother, Charles, and brother-in-law, Lester Bradner. They began a lumber wholesale company, Bradner, Charnley & Co., which included a sawmill and produced heavy timber for commercial and industrial construction, as well as a lumberyard.

Charnley married Helen M. Douglas, the daughter of John M. Douglas, president of the Illinois Central Railroad. The Charnleys had three children and lived in several locations in Chicago until they built what is now known as The Charnley House, at 1365 N. Astor Street.

Located in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, this stands out as a high-end residential area, which in years past was famous because of Potter Palmer’s huge residence that the tour guide at the Charnley House recalled seeing as a child. “Everyone called it the castle,” she said.

Potter, developer and builder of the beautiful Palmer House Hotel now owned by Hilton, developed the neighborhood in the late 1880s and built his imposing “castle” that has since been demolished. The connection the family had through the Illinois Central Railroad probably brought James Charnley in contact with Louis Sullivan who, by this point in time, was already a famous architect.

Frank Lloyd Wright, a Sullivan employee, served as a draftsman for the Charnley House that Sullivan built. It is a three-story brick residence completed in May 1892. Once inside the home, all eyes are drawn upward to the three-story atrium. What truly reflects who James was is the use of wood throughout the house, mostly quarter-sawn white oak.

The Charnleys lived in the house before moving to Camden, S.C., where James died in 1905. His wife and son spent the remainder of their lives in Europe, where both appeared to have died in 1927.
The house, rented by the Charnleys, was eventually sold to Redmond Stephens in 1911, then to James Waller in 1918. The Wallers lived there for 51 years until in the late 1970s it was purchased by Lowell Wohlfiel, who completed reconstruction of the balcony, which had deteriorated through the years.

The home then sold to the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who undertook a major restoration completed in 1988 that returned the house by and large to its original 1892 appearance.

In 1995 Seymour Persky donated funds to the Society of Architectural Historians to purchase the house, and the Society moved its headquarters inside in July of that year. Since that time, it has maintained a public tour program.

This house is architecturally significant. Sullivan rejected the historical details common to the Victorian architecture, in favor of abstract forms that later became the hallmarks of modern architecture. For that reason Wright proclaimed the Charnley House to be the “first modern house in America.”

If you’re going to be in the area, public tours of the Charnley-Persky House are available on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with appointments available during the week for groups of 10 or more. Note that there is a 15-person limit per tour, which is strictly enforced.

The house is closed from Dec. 24-Jan. 1 each year. For recorded tour information, call 312-915-0105.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.