1020
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The name of the building is carved in Bedford limestone above the ground level entrance. Along the other street, the building is set back and landscaping beautifies the area. The sidewalk along that street is the original stone sidewalk installed by J.L. Cochran in the late 1880s.
The building was built in 1914 by Architect A.A. Waterman and contractor A&C Anderson at a cost of $60,000. The owner of the building was T.G. Gleich. This apartment building appeared in the 1917 Directory to Apartments of the Better Class along the North Side of Chicago. What follows is the description of the building given in that book.
This building is situated in an exclusive residential district, two blocks from the lake and one block from the Elevated Station. The building is cleverly designed to obtain a maximum of light and air. The exceptional texture of the brown brick trimmed with Bedford stone, the base being set off with charming lawn plots enriched with bushes and statuary, gives the building an unusual air of refinement and grandeur backed up by the rich verdure of the Sheridan Road trees and shrubbery and the clear sky over the grand body of water, Lake Michigan.
The entrance lobby, decorated and furnished in the imposing Italian Renaissance Pallacio period, is unusually spacious. While walls and ceilings are severely plain in a Caen stone treatment, a remarkable air of refinement is obtained and acts as a perfect background for the gorgeous settings, such as the high-backed chairs, consoles, elaborate twisted columns in polychrome treatment and tile and an exceptional piece of craftsman art, the iron hand-wrought newel lighting fixture. Rich tapestries and sumptuous hand-tufted rugs lend the luxurious warmth to the completeness of the arrangement. A correctly liveried doorman is on duty day and night. Two harmoniously decorated, automatic, smooth running elevators give access to the apartments.
A charmingly decorated and furnished large ballroom opens off the lobby. With its refreshing atmosphere of open-air treatment, awning and lattice effects, it is a revelation and really an exceptional ballroom. A completely equipped laundry, with most modern features and exceptional light and well-ventilated service rooms complete the occupancy of the first floor.
The apartments are exceptionally well laid out, all rooms being large and well lighted by the layout of attractive French casement windows. All decorations are of refined, quiet elegance and of most sanitary mediums, genuine Holland enamels. The principal rooms have the walls paneled in artistic arrangement. The parquetry floors have perfect finishes. The lighting fixtures are exquisite design and fished and conform to the requirements of the respective rooms. Special attention should be directed to the size of the reception room, in one instance 11’ by 19’.
The interior finish is unusually rich, with a refinement of decorative detail. No expense has been spared to make this one of the finest apartment buildings in the city. A large and unusually bright kitchen and butlery with sanitary built-in cabinets, vacuum cleaning system with numerous outlets and many other modern devices for increasing the comfort and convenience to apartment-house living have been incorporated.
The building has been modified over the years. Of the original six-bedroom apartment homes and the three five-bedroom units, there are only three still in the original format. What was once a ballroom is now an art studio. The billiard room is now the laundry; the coachman’s apartment is currently an art studio apartment. The janitor’s apartment still remains. The entrance foyer has been modernized and details like twisted columns have been replaced. It is believed that the building had a doorman until the early 1950s when the six-bedroom units were each converted into five apartments. Take the east elevator to the third floor to the first residence we will visit.