I just joined and am attaching a picture of my house. I think this is "Chicago Style." The interior is solid arts and crafts. So far, we haven't been able to figure out when it was built or who the architect was, but we are working on it. The house was built by a judge turned real estate tycoon, and there is an archive of this family and their real estate holdings at a university. We are working on it.

We have lived in the house since 2000.

Here I am responding to my own post. But I now have pictures of the interior of the house, taken during a house tour this past weekend, put on by a local historic house society.

This first picture is of the front of the house during the house tour. Notice that the first level has the craftsman flat roof. Inside the attic, there is the top of the house that was originally on the property, the roof and 3rd floor. Nothing else of that house remains.

This picture is taken from the front entry facing the stair hall. We have recently learned that the craftsman who did the woodwork in the house was named "Schultz" (his son came forward!). We don't know the architect yet.

This is another view of the stair hall, facing back toward the entryway. Inside the entry (which we call the vestibule) is a sort of greenhouse. The art in the house is almost all original African art, since I am an anthropologist and spent much time in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

This is a lousy picture of the fireplace, but I think the light bounced off those tiles!

This is a picture of the dining room (hard to get the whole thing in there). It has a built-in buffet and a window seat with the original glass in the windows. I don't know what you call it -- it has the lead between the panes of glass but it's not stained glass. Any clues?

This is the final picture I'm going to put up (omitting the family room, kitchen [modernized, boo hoo] and butler's pantry). This is one of the bookcases with leaded glass. There are several of these in the house. This is one of four in the living room. We are musicians so the living room contains a genuine Stickley Brothers table, a Morris reproduction chair, and a baby grand piano. The wood in this room is all quarter-sawn cuban mahogany.

Thanks for the images of your wonderful home. It must be a delight to live in this environment. Do you know who made the tiles surrounding your fireplace? Congratulations.

Fred

Candice,
I too, wish to thank you for the tour and the house looks very familiar as I have seen pictures of it in some other publication.
Or one similar.
Fred, the tile might be from a Grube collection or a reproduction of his style.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Thanks, Ralph and Fred. I've seen my house coming and going in magazines too! Actually, I have a book with a fireplace that is almost identical to mine. I do wonder about the tiles around the fireplace, but the house has been quite a mystery with a lot of information about it being lost. We just found out who did the woodwork. I would love to figure out who did the tile. There is hand made tile in one of the bathrooms too -- a magnificient bathroom. I should take pictures of it too.

So tell me about Grube, please.

I posted the wrong bookcase picture in a previous post. This is the right one.

Grueby Faience Company was founded in 1897 in Boston, Massachusetts by William H. Grueby. There pottery and tile is much in demand and they used wonderfully rich matt green glazes in their work. If you posted a close-up of one of the tiles it might indicate the glaze used.

Fred

Good Evening Candice,
Here is what I have on Grueby & Co.
Active 1897 -1919
Founded by William H. Grueby (1867 - 1925), practicing ceramist who became fascinated by the matte glazes he saw on French pottery exihbited in Chicago at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893. He returned to Boston, opened his own business, and spent five years perfecting his own matte glazes, which he introduced on vases in 1898. Grueby perfected a variety of colors, including yellow, aqua, and pink. But it was the Grueby green that became a sensation.
At the 1900 PARIS eposition, Grueby won two gold medals and one silver medal, winning over some pieces of Rookwood pottery. It achieved renown in America at the 1901 PAN AMERICAN EXPOSITION IN BUFFALO. By 1905 Grueby pottery was available at the TIFFANY STUDIOS in New York where clients selecting furniture for an entire room could see it all assembled on a trial basis in one of the studio's provided for that purpose.

Gustav Stickley collaborated on joint exhibits of his furniture and Grueby's pottery at trade fairs. He also frequently showed the Grueby vases and lamps in his magazine.The result was that Grueby's designs were widely copied, with mass produced versions being offered at lower prices. Financial problems led Grueby into bankruptcy in 1909. He reformed the company and continued to make tiles and architectural ceramics for more than ten years after that.

A line of lamps paired Tiffany shades with Grueby ceramic vases. One such lamp sold at auction in June 1999 for $286,000. Besides the originals by Tiffany, there were many look alikes available from other sources at somewhat lower prices.

I am attaching a Grueby Vase.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Ralph & Fred --

I have taken two pictures of the fireplace tiles. The first one shows the corner. The tiles are definitely matte.

Candice

Here is the second photo. I had the camera up close so there is a reflection in the one tile. They have a matte glaze though -- they are a bit rough to the fee

Candice,
You are truly fortunate as these very well could be Grueby tile.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Gee I wonder how I find out for sure. I live 1 1/2 hours from Madison, which is where the "culture" is around here. I would not be surprised if it were Grueby -- this room has cuban mahogany in it, and obviously no expense was spared.

Candice

Hello Candice,
I have been doing some research and have a lap full as well as on my computer desk things that might be of interest to you.
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, and you are correct that your house is in the Chicago style and I am pretty sure it was indeed built by Wright. By the year of 1900 he had built some sixty rambling homes in the mid west of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and his own home at 951 Chicago Ave. Oak Park, IL.
Which resembles your house to a T.
The houses he built were of the Prairie Style, with the low pitched roofs and extended lines that blend into the landscape while the tutor roofs adorned the second and third floors.

Check with your local recorder and find the plat in the records section of your county and you will find out for sure who built the house and who it was built for. Also the date of when it was built. I do research like this all the time as I need this information to write history as well as to make blueprints.

I do hope this has helped you in your research of your House.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Ralph --

Thanks for the information about Wright. I was aware that the first arts and crafts houses were Tudors, but I hadn't been aware that Wright built any.

We have been to the county records and all we know is that the dates on this house are 1881 and 1891. The house was initially owned by Kimberly Clark and housed their employees. This original house, the 1881 version, was apparently gutted, except for the attic and roof line, which still exist in our attic and are quite an attraction when we have house tours.

The judge/real estate tycoon who built our house moved to Appleton in 1891. His family and heirs owned the house until 1984, when the previous owners moved in and made several decorating faux pas (horrors) luckily not damaging the house. We are apparently the 3rd owners of this house since 1891.

Nobody around here believes the 1891 date for the house. One person told me that he thought it was built between 1905-1930. The owner of the big, historic Queen Anne down the street brought in some expert from Madison WI to look at the neighborhood, and she looked at the outside of the house and declared "It's a Tudor." The Queen Anne person even argued with me that it wasn't a craftsman and it wasn't that old. So everyone has their opinions.

I looked at pictures online of the early FLW houses and they are indeed Tudors. Mine is a bit plainer than those on the outside. I would like to see pictures of other houses he built around the same time period.

If this is a FLW I think the City of Appleton would just freak out. I already feel like I'm living in a museum -- I don't know how I would take to that!

Candice

Candice,

That is a gorgeous house. It makes me long for our original paneling, which was removed sometime in the 40s when the house was left empty for a time.

There must be some sort of archive of Wright's plans that would help answer the lineage of this house. Our Irving Gill plans were archived, which is the only reason we have them now.

Amanda