GOLD COAST — Friends of the Society of Architectural Historians have come out in force to support the restoration of the historic Charnley-Persky house, which suffered severe flood damage in August.
The group said it raised more than $36,000 since the Aug. 19 storm to repair the Gold Coast home — funds collected, in part, due to a challenge grant from board member Cynthia Weese and her husband that matches donations dollar for dollar up to $10,000.
The Alphawood Foundation and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation also supplied $5,000 grants each.
The home was designed in 1891-1892 by Louis Sullivan and then-draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright for James Charnley, a lumber baron who was the son-in-law of the president of the Illinois Central Railroad. Designated a National Landmark, the house is considered "an important work nationally and internationally in the history of modernism in architecture," according to the National Park Service.
A rare residential commission by Sullivan, the house, which cost $25,000 to build, "is also a benchmark in the early development of Wright," according to the Park Service. Additionally, it is "perhaps the only surviving example of a design to which both Sullivan and Wright made substantial contributions."
The home at 1365 N. Astor Ave., was bought in 1995 by criminal defense lawyer, real estate mogul and philanthropist Seymour H. Persky to serve as the headquarters of the Society of Architectural Historians.
The Society's support group expects to raise more money from ticket sales and sponsorships from its annual gala, which is scheduled for Saturday at The Fortnightly of Chicago, 120 E. Bellevue Place. Helena Karabatsos, spokesperson for the society, said she expects about 200 guests at this year’s event, which honors early preservationists.
Karabatsos said the gala was always intended to benefit the restoration of the home, but the flood damage has made fundraising more urgent.
“There’s always a need for maintenance, but this is kind of an emergency situation,” Karabatsos said. “We want to fix the problem and we want to fix it in a historically accurate way.”
John Eifler, a restoration architect who was responsible for a major renovation on the house in the mid-1980s and is advising the society on current repairs, said the cause of the flooding was a collapsed pipe in the street. When heavy rains hit the roof, the water flowed down the north side of the house, was blocked by the collapsed pipe in the street and water instead flowed back into the house through the sanitary pipes.
“That’s where the water surfaced,” said Eifler, of the second-floor powder room. “There’s nothing worse than a waterfall from the second floor into the living room and basement below to cause damage.”
Eifler said he’s working with a contractor to complete an underground survey of the plumbing system — which involves digging up at least one of the trees in the front of the home. Once the underlying problems are identified, the society will discuss repair costs with the insurance company.
“Once you start down this road, you have to fix everything,” said Eifler, who said the last major renovation of the house happened in 2004, when they installed a new drainage system.
Eifler said they won’t have an estimate of the overall cost of repairs until all the underlying problems are identified. The goal is to fix the home and fix it in a historically accurate way.
"The fact that there was this advanced intellectual thought behind each board suddenly makes this whole event carry more weight," Eifler said.
Gala tickets can be bought online at sah.org/gala or by calling 312-573-1365. Tours of the home are offered at noon every Wednesday and Saturday.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
