Tree Studio Building and Annexes

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Tree Studio Building and Annexes
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location: 4 E. Ohio Street, Chicago, IL
Built/Founded: 1894, annex: 1912-1913
Architect: Parfitt Brothers, annex: Hill and Woltersdorf
Architectural style(s): Queen Anne, annex: English Arts & Craft
Added to NRHP: December 16, 1974
NRHP Reference#: 03000784 [1]
Governing body: Private/Friedman Properties

The Tree Studio Building and Annexes was an artist colony established in Chicago, Illinois in 1894 by Judge Lambert Tree and his wife, Anne Tree.

Tree arranged to have the original tree building constructed in 1894, designed by the architecture firm of Parfitt Brothers. The building is constructed with steel frames and is two storys high. The ground level is covered in a cast iron arcade and designed as storefronts, while the second story is covered in a Roman brick and is designed to serve as artist studios with large windows to allow natural light to enter.[2]

Tree created a legal trust which stipulated that only artists could live in Tree Studios. This trust remained in force until 1959 when the complex was sold the the Medinah Temple, with which the studio complex shared a block.[2]

Some of the studio's residents include sculptors Albin Polasek and John Storrs; illustrator J. Allen St. John; muralist John Warner Norton; painters Ruth Van Sickle Ford, James Murray Haddow, and Pauline Palmer; and actors Peter Falk and Burgess Meredith.[3]

Restoration of the property, guided by Albert Friedman, began in 2000 and included the building being listed by the World Monuments Fund.[4] Friedman purchased the property in 2001, following which construction workers and artisans labored side-by-side, rebuilding Tree Studios by hand. Architectural details were re-created from surviving fragments in on-site woodworking shops.

The State Street building was listed as a Chicago Landmark on February 26, 1997. The Ohio Street and Ontario Street annexes and courtyard were added as Chicago Landmarks on June 27, 2001.[3] The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 16, 1974.

[edit] References

  1. ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
  2. ^ a b Tree Studio Building. Chicago: A National Register of Historic Places Travel itinerary. National Park Services. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  3. ^ a b Tree Studios, Annexes, and Courtyard. Chicago Landmarks. City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division (2003). Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  4. ^ Tree Studios Medinah Temple. The Suites Collection. Friedman Properties (2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

[edit] See also

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