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Café Brauer (formerly South Pond Refectory) is a restaurant building and official landmark located on the grounds of Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Dwight H. Perkins and completed in 1908.
The building, known for its green roof, red bricks, second floor ballroom, and lagoon-side setting, has been called "an outstanding example of the Prairie School of architecture" and "perhaps the finest expression of Perkins' design philosophy". It was financed by the Brauer family of Chicago, who worked in the restaurant business, and was one of the most popular restaurants in Chicago during the early twentieth century. The restaurant closed in the 1940s, and the structure was used for storage until the Lincoln Park Zoo Society began a $4.2 million restoration project in 1987.[2]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986,[1], and it received Chicago Landmark status on February 5, 2003.[3]
The building is located on the site of the South Pond Refectory, a wood-frame boathouse and restaurant designed by William Le Baron Jenney which was open from 1882 until 1908.[2] Café Brauer is sometimes called the South Pond Refectory, the primary name for the site used in its National Register nomination.
[edit] References
- ^ a b National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2008-04-15).
- ^ a b Mark Rosenthal, Carol Tauber, and Edward Uhlir. The Ark in the Park. University of Illinois Press, 2003. 156.
- ^ South Pond Refectory. City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division (2003). Retrieved on 11 December 2007.
