Harold T. Wolff was an architectural historian with Ridge Historical Society in the 1990s and early 2000s, who contributed substantially to our understanding of the architectural legacy of the Ridge. His regular columns for the BAPA Villager gave readers insights in architecture and history with his elegant prose. With permission from BAPA, these columns have been made available on the RHS website.
Suiting the Style to the Site
April 2006 | The Villager
When we think of selecting an architectural style for a particular site, what usually comes to mind is the way in which the horizontal lines of a Prairie-style house reflect the wide-open flat plains of the Middle West, or how the successive piling up of terraces, stairs, porches and stories allows a house to fit…
The House for the Man Who Never Forgot a Face
February 2005 | The Villager
The Historic Chicago Bungalow initiative has brought new awareness of the great variety of styles to be found-in houses of this type, even those that are members of the broad group known as the “Chicago bungalow.” Chicago bungalows are 1½ stories high, of brick construction, with generous windows, an enclosed front room or porch, and…
An Architect’s House for His Wife
April 2005 | The Villager
What is in an architect's mind when he builds a house for himself and his family and names his wife as the client in his press release? Possibly he just wants it to seem like he has a client for the project. Or he may want to credit his mate with some role in the…
Prairie School-Inspired Riches
October 2005 | The Villager
Although they have received almost no attention from architectural researchers, there is a series of Prairie School-inspired houses on 104th Street between Church Street and Prospect Avenue. Not every house on this block belongs to the group, but there are several two-story houses characterized by walls with horizontal clapboards at the base and stucco surfacing…
A Distinctive ‘Frame Dwelling’
December 2005 | The Villager
Throughout the 1890s, local architect George A. W. Kintz authored a column on house design for Chicago newspapers, particularly the Chicago Inter Ocean. He would provide a sketch of a house, a floor plan and a description. His column in the Feb. 21, 1891, issue of Inter Ocean entitled “A Frame Dwelling” is accompanied by…
A Hetherington House With Half-Timbering & Brick
August 2005 | The Villager
When we speak of Tudor houses in this country, we always mean houses from the revival of that style between 1890 and 1940. The house at 8854 S. Hamilton Ave., for Arthur A. Byers, president and treasurer of the Central Motor and Repair Company, is an excellent example. The Byers House was erected in 1929…
An Award-Winning Craftsman House
March 2005 | The Villager
In September 2004, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks bestowed Chicago Landmark Awards for Preservation Excellence to people who own houses which have previously designated landmarks and who work especially hard to care for them. Certainly none was more deserving of the award than John and Janet Martin who were recognized for the loving restoration of…
A Storybook House by Homer G. Sailor
September 2004 | The Villager
Although Homer Grant Sailor (1887-1968) was not the architect of every storybook house on the Ridge, he was responsible for a good many of them. Designs for such houses came so effortlessly from the pen of Homer Sailor, and it should be fun to look over one of them in detail. The example for our…
A Prairie Style House on the Hill
June 2004 | The Villager
In 1907, a couple of years after Thomas Tallmadge (1876-1940) and Vernon Watson (1878-1950) had formed their firm, a business journal said of their partnership, “their work shows an interesting attempt to discard precedent and to develop a style at once personal and true to local conditions,” which is a fairly concise summary of Prairie…
Having Our Say On a Local Waterman House
April 2004 | The Villager
The owners of the Jesse T. Blake House, 2023 W. 108th Pl., have considerable pride in their residence. A small collection of published photographs of the house includes brochures from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, a passage in the A I A Guide to Chicago, and a plate from a large picture book prepared in…