The Glessners’ House
The Glessner family lived in this house for fifty years, through the rise and decline of the Prairie Avenue neighborhood. John Glessner cherished the home as a symbol of happy family life, and the interiors of Glessner House demonstrate the nearly perfect collaboration between the architect and his clients. Designed during the so-called Gilded Age, when America’s newly rich industrialists were living in modern-day castles, Glessner House represents Richardson’s response to the Glessners’ desire for a simple, comfortable home that retained the “cozy” feeling of their previous home on West Washington Street
H.H. Richardson – The Architect
H.H. Richardson improvised with Southern French Romanesque style. His powerful buildings and imaginative use of materials inspired other architects, like Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Glessner House is the only Richardson commission still standing in Chicago. Click here for books about H.H. Richardson and a history of the house.
The Glessner House Collection
Most of the objects in the house today belonged to the Glessner family. Discover more about the artists and the art collections at Glessner House through the stories of the artists and designers who created some of the objects the Glessners owned and cherished. Today, the museum continues to care for these objects. Click here for Glessner House Collections about the other artists.
Additional Resources:
Read about Glessner House
Take a virtual tour of Glessner House
Read a July 10, 1886 Chicago Evening Journal article about Glessner House
Learn some architectural terms.
Glessner House Museum 