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Gallery Dedicated to Beverly Artist Jack Simmerling Opens At Glessner House

By Howard Ludwig | December 2, 2014 8:27am
 Beverly artist Jack Simmerling had a lifelong love affair with the homes of Chicago's Prairie Avenue. The Glessner House Museum stands as one of the few remaining homes of the era. On Monday, a gallery dedicated to Simmerling's artwork and historic artifacts debuted. Dec. 1 also would have been Simmerling's 79th birthday.
Jack Simmerling Gallery Opens At Glessner House
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BEVERLY — John J. "Jack" Simmerling would have celebrated his 79th birthday on Monday. Unfortunately, the Beverly artist never got a chance to open his present.

A permanent gallery dedicated to the late Simmerling's artwork as well as the priceless artifacts he rescued from Chicago's Prairie Avenue homes was unveiled on Monday at the Glessner House Museum at 1800 S. Prairie Ave. in the South Loop.

"It made him so happy when he learned that his collection would be here," said Bill Tyre, executive director and curator of the Glessner House.

Tyre, a Pullman resident, worked with Simmerling for about a year before his death on July 18, 2013. The pair combed through truckloads of artifacts Simmerling culled from the wreckage of some of Chicago's most prominent homes. He and Tyre photographed and cataloged the extensive collection — only a small portion of which is on display.

 Bill Tyre is the executive director and curator of the Glessner House Museum in the South Loop. Here he stands holding a watercolor painting of the historic home done by Beverly artist Jack Simmerling. Tyre worked with Simmerling to catalog the artist's massive collection of artifacts he rescued while working on a demolition crew along Prairie Avenue in the 1950s.
Bill Tyre is the executive director and curator of the Glessner House Museum in the South Loop. Here he stands holding a watercolor painting of the historic home done by Beverly artist Jack Simmerling. Tyre worked with Simmerling to catalog the artist's massive collection of artifacts he rescued while working on a demolition crew along Prairie Avenue in the 1950s.
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DNAinfo/Howard A. Ludwig

"Everything had a story," Tyre recalled of his efforts to document the items alongside Simmerling.

Many of the treasures were rescued by Simmerling while working on a demolition crew in the 1950s.

He fell in love with Prairie Avenue years before. And at 15, he landed the demolition job that gave him unfettered access to the Gilded Age residences.

Simmerling used his access to salvage as many pieces of the old mansions as he could, which he then brought back to his boyhood home in suburban Blue Island. An ornate door hinge from the Hanford House at 2008 S. Calumet Ave. and a hand-carved baluster from a staircase at Marshall Field Jr.'s home are just a few of the items Simmerling managed save and are now on display, Tyre said.

"This was a really personal thing. He didn't think anyone cared about Prairie Avenue," he said.

Simmerling's artwork was another way he sought to preserve these historic structures. He later decided to turn his talent for painting and drawing buildings into a career, earning a fine arts degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1957. He later continued to study art history at the University of Chicago.

Simmerling opened the Heritage Gallery in Beverly in 1958 to showcase his artwork. Simmerling primarily worked with watercolors as well as pen and ink. He sold his paintings from the gallery at 1915 W. 103rd St., which supported his family of seven children.

The artist always had a soft spot for the Glessner House and even considered buying it in the 1960s, Tyre said. The 17,000-square-foot house is one of only seven Prairie Avenue mansions still standing. The building was home to John and Frances Glessner.

Their home was built by renowned Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson. He later influenced Chicago architects including Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Glessners merged their farm machinery company with four others to form International Harvester Co. Their neighbors on Prairie Avenue included Marshall Field, Philip Armour and George Pullman.

Thus, housing Simmerling's collection within the Glessner House seems fitting, Tyre said. In fact, the museum hopes to convert a 1,250-square-foot space over the mansion's coach house to a larger gallery that could accommodate even more of Simmering's artwork and lost treasures.

"This is the place where he could walk back into history in its prime," Tyre said.

Tyre hopes to raise $422,000 to build the new gallery as well as an additional $50,000 for display cases, framing and other conservation efforts of Simmerling's artwork and artifacts.

Tyre plans to raise a small portion of the money for the new gallery with a series of tours at 10 a.m. on Dec. 13, 20 and 27. Tyre will walk guests through the gallery as well as the rest of the Glessner House for $10 per person.

Tyre actually met Simmerling nearly a decade ago while researching Prairie Avenue for his student thesis from the Art Institute of Chicago. On the morning before the gallery opened, he remembered Simmerling as a friendly man who saw something special in the homes of Prairie Avenue when everyone around him sought to simply tear them down.

"He was so passionate about Chicago history and Chicago architecture," Tyre said.

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